Berlinale Co-Pro Pitch Will Have Vatican Crime Story, Kiwi Skateboarder Biopic, Narco Series & Host Of Period Dramas

Drug boss series, biopics, a Kiwi skateboarding drama and a smorgasbord of period pieces are set for the upcoming Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The line-up for this year’s Co-Pro Series pitch event, held during the Berlin Film Festival, features projects from Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, the U.S. and from across Europe.

The realities of financing premium drama mean co-production is in vogue and the shows pitched in Berlin will be scouting for partners.

Danish project The Best of Families will be on show, hailing from Piv Bernth’s ITV Studios backed banner Apple Tree. The series traces the impact of a chemical factory on the lives of various families and nature in the 1950s and comes from Maja Jul Larsen (Borgen) and director Charlotte Sieling (Homeland).

Two narco stories have made the grade. Wildlife comes from Brazil and the U.S. and is billed as a series about an unusual drug lord. Fernando Meirelles is attached as one of its directors. Out of Austria is Shit Happens, set in Vienna at the turn of the millennium and based on the true story of a single mother who is the boss of a large hashish ring.

Slovakian-Czech-German political drama Our People will be on show. It was awarded Best Pitch Project Series Mania and as part of a Berlin-Lilles pact gets a shot at pitching at the Berlinale.

Emmy-winning writer and director Julian Pörksen will be in town with his adaptation of Merle Kröger’s novel Die Experten, about German rocket scientists in Egypt in the 1960s.

With Conclave garnering awards noms aplenty, meanwhile, Swiss drama The Guard, a crime tale set in the Vatican, may well capture the Berlin zeitgeist.

The roster of English-language series includes Lucy. Maud., which delves into the complex life story of L.M. Montgomery, the Canadian author of international bestseller Anne of Green Gables. Recipes of a Nervous Breakdown, from Irish prodco Deadpan Pictures, also features. It tells the true story of successful chef who suffers a breakdown.

Elsewhere, New Zealand barefoot skateboarder Lee Ralph’s story is the subject of Sk8 or Die from Tom Hern and Halaifonua Finau.

This will be the eleventh edition of the Co-Pro Series. Previous editions have shone a light on series that went on to become huge hits, including Babylon Berlin.