ITVS GE Launching Aquarius, Poldark & Other Scripted Titles

LONDON: ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) is set to launch a number of high-profile titles at MIPCOM, including the U.S. drama Aquarius and the period piece Poldark.

Produced by Tomorrow Studios for NBC, Aquarius stars David Duchovny in an event drama set in the late 1960s. He plays a Los Angeles police sergeant who is tracking a small-time criminal, named Charles Manson.

Schitt's Creek, produced for Canada's CBC, is a half-hour single-camera comedy created by Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy, who also star. The series is about a rich video-store magnate, his soap star wife and their two kids, who find themselves suddenly broke. They are forced to live in a small depressing town that they used to think is a joke.

The classic book series Poldark is returning to screens with a new adaptation. The 8×60-minute production is being done by Mammoth Screen and WGBH for BBC One and Masterpiece. It is set in 1783, when Ross Poldark returns home from the American Revolution War to a country on the grip of recession.

There's also the Scandinavian mystery thriller Jordskott. The series is produced by Palladium Fiction in association with SVT and is set in the ancient forests of Sweden.

ITVS GE’s other new scripted titles for MIPCOM include Cilla (ITV Studios for ITV), Cockroaches (Big Talk for ITV2) and Remember Me (Mammoth Screen for BBC One). It will also launch the latest seasons of its long-running drama franchises, including Mr Selfridge season three, Vera season five, The Doctor Blake Mysteries season three, Lewis season eight and Murdoch Mysteries season eight.    

Maria Kyriacou, the managing director of ITV Studios Global Entertainment and ROW, said: “Our MIPCOM 2014 scripted slate is truly international, coming from the territories associated with the best scripted content: major North American drama and comedy in Aquarius and Schitt’s Creek, prestigious British period drama in Poldark and Jordskott, a crime thriller from the region that does it best, Scandinavia. There’s something to appeal to everyone and we can’t wait to launch these titles at MIPCOM.”