Wednesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Love Nature orders 

Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature has ordered two originals, which will roll out on the service around the world as well as on Sky Nature in the UK, Italy and Germany.

HumanLike: The Chimps of Fongoli (1 x 60 minutes) is from Passion Planet and has been coproduced with The WNET Group. It looks at how a group of chimpanzees have adapted to survive in an extreme environment.

Aussie Snake Wranglers: Deadly Pursuit Season 1 (6 x 30 minutes) follows a group of professional snake catchers on the Sunshine Coast of Australia and was produced by Breakout Productions.

Stan., Polar+ buy I Fought The Law

Australia’s Stan and France’s Polar+ have struck pre-sale deals for ITV’s drama I Fought the Law.

All3Media International has also landed deals for the Hera Pictures drama with Filmin for Portugal and Spain, EITB for Spain’s Basque region, NPO in the Netherlands, SVT in Sweden, Virgin Media in Ireland, VRT in Flemish Belgium and Hellenic Telecommunications in Greece. Dazzler Media has also signed DVD and DTO rights for the UK and Ireland.

Freedom Media in Kazakhstan and TVNZ in New Zealand are also among the deals, in addition to Yes TV in Israel and Now TV for Hong Kong and Macau.

I Fought the Law is written by Jamie Crichton (All Creatures Great and Small) and is based on Ming’s book For The Love of Julie. A companion doc has also been released. Read more

Iceland’s Act4 ties with Secuoya

Secuoya Studios in Spain and Icelandic production company Act4 have signed a first look deal for the development and co-production of scripted series.

The agreement is part of Secuoya’s expansion strategy that aims for 30% of its catalogue to be produced in languages other than Spanish by 2027.

The deal follows similar partnerships between and BlackBox Multimedia in the UK and Sydney Gallonde in France.

RTÉ1 orders big Mountain’s Tommy Sands doc

Ireland’s Big Mountain Productions has landed an Irish-language documentary with RTÉ1 about singer and political activist Tommy Sands.

Tommy Sands: Clann an Cheoil (Family of Music) is an hour-long single exploring the life and legacy of the Sands and his family, a pillar of Irish folk music and political song.

The doc follows the Northern Irish musician through performances, interviews, archive and family recollections to reveal the deep connection between music, identity and activism in Ireland.

It is exec produced by Big Mountain co-chief exec Jane Kelly, with Sally Ní Dhuibhir as senior producer and Garry Keane producing and directing. It is expected to TX later this year. Read more