MADD Entertainment, the world’s leading distributor of Turkish Drama, hosted the world premiere of the trailer for EL TURCO, Ay Yapim’ slatest premium series, at a special panel that was held at the Carlton during MIPCOM, the television industry’s premiere market.
MADD joined with Variety to discuss how new approaches to storytelling are extending Turkish Drama’s reach – particularly in the English-speaking world. Participants included Ay Yapım CEO Kerem Çatay and Can Yaman who played the title role in EL TURCO, an atypical historical drama featuring an English-speaking cast from nine different countries and an award-winning crew from across Europe and North America.
EL TURCO combines history, action-adventure, and romance in a premium package that will seem very familiar but it also brings something brand new to Western viewers: A new hero; An Ottoman Janissary.
‘We were initially going to shoot in Turkish. Going forward in English was a big decision’, said producer Kerem Çatay, who went well beyond his comfort zone as EL TURCO grew into a passion project. ‘Everything was so right once we cast Can. He was the right guy for this project and that made it perfect. After he came in, and we assembled this incredible European crew, we just went bigger during preproduction.
Yaman, who plays the title role, is a popular actor known for his romantic dramas. ‘For me, this was something entirely different’, he said. ‘For two months I was riding horses three hours a day, training so many hours a week. The conditions were challenging but the results are great’.
‘It’s funny’, Yaman added, ‘I never had a chance to work with Ay Yapim in Türkiye. Then they came to me in Italy’. Yaman had relocated there several years prior. ‘The project matched my objectives because of the international cast’, he said.
As the world’s third-largest exporter of scripted content behind the United States and UK, Türkiye has had an enormous impact on the media landscapes of Latin America, the Middle East, Central Europe and even Southeast Asia. And today Turkish producers are experimenting with super-series in different genres that may help grow their English-speaking audience. EL TURCO is a case in point. Many things set it apart from the typical Turkish drama, making for a mix of action, adventure, and romance very much in line with western tastes. Shot entirely in Hungary’s famous Korda Studios, the six-episode super series is based on the legend of La Turchia, a festival that has been celebrated for over 300 years in the Italian village of Moena. According to tradition, an Ottoman janissary wounded at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, ended up in Moena. He became a hero, leading the villagers in an uprising against the crushing taxes of their Habsburg lord. A statue of that janissary stands in the village center today.
‘Everybody wants to have EL TURCO, but we have to have the right partner for each territory’, said Ateş İnce, Managing director of Madd. ‘Right now more than a dozen countries are in discussions for this show’. İnce added that a key challenge will come from coordinating the global release, which will take place simultaneously in early 2025′.
To bring EL TURCO to life, Ay Yapim paired Yaman with award-winning actors from across Europe, including Greta Ferro (Lo E Mio Fratello), Will Kemp (Reign), Sai Bennet (Mr. Selfridge), Kieran O’Reilly (Vikings), Nigel Pilkington (The King’s Man), Veronica Ferres (Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie), Magnus Samuelsson (The Witcher), Haluk Piyes (Malazgirt 1071), Slavko Sobin (Papillon), David Nykl (Supernatural), and Madalena Aragao (Quero Destino). The series is written by Kerem Deren (Kurşun, Ezel) and Çişil Hazal Tenim (Kurşun) and helmed by veteran directorUluç Bayraktar (The Choice, Crash).
Along with a star-studded cast, producer Çatay brought together a world-class team to elevate EL TURCO beyond any other Turkish historical drama, including Emmy Award-winning production designer Domenico Sica (Rome, Moon Knight), costume designer Carlo Poggioli (The New Pope, The Mists of Avalon), digital artist Onur Can Çaylı (Sol Invictus, Game of Thrones), make-up artist Diego Prestopino (L’Ombra del Giorno, Ben Hur), hair and wig designer Desiderria Corridoni (No Time to Die, Marie Antionette), and action director Levente Lezsàk (The Last Kingdom, The Witcher).
