Luca Bernabei On How Keeping Costs Down On ‘Costiera’ & The ‘Shōgun’-esque ‘Sandokan’ Has Been Crucial In Today’s “Tricky” Market

“In Europe we are accustomed to producing with a bit less money and finding solutions,” declared Luca Bernabei as he spoke about how his Fremantle-backed production outfit Lux Vide has had to keep costs down on Jesse Williams-starrer Coastal and upcoming epic Sandokan.

Bernabei pointed to a “tricky” financial market in which American buyers are looking to Europeans for guidance on how to make shows for that little bit less.

“Europe has been doing this for a long time,” Bernabei told Deadline on the Fremantle stand at MIPCOM. “The producer has to be smart and find new ways of making shows.”

Starring John Hannah, Ed Westwick, Alanah Bloor and Can Yaman, Sandokan is a case in point. The pirate series based on the old novels by Emilio Salgari, which has been adapted several times before for the big and small screen, is yet to find a buyer, with Fremantle deficit financing. Bernabei said “we did not have enough money so had to cut money from the budget and find a way of ‘putting the money on screen’.”

Lux Vide built a 360-degree panopticon studio itself, used “production engineering” techniques to keep costs down on big scenes involving boats and sea sequences, and shot scenes in Calabria in South Italy to take advantage of regional grants.

Bernabei added that Lux Vide has also had to adapt by working with writers to keep costs down. “I remember when the scriptwriter delivered the script and we produced. Now we are arguing with the screenwriter because you need to trim. In time you become a producer that can risk a bit of money, smell where the market is going and know how to make a script ‘produceable’.”

The series follows the eponymous pirate, who fights only for himself and his crew but whose life changes when, during a raid, he meets Marianne, the beautiful daughter of the British consul in Labuan. An original TV show from 1976 catapulted actor Kabir Bedi to Bollywood stardom, having sold to more than 85 countries around the world.

Bernabei drew comparisons with smash FX series Shōgunwhich is also based on an original novel and was made into a famous TV show four years after Sandokan. “There are similarities in the sense of the curiosity,” he added. “You will see a world of pirates taking place in Borneo, a faraway piece of land when the English were ruling the world.”

But he pointed to one crucial difference. “Sandokan is to make the adults become kids again,” he added. “Shōgun is really serious. You have to concentrate.”

‘Coastal’

Coastalwhich is one of Fremantle’s key MIPCOM titles and featured in Deadline’s The Hot Ones, is another show born out of a very modern financing model.

The series starring Williams as a half-Italian former U.S. Marine who returns to Italy as a fixer in one of the world’s most luxurious hotels will launch on Prime Video in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal but the rest of the world is up for grabs and Fremantle is selling.

“Amazon Italy told us there was not enough money [to take worldwide rights] and that was interesting because it shows when the production really wants to do something you can find a way of doing it,” said Bernabei.

Ironically, as the show has neared greenlight, the procedural-style series with “light, fun” elements is proving to be what the market needs. Buyers have identified procedurals as very much back in vogue and Warner Bros. TV boss Channing Dungey said yesterday there is no longer a “disdain” surrounding the genre.

Lux Vide has been making procedurals for years and Bernabei said “this is a moment to go back to making TV in this way because [the market] can’t afford anymore to make limited series.”

He said there was previously a “dangerous” attitude to watching shows that saw audiences only keen to watch one or two seasons and this was reflected by actors who “only liked to make [a maximum of] three seasons,” which he described as a “pity.”

But now he said audiences are on board the procedural train, pointing to a repeat of an old episode of Lux Vide’s Rai procedural Don Matteo, which aired recently to a 28% share and 5 million viewers. Lux Vide, which Fremantle bought two years ago, can sell older Italian procedurals around the world to help fund adventurous offerings like Sandokan, according to Bernabei.

Upcoming, Bernabei teased a Netflix Italy series Lux Vide is working on that focuses on “crime in a beautiful place,” in a similar vein to Coastal.

“This moment is a moment of fear,” he added of the market more broadly. “But I believe it’s the moment to be contrary and dream of the future. You invest in the future because I’m sure it will be tough out there but we should be prepared because it’s going to finish [being tough].”