Astro explores the international arena producing premium drama adaptations of foreign series
Astro, Malaysia’s leading broadcasting company through its subsidiary Astro Shaw, a local film industry leader, has obtained a copyright license for a BAFTA Awards nominated thriller drama series and British Screenwriters’ Awards, ‘Liar’ for adaptation into Malaysian format through independent television production. film and digital as well as a leading distribution company, All3Media International. Wild was an original idea by BAFTA and Golden Globe best -nominated producer and screenwriter Harry and Jack Williams. Apart from Liar, the content that will also get the copyright of the adaptation through collaboration with Astro is the drama series ‘Call My Agent!’ (Dix Pour Cent), winner two years in a row for Best Television Series Drama at the Globes de Cristal Awards, France (2018 & 2019).
The results of this joint venture also involve Double Vision as a production that will produce Liar. Double Vision’s production of many great works such as The ContentAsia Awards’ Best Adapted Format TV (Script) nomination, ‘The Bridge’, also played an important role in securing the copyright for this adaptation.
Published by Two Brothers Pictures for ITV and Sundance TV in 2017, Liar elevates the thriller genre that explores themes of understanding, gender stereotypes in the present, family as well as deception. This great drama has managed to garner the highest number of views of 7 million and thus recorded the largest number of new dramas ever watched on ITV since 2014. In addition, the drama was also screened in Australia and New Zealand. While the remake version in Spain in 2020 uses the title Mentiras. Known for its storyline full of plot twists and standout characters that managed to spark excitement among viewers to look forward to each episode, Liar tells the story of two people who meet in a date, but everything changes unexpectedly the next day. One was deceived, while the other was deceived. Because of its power, deception is capable of extinguishing the truth.
Call My Agent! a comedy drama series produced by ‘creator’ Fanny Herrero, featuring the story of a talent agency that is always busy and known as ASK in Paris trying to satisfy the stars under its umbrella while further strengthening their business. Three agents, Mathias, Gabriel and Andréa live together every joy and sorrow in professional and personal life. Call My Agent! has also been adapted into Indian (Call My Agent: Bollywood), Canadian (Call My Agent!) and Turkish (Menajerimi Ara) versions. Apart from Malaysia, other countries that will adapt this series are South Korea, Indonesia, the Middle East, the Philippines and Poland.
Vice President, Perniagaan Melayu Nusantara & Head of Astro Shaw, Raja Jastina Raja Arshad said, “We are very excited to produce a premium drama series that will be adapted from the best international series to be presented to Malaysian audiences. We believe that this joint venture with Double Vision production will not only provide a different platform for the local art industry landscape, but also see the strategic partnership with All3Media International can strengthen Astro’s ability as a platform that produces works with high quality production and is on the right track to dominate. the international arena through its premium dramas. Meanwhile, Kit Yow, Vice President, APAC All3Media International said, “We are very pleased to be working with Astro and Double Vision in producing a premium drama adaptation of the international hit script, Liar. The male and female conflict subjects featured have proven to be able to inject excitement among the viewers who follow the series, and we believe Astro’s ability and Double Vision’s production with the cast can present something different and give Malaysian viewers a different experience. ”
Wild premium drama and Call My Agent! the Malaysian version is expected to find an audience by the end of this year. All of these adaptations can be watched on Astro and On Demand or Astro GO channels.
source – astro
