Asian Format Deals for Life on Mars, Mistresses

BBC Studios has sold the format for Mistresses to Japan’s NHK Enterprises, while Life on Mars is getting a Chinese adaptation.

BBC Studios is working with Phoenix Entertainment Group to create a local Mandarin adaptation of the multi-award-winning drama Life on Mars, from Kudos Film & Television. Preproduction on the series will start this year with Phoenix producing 24 episodes of Life on Mars, which originally aired on BBC One in 2006. The drama will be based in 1990s Beijing.

Mistresses, an Ecosse Films production, is the first format sale by BBC Studios to NHK Japan. It marks the fifth format deal for the title, following the U.S., Russia, Slovakia and South Korea. Titled Mistresses: Those Women’s Secrets, the ten-episode series is set to premiere on April 19 in the Drama10 slot on NHK General. The drama follows a group of 30something girlfriends whose lives have taken very different turns. Adapted by Noriko Yoshida and Rie Yokota, Mistresses: Those Women’s Secrets stars Kyoko Hasegawa as Kaori Shibazaki (Katie), Miki Mizuno as Tomomi Noguchi (Trudi), Hyonri as Saeko Harada (Siobhan) and Aya Omasa as Juri Mizushima (Jessica).