Southern Star Strikes New Italian Broadcast Deals

SYDNEY,
November 15: Southern Star
International has secured broadcast deals in Italy for the British crime
franchise Wire In The Blood and
the mystery series Two Twisted
with AXN and La 7, respectively.

AXN Italy has sold all 21 TV movies of Wire In The Blood, along with the Prayer Of The Bone, a Wire In The Blood U.S. TV movie. Wire In The Blood has sold to BBC America in the U.S., Showcase in
Canada ZDF in Germany, AB Sat in France, SBS in the Netherlands, HBO and Multi
Premiere in Latin America, ABC TV in Australia, TV2 in Norway, VRT in Belgium,
Israel 10, Mnet in South Africa, HRT in Croatia, Telewizja Polska in Poland,
The Mystery Channel in Japan, Hallmark in Asia and Canal 22 in Mexico, among
others.

Produced by Coastal
Productions for the U.K.’s ITV1, the Wire In The Blood TV movies are self-contained stories based on
characters created by award-winning author Val McDermid. In Wire In The
Blood, Robson Green plays clinical
psychologist Dr Tony Hill, who is usually confined to researching convicted
killers, but helps the police try to analyze some of their worst murder cases.

Southern Star
International has also licensed the 14×30-minute mystery series Two Twisted to La 7 Italy. The series, a follow-up to Twisted
Tales, concentrates on the bizarre
and comical side of life that happens next door or around the corner. Bryan
Brown, who is a producer on the series, also stars in Two Twisted along with Sam Neill, Melissa George, Greta
Scacchi, Jacqueline McKenzie and Peta Wilson.

Originally commissioned by
the Nine Network Australia, Two Twisted has to date, sold to Hallmark Channels International, RTE in Ireland,
NRK in Norway, SBS in the Netherlands, Prime in New Zealand, TVP in Poland and
Tonis in the Ukraine. Two Twisted was
produced by New Town Films in association with the Australian Film Commission
and the New South Wales Film and Television Office and financed by the Film
Finance Corporation Australia.

—By
Irene Lew