Bell chimes with Opposite Worlds, Haggis drama

Canadian broadcaster Bell Media has unveiled a wide ranging slate of new shows, including a remake of Banijay International-distributed Opposite Worlds and a drama from Crash screenwriter Paul Haggis.

Bell’s conventional and speciality channels are working with producers such as Entertainment One, Shaftesbury Films and NBCUniversal-backed LARK Productions on its drama projects.

Screenwriter Haggis is working on Lords of Opium, which is billed as an “epic, one-hour historical drama series about the struggle in China for power and control of the lucrative opium trade during the late 19^th Century”.

It comes from Darius Films and Haggis will executive produce.

LARK is working on a crime-themed series called Mighty Quinns, while eOne is working on another procedural, Modified.

The broadcast company has also picked up development rights to reality format Opposite Worlds, which originated on Chile’s Canal 13 and is being remade in the US for Syfy. No producer is yet attached. Banijay International will showcase the remake along with the finished US version at NATPE.

The show sees contestant groups living on either sides of a purpose-built house, with one side tasting the comforts of a ‘Future’ world and the others facing the hardships of the ‘Past’.