Elizabeth Guider Reports: Warner Bros. Showcases New Lineup

LOS ANGELES: Warner Bros. pulled out a potent weapon at its first unveiling to overseas buyers of its new prime-time series Monday: a reboot of its classic buddy cop movie Lethal Weapon.

This time around the accent is less on the action and more on the characters, with Damon Wayans and newcomer Clayne Crawford reprising the iconic roles played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the original four film iterations. The pilot was directed by McG and the scripts were penned and exec produced by Matt Miller (Forever).

The series, which will air on FOX on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., led off a day-long unspooling of the studio’s latest efforts, and judging from the applause in the theater and comments from a dozen acquisitions execs during the lunch break, buyers generally gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“I felt that the focus was, rightly, more on the characters, their back stories and their emotional connection rather than just on the effects,” suggested a Latin American buyer who is based in Miami. “For me as a woman, I appreciated that. Also, I know there are several remakes of movies and TV shows this year but that’s OK. Being mainstream is fine, especially when the producers bring something fresh to the material.”

By scheduling it first during the Screenings marathon, the studio also clearly believes it has a caffeine-enhanced winner. “I think we have hit the jackpot [with this one],” Peter Roth, president and chief content officer of Warner Bros. Television Group, told the assembled.

Several buyers also gave high marks to Riverdale, the umpteenth series from uber-producer Greg Berlanti, which is inspired by the Archie Comics strip. In his introductory remarks about the new slate, Roth described the CW-destined show as a cross between Gossip Girl and Twin Peaks.

“It had style and was beautifully cast,” said a buyer from Germany’s ZDF. “I think its appeal may go beyond just the Millennial generation.”

As it turns out, in Germany both series will almost certainly end up with commercial powerhouse ProSiebenSat.1, since that station group has volume deals with most of the U.S. majors, including Warner Bros.

“I would say I’m very happy Lethal Weapon seems a stand-out, Riverdale too,” said that company’s executive VP of group programming acquisitions, Rüdiger Böss. “It’s not a bad year at all, for them, and for us!” he added.

In fact, as Jeffrey Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution, told the 350-odd buyers, the studio once again landed a new show on each of the broadcast networks and now boasts 16 returning series (12 dramas, four sitcoms), as well as nine scripted cable series (five of which new), and nine non-scripted shows, including the long-running The Bachelor and its latest phenom, Little Big Shots. The supplier continues its streak of being number one, Schlesinger went on, in just about every category (in numbers of dramas, of comedies and in total series) and has done so in 25 of the last 30 years. (Other than its 50 percent stake in The CW, Warner Bros. functions as an indie supplier to the other four broadcast networks, yet rarely is obliged to give up rights in its contenders in order to secure a slot.)

“We’re very pleased with our offerings this go round; I think the buyers will be too,” Schlesinger, who is in his 22nd year at the helm of the division, told World Screen Newsflash.

In his welcome remarks, Schlesinger’s boss, Kevin Tsujihara, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment, emphasized that nowhere at the company he heads is there “greater storytelling than in TV.” Tsujihara also stressed that it is only through “our partnerships with foreign buyers that we can produce to this creative, innovative standard of excellence.”

Several of those buyers—execs hailing from Scandinavia, Latin America, the U.K. and Australia—also mentioned the studio’s comedy Trial & Error for NBC as “promising” or “amusingly quirky.” Set in a small town in South Carolina and toplining John Lithgow, it’s shot as a faux documentary and features several oddball characters.

“It’s harder to do good comedy straight out of the box, but this one comes close to pulling it off, not quite as perfectly as 2 Broke Girls did a few years ago, but definitely one of the better prospects I’ve seen so far this Screenings,” opined a buyer from the U.K.

During the morning the studio also screened Frequency, another series based on a movie (New Line’s eponymous 2000 release) destined for The CW on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., which is focused on a haunting relationship across time between a father and his daughter. Both are cops and there’s an old ham radio that facilitates their re-connection. Supernatural’s Jeremy Carver penned the script and exec produces.

“The plotting was a little complicated but the characters were believable and likable, especially the star [played by Peyton List]. We would want to see more episodes before we say more,” another European-based buyer told the Newsflash.

Yet a third movie reboot, this one of Training Day, did not solicit strong reactions from as many buyers, but at least two thought the chemistry between Bill Paxton and his rookie trainee, played by Justin Cornwell, was effective. “It’s well shot but it’s still for us a wait-and-see,” said one of them. Antoine Fuqua, who directed the original movie, is involved in the TV version, to air on CBS.

Buyers also stressed that they had not yet visited most of the other major Hollywood studios and were reluctant to be drawn on their impressions of the entirety of offerings from the U.S. distributors.

One of them, though, Marko Karvo, senior VP of programming at Finland’s MTV3, did tell the Newsflash that “much has changed in the industry over the last few years,” which in his view makes U.S. shows not the same draw that they used to be across Europe. “There’s much more good local production and there are so many new types of shows from different sources. Many broadcasters no longer need to rely on American programming.”

As for the sticky subject of prices, they have, per multiple sources, fallen—sharply in Canada (from about $300,000 per telecast to about $150,000 per telecast, which in episodic terms means from roughly $600,000 an episode to $300,000 an episode) and in hard-hit parts of Europe (Greece, Spain, Italy) and Latin America (Venezuela, Argentina)—but have actually risen noticeably elsewhere.

Asked about the financial state of his business, Schlesinger would only say that “as long as they’re paying prime-time prices” for his shows, he’s not worried.

The Screenings run through the week with some 2,000 program buyers on hand. During the afternoon session, Warner Bros. screened several other shows, including its two final broadcast network pick-ups: Kevin Williamson’s romantic time-travel adventure Time After Time (for ABC) and an off-kilter workplace comedy toplining Vanessa Hudgens called Powerless (for NBC). No word at press time on how those two went over with buyers.

Visit World Screen’s fall season grid here for synopses, trailers and a listing of new and returning shows by studio.