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Exclusive: With Mipcom on the horizon, Sweden’s Eccho Rights is building out its sales team by hiring well-respected exec Tess Charman.

The Stockholm-based distributor has named former Warner Bros International Television Production, eOne, MGM and Avalon exec Charman as its Director of Sales for Continental Europe.

Starting on September 1, Charman will take on European and pan-regional sales (excluding Iberia), focusing on Eccho’s slate of English- and Nordic-language titles. Eccho’s slate includes BBC drama Granite Harbour, Swedish series As Long As We Live and Viaplay show Honour. She’ll work out of Eccho’s London office.

Charman has worked in international distribution for several major UK and US entertainment businesses. She was most recently VP of Emea for Avalon Distribution, the sales arm of UK management and production biz Avalon, and held senior sales roles at eOne, MGM and Warner Bros.

She’s joining a sales house that...

After churning out several successful Arabic originals, Dubai-based Mbc Studios is entering the international TV dramas arena with a high-end English-language doc and series about Carlos Ghosn, the French-Lebanese-Brazilian former CEO of automakers Nissan and Renault, who jumped bail and absconded to Beirut while on trial in Japan for alleged financial misconduct.

“It’s not very often that one of the world’s top CEOs finds himself sent to jail and then, more importantly, managed to escape the way he did,” Mbc CEO Marc Antoine d’Halluin tells Variety.

D’Halluin says Mbc won over other suitors and obtained exclusive access to Ghosn and his wife, Carole, and other people in Japan, France and the U.S. who play key roles in the top manager’s saga. Ghosn, who is in Beirut – which he reached on a private jet in January – claims he was being prosecuted in Tokyo on trumped...

Viaplay, the thriving streaming service owned by the Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group), is set to launch in Iceland on April 1.

Viaplay is already a leading streamer in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. With the upcoming roll-out in Iceland, the service will available in all five Nordic countries.

The Viaplay series and movies package will be priced at Isk 599 ($4.27) per month in Iceland. As in other markets, Viaplay will be available in Iceland through direct subscriptions and third-party partnerships.

“Viaplay is a Nordic streaming success story and completing our regional footprint with Iceland is a very natural next step,” said Anders Jensen, Nent Group President and CEO.

The executive said “Viaplay already has 1.6 million subscribers across the Nordic region and is built to scale quickly.”

One of the world’s most connected countries, Iceland boasts 75% of households which have access to fibre networks, and 359,000 mobile broadband subscriptions for a population of 360,000 people.

This artistic depiction of the dark side of female sexuality, depicted by first time director and renowned actress Halina Reijn, takes us inside of a seasoned, freelance psychologist who becomes completely infatuated by the sex offender she is treating in a penal institution.

Halina Reijn is a renowned director, actress, author and producer. She is the winner of multiple awards, including the Dutch film Award, the Golden Calf for Best Actress , the Dutch theater awards Theo D’Or and Colombina, as well as the Courbois Pearl, an award which honors an actress who has made an indelible impression, both on stage as in film and television. Since 2017 she is also the proud owner of the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester Ring, an award to honor an actress who has contributed greatly to the Dutch theatre.

Halina Reijn takes on her first directorial challenge without inhibition, fully aware of tackling sensitive issues which society...

Eccho Rights, a leading sales company in Sweden, is set to ramp up its executive team with the hiring of Lisa Widén, a former head of production at Film Capital Stockholm whose co-production credits include “Before We Die” and “Jordskott.”

At Eccho Rights, Widén will be handling sales and acquisitions for Scandinavia. She will continue to work on the development of Scandinavian drama series, which have become key to Eccho Rights’ offering. Within the last two years, Eccho Rights has sold high-profile series such as “Honour,” “Conspiracy of Silence” and “Invisible Heroes.”

Eccho Rights’ track record also includes the sale of four Turkish drama series to Swedish public broadcaster Svt.

“Lisa has the perfect background to take our work in the Scandinavian market to the next level,” said Nicola Soderlund, the managing partner at Eccho Rights. “While we continue to look for new and developing markets worldwide, we believe that...

English-language drama revolves around three boys from different sides of the conflict united by football.

Cherie Blair has boarded UK director John Deery’s long-gestating Jerusalem-set drama The Rock Pile. The film explores the Middle East conflict through the tale of a jaded war correspondent assigned to city where he befriends three young boys divided by religion but united by soccer.

Hugh Bonneville, who previously worked with Deery on his 2003 Irish Catholic Church drama Conspiracy Of Silence, signed to play the lead role in 2017.

Blair has taken an executive producer credit and it marks a first foray into film for...

Cherie Blair will make her first foray into film-making as she serves as executive producer on Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) drama The Rock Pile.

