Warner Bros reveals MIPTV slate
April 2, 2024
Warner Bros International Television Production has revealed its slate of new programming for MIPTV, featuring a compelling range of documentary, reality and factual entertainment titles alongside a gripping new drama series.
Leading the charge is D-Day: The Unheard Tapes (3×60’), a raw, revealing and powerful documentary series produced to coincide with the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024. Using young actors lip-syncing to recorded wartime interviews with British, American and German soldiers and French witnesses—combined with archival footage and immersive re-creation—it recalls incredible moments of bravery, fear and what it was like to live through the unfolding invasion.
In Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History (3×60’), British barrister and TV personality Robert Rinder uncovers the hidden past of three high-profile prisons, each with a fascinating history that stretches back centuries. Continuing the crime theme, Flordelis: A Family Crime (4×60’) tells the astonishing true story of Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, a Brazilian singer-turned-congresswoman-turned-pastor who was arrested for murdering her husband after enlisting the help of some of her 50 adopted children!
Born From the Same Stranger (4×60’), from the award-winning team behind Long Lost Family, is an emotional new factual entertainment series that uses detective work and the latest DNA technology to help people born from sperm or egg donations find their unknown blood relations and solve mysteries about their identities and heritage. Meanwhile, My Family Mystery (6 x 60’) sets out to solve different mysteries that impact families. Starting with a single clue – anything from a photograph to a diary or memento – numerous discoveries are made along the way, with final reveals that can be anything from finding missing persons to solving cold cases. Both are also available as formats.
FGirl Island (10×60’) is a rousing spin-off from FBoy Island, the entertaining and unique social experiment meets dating show. Nikki Glaser returns as host, but this time, the ‘script is flipped’, and the girls are in control. Three men looking for love are joined on a tropical island by 24 women; half are self-proclaimed nice girls, while the other half are FGirls: sexually liberated, ambitious and empowered women who know how to get what they want. Will the men find it easy to make the right choices, or will the girls take home the money? WBITVP is also launching the format for FGirl Island at MIPTV.
In Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew (2 seasons, 8×60’ & 6×60’), comedian and Hollywood star Kevin Hart travels across the US with a group of friends known as the Plastic Cup Boyz. They explore and celebrate America’s colourful, evolving car culture and undertake their very own car transformation—starting with the basics first.
Bring the Drama (6×60’) is a unique vocational competition series hosted by popular British actor, comedian and musician Bill Bailey. It follows eight people, all of whom have dreamt of
becoming professional actors but have never had the chance, take on the audition process of their lives in a bid to win a spot at a showcase in front of leading agents. Over the course of the series, they audition for a leading casting agent and then re-create scenes from some of Britain’s most loved dramas – including Silent Witness, Peaky Blinders and Downton Abbey–getting tips from the shows’ stars. Also available as a format.
Leaning into the popularity of both repairing and nostalgia, Toy Hospital (6×60’) sees Britain’s top ‘Toy Doctors’ offer a lifeline to a raft of broken or damaged patients and their desperate owners. This heartwarming and charming series from the producers of The Repair Shop is a wonderful celebration of the history and nostalgia of the world of toys. Also available as a format.
Rounding out the new unscripted titles are gay dating series Boys Like Boys (10×60’) and Glow Up China (6×60’), which sees talented young Chinese make-up artists compete in creative challenges to become the country’s most promising make-up star of tomorrow. Both titles are also in the WBITVP formats catalogue.
Finally, WBITVP is pleased to launch Testify (6×60’), a bold and intriguing new drama from WBITVP New Zealand starring Craig Hall (King Kong, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Vinnie Bennet (Human Traces, Good Grief) and Kat Brown (Power Rangers Dino Thunder, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). When a charismatic young pastor clashes with his father’s rich and powerful evangelical church, he forms an unlikely alliance with a queer podcaster. With the help of his estranged brother, they uncover a conspiracy of historical sexual abuse. As they get closer to the truth, they make powerful enemies, and their father fights back – leading to a dramatic showdown.
Charlotte Raban, WBITVP’s VP of finished and format sales, comments: “In addition to our incredible catalogue of formats, WBITVP also represents finished series from many of those major franchises, as well as an impressive collection of unscripted and scripted titles from Warner Bros. labels and leading third-party producers from around the globe.
“This year is no exception, and we are thrilled to arrive at MIPTV with a slate of brilliant new titles in our ‘Hotlist’ to share with buyers worldwide. Covering topical and on-trend subjects, and with everything from beautifully crafted documentaries and intriguing crime stories to innovative factual entertainment series and a big, noisy reality/dating show with a difference, our latest content is destined to appeal to a wide range of audiences and create valuable stand out in the schedules.”