Netflix and the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) will be continuing their fruitful relationship next year with a grand total of at least six brand new co-productions as well as any continuations as we’ll list below.
The move into original content has made Netflix team up with many production companies around the world such as CBC, Canal+ as well as production companies from all over the world to get their content. It comes as part of a $2 billion investment in European productions from 2017 onwards.
Here’s a look at the BBC series co-productions on the way.
Watership Down
Release Date: 2017
Pictured: John Boyega, Sir Ben Kingsley, James McAvoy
The first of the new co-productions is due out later in 2017 (likely around Christmas) and is a four-part limited order animated mini-series. The series is based on 1972 novel of the same name and is being adapted by Tom Bidwell.
Expect an all-star cast to be onboard with the project with John Boyega (Attack the Block, Star Wars) and Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List) both voicing the rabbits. The series also features the voice talents of Olivia Colman (about to reprise the Queen in The Crown), James McEvoy, Anne-Marie Duff, Miles Jupp, Freddie Fox, Gemma Arterton and Nicholas Hoult.
The series is the first co-production where Netflix has been involved from the beginning.
Black Earth Rising
Details are relatively scarce when it comes to Black Earth Rising as most outlets reported it as a sideline to another production. What we do know is that the series is being written by Hugo Blick and will be a labyrinthine thriller about the prosecution of international war crimes.
Collateral (co-production with BBC Two)
Carey Mulligan pictured in The Great Gatsby
Carey Mulligan (Suffragette, The Great Gatsby) will be starring in an upcoming BBC thriller series being produced by David Hare who’s been writing for the BBC since 1973. John Simm’s (Life on Mars) co-stars. Collateral is a thriller set over the course of four days and follows the death of a pizza delivery guy.
Giri/Haji (co-production with BBC One)
This series comes from the writer of the fantastic AMC series, Humans, Joe Barton. The series follows a Tokyo-based sleuth named Kenzo who is on the search for his brother in London who is believed to be involved with a Yakuza gang.
When talking about the project, Joe Barton said: “We want to make something that’s really ambitious and unique and the BBC and Netflix feels like the perfect place to do that at the moment.”
Requiem (co-production with BBC One)
If there’s one thing the BBC is good at producing, it’s thriller series. Filming has already begun on the new thriller co-production with Kris Mrksa writing the series and it’s thought that it’ll last for six seasons. Kris has previously worked on projects such as The Slap and Underbelly.
The creator has said: “Requiem is the show I’ve always wanted to make. To be making it with the team at New Pictures, and for the BBC and Netflix, networks that I so greatly admire, really is a dream come true.”
With ‘subtle supernatural undertones’ the series is due to arrive on Netflix internationally next year (excluding the UK) and is set to include names on the cast including
Troy: Fall of a City (co-production with BBC One)
Pictured Bella Dayne in Troy: Fall of a City
At a budget of around £6 million an episode, Netflix and BBC are hoping that this series could do what Game of Thrones has achieved and what Netflix’s own Marco Polo failed to, become the next big thing. The series, as you can probably guess from the title, is a historical drama.
Eight episodes of the show are expected to come to the BBC and Netflix at some point in 2018. The series has employed the talents of Louis Hunter, Christiaan Choombie, Carl Beukes, Garth Breytenbach and David Gyasi.
Most of these titles won’t be available on Netflix in the United Kingdom because they’ll be exclusively available on the BBC iPlayer.
That adds to the other co-productions already ongoing. The Last Kingdom and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Cuckoo and Danger Mouse although some of these are with BBC America rather than BBC in the UK.
Do any of these take your fancy? Let us know in the comments below.
