“The Rising”: Sky Studios’ debut in-house production has entrusted a rare agency to the killed protagonist, says EP Julian Stevens

Sky Studios’ first full in-house production, Growing, combines the murder of a young woman, Neva, with numerous stories that take her beyond the grave. Its executive producer, Julian Stevens, said giving him an “agent” to continue the story allowed the drama to sensitively integrate themes of violence against women and beyond.

An eight-part series based on the Belgian drama. Beau SejourSky Max will launch on Friday (April 22) on the UK’s main channel. He follows Neva (Clara Rugard) as she gets used to her own murder and decides to seek justice using her newly acquired supernatural forces for the murder.

There has been a lot of discussion about the coverage of violence against women in British television dramas, including BBC dramas. policy Y Შ Autumn, Stevens worked on the latter. However, when Neva became “active and dynamic”, Growing “Hopefully something new will bring out the story of his murder,” Stevens told Deadline in an exclusive interview.

“We didn’t want the story to start and end with his murder, he needed an agency. For him it was a starting point to understand what was happening around him. Giving him this agency and character depth makes the story unique in the television landscape, where violent acts are often the starting point for third-party investigations. This allows you to always be in the driver’s seat “.

“At the heart of the drama is a very personal emotional story told from the perspective of our protagonist, the woman and the victim, Neva, and presents a very different take on the typical murder mystery genre,” said Serena Thompson, director. . Producer for Sky Studios. “For that reason, it was an opportunity to create a series that would resonate with our audience and perhaps even surprise it, which made it even more compelling for us storytellers.”

Informant Y Charles Executive producer Stevens added that the “rule of thumb” was for Nevi to be considered “dead but not a ghost,” giving the story a “subtle distinction that removes the thought of a transparent, disembodied character and, instead, allows us to play. with trauma “. . ” To see and feel when you have such a strong desire for justice “.

Belgian format

For Sky Studios, the series represents their first bout, full domestic production. He has co-produced top-tier programs such as london bands Y The boot First, however, he made an adaptation of Stevens to the Flemish thriller Beau Sejour His first original since acquiring the rights from Lagardere Studios Distribution (now LS Distribution, part of Mediawan’s vast French team).

Through the first deal with Sky’s drama division, then led by current Vice President of Netflix Original Series Ann Mans, independent EP Stevens was able to develop and adapt the series at the heart of Neva’s story. The original European series places more emphasis on police investigations and family histories.

“The initial terms of the development deal were that if I worked on something, it would have to go into production, I would have to merge with the production company, but Sky Drama offered us to work directly with Sky Studios,” he said. “It didn’t make sense to open it to other companies and it was the right thing to do.”

The series was delayed by Covid’s production restriction and saw original writer Charlotte Wolf backtrack after being infected in the early stages of the disease, developing the long-running Covid. მი Kimi chi Writer Pete Maktig was involved in completing the scripts, and his “strong genre skills helped us create a show driven by a dead character,” said Stevens.

Stevens is represented by Independent Talent, while Maktig is with Berlin Associates.