Breakthrough Entertainment has inked a deal with HBO Europe for the first installment of its L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables trilogy. The film will air in 14 countries across Central Europe—including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland—on the pay-TV service.
The film revival debuted on YTV in Canada in February 2016 before heading to US pubcaster PBS a year later. Anne of Green Gables has also been sold to ITV in the UK and ARD in Germany, while debuting theatrically in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Starring actor Martin Sheen, Anne was filmed in Canada and produced by Breakthrough Entertainment in association with Corus Entertainment’s YTV and author L.M. Montgomery’s granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler. (The book was originally published in 1908 and has since sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.)
Two additional Anne of Green Gables films—Good Stars and Fire & Dew—have been greenlit by Corus and are expected to air in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Both installments have already been picked up by PBS, after the first film drew an audience of 3.2 million viewers during its November 2016 broadcast.