Welcome to Deadline’s The Hot Ones — Docs, our guide to some of the best documentaries being sold at MIPCOM this year. Our editorial team has done extensive research in the run-up to the 2024 market and has handpicked a selection of the projects set to be big talking points at this year’s event in Cannes.
In between meetings and cocktail parties, you’re sure to hear whispers about the next potential global hit, and The Hot Ones is here to guide you. So scroll down for the best in the docs game including Martin Scorsese‘s Saints, Seven.One Studios’ If Pigs Could Talk and Newen’s exploration of the Paris catacombs.
Paris has spent a fair bit of this summer in the headlines with the Olympic Games followed by the Paralympics, which ended mid-September amid a wealth of medals, glory and big broadcasting numbers. Many parts of the French capital were transformed into sporting venues overnight, but one iconic venue far away from the action was the catacombs that sit directly under the ground. The unique labyrinth of the lamented is home to nearly 300km of “galleries” housing more than 6 million skulls.
The catacombs represent the largest necropolis in the world and are also among the most secret, but perhaps not for much longer. At MIPCOM Cannes, Newen Connect will reveal Empire of the Dead to buyers, showing them another side of the much-loved Parisian charm.
The France Télévisions doc follows forensic ‘bone doctor’ Philippe Charlier and a team of international experts, who embark on a scientific journey with unprecedented access to the catacombs to show how the remains can provide new history to the world above. Scientific developments in DNA testing and other fields will reveal new information on medical advances and the impact of epidemics such as leprosy and cholera.
Scientific history docs are a speciality at Newen, which has recently launched the likes of Cleopatra: Cracking the Enigma and Roman Empire: Beyond the Myths. Public broadcasters and free-to-air networks will, of course, always be a priority, but Persyn says, “The production value allows us to talk to pay-TV as well.”
The doc, directed by Dominique Adt, has been fashioned into a commercial hour (52 minutes) for the international market, though in France the original program will run to a total of 90 minutes across two episodes. “There is still a strong demand for these types of stories,” says Persyn. “They have to stand out, be visible and make noise. Empire of the Dead is one of those projects.”
Forget track and field, the real story of Paris has been hiding beneath the surface all along.
In Eunuchs, journalist Marcel Theroux explores the very dark world of Marius Gustavson, a man terrifyingly dubbed the “Eunuch Maker” and who is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in a British prison.
In 2022, shocking headlines broke about a group of men who were performing castrations and livestreaming them to paying customers. As was the case with Theroux’s successful The Playboy Bunny Murder series, we see him delve into the story behind the story. He gains unprecedented access to those who underwent castration, as well as people at the heart of the Eunuch Maker’s inner circle.
“It’s sensational sounding, but I also thought this is really about the limits of consent,” says Theroux. “It’s about bodily autonomy, personal freedom, and maybe it’s also about gender identity as well.”
Theroux, older brother of Louis, began by corresponding with Gustavson over email and then visited him in prison. “I really wanted to be across the story and understand it, and all of this was before we had a commission,” he says. Hearst Networks EMEA, which is the new identity of A+E Networks EMEA, duly greenlit a two-part documentary and has it for the U.K.
Theroux wanted to dig deeper into the motivations of those involved. “The initial newspaper coverage portrayed these people as demented monsters, but actually we meet some people who are quite happy with the procedures they’ve undergone and who make quite a strong case that these are things that they really need, and they are not able to achieve in any other way,” says Theroux. “Those are fascinating but challenging things to hear.”
Eunuchs sees Theroux working with Playboy Bunny Murders co-producer Future Studios and John Farrar, its Chief Creative Officer, says: “There’s a real darkness and an undercurrent, but the way that we tackle it the show is not graphic in any way. It’s incredibly sympathetic and it really gets under the skin of the organization and the man at the heart of it.”
