ITV Studios Global Entertainment To Distribute Underbelly: Razor

ITV Studios Global Entertainment has signed a significant deal with Australia's multi-award winning producer Screentime Australia and leading commercial broadcaster Nine Network, acquiring international distribution rights to the latest instalment of its critically acclaimed drama franchise Underbelly.
The agreement will see ITV Studios Global Entertainment launch the brand new series Underbelly: Razor at MIPCOM 2011.
Affirming ITV Studios Global Entertainment's continued commitment to high-quality returning drama; the series joins the distributors' portfolio which includes Above Suspicion, Case Histories, Monroe and Vera. As part of the deal, ITV Studios Global Entertainment will have option to future episodes of the Underbelly franchise.
Maria Kyriacou, Managing Director at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, commented: "We are proud to represent this prestigious drama from Australia and the most ambitious production in the Underbelly franchise yet. Underbelly: Razor offers strong primetime content for international audiences - delivering entertaining and compelling storylines, larger-than-life characters and outstanding production values. We are extremely well-established in the marketplace as the home for first class, returning drama and expect the new Underbelly instalment to create a great buzz at MIPCOM."
Des Monaghan, Executive Chairman of Screentime, added: "We are delighted to be joining forces with ITV Studios Global Entertainment for the worldwide launch of Underbelly: Razor. We are confident that a distributor with the undoubted expertise and reach that ITV Studios Global Entertainment possesses will build on the extraordinary domestic success of Underbelly and further enhance its internationally successful profile."
Jo Horsburgh, Head of Drama for the Nine Network, added: "Nine is pleased and proud with the continued creative collaboration with Screentime, to bring Razor, the fourth series in the Underbelly franchise of true crime drama. Set in the mid 1920s - 1930s Razor delivers a story and character rich drama and the excellence of production that we have come to expect from Underbelly. I look forward to the audience enjoying the series on air soon."
The eagerly anticipated fourth series Underbelly: Razor, based on the best-selling book by Larry Writer, will make its international debut at MIPCOM. The series brings to life one of Sydney's most colourful eras, the 1920s - a time when Australia's notorious vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh battled for supremacy over a nefarious world built on illegal drugs, gambling, extortion and prostitution.
Starring Danielle Cormack as Kate Leigh, Chelsie Preston Crayford as Tilly Devine alongside a stellar cast that includes Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Jack Campbell, Steve Le Marquand, Felix Williamson, Khan Chittenden and newcomer Anna McGahan as delectable prostitute, Nellie Cameron, Underbelly: Razor was filmed on location in Sydney and completed production in August 2011.
(KMcA)