The six-part drama series will be directed by Oscar-winner Danis Tanović
The first original HBO series from the Adria region is a go: the six-part drama Success is described as "a bitter ode to Zagreb, providing a dark glimpse into various structures of today's society", reports Večernji on February 13, 2018.
The series was created and written by Marjan Alčevski, one of the winners of HBO Adria's contest First Draft which saw 570 submissions. The writing competition was presented in 2016 at the Sarajevo Film Festival as part of the CineLink Drama program, calling for original scripts set in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. According to ScreenDaily, HBO launched the initiative with an intention to annually produce one high-end series in the Adria region, with Success now green-lit as the first project.
Success will be directed by Danis Tanović, an award-winning director, screenwriter and producer from Bosnia and Herzegovina who is best-known for his debut No Man's Land, a war drama which took away an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001. The upcoming HBO series will be his television debut.
The powerful drama is centered around three strangers bound together by an unfortunate chain of events after they attempt to help a victim of a violent crime.
"Success is a universal, layered story which through love, work, family, loyalty and crime explores the feelings of frustration, helplessness and inertia which prevail in everyday life of the common man", says the synopsis.
“For a long time I’ve been getting offers to make series which I think, at the moment, are more interesting and inventive than the movies, but none of them intrigued me so far. Marjan Alčevski’s script is amazingly written, and I’m really happy that HBO has recognized its quality and given me the opportunity to collaborate on it", said Tanović.
The producers will be Ana Balentović of HBO Adria and Johnathan Young of HBO Europe, and the series will be produced by the company Drugi Plan from Zagreb.
HBO Europe's Executive Vice President of Programming and Production Antony Root called the series a "a beautifully-written drama that scratches beneath the surface of contemporary urban life, with a gripping story that unravels layer by layer."
"We’re thrilled to have uncovered a brilliant young writer in Marjan, and to be welcoming Danis to HBO Europe for his first television series – and to our first original drama from the Adria region", said Root.
