BBC Worldwide US Co-productions Announced

[Bob The Skutter]

Looks like BBC Worldwide are stepping up their US co-productions, with an eye to catching cable viewers.

From Broadcast

A New York-based version of Criminal Justice and a remake of I, Claudius are among a raft of series being developed by BBC Worldwide Productions.



The LA-based firm has secured Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zalian, who penned Schindler’s List, to write a 10-episode series of Criminal Justice for HBO alongside novelist Richard Price.


I, Claudius, an update of the Robert Graves’ novels of the same name, will be co-produced by the Time Warner-owned broadcaster.


Other projects include Mirrorball, a series set in New York during the disco era, futuristic drama Year Zero, which has been developed by Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor and an adaptation of Amanda Foreman’s book A World on Fire, an account of the Anglo-American relationship during the American Civil War.


In an interview with the Financial Times, executive vice-president of programming and production at Worldwide Jane Tranter said the developments underpinned her new strategy to “conquer cable”.


Tranter told the paper she was “relentlessly optimistic” and that out of the 20 projects, she aimed to make “at least” 12 of them.


The team also has 17 upscripted series, across non fiction and reality, in “different stages of production”.

The 2 series of Criminal Justice in the UK have had a lot of critical success, so I can see a HBO version working quite well. Have to wonder what Year Zero is too.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Someone is finally doing Year Zero??? I'll look for that one. Looks like Reznor's persistence paid off.

I wish there would be more shows about the Civil War, but how about a show about the actual, you know, war? I'll have to check into what A World on Fire is about.

I, Claudius does not need a remake and I didn't like disco the first time around.

The last thing HBO should be doing is cop shows. Let them stay on broadcast.

PS, the link requires registration, any further details that you can quote?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^I've not heard of Year Zero, what is it?

Criminal Justice isn't to much a cop show as the story, start to finish, of the person who commits the murder, following them through the system, from what I've heard because I've not actually watched either series.

That's pretty much the whole article other than some blurb about the producers and the commissioner. There may be more in the FT article but that needs registration too.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Year Zero is a pet project of Trent Reznor that he has been shopping around forever. Daniel Knauf is writing it. This article in the LA Times is from Sept 2010 - is the news really that old? Any new details to add?

Trent Reznor says HBO and BBC Worldwide Productions are moving forward with the development of “Year Zero,” the grim sci-fi epic that Reznor has chronicled in his music as well as in a celebrated Alternate Reality Game (ARG).

“We are in [the development phase of] pre-production with HBO and BBC [Worldwide Productions] to do a miniseries,” Reznor said Monday. “It’s exciting. I probably shouldn’t say too much about it except that I understand that there’s a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It’s been an interesting and very educational process and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago and now we’re writing drafts back and forth. So it’s very much alive and incubating at the moment.”

... “Our writer is Daniel Knauf from ‘Carnivàle’ and he’s busy with pages right now and revising the overall world Bible.

Maybe this will be the sci fi show that HBO needs to be doing.

Funny that Deadline hasn't picked up this story. Maybe this is pie in the sky stuff that hasn't really been greenlit? In which case I'll check back in when and if it is.

 

[Whofan]

I Claudius almost got made in the 40s or 50s as a film. I can see a remake working, actually-there's been some decent 'ancient rome' stuff lately such as Spartacus and well, Rome