- Premium crime drama licensed to key territories, including France and Spain
Red Arrow Studios International has scored new sales in Europe and Asia for its thrilling crime drama Vienna Blood (3 x 90’ or 6 x 45’). In Europe, Mediawan Rights has acquired the series for French-speaking markets; in Spain, the series has been sold to Movistar; YLE has picked up the show for Finland; while Viasat World will air it on the Epic Drama channel in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics. Other territories the series has been licensed to include China and Japan.
These latest sales join Red Arrow’s deal for Vienna Blood with BBC Two in the UK, where the series attracted large audiences and rated as the No.2 drama of 2019 for the channel. Following a sale to PBS, the series debuted successfully in the US in February 2020, garnering both critical and viewer acclaim.
Produced by Endor Productions, a Red Arrow Studios company, and MR Film for Austria’s ORF and Germany’s ZDF, Vienna Blood is adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Steve Thompson (Deep State, Jericho, Sherlock) and is based on the best-selling novels by Frank Tallis. Additional funding partners include Televisionfund Austria, TV-Filmfund Vienna and Niederoesterreich Kultur. Red Arrow Studios International led the co-financing of the series and distributes it internationally.
Tim Gerhartz, SVP sales, Red Arrow Studios International, said: “Vienna Blood is a hugely gripping series and exactly the type of ambitious primetime drama we’re committed to supporting at Red Arrow. Following its success in the UK and US, we’re delighted new audiences in Europe and Asia will be able to enjoy the series, which deftly combines the traditional crime genre with relevant social issues and a bold creative approach.”
Filmed in English on location in Vienna and starring Matthew Beard (The Imitation Game, Dracula), and Juergen Maurer (Vorstadtweiber, Tatort), Vienna Blood is set in 1900s Vienna, a hot bed of philosophy, science and art, where a clash of cultures and ideas play out in the city’s grand cafes and opera houses. Max Liebermann is a brilliant young English doctor and student of famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. When Max comes into contact with Oskar Rheinhardt, a Detective Inspector struggling with a strange case, he agrees to help him investigate a series of unusual and disturbing murders. Max’s extraordinary skills of perception and psychology and Oskar’s forceful tenacity lead them to solve some of Vienna’s most mysterious and deadly cases.
Vienna Blood is directed by Academy Award® and Emmy®-nominee Robert Dornhelm (Anne Frank: The Whole Story) and Umut Dag (Cracks in Concrete). The producers are Hilary Bevan Jones and Jez Swimer for Endor Productions and Andreas Kamm and Oliver Auspitz for MR Film. Executive Producers are Steve Thompson, Klaus Lintschinger (ORF), Wolfgang Feindt (ZDF) and Bo Stehmeier and Carlo Dusi (Red Arrow Studios International).