The international distribution arm of factual content specialist Off the Fence (OTF) reports buoyant...
The international distribution arm of factual content specialist Off the Fence (OTF) reports buoyant sales into Germany, with demand particularly strong for its new slate of specialist factual.
Servus TV and GEO Televison (part of the RTL Television GmbH) have acquired Giants, an epic five-part series about the planet’s largest creatures, past and present. The series is fronted by wildlife filmmaker Dan O’Neill, who calls on a team of experts and cutting-edge CGI to explore and explain the links between extinct monsters and present-day behemoths.
NDR has snapped up the 90-minute documentary Blue Carbon, produced by Make Waves Media and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in partnership with OTF and CNN. Directed by Emmy/BAFTA-winning Nicolas Brown (The Serengeti Rules) and exec produced by Oscar-nominated Fernando Meirelles (City of God; The Two Popes), the film unpacks the science around the newly discovered power of the ocean to absorb significantly more carbon from the atmosphere than trees. Grammy-nominated DJ and marine biologist Jayda G looks at how this ‘blue carbon' could be harnessed in our battle against global warming.
ZDF ARTE and ORF, meanwhile, have both acquired one of OTF’s most popular history documentaries, Queens of Ancient Egypt (3x60), produced by Tile Films for Curiosity Stream and OTF Studios. Drawing on fascinating new discoveries and research, the series tells the stories of three largely forgotten but incredible Egyptian queens, who became standard-bearers for their gender long before the modern era. ZDF ARTE has also bought Last Horns of Africa (1x90) from White Spark Pictures, Banovich Studios and Cross Border Productions. The gripping film follows two heroic conservation specialists as they battle to bring down South Africa’s rhino-poaching syndicates.
Feature documentary Unearthed Ancient Murder Mysteries (6x60), produced by OTF Studios for Curiosity has been licensed by ZDFinfo and A+E Networks Germany, as part of the extended partnership with OTF. The series that looks at iconic epochs and cultures to re-tell the stories of infamous and little-known murders from a fresh perspective has also been acquired by A+E Networks UK® to premiere on Sky HISTORY, AMC and Viasat.
Interest has been building in OTF Studios series Nature’s Ultimate Survivors (5x60), which been licensed by ZDF 3sat. The series, which explores the extraordinary abilities that creatures need to survive in the wild, also features on the launch slate of US-based FAST channel Xumo Play’s Free Nature and Wildlife channel. The new service launches this month with more than 150 hours of content, curated into themed blocks. Its highlights also include Pernel Media’s Butterflies: Superheroes of Nature, which introduces viewers to the insects’ astonishing and largely unknown super-powers. Both OTF series are premiering in the US exclusively on Xumo Play.
Stefanie Fischer, OTF’s managing director of sales, said: “German viewers love a diverse range of informative and entertaining factual and demand world-class quality — which just about sums up OTF’s own approach. OTF's slate is well aligned with the booming German market and there's a lot more to come.”
read more
read less
Indigenous producer Terre Innue is thrilled to announce that its four-part (4x52’) documentary...
Indigenous producer Terre Innue is thrilled to announce that its four-part (4x52’) documentary series Telling Our Story in which 11 of Canada’s First Peoples tell us with generosity and with who they are, will be sold internationally by Off the Fence.
Beautifully produced, directed, designed, edited, and featuring music and animation by Indigenous artists, Telling Our Story is a stunning emotional journey through the history, the values, the struggles and triumphs of First Nations and Inuit communities in Canada. The series paints a poignant and heartfelt picture of the Indigenous experience in Canada. " The French version of Telling Our Story first aired on Radio-Canada in November and December 2022 and the response was incredible," says series producer and co-executive producer, Francine Allaire. The series will air on CBC this Spring. We set out to create a moving and luminous series that educates, inspires, and uplifts audiences. We’re very excited to partner with Off the Fence to bring it to a global audience."
Off the Fence is a leading international distributor of factual content with a great track record of bringing award-winning documentaries to audiences around the world. “This series is an important and timely exploration of Indigenous culture and history, and we are confident that it will resonate with audiences worldwide”, says Stefanie Fischer, head of sales at OTF. “People are revising their values and wish to draw on the multimillennial knowledge and practices of Indigenous Peoples. First Nations and Inuit have taken care and respected nature for thousands of years and in this current climate crisis, we must listen to them.”
Abenaki director and President of Terre Innue, Kim O’Bomsawin (Call Me Human, Quiet Killing) travelled 30 000 kilometres by plane, seaplane, helicopter, train, Skidoo, canoe, car, ATV, and dog sled, filmed one hundred women and men of all generations in thirty communities. They shared their worldview, their connection to the Land, their spiritual and millenary stories, the richness and beauty of their cultures, and their hopes for the next generations. The result is breathtakingly beautiful and deeply human and inspiring. “After centuries of colonial measures aimed at "killing the Indian in every child”, after parking us on reserves and stripping us of our culture and our spirituality by forcibly sending us to Christian residential schools, Telling Our Story is a celebration of our resistance, our resilience, and our revival,” said O’Bomsawin.
Telling Our Story and its French version Laissez-nous raconter will be available for international distribution at MIP TV in Cannes, which runs from April 17-20, 2023.
read more
read less
Factual content specialist Off The Fence (OTF) bolstered its slate with a brand new series from...
