Content Puts Faith in Docu ‘Going Clear'; Fremantle Int’l Acquires ‘Deutschland 83′

Content Media has acquired international sales rights to Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief. The film will have its world premiere at Sundance. Gibney wrote and directed based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright. In the film, he profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how the church cultivates true believers, including their experiences and what they are willing to do in the name of religion. HBO has U.S. television rights to Going Clear and is eyeing a March 16 airdate. Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions is a partner company of Content Media.

FremantleMedia International has acquired global distribution rights to UFA Fiction’s major new eight-part drama Deutschland 83. Created by Anna Winger (This Must Be The Place) and Joerg Winger, the German-language drama is produced by Joerg Winger and Nico Hofmann of UFA Fiction and has been commissioned by RTL Television in Germany. Deutschland 83 is a suspenseful coming-of-age story set against the real culture wars and political events of Germany in the 1980s. Jonas Nay stars.

Simon Dickson, co-creator and commissioner of One Born Every Minute and 24 Hours In A&E, is joining Shiver, the factual division of ITV Studios UK, as Creative Director. He will

set up a new label specializing in factual series and formatted documentaries and will be joined by Lorraine Charker-Phillips, who has been appointed Executive Producer. Dickson most recently was Managing Director of Dragonfly, overseeing a vast slate of series. His credits include the multi-camera wildlife experiment The Burrowers: Animals Underground, Bear Grylls’ Wild Weekends and the BAFTA-nominated The Plane Crash. Charker-Phillips is currently Commissioning Editor at Sky, where for the past two years she has been responsible for commissioning and overseeing factual entertainment formats and documentary series including Britain And Ireland’s Next Top Model, My Kitchen Rules and The Town That Danced Again. The new label will sit within Shiver.

National Theatre Live has set a March 26 date to transmit the Young Vic’s production of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge to cinemas around the world. Starring Mark Strong, the play will be broadcast from the Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End. NT Live’s broadcast will go to 1,500 screens in more than 40 countries with further encore screenings to be announced. Also in the cast are Emun Elliott, Phoebe Fox, Michael Gould, Richard Hansell, Luke Norris and Nicola Walker. The West End transfer opens February 16 at Wyndham’s.

As international drama gains in importance, the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale

Co-Production Market is inaugurating the CoPro series, an event for pitching and networking. As part of Drama Series Days, six new drama series will be presented during the EFM with film producers from the Berlinale Co-Production Market encouraged to take a look at and possibly embark on a venture into TV series production and financing. The projects to be presented are Behind The Moon At That Time (Anat Assoulin Productions, Israel), The White Rhino Hotel (Belladonna Productions, Germany/U.S.), Hierro (Portocabo, Spain), Valkyrien (Tordenfilm, Norway), Tom Tykwer’s Babylon Berlin (X Filme, Germany) and Tabula Rasa (Caviar, Belgium).

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