With Italian drama TV enjoying its own golden moment, new free- and pay-TV deals have been struck for two popular series from pubcaster RAI. “Rocco Schiavone,” which has already been bought by Starz in the U.S., and “The Hunter,” which was in competition at Canneseries, have sold in a raft of territories.
Based on the bestselling novels by Antonio Manzini, “Rocco Schiavone” follows the irascible deputy police chief of the title after he is posted to a remote Alpine region. Season 2 of the show launched recently on RAI 2.
Fox has snagged the pay-TV rights to the series in Germany, and pubcaster ARD has picked up the free-TV rights. AMC has the show for its networks in Latin America and ORF for free-TV in Austria. Deals in a total of 75 territories were sealed by Beta Film, which is handling distribution for both “Rocco Schiavone” and “The Hunter.”
Known locally as “Il Cacciatore” and produced by Cross Productions, “The Hunter” follows an Italian prosecutor taking on organized crime gangs in 1990s Italy. Australian pubcaster SBS has acquired it, as has AB Groupe for France. A regional deal in Latin America is also close to being concluded.
Amazon snagged the second-window rights locally in Italy, as it has done with other RAI shows including “Rocco Schiavone” and detective series “The Young Montalbano.”