Factual content specialist Off The Fence (OTF) bolstered its slate with a brand new series from London and Los Angeles-based Dash Pictures with high-profile presenting talent attached. 'Billy and Dom Eat the World' is a six-part series featuring talent more often associated with the big screen. The series follows actors Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, immortalised as Hobbits Merry and Pippin in The Lord of the Rings feature films, as they embark on a global food adventure that takes them to six locations in each one-hour episode. The two friends will explore a different destination and its unique culinary culture and in true Hobbit style, Billy and Dom travel on foot, seeking not only new tastes, flavours and dishes, but the secret lives of the cities on their itinerary.
Daniel Sharp, founder and executive producer of Dash Pictures, said: ‘This is the first time in 20 years that Billy and Dom have appeared together on the screen. They were extremely keen to get started on this project with us and working with them both is a real pleasure. They both have a vast knowledge and excitement about food and travel, their energy and enthusiasm is simply infectious!
Loren Baxter, OTF’s head of acquisitions, said: “Daniel and the team at Dash have already demonstrated with Fantastic Friends that harnessing big-screen talent to a fresh, fun idea is a magical formula. Billy and Dom Eat the World delivers an equally enriching experience. With their seven-meal-a-day habit, who better to conduct a global food tour than two ex-Hobbits?”
Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan launched a podcast in 2021 called The Friendship Onion in which they look back on their time on The Lord of the Rings with cast and crew, and peel back the layers of their own friendship with the show regularly featuring in the Top 100 podcasts for Film and TV. Billy and Dom Eat the World reunites the pair on TV screens for the first time bringing their “bromance” to worldwide audiences with plenty of mischief and shenanigans in this next chapter of their adventures in the real world.
Dominic Monaghan said: ‘In the 20 years I have known Billy we have been lucky enough to travel with extensively. Since The Return of the King, we’ve been looking for something new to do on screen together that people who follow our careers and those that haven’t yet may enjoy. Alongside Daniel Sharp at Dash Pictures and Martin Blencowe we think we have found the perfect group to capture the infectious way we both see the world through food.”
Boyd said: “When Dom and I met in New Zealand whilst making the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, we travelled all over that beautiful country, meeting incredible people and seeing a completely different lifestyle from where we grew up. Now to take that passion we have for travel and new experiences into this TV show, like the Hobbits of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, we know how important food is in discovering a new culture and getting to know new people. We will show the less travelled streets, incredible and hidden food and the magical people of our world. It’s definitely time for an adventure.”
read more
read less
A second season of Dash Pictures entertaining travel series, FantasticFriends, which is about to...
A second season of Dash Pictures entertaining travel series, Fantastic Friends, which is about to wrap production, presents first look images featuring hosts James and Oliver Phelps – aka the mischievous Weasley twins from Harry Potter.
The eight-part season has been filmed in spectacular locations including Turkey, Swiss Alps, Singapore, Australia, Florida in the US, Chile and Patagonia and sees a line-up of the twins’ special guests embark on adrenaline-fueled adventures such as ice climbing, snowmobiling, ghost hunting and go karting – all with a magical theme.
Produced and directed by Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Daniel Sharp (Vikings: The Rise and Fall, Deadly Engineering), each episode sees the Phelps twins travel to a destination to meet one of their famous friends, who then sets them a thrilling challenge taking place against a stunning backdrop.
This second season’s friends include Matt Lewis - Harry Potter, Me Before You, All Creatures Great and Small, Happy Valley; Alfie Allen - Games of Thrones, John Wick, The Predator; Mark Williams - Harry Potter, Shakespeare in Love, 101 Dalmations; Alfie Enoch - Harry Potter, The Picture of Dorian Gray, This is Christmas; Corey Mylechreest - The Sandman, Mars, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story; Genesis Rodriguez - The Fugitive, Tusk, Man on a Ledge, Hours; Nat Tena - Harry Potter, Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama, Game of Thrones and Stanislav Yanevski - Harry Potter The Cloaking, Last Man Down, Hostel: Part II.
James Phelps says, "Filming season two has been incredible fun. We've travelled far and wide to destinations including Australia, Singapore and Chile, taking on all sorts of adventures... We even picked up motorbike licences so we could tour through the Alps with our old friend Stan Yanevski. This season we've filmed eight episodes, so we've been able to travel with old friends from the Harry Potter movies and some newer friends we've made along the way."
Daniel Sharp says, "We’ve had an amazing time filming the second season of Fantastic Friends in many incredible parts of the world. It’s been a pleasure working again with James and Oliver who are the perfect partners with their hands-on attitude, enthusiasm, warmth and humour. Meeting their friends has been inspirational and, while this is an ambitious travel and adventure series, it is ultimately a celebration of true friendship."
Fantastic Friends is produced by Daniel Sharp and Agata Pieczynska (For the Love of the Game; Prince Harry in Africa) and executive produced by James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Martin Blencowe and Daniel Sharp.
The first series of Fantastic Friends starred the twins’ Harry Potter co-stars Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Luke Youngblood (Lee Jordan), as well as Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, Outlander’s Sophie Skelton and The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment. The action moved from Iceland to Ireland, from St Lucia to Dubai, as the twins expanded their horizons and explored new worlds, while engaging in a series of magic-themed challenges and competitions.