Eccho Rights, the Stockholm-based rights-management and sales company, has come on board political drama-thriller “Invisible Heroes” in the run-up to NATPE.
Inspired by true events, “Invisible Heroes” follows the remarkable exploits of a rookie Finnish diplomat, Tapani Brotherus, who risked everything he had to secretly help secure asylum in Europe for more than 2,000 Chilean citizens whose lives were under threat following General Pinochet’s military coup in 1973. The international diplomacy drama was written by the playwrights Tarja Kylma and Manuela Infante Guell.
Eccho Rights will handle international sales on the six-part series, which is produced by Kaiho Republic in Finland and Parox in Chile. “Invisible Heroes” was commissioned by the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, in association with Chilevision.
“This is an incredible story that will appeal to a wide international audience given its extraordinary subject matter that many will not have heard of before,” said Nicola Söderlund, managing partner at Eccho Rights.
Söderlund added that the series was “particularly fascinating” from a production perspective, “with Finnish and Chilean producers working together in Santiago to create a show with cast members from all over the world.”
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“We are excited to see how this sets a precedent for other ambitious co-production projects in the future,” she said.
The series is headlined by Pelle Heikkilä, Ilkka Villi, Sophia Heikkilä, and Mikael Persbrandt. Chilean actor Cristian Carvajal and German Sönke Möhring also star.
“Creating a series with such a global cast, and production teams from countries as different as Finland and Chile, of course had its challenges, but the amazing story that we are telling brought everyone together,” said Liisa Penttilä-Asikainen, who executive produced the series at Kaiho Republic. “And the input of such a culturally diverse creative group really aided us in bringing this extraordinary series of events back to life.”
Set to start airing in the spring on YLE, “Invisible Heroes” is currently in post-production.
Eccho Rights recently welcomed South Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM as its new majority shareholder. Eccho Rights has offices in Stockholm, Istanbul, Madrid, Seoul and Manila.