Nippon & Envision get ‘CONNECTED’ in first scripted co-production

Connected

UK prodco Envision Entertainment and Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV have announced CONNECTED, a new scripted crime drama format, as the first project to result from their co-production partnership.

The two firms struck a deal last year that will see creators from both companies working together on content that will “combine their Western and Eastern sensibilities” for the global market

CONNECTED will combine both online screens and conventional single camera set- ups unfolding in a shared universe where characters from all over the world are ‘connected’ to each other through the internet using their superior online research skills to solve crimes.

The international sleuths form an exclusive online community known as Homebound Detectives, working primarily from their homes, whether it is in London, Seoul or Berlin, with their own problems, stories and mysteries to tackle.

The series has been specifically designed to expand to a number of localized versions, featuring diverse characters from different countries, while all belonging to the same shared online universe.

Double Booking

The Japanese version of CONNECTED will air in Japan on Nippon TV in April 2022 and features a twenty-something year old Homebound Detective in Tokyo struggling to solve a crime with the help of his international online peers

Envision Entertainment and Nippon TV are simultaneously in advanced development for a UK version of CONNECTED which is set in the same shared universe.

First teased last year, the series is based on Nippon TV’s Double Booking, which it produced and broadcast in 2020, with the series taking place largely online. It told the story of a man who booked an online date with two women at the same time – and faced some unexpected consequences.

Sayako Aoki, business producer, international business development, at Nippon TV, commented: “What we believe is strong about CONNECTED is its relatability you may see in young fresh heroes and their struggles, not necessarily charismatic but charming, and that in how these multilayered and globally expanding stories are told through online and offline world just like how we experience these days.”

Michael Nakan, CCO of Envision Entertainment, added: “Our unique approach to hybrid communication between characters is a million miles away from forced ‘Europudding’ co-productions and offers a genuinely seamless opportunity to tell stories with local resonance and international scale.’