UK-based distributor DCD Rights has acquired three premium true crime documentary series which will be available to international clients at MIPCOM. Each of the series was produced by Perpetual Entertainment, with the pre-sale and acquisition deals secured through Perpetual’s European-based sales consultant, Jimmy Humphrey, of agents Marmalade Sky. Let's briefly review each of them below.
The trio of premium 2 x 60’ series are produced by award-winning film and television production company Perpetual Entertainment – "Bodies in the Barrels" is produced for Nine Network Australia; Natural Born Killer? for both Hearst Networks EMEA and Nine Network Australia, while Sydney’s Killer Cop has been originally created for Hearst Networks EMEA.
DCD Rights’ Rick Barker, Head of Sales described the slate: “True crime series continue to attract strong audience numbers whenever and wherever they air. These high production titles, each telling a compelling and disturbing true story, are welcome additions to our ever-growing crime catalogue," commented.
"Bodies in the Barrels" is the true story of the Snowtown Murders, a ghastly tale of depravity and murder in the sleepy suburbs of Adelaide. A gang of three had taken the law into their own hands, torturing and murdering those they believed to be paedophiles and not worthy of life. They then stuffed them into barrels, dismembered and soaked in brine, before hiding them in a bank vault in Snowtown. 2024 marks 25 years since Australia’s most gruesome murder spree was brought to an end and marks the first release from jail of one of the participants – Mark Haydon, the owner of the bank vault where the bodies were hidden. This series gathers the original investigators, journalists, witnesses and family members to give their accounts of the horrific crimes.
"Natural Born Killer?" recounts the murder of Stephanie Scott the weekend before her wedding, which shocked Australia. She was raped and stabbed by Vincent Stanford, a school janitor, before he burned her body. For the first time we will uncover the even more shocking truth, that for Stanford, this was just the beginning of his planned murderous agenda. Strong new evidence indicates that Stanford had been stalking three other women with the intent to kill, and a psychological profile suggested a man just starting out on his serial killing journey, with a shocking theory he’d practised his murderous craft unfettered across Europe for 20 years. This is the story of his conviction, his chilling confession, his possible involvement in other cases, and how he almost got away with it due to DNA confusion with his identical twin brother...
Finally, "Sydney’s Killer Cop" gets inside the psyche of Beau Lamarre-Condon – a policeman, celebrity stalker and blogger – snapped. Lamarre-Condon's ex Jessie Baird, a TV presenter, and Luke Davies were both shot dead with a police-issue revolver that night. How did a trusted member of the police force become a cold-blooded murderer? How was Lamarre-Condon caught… and, tragically, where had he hidden the bodies of the two young men? Over two episodes a harrowing story unfolds around the famous Sydney gay scene, a policeman who flirted as a celebrity spotter, and how his delusional star-spotting would disintegrate around him into a deadly horror show.