The barrister and wife of former UK prime minister Tony Blair is taking on her first producing role on the film, which will tell the story of Time magazine correspondent Bob Hastings (played by Bonneville) who while on assignment in Jerusalem uncovers a story of three young boys of different faiths who are brought together through soccer.

John Deery (Conspiracy Of Silence) is set to direct the English-language film with shoot planned to take place in New York and Israel. David McBrayer (Beat The Drum) has scripted the project which is produced by Deery for Joejack Entertainment, McBrayer for Z Productions and Haim Mecklberg for 2-Teams Productions (Sand Storm).

Also executive-producing are Charles Moore (The Lady In The Van), Gabriela Christian-Hare (The Pinkertons), Rick McCallum (Star...

Morena Baccarin is set to star in “Home Invasion,” a science-fiction comedy series produced by Nent Group’s Brain Academy (“Conspiracy of Silence”).

The six-part English language series will also star Johan Glans (“Swedish Dicks”) and John Noble (“Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”). “Home Invasion” will premiere across the Nordics in 2020 exclusively on Nent Group’s

ambitious streaming service, “Viaplay.”

Don Bitters (“House of Cards”) will direct and create the visual effects for “Home Invasion.” It’s executive produced by Melanie Dipietro at Brain Academy.

“Home Invasion” will center on a normal family made up of aliens sent to invade Earth. The series tells the story of two burglars who breaks into a house who find themselves face to face with an absurd close encounter.

“Nent Group has a unique ability to bring together talent from all over the world to tell fascinating stories with a Nordic twist.

Nent Group’s Nordic streaming service Viaplay has boarded “With One Eye Open,” partnering Twelve Town and Nice Drama on the Swedish drama series which brings a fresh look to Swedish and Russian ties.

The eight-part series is based on Martin Österdahl’s “Ask No Mercy,” the first of three books in the Max Anger suspense trilogy.

First pitched at Lille’s Series Mania in May, the project is set in 1996 Saint Petersburg on the run-up to Boris Yeltsin’s election. Max Anger, a former attack diver for the Swedish navy now works for think tank Vektor, set up to help Swedish companies open up shop in Russia. When his Russian/Swedish girlfriend suddenly goes missing, while investigating a neo-Stalinist plot against Sweden, he goes on a mission to rescue her and at the same time, uncovers secrets about his own past.

In the lead-up to TV Drama Vision on Jan.

Korean media conglomerate Cj Enm has acquired Swedish drama and formats firm Eccho Rights as it looks to bolster its business in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

The Korean firm has acquired a majority stake in The End distributor Eccho Rights, which has offices in Stockholm, Istanbul, Madrid and Manila.

Run by MD Fredrik af Malmborg and Managing Partner Nicola Söderlund, Eccho Rights internationally sells dramas such as Scandinavian arms dealer drama Conspiracy of Silence and Turkish revenge thriller Stiletto Vendetta (above) as well as formats such as Canadian competition format Battle of the Blades.

“The merger will create exceptional value for both sides to consolidate our global presence,” said Chul-yeon Kim, Svp, Cj Enm’s global business. “This will substantially enable us to leverage our premium contents to reach worldwide audiences offering unique experiences and enjoyment.”

“Cj Enm is the ideal partner for Eccho Rights in our...

Lille, France — Sweden’s Nice Drama and the U.K.’s Twelve Town, formerly Pinewood Television, have purchased the rights to Martin Österdahl’s bestselling Max Anger novels, and optioned them as a high-end multi-season drama series, which the companies presented at the Series Mania Co-Pro Pitching Sessions in Lille.

Executive producers Stefan Baron of Nice Drama and Christian Wikander of Twelve Town were at the Series Mania Forum on behalf of the series, looking to secure European partners to aid in making “With One Eye Open” a high-end series, intended for the international market.

A development deal has already been signed with Swedish pubcaster Svt for two scripts, written by TV veterans Lars Lundström (“Real Humans”) and Anders Sparring (“Farang”), and an outline based on th3 first of Österdahl’s books, “Ask No Mercy,” with shooting planned for spring 2019.

The series, adapted from the first of Österdahl’s two...

Mtg’s streaming service Viaplay has ordered a second season of its original series “The Great Escape,” a Swedish format which was named Children’s Program of the Year at last year’s Kristallen Awards.

“‘The Great Escape’ follows a Christmas calendar format, with a new episode released every day from Dec.1 to Christmas Eve, and is produced in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish versions. Beppe Singer, Ole André Sivertsen and Niels Christian Meyer headline a local cast in each respective country.

The series is being produced by Nexiko, a Stockholm-based production company, for Viaplay.

Jakob Mejlhede, Mtg’s exec VP and head of programming and content development,” said “The Great Escape” has sparked a “huge demand from kids and parents for a second season.”

“Thousands of budding young scientists across the Nordic region can’t be wrong – mixing creative experiments with a dramatic storyline is a winning formula,” said Mejlhede,...