Slate round-up: Rai reveals virtual offerings; TVF unveils Covid-19-driven shows

Piaggio

Rai rides Piaggio onto virtual portal

Rai Com, the distribution division of Italian pubcaster Rai, has launched an array of programming via its virtual sales platform including TV movie Piaggio and crime series Il Commissario Ricciardi.

Virtual screenings of the new lineup, which had been scheduled to be rolled out at MIPTV, are currently available to international buyers via the site, which enables buyers to preview new content across genres.

Shows on offer include Naples-set crime detective series Commissario Ricciardi (Il Commissario Ricciardi, 6 x 100-minutes), based on the international bestsellers of Maurizio De Giovanni, and noir drama The Alligator (8 x 50-minutes), which follows a former prisoner obsessed by justice.

Elsewhere, two new 100-minute shows from the Detective Montalbano series are available – Safety Net and Beloved Salvo, My Livia – while the second season of period drama Escape From Mafia is also available, this time taking viewers through the story of the Rizzo family during the Great Depression in the US.

Rai Com’s feature films line-up includes Volare from director Gabriele Salvatores, Ordinary Happiness by Daniele Luccetti, and Piaggio, which tells the story of one the best known icons of Italian design, the Vespa motorcycle.

Factual shows include docuseries Unfiltered, exploring topics such as the environment, sustainability and criminality, and Narcotica, about drug trafficking between Italy and South America.

TVF International reveals new slate

UK-based independent factual distributor TVF International has unveiled more than 300 hours of new
content on its ‘(Not)MIPTV’ slate.

Leading the catalogue are five documentaries exploring different aspects of Covid-19 and its impact, including two recent Channel 4 commissions from Britespark Films: What’s It Like To Catch Coronavirus? and Coronavirus: How The World Is Changing.

There is also Mediacorp International’s Coronavirus: The Silent Killer (1 x 48), Coronavirus: Race Against The Pandemic and Stronger: The Battle Against Covid-19. Each explores the pandemic from a different angle, including the effectiveness of responses across the world to the science behind the virus as told by front line health officials.

Away from the pandemic, TVF’s Mediacorp offerings also include Undercover Asia, which reveals new stories of crime, violence and injustice, while science programmes range from China’s Science Revolution to Death Of A Planet, which reveals international scientists new strategies to search for clues to Venus’ past.

Will Stapley, TVF International’s head of acquisitions, said: “TVF’s slate of specialist factual content showcases the world’s best filmmakers and our latest offering of carefully selected documentaries will inspire, inform and entertain at a time when the world has never had a more captive audience.”