German production and sales group Beta Film and Brazilian media giant Grupo Globo have signed a multi-year co-production agreement to jointly develop drama series for the global market.
The deal, announced Monday at international television market MIPCOM, will begin with Discipline (working title), an eight-hour crime series created by Konrad Dantas, the Brazilian writer/director better known as KondZilla, who co-created the Brazilian Netflix series Tuning. The series follows Maicon, a young Brazilian entrepreneur, who finds himself caught between his female-dominated family and a European criminal heiress facing her own patriarchal challenges. Their paths converge in a high-stakes collaboration to ship cocaine across the Atlantic.
Dans e Tuning co-creator Felipe Braga will co-write Discipline with Braga's LB Entertainment and Dantas' KondZilla producing for Globo, Beta Film and new production boutique Janeiro Studios, led by former Beta CCO Koby Gal Raday. The writers' room will include Duda de Almeida (Tuning), David Kolb (Criminal Code) and Tamiris Hilário (Criminal Code). Globo will have exclusive rights in Brazil and is targeting the show to its streaming platform Globoplay. Beta will handle sales in the rest of the world.
“Co-productions are a way to bring Globo's content to the international market in a different way,” said Manuel Belmar, director of digital products at Globo, explaining the new collaboration with Beta. “We combine our expertise with Beta Film in a deal where everyone wins, especially the audience.”
“We at Janeiro Studios firmly believe that the time has come for Brazilian talent and Brazilian stories to become the main choice for international audiences,” added Koby Gal Raday. “With this exciting story, which naturally connects strong Brazilian and European characters, we feel we have taken another step in the right direction.”