Shorter Commitments

The global demand for limited series, TV movies and miniseries has reached a new high. By Anna Carugati

Beginning in the late ’90s, you could frequently hear the phrase “500 channels and nothing to watch.” You don’t hear that said much anymore. In fact, it’s not the number of channels that’s the problem—it’s the number of hours in a day. There isn’t enough time to watch all the shows available. For fans of scripted fare, linear channels and digital platforms are offering a veritable feast of options.

An interesting trend is emerging: with so many long-running series, which demand such a considerable investment of time, limited series—six, eight, ten episodes—are becoming increasingly popular with viewers around the world. They join miniseries and TV movies as more bite-sized forms of television storytelling.

“The demand is more for six to ten episodes, just because of the fear of failure,” says Henrik Pabst, the managing director of Red Arrow International. “Viewers are less inclined to commit to a long-running series because there is such demand for their attention. They are more willing to commit to a closed run.”

Red Arrow recently unveiled two such limited series: Cleverman, a six-parter for ABC Australia and SundanceTV set in the near future; and the ten-part spy thriller The Romeo Section from Chris Haddock, a former co-executive producer of Boardwalk Empire.

In addition to limited-run projects, Starz has the anthology series The Girlfriend Experience, about a law student who moonlights as a courtesan, from Steven Soderbergh. “The Girlfriend Experience continues the channel’s strategy of bringing in content that is very cinematic in quality and aligning with established and critically acclaimed filmmakers,” says Gene George, the executive VP of worldwide distribution at Starz. “That’s why we are working with Steven Soderbergh on this project, and we are excited because we have worldwide rights to the series.”

THE MAIN EVENT
Shorter scripted narratives are increasingly enticing viewers and for sure the most traditional of them all is the made-for-television movie.

In the 1970s and ’80s in the U.S., the movie of the week on broadcast networks dealt with topical subjects or events in the news. They generated a lot of buzz and drew substantial audiences.

As the U.S. television landscape was changed by the mushrooming cable industry, TV movies migrated to cable. Lifetime and Hallmark Channel led the pack, offering a constant flow. The most popular TV movies were, and still are, romantic comedies, female-skewing thrillers and holiday movies, and they continue to garner a loyal following.

Lifetime still airs TV movies, but the “Lifetime movie” has evolved. “It’s changed so radically,” explains Joel Denton, managing director of international content sales and partnerships at A+E Networks. “There are a number of fairly traditional women-in-jeopardy crime pieces, but even those skew in a different direction now. They tend to be a little bit newer, younger and fresher, with new talent, writers and directors. There is more breadth to what Lifetime is doing with movies. There are more event pieces like Big Driver, based on a Stephen King story, or big bios like Whitney, which we would have done in the past, but these are not, as you say in wildlife programming, ‘womb to tomb.’ They take a period and focus in on it in a fairly dramatic way rather than trying to tell the whole life story. They don’t work that way anymore. The audience doesn’t have the patience for that, so Lifetime picks a big, dramatic period and tells the story through that lens.”

The international market is still searching for the traditional female thrillers, rom-coms, holiday movies and disaster movies, and there are a number of distributors happy to fill the need.

The core of MarVista Entertainment’s business consists of TV movies. Each year the company brings some 50 movies to the global market, a mix of productions, co-productions, co-financing and acquisitions, which run the gamut of genres—like thriller, rom-com, family and tween.

A new title is Caught, inspired by the true story of a desperate housewife who kidnaps her husband’s teenage mistress as a prank. It stars Anna Camp of Pitch Perfect fame and combines two elements that have long made TV movies successful in the U.S. and internationally: current subject matter and a known star.

As CEO Fernando Szew explains, MarVista is expanding into genres it wouldn’t have considered a couple of years ago, thanks to two main factors: the growth of MarVista’s creative team and the launch of MarVista Digital Entertainment.

“Our focus on getting closer to the consumer, primarily in the North American marketplace, has pushed us to move into genres that we didn’t see as attractive to the international marketplace, such as slightly edgier comedies that we are now acquiring for the North American marketplace and in some cases have worldwide rights to,” says Szew.

HORROR HAPPENINGS
One such movie is a horror flick called Most Likely to Die. “Two years ago MarVista would never have done a movie like that,” adds Szew. “Now we give ourselves the luxury of doing that because of the excellent creative team that we have and the skill sets and relationships that they bring to the table, as well as because of the changing landscape in digital and home entertainment. We decided that is where we want to invest.”

Breakthrough Entertainment has a substantial slate of movies each year, including TV movies and films for theatrical release. “We have a full movie division,” says Nat Abraham, the company’s president of distribution. “We have a lot of family features, a lot of talking dog movies!”

Genre movies have also worked well for Breakthrough. “We have a team of very talented filmmakers making thriller-horror pictures for us,” explains Abraham. “There is a big appetite for thriller and horror movies with a certain demographic. You don’t necessarily have to have the kinds of budgets that Hollywood requires to make these, because it’s all about the impact and the CGI and the effects as opposed to the cast.”

CLASSIC APPEAL
Abraham also points to the benefit of producing movies based on classic books. “We just finished Anne of Green Gables as part of our [slate of] holiday movies, with Martin Sheen in the lead. We will typically work with established brands as opposed to 100-percent original ideas. It’s just a safer bet for a smaller company to take brands that already have recognition internationally and try to make the best film or series out of them.”

