Sky 1 Orders ‘Hooten & The Lady’, Ovation TV Books ‘Will.i.am’ And ‘Royals’ – MIPCOM Briefs

As part of its continued original scripted programming drive, Sky 1 has ordered eight-part drama Hooten & The Lady from Tony Jordan’s busy Red Planet Pictures. Sky Vision is handling sales at the upcoming MIPCOM in Cannes on what’s billed as a high-octane movie-of-the-week adventure that will be showrun by Jordan (Stop! In The Name Of Love!, Dickensian, Death In Paradise) atop a writing team that includes co-creators James Payne, Sarah Phelps, Jeff Povey and Richard Zajdlic.

Michael Landes (Gold, CSI) stars as adventurer Hooten, who teams with the British Museum’s Lady Alexandra Lindo-Parker (Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Ophelia Lovibond). Together they track down fabled treasures from the past, including the lost Amazonian golden city of Z, the Buddha’s missing scroll, and the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Shooting starts next month in Rome before moving to Cape Town.

Jordan is exec producing with Simon Winstone for Red Planet and Cameron Roach for Sky.

Ovation TV has acquired U.S. rights to On The Road With Will.i.am and Reinventing The Royals from Endemol Shine International. The former is a one-hour documentary special that follows the singer and performer during his solo world tour. Produced by Update Productions, it will air October 7.

Genie Pictures’ two-part Reinventing The Royals covers the 20-year battle between Britain’s monarchy and the media. It’s set to air in January. This is the documentary on which the BBC delayed broadcast earlier this year. At the time, it was alleged the broadcaster did so under pressure from attorneys representing the Windsors. It ultimately aired in February.

London-based Woodcut Media is on track to produce documentary series Combat Trains for A+E Networks UK. The eight-part series will air later this year on A+E’s H2. Each episode will focus on a different train or line that played a crucial role in one of the major conflicts of the past 150 years including World War I, World War II, the American Civil War and Vietnam. TCB Media is distributing internationally. Broadcasters who have already acquired the series include Foxtel Australia, RMC Decouverte in France and Discovery Nordic.