‘Devil’s Confession’ Producer Sipur Preps New Dating Format, Builds as Israeli Film-TV Studio (EXCLUSIVE)
CANNES — Burgeoning Israeli film-TV studio Sipur and cable channel HOT, behind the original versions of “In Treatment” and “Euphoria,” are introducing at MipTV “Everybody Loves…,” a new global dating reality format.
The news comes just days after France’s Mediawan Rights has pounced on international distribution of another Sipur format, “Hungry for Love,” and partners Sipur and MGM’s winning five Israeli Emmy Awards for chilling doc series “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.”
Tel Aviv-based Sipur has also moved into post on “Bad Boy,” a scripted series from Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli “Euphoria” and an exec producer on its U.S version.
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All these moves mark further signs of growth at Sipur, driven by CEO Emilio Schenker. Formerly Tadmor Entertainment until its rebranding last July, it is quickly emerging as one of Israel’s fastest-growing film-TV studios, playing off unique international relationships, led by a first-look production-distribution deal with MGM, and the kind of hometurf institutional and corporate backing which many other Israeli producers can just dream of.
‘Everybody Loves’
“Everbody Loves…,” a working title, is described by Zipi Rozenblum, Sipur head of formats, as a “crazy reality experiment show” where family members, friends and even the entire country are unleashed to help a bachelor or bachelorette find true love.
“It will have a lot of humor and craziness but leave room for emotion, being fun and unique,” she added.
“Everybody Loves…” is co-created and co-developed by Sipur and Israeli content powerhouse HCSS and cable channel HOT. They are advancing rapidly on putting a Hebrew version into production. Sipur is currently is negotiations to bring in a U.S. partner on the English-language version of the new format.
‘Hungry for Love’
“Everybody Loves…” joins “Hungry for Love,” Sipur’s first dating format, co-produced with HCSS/HOT, as well as Greg Silverman’s L.A.-based Stampede Ventures.
Another social experiment dating series it connects the two greatest human desires, say its creators, a physical hunger for food and an emotional hunger for love. In the show, whenever separate participants Gor Arad (“Ninja Israel”) and Jordan Adri (“Big Brother”) get hungry, they go on a date and eat at the same time. Lending authenticity to the show, Arad and Adri found about 30% of their dates from their own social circles, Rosemblum noted.
Brought onto the market at MipTV by Mediawan, “Hungry for Love” scored great reviews. “If ‘Hungry for Love’ were on Netflix, it would become a phenomenon,” proclaimed Israel’s Y-Net. During the program’s broadcast on HOT, it doubled the average linear viewership for the time slot and increased viewership week on week.
“We strongly believe in working very close with companies or broadcasters in a territory in order to figure out exactly their needs, and we also bring in outside partners to give more international appeal to a project,” said Rozenblum, EP and creator of hit shows such as “Marry Me Now” and “Overdraft Family.”
“Partnering overseas, we are going to increase the budget of a production, giving it high production value and we are going to know that there is an international potential, given our partners from other territories,” she added.
Schenker’s Ambitions
A highly successful TV presenter, radio producer and film director (“Madam Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club”), Schenker’s Sipur responds to his thinking through some five years ago the contradictions of Israel’s current TV scene: “On one hand, creativity in Israel is going up and up, and up and up, and the world is opening more and more to Israeli content.” Yet, on the other, however, Israeli broadcaster budgets were plunging, meaning they could no longer fully finance shows.
“I was an indie producer. My idea was to build Israel’s first film-TV studio which does what studios do: Develop, finance and distribute IP.”
‘Bad Boy’
That it now happening. Wrapping its shoot on April 11, “Bad Boy” is created by Ron Leshem and director Hagar Ben-Asher (“Bosch,” “City on the Hill”) with comedian Daniel Chen, writers Moshe Malka (“Red Skies”) and Roee Florentin (“The Greenhouse”) and Leshem’s longtime partners, writer-producers Amit Cohen (“False Flag,” “No Man’s Land,” “Red Skies”) and Daniel Amsel (“Euphoria,” “Traitor”).
“A dark sad drama,” said Schenker, “Bad Boy” turns on a star stand-up comedian desperate to hide his past lived 20 years before in a juvenile detention facility, where he befriended a mysterious stranger.
“This is the best script I’ve ever read in my life, something I’ve never read before, which is very, very powerful and I think we have the potential to do something that is very, very meaningful,” said Schenker.
“Bad Boy” producers take in North Road Co., Peter Chernin’s new outfit, HOT and Tedy Productions, which oversees physical production.
‘The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes’
Produced by Sipur and MGM, “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes” is early fruit of their first-look deal, renewed last July as Sipur rebranded. It achieves the extraordinary coup of retrieving for history the audio of part of interviews conducted with Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires in 1957. In them, despite protestations to the contrary at his trial, Eichmann is heard not just recognizing but boasting of his role in the Holocaust, telling Nazi journalist Willem Stassen: “Had we killed 10.3 million Jews, then I would say: ‘I am satisfied. We have exterminated an enemy.’”
At Eichmann’s trial, the tapes were not considered admissible to court. With the documentary, “I think we’ve changed history. We’ve proved Eichmann knew what he was doing, and was the true architect of the Holocaust,” said Schenker.
Life-Changing Moments
Schenker’s life changed, he told Variety,, when he met Gideon Tadmor, a pioneer of the Israeli energy industry and often credited as one of the most influential business people in Israel. Tadmore helped him raise funding from Israel’s largest bank, HaPoalim, leading insurer-pension fund Clal Insurance, major investment firm IBI; and Stella Handler, former CEO of Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications provider.
His life changed again when he met former CBS Network Television Entertainment Group president Nancy Tellem who helped bring in MGM and introduced Schenker to numerous international companies.
To build Israel’s first film-TV studio, Schenker says he needed three things: “Meaningful money; international partners, and a great team.”
He now has all three. Apart from “Bad Boy,” he has plans for three more scripted shows in Israel this year, plus an arsenal of nonfiction formats in development.
Expect new announcements soon.
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