Discovery Makes Scripted Push

LOS ANGELES: Discovery Channel has given the go-ahead to the book-based Klondike (working title), the network’s first-ever scripted mini-series.

Inspired by Charlotte Gray’s novel Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, the mini-series will follow the lives of six individuals in a small frontier town in the Klondike region during the Yukon Gold Rush era. It will be produced by Discovery, Entertainment One (eOne) Television and Nomadic Pictures in collaboration with Scott Free Television.

Production is scheduled to commence in March on location in Alberta, Canada. eOne Television will manage the international distribution of Klondike.

"We’ve been developing scripted for some time, but wanted to find the perfect fit. When we read Gold Diggers, we knew we finally found it," said Eileen O’Neill, the Group President of Discovery and TLC Networks. "Discovery created and owns the ‘gold’ narrative with several of our hit series and we’re elated to partner with Scott Free Television and eOne Television on a subject we know so well as our first, scripted project."

"Klondike was the last great Gold Rush; one which triggered a flood of prospectors ill-equipped, emotionally or otherwise, for the extreme and grueling conditions of the remote Yukon wilderness," said executive producer Ridley Scott. "The personal adventures are as epic as the landscape, where ambition, greed, sex and murder, as well as their extraordinary efforts to literally strike it rich, are all chronicled by a young Jack London himself."

"eOne is delighted to be working with Discovery as they make their foray into scripted television as well as join forces for the first time ever with Scott Free and continue our relationship with Nomadic Pictures," said John Morayniss, the CEO of eOne Television. "We’re looking forward to sharing this innovative adaptation of a well-known era, and sharing this epic mini-series with audiences around the world."