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Italian Corruption TV Thriller ‘1992’ Scores Sales Before Pan-European Airing On Rupert Murdoch’s Sky

ROME — After making a splash at the Berlin Film Festival, Italian corruption TV thriller “1992,” which revolves around Italy’s watershed Clean Hands probe, is scoring strong international sales with deals now closed by Beta Cinema for France (Orange), Spain (Canal Plus), Scandinavia (HBO Nordic) and Benelux (HBO Europe), and a North American pickup deemed imminent.

Produced by expanding Rome shingle Wildside for Rupert Murdoch’s pan-European Sky paybox, the 10-episode skein revolves around six characters tangentially involved in the scandal that swept away Italy’s post-war political establishment, including a cynical ad exec in Silvio Berlusconi’s Publitalia and a showgirl intent on sleeping her way to the top. Their lives are intertwined with the political and societal earthquake.

The innovative TV drama, which mixes fact and fiction, will get a simultaneous airing on March 24 on Sky Italia, Sky U.K., Sky Ireland, Sky Deutschland and Sky Austria, available to more than 20 million subs, which is “the biggest audience in Europe,” boasted Andrea Scrosati, Sky’s content chief in Italy.

Munich-based Beta Cinema will be showing “1992” footage next month at the upcoming Mip TV market in Cannes, expecting to close more territories. The show opened the Berlin fest’s new TV drama section in February to positive response.

At a Rome presser Wildside co-topper Lorenzo Mieli said there are tentative plans for “1992” to segue into “1993” and “1994” installments; 1994 is the year Silvio Berlusconi entered Italian politics.

Beta has now sold Sky Italy’s groundbreaking previous skein, gritty crimer “Gomorrah,” to 120 territories.

Shooting is set to start in May on the second series of “Gomorrah,” which will move the action at some point to Germany, in reference to a true 2007 mob massacre that took place in a Duisburg pizza joint, Scrosati said. He added that Sky and “Gomorrah” production company Cattleya are also already at work on season three of the hot mob show.

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