ITV Studios, Fox Announce Oaks Commission

LONDON/LOS ANGELES: ITV Studios U.K. has received a commission from ITV1 for the five-part The Oaks, based on a pilot produced for FOX in 2007.

This is the first major commission to come out of the creative collaboration pact between ITV Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. The mini-series will be filmed this summer and delivered by year’s end. It tells the story of three families living in the same house in the ’60s, ’80s and present day, linked by the spirit of a young girl.

The ITV Studios and Fox pact also includes the development of a British version of Dharma & Greg, with scripts currently in the works. The show will be launched to major U.K. broadcasters in the near future.

Lee Bartlett, managing director of ITV Studios who brokered the original deal with Fox, said: “I am thrilled that this partnership has got off to such a brilliant and successful start. These are the first fruits of what I hope will be a very productive and rewarding partnership and I look forward to building on this slate of titles and doing lots more with Fox in the future. It works tremendously well for all of us and is exactly the productive working relationship that I had hoped for.”

Yoni Cohen, Fox’s senior VP of European sales, added: “This partnership is a success because of the unwavering commitment of ITV and Dana Walden and Gary Newman at Twentieth Century Fox Television. It offers us a tremendous opportunity not only for U.K. audiences but in creating quality drama and comedy that can appeal and be distributed to audiences worldwide. We are excited to be under way and look forward to a long and productive creative collaboration with ITV Studios.”