MIPTV 2024: Keshet International unveiled its spring slate

Global content producer and distributor Keshet International unveiled its Spring 2024 slate ahead of MIPTV, while announcing its acquisition of two upcoming dramas selected as part of the 2024 MIP Drama Showcase.

Kelly Wright, Keshet’s MD of Distribution, said, “As a sales team, we are excited to be talking to clients in Cannes this April about our latest Spring slate, which really got buyers talking when we previewed them in London last month. It’s a competitive market out there, so I’m particularly proud of the variety and quality of the dramas and factual shows our acquisitions team has successfully acquired.”

Headlining Keshet’s Scripted slate is “Conflict” (6x60’, format and tape), a compelling military and political thriller set inside a surprise attack on a neutral country by an unidentified enemy force trying to provoke a wider conflict. “Conflict” is an English-dominant multi-language drama directed by the multi-award-winning film director Aku Louhimies (“Unknown Soldier”, “Rebellion”, “Inheritance”), produced by Backmann & Hoderhoff and XYZ Films, and starring an international cast that includes Peter Franzén (“Vikings”, “The Gunman”, “Purge”), Dylan Smith (“Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, “Mazerunner: The Death Cure”), Nadia Forde (“Once Upon a Time in London”), Sara Soulié (“The Man Who Died”) and Larry Lamb (“Eastenders”, “Superman”).

Currently premiering strongly in Israel on Keshet 12 is “The Best Worst Thing” (8x60’, format and tape), a romantic drama starring Hollywood film and Israeli TV actress Ayelet Zurer (“Man of Steel”, “Angels and Demons”, “Munich”) as a breast oncologist who finds herself sharing her own cancer treatment journey with an ambitious male politician, Micha Hadad (Amos Tamam). Six episodes in, “The Best Worst Thing” is not only the highest rating drama in Israel since 2021 (beating “A Body that Works”), but, according to Keshet International, surveys show it is already having a positive impact on cancer awareness in Israel, increasing Israelis’ willingness to perform preemptive breast cancer tests from 36% to 55% (women: 61% to 78%; men: 9% to 28%).

Keshet’s Spring 2024 scripted slate is rounded off by the format and tape of Nova TV’s “Extractors” (“Extraktori”), a 6x60’ spy thriller tracking the activities of a covert Czech intelligence unit tasked with rescuing and repatriating endangered Czech citizens from abroad and bringing them home. Inspired by true events, Leona and her team suspect two Czech women have been kidnapped when they disappear in Pakistan while travelling along the Hippie Trail to India, triggering a high-stakes operation involving back-channel political manoeuvrings, a cooperation with the CIA, and a rescue mission into Afghanistan in this compelling first season.

The company is also representing two of the 10 dramas selected for this year’s MIP Drama Showcase on April 7: Artza Productions’ crime drama “Palo Alto” (7x60’, format and tape) and Snapper Films sci-fi thriller “Valhalla Project” (6x60’, format and tape). In “Palo Alto” for Keshet 12, police detective Iris senses foul play when an additional corpse appears in the lab of a medical school in the port of Haifa, igniting a bloody struggle between local Jewish and Arab mobsters operating there. While in “Valhalla Project” for Elisa Viihde, a climate scientist is lured into a quest to find a path to a parallel universe researched by her father who disappeared in Lapland over 30 years ago. Both dramas are still in post-production ahead of their official launch-to-market planned for later this year.

The company’s unscripted slate is headlined by Ritual Arts and Amazing Owl’s “Earthbound”, a 6x60’ premium documentary series narrated by actor and environmentalist Orlando Bloom that explores the lives and contributions of seemingly ordinary people who have become extraordinary change-makers by turning environmental challenges into opportunities.

Produced by Double Act Productions for BBC One and starring ex-SAS leader Billy Billingham (SAS: Are You Tough Enough), “SAS: Catching the Criminals” (10x60’, format and tape) takes an immersive look at how police and enforcement teams are increasingly using military and SAS tactics to catch criminals. Theft, fly-tipping, and environmental offenses are on the rise, with unsolved crimes seemingly going unpunished. Using covert intelligence, surveillance, and disruption, each episode features an elaborate sting operation, planned and executed by the teams that Billy follows, to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Matila Röhr Productions’ “Arctic Wildlife in Lapland” (3x30’) for Finland’s YLE is a stunningly shot natural history docuseries celebrating the northernmost part of Fennoscandia’s uniquely rugged yet barren arctic landscape. This three-parter explores Lapland’s eight seasons, and the effect of its rapidly changing weather on the wildlife that lives here – reindeer, wolverine, black grouse, ptarmigan, owls, and stoat – from the polar nights that last several weeks in the north, to the snows that cover the ground for seven months of the year, until spring arrives and nature awakens once again.

In addition, Keshet will be relaunching one of its most successful gameshow formats "Boom!" as "Boom! Heist Mode". Originally created by Keshet, Ido Rosenblum and July August Productions in 2015 and since adapted locally in 19 territories with more than 2,500 episodes produced to date, "Boom!" fuses the drama, thrill and intensity of a blockbuster action movie with the high-octane fun of a video game, creating an immersive trivia challenge. Retaining all of its best-loved elements, "Boom! Heist Mode" sees two teams battle it out to crack open safes loaded with cold hard cash and prizes. It's a high-stakes game of wit and nerve against the clock, where quick thinking is rewarded, and hesitation can cost you dearly.

The company will also be re-launching the format and tape of Spiro Films’ Canneseries-winning drama “When Heroes Fly” (8x60’), which was recently adapted by Keshet Studios as Echo 3 for Apple TV+.