Content Budapest 2023: Keshet unveils its summer slate of content

Keshet International unveiled the summer slate it will showcase at this year's Content Budapest, scheduled to take place from 27-29 June. “Content Budapest offers us a great opportunity to launch some newly acquired titles to buyers before the summer break, including the second season of Line in the Sand, which is even bigger and more explosive than the first, which sold incredibly well for us following a record-breaking debut on Keshet 12," KI’s new MD of Distribution Kelly Wright said. "In addition, 38 Minutes to Live is a fascinating look into what might really happen should tensions between North Korea and the US result in a missile attack.”   

Forming part of the catalog is Keshet's newly acquired disaster documentary from Flicker Productions, "38 Minutes to Live." The title, which investigates the events of January 13, 2018, when people across Hawaii received an emergency alert to their phones informing them of an incoming ballistic missile attack, is set to launch at the inaugural Content Budapest. It focuses on the 38 minutes during which the entire population of Hawaii, and visiting celebrities including Jim Carrey, faced the end of the world and their own mortality after receiving an emergency alert to their phones: “Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii." Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This Is Not A Drill.”. Featuring exclusive interviews and emotional first-person accounts, it examines how Hawaiians responded to this existential threat - from the social media influencers who were live-broadcasting when the message came in, and all the way to the governor. Public officials, journalists, and elected representatives finally reveal how such a mass-traumatizing mistake occurred, and what they are doing to ensure it never happens again. 

The global producer and distributor will also unveil a slate of new content that also includes the second drama from Keshet 12’s 100M NIS slate of eight scripted shows, season 2 of Koda Communications’ "Line in the Sand" and the TV adaptation of Matila Röhr Productions’ award-winning feature doc "Tales of the Sleeping Giants."“I’m thrilled we’ve been able to pick-up another documentary from Flicker Productions, following the recent acquisition of both BBC One‘s Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism and Channel 4’s Finding the Cornish Dream for our burgeoning factual catalogue," KI’s SVP of Acquisitions and Co-productions Anke Stoll said.
 
The scripted slate is led by the latest installment of Koda Communications’ crime drama "Line in the Sand" for Keshet 12. Co-created by Yuval Yefet and Rotem Shamir (both Rough Diamonds, Fauda), the first 8x60’ season is still Israel’s highest-rating drama since 2015, and went on to sell in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. Season two  (8x60’) premiered on Tuesday 13 June to strong ratings and reviews in the face of stiff competition (12.6% TVR and 21% share).  

With the collaboration of MRP Matila Röhr Productions, KI is also presenting the 1x60’ broadcast version of MRP’s latest natural history feature, "Tale of the Sleeping Giants," which recently opened in Finnish cinemas to critical acclaim and strong ticket sales, having taken three years to film in the arctic wilderness of Lapland. The title by award-winning composer Panu Aaltio, screenwriter Antti Tuuri’s vision of the Lapland fells as “sleeping giants” is a journey into the rich mythology of ancient Scandinavians told in the form of a nature movie. Following the four vibrant seasons of the fells, and the lives of animals such as wolverines, reindeer, foxes, weasels, bears, and humpback whales living within them, "Tale of the Sleeping Giants" (Tunturin Tarina) celebrates the mythical mountains, skies, lakes, rivers and creatures of Lapland’s arctic wilderness. KI is also representing a wider package of natural history content from MRP that includes the two earlier features in the trilogy: "Tale of a Forest" (2013) and "Tale of a Lake" (2016), the biggest box office documentary in the history of Finnish cinema; the award-winning feature "Nature Symphony" (2019); alongside 20x4’ wildlife shorts.