Wednesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

HBO extends The Last Of Us

HBO has ordered a third season of The Last Of Us, ahead of the seven-part second season’s US debut on 13 April.

The show, which streams in the the States on Max, picks up five years after the events of the first season and is again co-produced by Sony Pictures Television.

The show is based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation consoles, and has been written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. PlayStation Productions, Word Games, Mighty Mint and Naughty Dog produce the series. 

CNN lines up travel original

Warner Bros Discovery is preparing to debut travel series My Happy Place later this month, with the show one of its first originals to air both in the US and internationally on CNN.

The show will simulcast on CNN and CNN International at 10pm ET, starting with the first ep on 27 April. Episodes will also repeat at the more UK-friendly hours of 8pm BST and 3pm BST the following weekends.

The show is produced by Boardwalk Pictures and follows six hosts including Ocatavia Spencer, Alan Cumming and Simu Liu on deeply personal journeys as they reveal why specific destinations have become their sanctuaries. 

My Happy Place is among a new slate from Amy Entelis, exec vice president for talent & content development at CNN Worldwide, who has been rebuilding the network’s originals output after it was curtailed in 2022.

Walter Presents takes C4 Mafia drama for North America

Mafia series Cold Summer has been picked up by Walter Presents for the US and Canada, ahead of its linear premiere in the UK on Channel 4.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by former anti-Mafia prosecutor Gianrico Carofiglio, Cold Summer (8 x 60-minutes) is set in the early 90s in Southern Italy and depicts a precarious alliance between a small-time Mafia boss and the upright police sergeant, Pietro Fenoglio.

Cold Summer launches on C4 on 13 April with Beta Film handling global distribution.

Binge returns Colin From Accounts

Well-travelled Australian comedy Colin From Accounts has been extended into a third series by local streamer Binge.

Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer are returning to write, star and executive produce the new season, whose first series became the most watched original scripted show ever for Binge owner, the Foxtel Group, which was recently acquired by DAZN. Easy Tiger Productions and CBS Studios produce.

The series has also become a global success, having been sold by Paramount Global Content Distribution to more than 150 territories around the world including the BBC in the UK and Paramount+ in the US.

Brammall and Dyer said: “We’re very excited to bring you season three of our show. To be honest, with the way we ended season two it would have been weird not to make a third, so here we are. We promise we won’t leave you hanging like that again. Probably.”

Int’l buyers visit Deadly Tropics

The sixth season of France Televisions procedural Deadly Tropics has been picked up around the world, with a seventh 56 x 52 minute run also now confirmed. 

The police dramedy is produced by Federation Studio France and debuted its sixth series on France 2 in March. It has now been picked up by Sky in Italy and Disney in Portugal, along with Prosieben.Sat1 and ZDF (Germany), Mediaset and Sky (Italy), Atresmedia and NBCUniversal (Spain), RTBF (Belgium), Blue and RTS (Switzerland), Network4 (Hungary), LNK (Lithuania), TV3 (Latvia), and Disney for the Balkans.

In France, the series has been acquired by 13è Rue - NBC Universal, along with CBC and Quebecor in Canada, MHZ in the US, and Sony in Latin America. Federation Studios holds worldwide rights to the series. 

Sphere Abacus lands Al Fayed doc

Sphere Abacus has acquired worldwide distribution rights excluding the UK to Channel 4’s documentary, Delivered to a Predator: Al Fayed’s Fixer.

The 1 x 47-minute film aired last week in the UK as part of C4’s investigative current affairs strand Dispatches and follows reporter Cathy Newman as she witnesses testimony from victims of former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed who allege that a female former senior employee of the store was instrumental in enabling and covering up their rape and abuse by the notorious billionaire across more than a decade.

Hana Palmer, head of sales at Sphere Abacus, described the show as “a compelling and highly disturbing documentary, powerfully and empathetically presented by Cathy Newman.” 

EFD Studios hires production director

Studio and equipment firm EFD Studios has appointed Mauricio Van Hasselt as its director of production and innovation, based in Madrid.

Van Hasselt will be in charge of leading both the production and development of physical and virtual production in all of the company’s locations, with his appointment part of EFD Studios’ expansion plans that will see it expand its facilities in Madrid and Mexico City.

The exec most recently worked as virtual production on-set Producer at Sony-owned Pixomondo and before that worked on franchises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Stranger Things.