The doc will launch at MIPCOM with Blue Ant on sales duty. “Premium ripped-from-the-headline documentaries with incredible access are in demand — and when that’s in conjunction with the crime genre, we know it’s going to perform very well,” says Lilla Hurst, Global Head of Acquisitions & Content Strategy. Blue Ant comes to market with the original two-parter as well as a one-hour version that has Theroux narrating but appearing on screen less, which is designed for non-English-language territories.
Seven.One Studios International is getting on its trotters through its eye-catchingly titled doc If Pigs Could Talk. The show, from Married at First Sight maker Snowman Productions, follows a group of world-leading scientists as they try to decipher the language of pigs using advanced AI technology. “Five years ago, this could not have been done,” says Tim Gerhartz, Managing Director of Seven.One Studios International.
The scientists, whose efforts were filmed over a year of a decade-long collaborative effort, accumulated more than 7,000 audio recordings of pigs, some of which were destined for the slaughterhouse and others from free, organic and mass production farms. They interpreted the sounds blindly, without knowing their origins.
Avoiding spoilers, the results are striking and 19 unique sounds — or emotional expressions — were identified. There has been talk that the findings could change our relationship with food and the show poses tricky questions for the trillion-dollar pork industry.
“The doc puts a different light on the current discussions of what is good and bad,” says Gerhartz. “It’s about animal welfare and the boundaries of AI technology, and we are humanizing the science. This is animal welfare but produced in a way more people can relate to.”
Seven.One Studios International is heading into its first MIPCOM Cannes under its new title. Company parent ProSiebenSat.1 decided to drop the previous Red Arrow Studios International moniker to bring its TV distribution wing in lockstep with its production division, Seven.One Studios. Having challenging but attention-grabbing docs such as If Pigs Could Talk on the slate will certainly help to establish the new name with buyers.
Several European public broadcasters have already committed to the doc, which is directed by Miki Mistrati. “It’s our main factual launch for MIPCOM,” says Gerhartz. “It’s a buzzworthy doc that I believe will be an attraction to more public networks, but is potentially loud enough to interest streamers, even though they are more focused on star names right now. What makes it interesting and attractive for the audience is that it’s not a classic science or nature doc. It takes an unconventional approach.”
Before Martin Scorsese was a famed filmmaker winning every accolade under the sun, he wanted to be a priest. A little-known fact about the Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas auteur is that he attended a preparatory seminary that could have led to him becoming a man of the cloth, but dropped out after he failed a semester. Fast-forward several decades and numerous gongs, and the man who imbues Catholicism into many of his movies is still fascinated by the religion to this day.
Scorsese, who is self-financing a biblical epic called The Life of Jesus, narrates and exec-produces docudrama The Saints, which tells the stories of eight historical religious figures from Joan of Arc to Mary Magdalene to lesser-known influences such as Maximilian Kolbe.
Fox Entertainment Global (FEG) is selling it on the Croisette. “It’s not often that we get a chance to hear these stories from such a renowned and respected filmmaker’s access point,” says David Smyth, FEG’s Executive Vice President Content Sales and Partnerships. “I’m excited to see how consumable and appealing these stories are as docudramas. It signals a real moment in FEG’s journey.”
Each episode will take one saint, combining Scorsese’s narration with scripted, dramatic elements, in a similar vein to Jesus Crown of Thorns, another soon-to-launch Fox Nation docudrama.
The first tranche of The Saints episodes will drop shortly after MIPCOM and Smyth says interest has been coming in “from right across the board”. With the show’s theme in mind, FEG will be targeting buyers from Europe and Latin America, where large Catholic populations reside, although its narrator’s draw has left Smyth confident that it can sell around the world.
“We would expect it to do well in any market in the world that has touchpoints with faith, and touchpoints with Martin Scorsese, which is almost all,” he says.
FEG is also taking October 7 drama One Day in October to MIPCOM along with its adaptation of Hallmark Channel’s The Chicken Sisters, as it broadens genre range two years into operation.
In Scorsese’s The Saints, FEG will be hoping to secure buyers’ holy seal of approval, thanks to Scorsese’s divine intervention.