SELLING FORMATS: HOT AIR OR HOLY GRAIL?
Many options for format rights to Australian shows have been sold abroad in the past five years, but that’s been the end of the road for the majority. Where production has occurred, very few have gone to a second series in the same territory, and generally that has to happen for there to be any chance of real upside.
The Quick Read
Wentworth, Wilfred, Secrets & Lies, Review with Myles Barlow, The Slap, Rake and Small Time Gangster are among the dramas and comedies that have been remade. New versions of the documentaries and factual entertainment shows My Kitchen Rules, Border Security and Go Back To Where You Came From also exist. It is understood that those scripted shows that have been optioned but not produced beyond pilot stage - not yet anyway - include The Code, East West 101, Fat Cow Motel, House Husbands, Jack Irish, Laid, Love Child, Lowdown, Offspring, Packed to the Rafters, Spirited, The Strange Calls, The Straits and Twenty Something, but tracking them is not easy.
The big risk is that remakes made for English language territories can have a negative impact on sales of the original or make buyers of that original very cranky. Producers are often caught between their distributor and dreams of world domination. They are also often caught up in the idiosyncrasies of the US market: opportunities might be rife but beware the subterfuge hidden in contracts and being seduced by options that go nowhere.