All the latest news from the global content industry on Wednesday, 18 March

 

Soviet Jeans duo join Danna Stern on USSR drama

National broadcasting group Latvian Public Media has boarded a six-episode period drama set in the USSR, with the duo behind Soviet Jeans attached and In Transit Productions’ Danna Stern exec producing.

The Last Divorce of Communism (aka Pēdējā šķiršanās) is coproduced with Lithuania’s Magic Films Greta Akcijonaitė and Bulgaria’s Agitprop, led by Martichka Bozhilova.

The six-part show, which will film in Latvia and Lithuania, centres on an ordinary couple who stage a fake divorce to circumvent the USSR’s real-estate policy and save their apartment from nationalisation.

The series is slated to premiere in 2027 and won the Audience Award and Best Actor prize at Series Mania’s International Panorama Competition last year. It features archival materials with newly shot footage to reconstruct late-Soviet Riga.

 

Hulu extends Paradise into S3

Disney-owned Hulu has extended its post-apocalyptic political thriller Paradise into a third season.

The 20th Television series, which amassed over 30m hours for S2, is from creator Dan Fogelman (Only Murders in the Building) and stars Sterling K. Brown.

The show streams on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ in the US for bundle subscribers, and on Disney+ internationally. The second season finale drops Monday, 30 March.

 

Netflix orders Raw doc The Crash

All3Media-owned Raw has landed a true crime doc with Netflix that explores a US car crash that left two people dead.

The Crash, which debuts 15 May, explores the case of 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, who was driving two friends home from a party when she slammed into a brick wall at 100mph in Strongsville, Ohio.

The collision left her two passengers dead but as detectives combed through the wreckage, what first appeared to be a tragic accident began to look like a calculated crime scene. The series promises “a deep dive” into the relationship at the center of the relationship between the three and examines the shifting narratives of the crash.

Director is Gareth Johnson, producer is Angharad Scott, and executive producers are Rebecca North and Jonny Taylor.

 

EarthX buys Big Media doc

Production and distribution company Big Media has licensed documentary Leviathan: Whale and Man (1 x 90 minutes) to US-based conservation and sustainability-focused channel EarthX.

The film, which explores whales and their evolving relationship with humanity and the world’s oceans, will have its North American debut on Earth Day (22 April) at 9pm ET across EarthX’s cable and FAST channels.

Leviathan is directed by Steve Lichtag and combines marine science, historical perspective, and cinematic storytelling to investigate phenomena such as rare whale sightings, mass strandings, and surprising predator-prey interactions.