The Stockholm agency Eccho Rights has received offers from many broadcasters for the rights of air a hit the comedy series which featured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was previously an actor.
“It was very, very busy. All around the world, people Asked for rights because they want for broadcast explained Eccho Rights co-founder Nicola Soderlund. in the elegant offices of the agency in the Swedish capital.
Since start of Russia invasion of Ukraine, broadcasters such as Britain’s Channel 4, Greece’s ANT1 and Romania’s PRO TV rushed to join those who to have already broken up the rights of “Servant of the people”, who first broadcast in Ukraine in 2015.
“I think last week we made maybe 15 offers, and we’re in negotiations with another 20 countries”, said Soderlund, a poster advertising the series suspended above son bureau.
“The latest we have heard of is Latin America, we are discussing with the United States, Netflix, we discuss with numerous.”
In Italy alone, three or four broadcasters are currently competetion for rights, while in Greece, the show airs every night on prime time.
“In a way it’s an act of solidarity with the Ukrainians, and at the same time, of curiosity – you want to have who he is,” Soderlund said of Zelensky.
The stature of the president has soared on the international stadium from start of the invasion awesome the world with his fearless determination in the face of the Russian assault.
Soderlund first met Zelenskyy 10 years ago, when the Ukrainian was developing a game show called “Crack Them Up” in what ordinary people trying to make comedians laugh, a concept later sold in Vietnam, China and Finland.
“I went to lunch with him in Kyiv”, Soderlund recalled. “He had all these crazy, fun ideas.”
Tie rod out son telephone, he shows selfies of himself posing with Zelensky at the Cannes cinema market in 2016 – organized alongside the famous film festival – where producers, distributors and buyers make business.
‘I needed a hero like him’
At the time, it was unimaginable that this “very funny comedian, very popular and loved by the public” go on become Russian President Vladimir Putin main target and “this world chief who embodies and speaks for the whole nation.”
“We needed a hero like him, after (former US President Donald) Trump and all that,” manages Eccho Rights director Fredrik af Malmborg intervenes.
With “Servant of the People”, the life imitated art.
In the series that ran for three seasons, Zelenskyy played a high school teacher propelled to the presidency after a studentvideo of denouncing corruption in Ukraine has gone viral.
the show is success propelled Zelensky to the presidency in real the life.
“He always said, ‘In the United States, actors have become presidents. for for a long time,” Malmborg recalls.
Although the company had no contact with Zelenskyy himself recently, Eccho has been in contact with some of its representatives.
“One fled to Turkey and the other is in Rotterdam, but they are in contact with ‘Vova’, as they still have it call him,” Malmborg said.
The details of the rights contracts being negotiated are confidential, but the rights cost “about a million euros”.
Eccho Rights also to another series produced by Zelenskyy in son catalog, “Svaty” (“In-Laws”).
The company, which employs around forty people in Stockholm, London and Istanbul, donated 50,000 euros ($55,230) to the Ukrainian Red Cross and plans make a donation more like more contracts are signed.
