Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:46:50.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Remade Drama to Original Crime – HBO Europe’s Original Television Productions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2020

Kim Toft Hansen
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Kroghstraede 3, room 2-204, DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark. Email: kimtoft@hum.aau.dk
Anna Keszeg
Affiliation:
Babes-Bolyai University/Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences/Department of Communication and Public Relations, 400132Cluj-Napoca, Traian Mosoiu Street 71, Romania
Sándor Kálai
Affiliation:
University of Debrecen/Faculty of Arts/Department of Communication and Media Studies, 4032Debrecen, Egyetem Square 1, Hungary

Abstract

In this article, we examine developments in HBO’s original European productions based on a quantitative overview of production from 2007 to early 2020. We supplement this overview with an analysis of the generic changes during the past decade as well as a practical producers’ approach to remakes. The intention is not to analyse the specific series’ content; rather, we scrutinize genre, talent and remakes through the perspective of the HBO brand and the creatives behind the series. The main empirical material for this article is interviews with key informants and an exploitation of online resources. Altogether, this establishes both a historical overview of the productions and an up-to-date idea of how the transnational institution considers its own local endeavours.

Type
Focus: Crime Fiction as a Mirror of Europe’s Changing Identities
Copyright
© 2020 Academia Europaea

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Auster, A (2005) HBO’s approach to generic transformation. In Edgerton, GR and Rose, BG (eds), Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, pp. 226247.Google Scholar
Batori, A (2018) The birth of the post-socialist Eastern European televisual collectivehood: crime and patriarchy in Shadows [Umbre, 2014-]. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 17, 3748, http://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i17.268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briel, R (2019) Former HBO Europe producer Gabor Krigler launches Joyrider. Broadband News, 9 September 2020. Available at: www.broadbandtvnews.com/2019/09/09/former-hbo-europe-producer-gabor-krigler-launches-joyrider/ (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Chalaby, JK (2016) The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
David, A (2019) Skype-interview with Alina David, 9 November 2019, conducted by Anna Keszeg.Google Scholar
DeFino, DJ (2014) The HBO Effect. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Dobrescu, C and Eichel, R (2020) Transylvanian location aesthetics and policies: case studies Valea Mutã and Hackerville . In Bengesser, C, Hansen, KT and Gemzøe, LS (eds), Location Marketing and Cultural Tourism. Available at: www.detect-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/COMPLETE_d4.1_final2.pdf (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Edgerton, GR (2008) Introduction: a brief history of HBO. In Edgerton, GR and Jones, JP (eds), The Essential HBO Reader. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, pp. 120.Google Scholar
Grece, C (2017) Trends in the EU SVOD Market. Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/trends-in-the-eu-svod-market-nov-2017/16807899ab (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Hansen, KT (2020) From Nordic Noir to Euro Noir: Nordic Noir influencing European SVoD serial drama. In Badley, L, Nestingen, A and Seppälä, J (eds), Nordic Noir, Adaptation, Appropriation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Imre, A (2018) HBO’s e-EU-topia. Media Industries Journal 5(2), 4968, http://doi.org/10.3998/mij.15031809.0005.204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imre, A (2019) Streaming freedom in illiberal Eastern Europe. Critical Studies on Television: The International Journal of Television Studies 14(2), 170186, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1749602019837775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klacsán, Cs (2016) Itt a könyv van mindenekelőtt – Aranyélet 2. évad – Krigler Gábor kreatív producer és Tasnádi István író. Filmkultúra: A Nemzeti Filmintézet magazinja, 10 October 2016. Available at https://filmkultura.hu/?q=cikkek/arcok/HBO-Tasnadi-Krigler (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Krigler, G (2016) Miattam volt csuklyás gyilkos a Barátok köztben. Kultrovat Podcast, 12 March 2016. Available at: https://index.hu/kultur/media/2016/12/03/krigler_gabor_kultrovat_hbo_podcast_interju/ (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Krigler, G (2019) Interview New Europe Market (NEM), 15 January 2019. Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlT_2WhiTa8 (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Lotz, AD (2017) Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television. Ann Arbor: Maize Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, S (2018) Interview New Europe Market (NEM), 10 July 2018. Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaY1hIVh9X8 (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Matthews, S (2019) Skype-interview with Steve Matthews. 12 September 2019, conducted by Kim Toft Hansen.Google Scholar
McDonald, K and Smith-Rowsey, D (eds) (2016) The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Nestingen, A (2008) Crime and Fantasy in Scandinavia: Fiction, Film, and Social Change. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press and Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.Google Scholar
Palmquist, H (2019) Interview with Hanne Palmquist, 11 January 2019, conducted by Kim Toft Hansen, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Pham, A (2016) HBO’s Antony Root unveils his vision for original TV drama in the Nordics. Available at: www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/hbos-antony-root-unveils-his-vision-original-tv-drama-nordics (accessed 27 February 2020).Google Scholar
Redvall, EN (2018) International co-production of Nordic television drama. The case of Ride Upon the Storm . In Hammett-Jamart, J, Mitric, P and Redvall, EN (eds), European Film and Television Co-production: Policy and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 137152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szczepanik, P (2018) Breaking through the East-European ceiling: minority co-production and the new symbolic economy of small-market cinemas. In Hammett-Jamart, J, Mitric, P and Redvall, EN (eds), European Film and Television Co-production: Policy and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Závorszky, A (2019) Interview with Anna Závorszky, 5 September 2019, conducted by Anna Keszeg and Sándor Kálai, Budapest.Google Scholar