MONITOR ANTHONY ROOT ROOT SHOOTS FOR DRAMA IN CEE
last year he has been executive VP, original programming and production. Root describes the challenge he has taken on at HBO CE: “The company is committed to building original production in the region, for
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the same reason HBO has done that in the US and Latin America. Original production is key in the sense of how the HBO brand is develop- ing in this region.” Root certainly has the international chops, having run international at
Granada and served a stint at its US division before moving to Sony where he was senior VP, European production. Production is centred in four cities in the HBO CE footprint: Bucharest in Romania; Prague in the Czech Republic; Warsaw in Poland; and Budapest in Hungary, which is also the corporate HQ of the Time Warner-owned company. Each centre has a development and a production capability and is tasked with being the first port of call for indies with smart ideas. Accordingly, getting the word out is part of the job. Root says: “One of my missions has been to evange- lise our presence to local producers. We want to develop material from within and equally want producers to bring us ambitious and distinctive projects that they think are appropriate for us. For people in the trenches of TV there is an opportunity to do things they couldn’t ordinarily do and that’s a very powerful message [for producers].” Root replaced Marc Lorber who left as senior VP, original programming and production at HBO CE in January 2011 and inherits the regional ver- sions of Israeli format BeTipul, known as In Treatmentin the US. HBO CE remade the show as In Derivain Romania. The Romanian version of
ntony Root is heading to MIPTV in buying mode: to acquire for- mats that can be remade at HBO Central Europe, where, since late
the show was initiated by Lorber and the first 40x30mins series is being followed by a new 35x30mins serving. Root says there will also be second seasons in Poland and the Czech Republic. When Shall We Kiss was another Israel-originated scripted format from Lorber’s tenure. The Armoza-distributed format was remade for the Hungarian market, but local versions are in the pipeline in other HBO CE territories. The Israel connection will continue and Root confirmed that another Armoza format, cop series The Naked Truth, has been optioned and is in development in Poland.
The main announcement in Root’s tenure thus far is Burning Bush. The miniseries was greenlit by HBO Czech Republic and traces the story of Jan Palach, the student who burned himself to death in Wenceslas Square in 1968. The criteria for originals, Root says, is to provide the type of content viewers cannot get elsewhere. “We want to make TV that other providers are not providing, shows that are not a comfortable fit for the other broadcasters across our territories: we need to be bold.” TBI
Nutprodukce’s Burning Bush will be directed by Agnieska Holland (The Wire, Treme,The Killing) and debut next year
MIP STAND R27.13
CHUCK IS HUNGRY FOR A BREAK SO HE’S HEADING TO MEXICO IN SEARCH OF CULINARY ADVENTURES.
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