NZ sale for Prisoner reboot

New Zealand’s TVNZ has signed a pre-sale deal for a new Australian drama that FremantleMedia International will be launching at MipTV next week.

Wentworth (10x60′), a FremantleMedia Australia production, is due to premier on Foxtel’s SoHo channel in Australia in May this year. The show is a reboot of classic Australian series Prisoner (aka Prisoner Cell Block H) and stars Danielle Cormack (Underbelly: Razor) and Nicole Da Silva (Rush).

Also on rewly rebranded FremantleMedia International’s MipTV drama slate are period telemovie The Making of a Lady, produced for ITV1 by Runaway Fridge and based on The Making of a Marchioness by author Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The 1x90′ film was adapted by Kate Brooke (Mr Selfridge, Wired, Forsyte Saga) and aired in the UK in December, drawing more than four million viewers. It stars Linus Roache, Joanna Lumley and Lydia Wilson.

The two shows join the distributor’s existing drama titles, Neighbours, Winners & Losers, Merlin and Hit & Miss. The firm is also onboard The Maid, a series about the life of Joan of Arc from Craig Pearce (Moulin Rouge) and Pukeko Pictures, and an adaptation of Andrew Nagorski’s book Hitlerland by Marshall Herskovitz (The Last Samurai).

Ed Waller

02-04-2013
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