In the latest of their international television acquisitions, the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max has scooped up two female-fronted series, the BBC One drama The Trial of Christine Keeler and the Chilean Amazon Prime original The Pack, Variety reports. The Trial of Christine Keeler makes its stateside debut on December 9, as reported by Variety. The Pack comes to the platform the day before, Decider reports.
The Trial of Christine Keeler is based on a real British political sex scandal from the 1960s known as the Profumo Affair, named for War Secretary John Profumo. The Cabinet member’s relationship with nineteen year-old model Christine Keeler resulted in his resignation from Parliament, according to The Guardian. A majority of episodes are directed by Andrea Harkin (Come Home, Clique), Variety reports.
The series narrates the events from the point of view of Keeler, played by Sophie Cookson (Red Joan, Moonfleet). In an interview with The BBC Media Centre, writer Amanda Coe (Room at the Top, Black Narcissus) revealed that she achieved contact with Keeler before her passing, via her legal representative: “She’d read an early treatment about the project and its approach. What she communicated was that she didn’t want to be portrayed as a victim, which I believe we’ve honored.”
Ben Miles (The Crown, V For Vendetta), who plays Profumo in the drama, told The BBC Media Centre about how limited series has the power to thoroughly explore the affair’s far-reaching ramifications: “Every scene and every strand of this story is given its time, which is why a six-part television series is a far better format to tell this story than a 90-minute film. It is a huge story… about the media, about class, about the establishment of the time.” The Profumo Affair was first dramatized in film form via 1989’s Scandal, known for its tie-in song, the Dusty Springfield-Pet Shop Boys collaboration “Nothing Has Been Proved.”
HBO Max subscribers with an appetite for international productions can also stream the Chilean police drama The Pack in December. The series arrived on Amazon Prime in Latin America and Spain in July, as reported by Variety.
Drama Quarterly describes the show, known in its native country as La Jauría, as twist-laden investigation into gender-themed crime: “[When] a student and leader of a feminist movement vanishes during a protest… [investigators] soon discover that all the suspects belong to a chat group called ‘La Jauría,’ a front for a gruesome game that involves a teacher, a priest, a psychologist and perhaps even [the student’s] father.” Similar to The Trial of Christine Keeler, multiple episodes are helmed by a female director, in this case, Argentinian auteur Lucía Puenzo (The German Doctor, The Fish Child).
The Pack is the first Prime original to be locally produced in Chile, as reported by Women and Hollywood. According to NexTV News, the show’s distributor Fremantle is looking at an international rollout in territories such as Australia, Poland, Turkey and Indonesia.