Another type of TV movie that is in demand is the one geared toward the whole family. American Cinema International (ACI) distributes a range of genres but it has found success with the niche of inspirational movies. “We want to fill the afternoon slot when the whole family can sit down together,” says Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, the co-founder and president of ACI.

One recent inspirational strand is Love Finds You. “We finished the third one, Love Finds You in Valentine, which will be airing on Valentine’s Day on the UP channel in the U.S.,” adds O’Shaughnessy. Finding Love in Bridal Veil is also in the family/inspirational vein. Other ACI titles include Strangers in Amish Country, the suspense thriller Burn, and the holiday movies Royal Family Thanksgiving and Royal Family Christmas.

Movies focusing on Christmas always sell well. Starz has built its TV-movie business primarily around holiday movies as well as female thrillers and action-disaster titles. “We continue to have a flow of about eight to ten TV movies per year,” explains George. “We usually have two or three new ones each market. One of the reasons we continue to focus on movies is because there is still a real demand from a lot of our broadcast partners, and they complement the series we sell.”

New TV-movie titles for Starz include the holiday film A Prince for Christmas and the Lifetime movie A Secret Life.

Made-for-television movies have dedicated audiences around the world. France, Italy and Spain have been particularly good markets, as a number of broadcasters in those countries dedicate afternoon and late-night slots for TV movies.

“In the case of the holiday and family movies, they are primarily for daytime, while the action-disaster movies and the female thrillers usually air in late night, but many do make it to prime time and that is the upside,” says George, who sells movies to free-TV and pay-TV channels.

His colleague Mara Winokur, the senior VP of digital at Starz, is starting to see SVOD platforms take TV movies, even though up to now they have preferred series. “If we are looking at output deals in different territories and we tie up our series in a deal with a digital player, we include our TV movies.”

Scott J. Jones, the president of Artist View Entertainment, is beginning to see a bit of series fatigue at some of the digital platforms.

“I got a sense at MIPCOM that there have been so many series that have been pushed into the market that the buyers are starting to back off from them,” he notes. “There seem to be holes opening up for movies. There has been a glut of series, which has caused the public to turn away from them—there are just so many choices.”

Artist View has been specializing in TV movies for more than two decades. Jones attributes part of the company’s longevity to its philosophy.

“Our niche is that we don’t have one,” he says, referring to the fact that Artist View offers a wide range of TV movies. “I started in business with video stores and always believed you need something new for each section, like ‘We need a new horror movie,’ or, ‘We need a new romantic comedy.’ From the time I started Artist View, I  kept that mentality, so we’ve got a very wide variety. It makes more sense than ever now because one moment you’re talking to a buyer from Disney Channel and the next minute it might be a video buyer from Asia. They are probably looking for completely different types of product, but being a sales company we’d like to sell everybody something.”

MAKING A BIG SPLASH
A new title from Artist View is A Rising Tide. “It starts off as a disaster movie with events around Hurricane Sandy and then becomes very much a love story,” says Jones.

It joins the other new releases, the thriller Desiree and the dramas The Architect and Girl on the Edge.

With so much product on the market, linear channels need programming that is bold and noisy, that they can promote smartly in an effort to draw viewers.

TV movies and miniseries that can be presented as events are becoming increasingly important, and Red Arrow’s Pabst is seeing high demand for these among buyers. “You absolutely have to have programs that come along as events, even if they are one-offs. [Broadcasters] need to get viewers to the good old TV because the live TV experience is going down and down. So the louder you can shout, the better the program is, and the more of an event it is, the better.”

Berlin One, set in Berlin in the 1920s, is an event movie. “You have a lovely game between the underground gangsters and the local police; it’s very theatrical in its look. It’s a big-budget production by Wiedemann & Berg, who produced the Academy Award­–winning film The Lives of Others,” says Pabst.

Another event movie on Red Arrow’s slate is Peter and Wendy. “It’s a huge movie about Peter Pan, told a bit differently,” says Pabst. “It’s a magical family adventure that stars Stanley Tucci and Laura Fraser. How do you get the audience in front of the TV, and how do you get the family watching all together? We think it’s these kinds of movies that give you that experience. We still see high demand for high-end, event family entertainment. These programs need to be outstanding, with high production values.”

MOVIE MAGIC
Starz has the event movie The Dresser, based on Ronald Harwood’s classic play, which tells the story of one fateful night in a small regional theater during World War II, as a troupe of touring actors stage a production of Shakespeare’s King Lear. It stars Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen.

A+E Networks is looking to make an event of the four-hour miniseries And Then There Were None, based on the Agatha Christie book and co-produced with the BBC. “I’m very excited about it,” says Denton. “It’s very dark, very mysterious, and it offers a contemporary take even if it’s in period. The way it’s written is very different. It really brings Agatha Christie to a new audience and [presents the material] in a new way.”

Tele München Group (TMG) also has two big events it will be offering the international market. The first is The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music,” explains Herbert L. Kloiber, TMG’s managing director. “In Germany, Austria and Switzerland we are going to release The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music theatrically on November 12. Lionsgate is our partner in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. They are currently developing their own release strategy. In each market it’s probably going to be a little different.”

The other big upcoming production is Richard Lionheart, which will also satisfy broadcasters’ needs for big events. It will be available next year either as six 1-hour episodes or as a 3×90-minute miniseries.

Big, loud, bold programming that can be promoted as an event and doesn’t demand a huge time commitment from the audience—this is the recipe for limited series, TV movies and miniseries that are satisfying broadcasters and platforms’ needs and viewers’ tastes.