Keshet Int’l back first project from former Viacom UK exec Jill Offman

Leonard Cohen

Israel’s Keshet 12 and global distributor Keshet International (KI) have partnered with Jill Offman’s Sixty-Six Media to co-produce a drama based on Matti Friedman’s book exploring Leonard Cohen’s 1973 concert tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War.

Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen In The Sinai tells the little told story of how Cohen travelled to the conflict, when both Israel and the singer-songwriter were in crisis. He subsequently released the acclaimed album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony.

Jill Offman

The show, which will be known as Who By Fire, is set to be shot in Israel in 2024 and is being written by Yehonatan Indursky (Shtisel) and executive produced by former Viacom International Studios exec Offman.

KI’s Atar Dekel and Keshet Broadcasting’s Yuval Horowitz are also attached, with Keshet 12 on board as local broadcast partner in Israel.

KI and Sixty-Six Media, which was set up by former Viacom International Studios UK boss Offman in 2020, are now seeking international broadcast partners.

Offman said: “As a life-long Leonard Cohen fan, I loved Matti Friedman’s brilliant book from the moment I read it.

“With Yehonatan at the helm and with my partners at Keshet, I am very much looking to bringing this his extraordinary story to the screen. I set up Sixty-Six Media looking for undiscovered international stories with universal resonance and it’s an honor to have this as our first project.”

The project is the latest co-production for KI, which is also working on eight-part Rough Diamonds for Netflix and VRT in Belgium, and fellow crime drama Unite 8200 (fka A Long Night in Paris), which has Elephant in France attached.