Beta Film, Grupo Globo Sign Multi-Year Production Partnership, Kicked Off With ‘Discipline’ From ‘Sintonia’ Team, Janeiro Studios
In a groundbreaking move, European powerhouse Beta Film and Grupo Globo, the biggest production force in Latin America, have inked a multi-year partnership, kicked off by development on ‘Discipline,’ from Konrad Dantas and Felipe Braga, the creative team behind “Sintonia,” Netflix’s biggest hit in Brazil.
“Discipline” marks Beta Film’s first series outside Europe, but head Jan Mojto has always been alert to new creative hubs, entering Central and Eastern Europe years before most competitors, a move now reaping rewards.
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Created by writer-director-producer Dantas, founder of KondZilla, owner of the biggest YouTube channel in Latin America, and Braga, “Discipline” will be produced by KondZilla, which has also won an International Emmy, a Latin Grammy and three Cannes Lions, and LB Entertainment, co-headed by Braga (“Lov3,” “Samantha!”), for Globo, Beta Film and Janeiro Studios, the newly established production boutique led by former Beta CCO Koby Gal Raday.
Globo has exclusive rights in Brazil; Beta Film handles international sales.
In a sign of a series meant to reverberate beyond Brazil, “Discipline,” described as a “high-end drama” by Beta Film Monday at Mipcom, “dives into a business where women rarely have a voice,” Beta said.
The series follows Maicon, a young Brazilian entrepreneur, who finds himself caught between his female-dominated family and a European crime heiress navigating her own patriarchal challenges, Beta added.
“Their paths converge in a high-stakes collaboration across the Atlantic, centered around a precious commodity: cocaine. When Maicon is unexpectedly arrested, the dynamics of this international alliance shift dramatically, and loyalty becomes the primary currency,” according to the synopsis.
“‘Discipline’ explores a business world dominated by men through the eyes of a young man pressured between an all-female family at home and a female business partner across the Atlantic. These human conflicts, rife with cultural clashes, unfold against the backdrop of modern transcontinental cocaine trafficking,” said Dantas and Braga.
“The series highlights the imbalance in investments in local youth, prioritizing organized crime repression over development initiatives like education. This neglect leads talented individuals, essential to Brazil’s economic growth, to seek opportunities in the unregulated drug market. Consequently, violence breeds and societal issues, particularly among youth, are exacerbated,” they added.
Braga and Dantas lead the writers room, which is currently working on the scripts of the eight-hour series. Longterm Braga collaborator Duda de Almeida (“Sintonia,” “Lov3″), Davi Kolb (“Criminal Code,” “Verdict”) and Tamiris Hilário (“Criminal Code”) are joining the writers’ room.
The series is set up at Globo’s streaming platform, currently making some of the best series coming out of South America, such as “The Others,” whose Season 2 is being brought onto the market at this week’s Mipcom.
A Globoplay Original, the addition of “Discipline” to the Globoplay slate will give it a street cred among younger demos. Music channel Canal Konzilla on YouTube currently has 67.4 million subscribers, making it the biggest urban music channel in the world, it proclaims.
“The production reinforces Globo’s strategy for its streaming platform Globoplay,” it said in a statement.
“Coproductions are a way of taking Globo’s content to the international market in a different way We are combining our expertise with Beta Film’s in an agreement in which everybody wins, especially the public,” said Manuel Belmar, Globo director of Digital Products. “We are looking for new partners for this project. We already have won well-known names in the audiovisual market, such as Kondzilla and LB Entertainment. We are excited about this first partnership and the development of the series,” he added.
“Beta and Globo are excited to shift the attention to a region with a seemingly never-ending flow of new and unique stories. ‘Discipline’ is the beginning of a long-lasting cooperation and we are certain to have the right partners on board to continue Beta’s strategy and bring strong local voices to an international audience,” said Christian Gockel, Beta Film executive VP, International Operations.
“We at Janeiro Studios strongly believe it’s high time for Brazilian talent and Brazilian stories to become the leading choice for international audiences,” said Gal Raday, CEO, Janeiro Studios. “With this exciting story, naturally connecting Brazilian and European strong characters, we feel we are a step further in the right direction. We are proud to partner with such talents as KondZilla and LB Entertainment, Globo and Beta on this fresh new take on the crime genre.”
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