Broadcaster commissioning initiative by The European Alliance The KollectiveThe journalism-based mystery drama “The Secret” by Leonardo Fasoli & Maddalena Ravagli (Gomorrah – The Series, ZeroZeroZero) and producer Femke Wolting, into development.
The announcement was made today at MIA Market in Rome, where executives asked for producers’ ideas to create high-end limited series. It represents the ninth series to come from the Alliance, which comprises Germany’s ZDF, France Télévisions and Italy’s Rai.
The Kollective runs to six parts and is born out of a meeting between Wolting and The Alliance’s Manuel Alduy, who is also Director of Cinema and International Development France Télévisions, at last year’s MIA Market event.
It will address topics such as fake news and attacks on EU democracy. “wrapped up in a highly-charged global thriller and a heart-breaking love story.”Its title refers at a group of international writers that support one another.
According to the synopsis “After one of their members is killed while investigating a mysterious plane crash in the Congo, a group of passionate young amateur journalists called The Kollective find themselves drawn into a globe-spanning web of fake news, corruption, espionage and murder. Emotions run high as the group battles to uncover the mystery of a shadowy new cold war, as well as their own complex feelings and desires. Slowly realising that all roads lead back to Putin’s resurgent Russia, they must call upon their innovative technological skills, fierce bravery and youthful self-belief to stop a dark conspiracy that threatens to destroy democracy itself.”
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The Alliance was established to enable European broadcasters to compete against streamers for shows with high-end production and story values. Producers were asked to submit new ideas by January 2019.
Simone Emmelius is Senior Vice President International Fiction-Coproduction Acquisition ZDF
Francesco Nardelli was Rai Fiction’s Deputy Director for Drama. He stated that the Alliance wanted more shows along the lines of Around the World in Just 80 Days Germinale, while Simone Emmelius, SVP International Fiction-Coproduction & Acquisition at ZDF said pitches should be “one-off series on topics that resonate with our audiences and are also different to what they already know.”
She asked for projects with “high-end cast and creatives and with a cinematographic look;Leonardoand80 Days– that’s the look we’re interested in. We don’t want you to send us average series you’d offer us as domestic projects.”