MIPTV: Germany’s Beta, Spain’s Telefonica Team Up for Spanish High-End Series

German production group Beta Film has teamed up with Spanish Telecom giant Telefonica and its premium pay channel Movistar+ to finance and produce high-end Spanish-language television series. 

The deal, announced at MIPTV Monday, will launch with a pair of dramas.

Velvet Collections is a spinoff of the successful period drama Velvet set in the fashion scene of 1950s Spain. The new series will focus on the next generation of fashion designers in the Marquez clan, who open a glamorous shopping mall in Barcelona. Velvet, produced by Spain’s Bambu, is one of the most successful Spanish-language series of all time, having sold to more than 100 territories. Lionsgate is planning a U.S. remake of the show. Telefonica and Beta are planning a 10-episode first season order of Velvet Collections.

The Zone is a thriller that plays out in a small town in Northern Spain that has been hit by a Fukushima-like nuclear disaster. The townspeople are shaken by reports of a series of brutal killings in the no-go area around the disaster Written, directed and produced by Jorge and Alberto Sanchez-Cabezudo, the eight-hour series follows Inspector Hector Uria, the only survivor among the first responders to the meltdown at a nearby nuclear power plant. He is drawn in to the investigation of the killings, which show signs of cannibalism. The production is set to deliver at the end of the year.

Beta, which will be handling world sales on both series, plans to present them to buyers at the MIPCOM television market in Cannes this fall.