Love Island blossoms as TV's race for content heats up

Aside from the cyclone of meals, meetings and deal-making, it is mostly composed of thousands of slightly frantic television executives combing the four corners of the city's iconic Palais des Festivals in search of the "next big thing" in content.

The key trend this year, according to Reed Midem television division director Laurine Garaude, was a "global race for stand-out content", evidenced by a growing number of internationally co-produced, high concept series. Content companies were "truly transcending borders", Garaude said.

So where does that leave consumers in this new world of T??levision sans Fronti??res? Not too badly off, looks to be the answer, with an impressive lineup of new TV series heading down the pipe.

Love Island is the raunchy new show coming to the Nine Network. Photo: Supplied

Love Island (ITV Studios)

A mind-bogglingly simple premise - Survivor, with no challenges, where everyone has brought their romantic A-game in the hope of waking up in someone else's bed - has somehow turned this chewing gum for the brain into the hottest format in the world. When it launched in the UK seemingly highbrow Londoners were glued to the exploits of its alumnus and at a market where Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gordon Ramsay were the hot tickets, Kem and Amber from Love Island were greeted like royalty. Nine is making the local version.

Brittania, starring Kelly Reilly as Kerra, has been popular with television buyers at Mipcom. Photo: Stanislav Honzik

Britannia (Sky Vision)

One of the would-be successors to Game of Thrones, and perhaps the one which aspires the most to look like it. Britannia is a co-production between the UK's Sky and US streaming platform Amazon, set in 43AD and focusing on the march of the Roman army against the Celts, with "wild warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the powerful forces of the underworld" thrown in for good measure. The cast includes Zo?? Wanamaker, David Morrissey, Ian McDiarmid (aka Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine) and Australian actress Liana Cornell.

The City & The City is a new crime series from the UK. Photo: Supplied

The City & The City (ITV Studios)

Crime series based on British author China Mi??ville's compelling book about the European city-state of Bes??el and another city, Ul Qoma, which physically inhabit the same space but remain "unseen" by the residents of the other city. As high concepts go this one is stratospheric, but its a brilliant book which has been turned into an even more brilliant television series. David Morrissey plays Inspector Tyador Borl?? of the Extreme Crime Squad in Bes??el, called to investigate a violent murder with connections to Ul Qoma.

Ice (eOne)

Action thriller series based on a family of Los Angeles diamond traders, notably half-brothers Freddy (Jeremy Sisto) and Jake Green (Cam Gigandet), who end up caught between their own family conflicts and the battle to control the family's diamond trading empire, and the diamond business itself, a dazzling and disturbing, and at times ethically bankrupt world. Ripper supporting cast includes Ray Winstone and Donald Sutherland.

Natalie Dormer in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Photo: Supplied

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Fremantle)

One of two Australian dramas which came to market surfing a wave of buzz, this is the reboot of the book which most Australians know via its earlier adaptation, Peter Weir's 1975 film. The reboot dives into the source material with gusto and Mipcom buyers were impressed with what they saw. Fremantle's head of European sales Al De Azpiazu described the project as a "spellbinding adaptation of a classic novel" and the studio secured a key sale at the market, to the French broadcaster Canal+.

Gone (NBC Universal)

Even a sharper-than-average US procedural wouldn't usually divert eyeballs accustomed to Scandi noir, but Gone is a real sign-of-the-times project: a co-production between NBC Universal, Germany's RTL and France's TF1. It stars Chris Noth as FBI agent Frank Novak, who rescues a child abduction victim, Kit Lannigan (Leven Rambin) and, years later, persuades her to join a special task force dedicated to solving abductions and missing persons cases.

Jo Frost in her former role as Super Nanny.

Jo Frost on Killer Kids (Keshet)

A somewhat dramatic departure for the artist formerly known as Supernanny, Jo Frost steps away from her career as parenting educator to play journalist in a stunning documentary series about the most taboo of topics: children who kill. The series hopes to tackle thorny questions, such as when should children become criminally responsible for their actions, and why does the notion persist that a child can be "pure evil from birth"?

Deep State (Fox Networks Group)

Game of Thrones star Mark Strong plays an ex-spy who is brought back into the business to avenge the death of his son, but instead finds himself enmeshed in a conspiracy to profit from war in the Middle East. The series is described as an "intense, character-driven espionage thriller set in Britain, the US, Iran, Lebanon and France [which] shows the merciless reality of the world of espionage."

The Launch (Bell Media)

A new music competition series which aspires to short-circuit the flaw in most formats in the genre: that they rarely produce an artist with long-term commercial viability. The series takes an almost Eurovision-like song-focused approach, skipping the audition porn to kick off with a "launch-ready" song and artist. Each episode features five unsigned artists and a song written by one of the show's star hosts, including Shania Twain, Fergie, Boy George and Nikki Sixx.

Syd Zygier as Maeve, Lily Sullivan as Petra and Tysan Towney as Danny in the 2017 Stan miniseries Romper Stomper. Photo: Ben King

Romper Stomper (DCD Rights)

A six part drama which picks up the story of the 1992 Australian film Romper Stomper - about a group of neo-Nazis in the working class suburbs of Melbourne - some 25 years after the events depicted in the film. The project comes with a top shelf pedigree in producers John Edwards and Dan Edwards, and even has the original film's director, Geoffrey Wright, on board to direct episodes. Russell Crowe's Hando isn't returning (for reasons which should be obvious if you've seen the film) but Jacqueline McKenzie, Dan Wyllie and John Brumpton are. Romper Stomper will be broadcast on Stan in Australia.

Stan is a joint venture between Fairfax Media and the Nine Network.