“Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC Group has boosted its drama slate with the acquisition of two Turkish dramas, including one based on The Count of Monte Cristo.
Crime drama Ezel, based on Alexander Dumas’ novel, follows the story of a man who seeks revenge when he is betrayed by his best friend and his girlfriend after a casino robbery goes wrong.
The series, produced by Ay Yapim, first aired in Turkey on Show TV in 2009 before transferring to ATV.
The second pick-up is Zaman Ki, a drama set in the 1960s that focuses on the fictional Akarsu family, which is torn apart when the father, a seaman, has an affair while abroad on a fishing trip.
It was an original Kanal D series produced by D Productions.
Both series, dubbed into Arabic, will launch on female-skewing MBC4 next month.
The channel also airs primetime US shows including Pretty Little Liars, Grey’s Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries, The Good Wife and medical talk series The Dr Oz Show, alongside other Turkish dramas and soaps. It is also preparing the launch the third season of Arabs Got Talent.”
Turkey’s popular television show stars Beren Saat and Kenan İmirzalıoğlu have been nominated for “Best Female Actress” and “Best Male Actor”, respectively, for the 2012 Seoul International Drama Awards, the largest television drama festival in Asia .
The popularity of Turkish television series abroad has most recently been made evident through nominations for best male and female actors as well as best television series in this year’s Seoul International Drama Awards in South Korea.
Beren Saat has been nominated as best actress for her role in “Fatmagül’ün Suçu Ne?” (What is Fatmagul’s fault?), while Kenan İmirzalıoğlu competes for Best Male Actor for his role in “Ezel.” The popular Turkish drama “Ezel” will also be competing against Colombia’s “Broken Promises”, South Korea’s “Deep Rooted Tree”, “The Princess’ Man” and “Moon Embracing The Sun”, Spain’s “Gran Reserva – Vintage”, China’s “Home of People’s Hearts” and the United States series “The Firm” for “Best Television Drama.”
The festival’s final will be held on August 30th at the Korean National Theater.
The 30-episode controversial series that cost tens of millions of dollars is watched on satellite television across the Arab world.. Source : Hürriyet
“A television drama about the life of a seventh century Muslim ruler, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, is polarizing opinion across the Arab world by challenging a widespread belief that actors should not depict Islam’s central figures.
Conservative clerics denounce the series, which is running during the region’s busiest drama season, the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Scholars see an undesirable trend in television programming; the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates has publicly refused to watch it.
But at dinner tables and on social media around the region, “Omar” is winning praise among many Muslim viewers, who admire it for tackling an important period in Islam’s history. Some think it carries lessons for the Arab world, which is grappling with political change unleashed by last year’s uprisings.
Four caliphs
Mostly filmed in Morocco, the show was funded by the Dubai-based but Saudi-owned MBC Group, a private media conglomerate, and state-owned Qatar TV. The 30-episode series, which an MBC spokesman said cost “tens of millions of dollars” to make, is being watched on satellite television across the Arab world.
It has been praised for its elaborate sets and costumes, visual effects and battle scenes which involve elephants and hundreds of extras. But for many viewers, the production values have been outweighed by the fact that actors in the series play Omar and three other close companions of the Prophet Mohammad who were the first rulers of an empire that expanded out of the Arabian Peninsula. Historically, Muslim scholars have discouraged the depiction of revered figures in art, and some argue it is expressly forbidden, on the grounds it could be misleading or encourage idolatry. This is why mosques are adorned with elaborate plant and geometric patterns instead of human and animal images.”
There is a supply-and-demand problem in the Turkish television series industry, Tarık Pabuççuoğlu, a veteran Turkish television and cinema actor, says. Source : Hürriyet
There is a supply-and-demand problem in the Turkish television series industry, Tarık Pabuççuoğlu, a veteran Turkish television and cinema actor, has said.
Pabuççuoğlu, who is currently playing a role in a Turkish TV series, criticized the workings of the sector while speaking to Anatolia news agency.
“I am worried about the cultural erosion that Turkey faces today. It is very important to attract audiences to the theater, but no one is interested in it,” Pabuççoğlu said. “[TV series] feed of commercial advertisements and this makes it a commercial situation.”
Each season, 120 TV series hit Turkish television screens, Pabuççuoğlu said. “Each [production] team consists of 50 people, but only a few of these series can survive and continue through the season. When TV series are canceled then people become unemployed.”
This is a question of supply and demand, Pabuççuoğlu said. The imbalance of supply and demand affects everything in the industry, he said, and added that this also drives the cultural erosion Turkey faces.
Meanwhile, fully 78 percent of poll respondents in the Arab world and Iran report that they have watched Turkish soap operas.
Demand is high in Arab countries
“[Turkish] TV programs have taken the region by storm, with Turkish TV stars becoming pop idols,” a report from Paul Salem titled “Turkey’s image in the Arab World,” said. These soap operas have the effect of “creating attachment, understanding and affection for Turkish identity, culture, and values” in the region, the report said. “Like Egyptian TV and cinema creating a prominent cultural place for Egypt in previous decades, Turkish television has made similar inroads in Arab [and Iranian] popular culture,” the report said, adding that this has been complemented by a wave of tourism to Turkey that is bringing Arabs and Iranians from various classes and walks of life to the country, which has become the most popular tourist destination in the region.
“Turkish actress Cansu Dere is the most recent addition to the cast of the hit Turkish TV show “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” (The Magnificent Century), as the new season approaches.
Dere will be playing an Iranian woman named Firuze, who steals Sultan Süleyman’s heart in upcoming episodes of the show.
The next season will focus heavily on the power play between Leyla and Hürrem Sultan, played by Meryem Uzerli, and their fight for the love of Sultan Süleyman.”
“Broadcasters in the Middle East and the Balkans have acquired Turkish drama Kuzey Guney from broadcaster Kanal D.
The soap, created and written by Ece Yörenç and Melek Gençoglu and produced by prodco Ay Yapim, has been acquired by UAE-based regional satcaster Dubai TV and RTV Pink in Serbia. An Iranian distributor has also bagged the show.
The 40×90′ series, which debuted in Turkey last September, follows two brothers who love the same woman. Dogan Media-owned Kanal D’s sales division describes the show as Turkey’s “most popular TV series of this year.”
Another Serbian channel, Prva TV, has also acquired drama Leaf Cast (174×90′), while a French distributor picked up Turkan for French-speaking markets. A distributor in Kazakhstan also bought drama series A Night in June.
The deals continue the recent upswing in demand for Turkish drama around Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In the US, NBC recently acquired the format to Forbidden Love for its Hispanic channel Telemundo.
Kanal D has also unveiled its next big drama for the international market, Kotu Yol, which tells the story of a girl who runs away to be a movie star and find herself in the middle of a love triangle. It debut in Turkey last week.”
