Zodiak Rights Highlights MIPCOM Picks Across Drama, Factual, Formats

CANNES: Murder, a collection of four standalone, hour-long films that Zodiak Rights is presenting at MIPCOM, mixes documentary with drama to tell the stories of gruesome crimes from every angle.

“Each standalone film of the electrifyingly tense collection Murder throws a stark and unsettling light on a gripping new case,” says Caroline Torrance, head of scripted at Zodiak Rights.

The company is also distributing Rebellion, a five-part drama about the Easter Rising of 1916 and the partition of Ireland. “Told through the eyes of a group of friends, and predominantly from a female perspective, Rebellion has a contemporary feel despite the period setting, and at its heart is a collection of human stories framed by history, rather than defined by it,” Torrance says.

Tensions also run high in another of Zodiak Rights’ drama offerings, The Returned (season two), when a mysterious man arrives in town and a new wave of resurrections begins.

As for formats, celebrities compete against each other on the highest mountain peak in Europe in the game show Monte Bianco. Zodiak Rights is introducing that title, along with Undressed, a dating format that looks on as strangers explore their feelings for each other by slowly removing their clothes. “[Undressed] is sure to be compelling viewing,” says Andrew Sime, the company’s VP of formats.

The clothes are off again in new reality format Bikini Island from Mastiff Denmark and Viasat for TV3. This stripped format sees 12 beautiful contestants divided into two groups on a pair of paradise islands connected by a bridge.

Zodiak Rights is also showcasing Humble Pie, which tests the cooking skills and self-confidence of aspiring chefs, who must decide if they think they have what it takes to win the big cash prize. “It’s an easily adapted, entertaining cookery format with enormous international potential,” says Sime. “The self-elimination concept is what makes this show stand out from other cookery game shows.”

As for factual programming, from Minnow Films comes SAS: Who Dares Wins and Sex Diaries both for Channel 4. SAS: Who Dares Wins is an authentic look at what it takes to join the SAS. Sex Diaries takes a look at some extraordinary love lives with BAFTA and Emmy award winner Charlie Russell, examining everything from webcam couples and transgender dating to male escorts. The one-off documentary Meet Me & My Mania (working title) from CB Films explores overwhelming compulsions diagnosed as manias, including sex, shopping and surgery. Other one-hour factual titles include Paris Under Attack: 3 Days of Terror from Zodiak Fiction & Docs featuring the full story of the Charlie Hebdo and Cacher supermarket attacks, and RDF Television’s My Garden Nightmare for ITV. The slate will also consist of two new North American series acquisitions: Full Custom Garage seasons one and two from Transmitter Productions for MAVTV and Planet Primetime from Zodiak USA for Travel Channel U.S.

Other new titles on the factual slate include True North and GroupM Entertainment’s Gift of Life for Channel 5, a series that follows the emotional journeys of patients undergoing lifesaving organ transplants, and two new episodes of Nine Lives and GroupM Entertainment’s Flash Families, also for Channel 5. Zodiak Rights is taking the third seasons of The Supervet and Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away to the market as well. Other returning series include Oblong Films’ Frisky Business: The Joy of Sex Toys, 2B Media’s Code 1: Extreme season two and the original series Beauty & The Beach for TVNZ. Finally, following the success of Storyvault Film’s Portrait Artist of The Year comes spin-off series Landscape Artist of the Year and Christian Hook Paints Celebrities for Sky Arts.