upgrade productions

VOLCANO: Upgrade Partners With Iceland And Croatia For New Eco-Political Drama Thriller Series

LA-based Upgrade Productions is revving up the new original eco-political drama-thriller series, Volcano. Nebojsa Taraba and Miodrag Sila (HBO’s “Success,” Netflix’s “The Paper”) created the series based on an original idea and are shepherding for Croatia’s Drugi Plan, alongside Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“True Detective”) and Hörður Rúnarsson (“Black Sands”) for Iceland’s newly launched ACT 4, and with Upgrade exec producing. Volcano chronicles the tensions that arise between vastly different societies forced to live together and co-exist in the aftermath of a crushing volcanic eruption that devastates Iceland, ensuing a UN directive to relocate the surviving residents to Croatia. The eight-part hourlong series is being adapted for the screen by Rúnarsson and co-scribe Mateja Božičević (Amazon Prime’s “Carnival Row”), with dialogue to be mixed-language, toggling between English, Icelandic, Croatian. Plans are to film the series in Iceland and Croatia as early as next year. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with ACT 4 […]

ULTERIOR Taps ‘Money Heist’ Star Alba Flores To Head Up New Sci-Fi Thriller Series

Lee B. Golden III

Actress Alba Flores is set to star in new sci-fi thriller series, Ulterior. L.A.-based Upgrade Productions is partnering with Spain’s Morena Films, with Flores rejoined by Alex Rodrigo who is creating the series alongside Manuel Burque, and with Flores exec producing alongside Morena’s Pedro Uriol (Disney+’s “The Invisible Girl,” Paramount+’s “The Invisible Ladies,” Netflix’s “Below Zero”). The eight-part Spanish-language series reads as follows: “In a society with an increasingly low tolerance for suffering, Hevǝn is a company that offers its customers the opportunity to virtually connect to a simulation of their own lives where they can erase every painful memory, leaving only happiness. But when Ada, a successful singer and influencer, wakes up in a life that she does not recognize, she must play along in order to return to her real life, a life that she isn’t sure actually exists. Now, with the help of a mysterious stranger, she […]

A TRUE NOVEL: Post-WW II Japan-Set TV Drama In The Works

Lee B. Golden III

L.A.-based Upgrade Productions is pairing up with Japanese production label Shochiku (Tora-san franchise) to produce eight-part series drama, A True Novel. Acclaimed writer Riko Sakaguchi (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Mary and the Witches Flower, After The Rain) is penning the series. Based on the best-selling Japanese novel from Minae Mizumura, which won the Yomiuri Prize for Literature in 2003, A True Novel is inspired by Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”. A sweeping narrative set in the decades after World War II in Japan and the US, this series will bring to life a love story spread over three generations as told by different characters. Shochiku’s Shuhei Akita is tapped to produce the series alongside Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier from Upgrade Productions, the label itself exec producing the series. The move marks a new one for Upgrade as it aims to produce premium local language productions for a global […]