Hot Picks

Blackout - Tomorrow Is Too Late

‘We see the power go out in homes, the transport is down, and no one can get back to their loved ones’

Type: Factual-entertainment, Format
Length: 6 x 45 minutes
Producer: W&B Television
Broadcaster: Joyn, Sat.1 (Germany)

Disaster thriller Blackout - Tomorrow Is Too Late is the latest addition to Europe’s growing canon of post-apocalyptic dramas, which includes Netflix series The Rain and Tribes Of Europa, and Sky Deutschland’s 8 Days.

The six-parter from German SVoD Joyn and free-to-air broadcaster Sat.1 explores how quickly civilisation would crumble if the electricity grids across Europe went down.

Produced by Wiedemann & Berg (W&B TV), which made Netflix series Dark, the story is based on Marc Elsberg’s eponymous novel, which has been published in 22 countries, selling more than 1.7 million copies.

According to Red Arrow Studios International (RASI) president and managing director Tim Gerhartz, a sequence near the beginning of episode one sets the tone.

“We see the power go out in homes, the transport is down, and no one can get back to their loved ones,” he says. “Soon people run out of food, water, and they become aggressive.”

At the centre of the drama is Pierre Manzano, played by Moritz Bleibtreu (The Baader Meinhof Complex), a former hacker who realises that a code he created 20 years ago might be responsible for the havoc spreading across Europe.

The six episodes play out like a whodunit as Manzano investigates who had access to the code and who might be looking to frame him, as the police close in. Other characters include Frauke Michelsen (Marie Leuenberger), leader of the country’s crisis response team, who becomes conflicted when her own eight-year-old twins go missing while on a train.

The German-language drama is directed by Lancelot von Naso (Ceasefire) and Oliver Rihs (Black Sheep) and is scripted by Von Naso alongside his Ceasefire co-writing partner Kai-Uwe Hasenheit.

Gerhartz says RASI will market the series to linear and non-linear buyers in Europe first, before moving onto English-speaking territories.

The series is set to premiere in mid-October on Joyn (a joint-venture between ProSieben and Discovery) and on ProSieben flagship Sat.1 in early 2022.

How to Become Superhuman

Type: Factual-entertainment, Format
Length: 8 x 60-minutes
Producer: Snowman Productions
Broadcaster: Discovery (Denmark)

How to Become Superhuman is the latest reality show from the Red Arrow Studios-owned originator of hit global format Married at First Sight – Denmark’s Snowman Productions.

The extreme adventure format takes as its premise the belief that every human being is hard-wired with a range of ‘superpowers’ that, if unlocked, provide us with superhuman abilities to overcome the impossible.

In the show, high-achieving celebrities are trained to untap these hidden superpowers – and then given the challenge of scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak, wearing as little clothing as possible, enduring the cold and harsh conditions as they ascend. It’s all about “pushing over achievers to new heights,” says Tim Gerhartz, SVP global sales at Red Arrow Studios International.

Three mentors challenge and train them for this challenge, helping them unlock abilities that they didn’t know they had within themselves. For example, a record-breaking cold-specialist plunges them into icy baths; a world champion free-diver teaches them breathing skills and how to cope in limited oxygen environments; and a shaolin monk trains the celebrities in the powers of the mind.

Snowman Productions has, for example, filmed with Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, winner of the 2018 Australian Open, who is married to former NBA champion David Lee.

“Her family is known to be very competitive, and super interesting,” says Gerhartz. “We've been lucky to shoot with her entire family in Denmark. And they all went together on the journey. And at the end the question is, ‘Who makes it up to the mountain - who can prove that you can be super successful, but also superhuman?’”

Red Arrow has worldwide rights outside of Denmark, both for the format and the finished tape. Gerhartz says Red Arrow is primarily pitching the show to commercial channels which are keen on reality, but with a competitive element and purpose too.