Beta dishing it out
Kirch unit pitches fare at annual brunch
"Programming is what counts," said Beta's head of sales, Jens Richter. "Kirch Media is insolvent, we're not."
With Kirch Media still on the block, Beta's future remains murky although its stand at the Palais des Festivals was buzzing with activity.
A takeover by Kirch Media's profitable TV unit, ProSiebenSat 1, is possible. The broadcasting group produces most of the new TV pics and series in Beta's catalog.
Beta is for the first time selling a highly political and controversial product, Peter Loefgren and Folke Ryden's "The Olive Branch & the Gun: The Yasser Arafat Story." The docu, made for Swedish web SVT, offers an objective and revealing view of the Palestinian leader.
Beta also is handling 12 pics from a deal inked with fellow German distrib Intertainment, including "The Whole Nine Yards" and "The Art of War."
"Hunt for the Hidden Relic," a mini based on Andreas Eschbach's bestselling novel "Das Jesus Video," follows the adventures of an archeologist who makes an Earth-shattering discovery near Jerusalem.
In addition to its more than two dozen TV movies, Beta is offering nine new series, including "The Scent of Money," about a child who possesses an uncanny sense of smell and becomes the pawn of a powerful perfume empire. And, recalling "Dallas" and "Dynasty," "All That Glitters" focuses on a wealthy family (in the jewelry business) plagued by envy, greed and power struggles.
