cineflix productions

Cineflix International confirms latest co-production slate

February 01, 2005

February, 2005: Cineflix International, the London-based international television distribution arm of Canadian production company Cineflix, has announced their latest homegrown international co-production slate, adding more quality hours to Cineflix International’s programme portfolio.

First off the block is “The Greatest Ever” an 8×1 series that pulls together the world’s greatest achievements and opens up a heated debate – which is the best, from cars to fighter planes, from motorcycles to tanks. The series is a co-production with Five in the UK and Discovery Europe and the stories are developed to reflect different eras and disparate cultures.

Paul Heaney, MD of Cineflix International commented: “less than 10% of all internationally feasible programming can get off the ground without a UK or US broadcaster on board – with all of our projects, we can also deliver alternative, flexible ways of financing as well as being able to facilitate and develop the more traditional routes.”

Next, “Crash of the Century” is a 90 min. special and a spin off from the internationally acclaimed series, Mayday, which sees Cineflix’s first cooperation together with French broadcaster, M6. Pre sales for Crash of the Century also come from Sky One in the UK, Channel 7 in Australia, TVNZ, and RTL Netherlands and Belgium.

This full-length documentary-based drama investigates the 1977 Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, collision of the Dutch KLM 747 and the taxiing Pan Am 747, where 583 people lost their lives in an intense fireball.

Finally, another production that uniquely draws together UK and international talent is the 2 hour special Ten Days to Victory which combines large-scale reconstructions with traditional documentary storytelling, evoking the climactic last moments of the Second World War. The series looks at ten extraordinary days, ten ordinary characters, ten overlapping stories – coming from all points of the compass – bearing down to the same moment: the end of the biggest war the world has ever known.

Ten Days To Victory is an original idea by 3BM Television in the UK with Italy’s major commercial broadcaster, Mediaset , Nat Geo Channels International and TVNZ.

Crash of the Century (co-production) 1×90 minute
Budget: $1. 5 million CDN
March 27, 1977 – At 2:00 in the afternoon a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. On the runway sat two fully loaded jumbo airliners, blanketed in fog. A bomb explosion at a nearby airport had re-directed air traffic to the undermanned airfield at Tenerife. Within three hours, a KLM 747 slams into a taxiing PAM 747, killing 583 people. The planes never left the ground.

Tenerife: Crash of the Century takes viewers into the cockpits and cabins of the two doomed planes and reconstructs the investigation as it sifts through the evidence.

Tenerife: Crash of the Century is Executive Produced by André Barro, President of Cineflix Productions, and Bernard Vaillot of Galaxie Presse. A Canada/France co-production, Crash of the Century is produced by Cineflix and Galaxie Presse in association with Canal D in Canada and M6 in France. The program is produced with the participation of the Government of Canada – Film or Video Production tax Credit Program and the Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit administered by SODEC.

10 Days to Victory (co-production) 1 X 100
Budget: $1. 2 million
Combining large-scale reconstructions with traditional documentary storytelling, Ten Days to Victory evokes the climactic last moments of the Second World War.

The program interweaves the stories of ten very different people caught up in the liberation of Europe from the grip of Nazi terror. Their diaries, letters and interviews provide a unique insight into the dramatic events of some of the most gripping and terrifying days in history. For these individuals, as for millions of others, the German surrender on 8th May 1945 marks the end of everything that has consumed their lives for five long years.

10 Days to Victory is executive produced by André Barro, Stephen Hunter, Dan Korn and Marion Milne. Leon G. Arcand is Supervising Producer. A Canada-United Kingdom co-production, 10 Days to Victory is produced by Cineflix and 3BM Television in association with National Geographic Channel, National Geographic International, Italy’s Mediaset, ABC Australia and History Television, with the financial participation of The Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit administered by SODEC, the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit, and the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry License Fee Program.

The Greatest Ever 8 X 1 hour:
Budget: $3 million CDN
A fast-paced, head-spinning, informative and irreverent approach to the marvels of modern technology. It’s a top ten countdown. What is the best sports car of all time? The top fighter jet? The greatest tank? The hottest chopper? Each episode features handpicked advocates who spark the debate and defend their favorites. These passionate obsessives join stunt men, eccentric collectors, even members of the Hell’s Angels in determining #10 – #1. You may not agree, but you’ll be grabbed and not let go as our picks are put through their paces in front of our cameras. By the end, you’ll laugh, you’ll ooh and ahh, but mostly . . . your head will spin.

The series is co-produced by Cineflix with Greatest Ever Productions Ltd. UK, and Next Film, in association with Channel Five in the UK, Discovery Canada and Discovery Europe, and with the participation of the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, The Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit Administered by SODEC and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, as well as other international financiers. Cineflix Executive Producer is Andre Barro.