A  strong showing of European presales and a solid team of international partners helped build momentum for So Long, Marianne, a limited series about the famed relationship between Canadian songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen.

The 8 x 60-minute series is a copro between Montreal’s C3 Media, Greece’s Tanweer Productions and Norway’s Letters from Leonard, with two commissioning broadcasters: Bell Media’s Crave and Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.

The project, which debuts on Crave on Friday (Sept. 27), also received support from the Rogers Fund and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Cineflix Rights is distributing the series globally.

C3 president Pablo Salzman tells Playback Daily the series budget was “just below or right around what a typical Canadian series is made for,” but the production value was “triple that, at least.”

So Long, Marianne was developed by Ingeborg Klyve (Exit) and Tony Wood (Irvine Welsh’s Crime), and written for the screen by Jo Nesbø (Harry Hole) and Øystein Karlsen (Lilyhammer), who is also a director on the project. Filming took place on location in Montreal, Norway and on the Greek Island Hydra, where Cohen (played by Alex Wolff) met his muse and girlfriend, Ihlen (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), in the 1960s.

“Being on location made it something special and gave these creatives the best tools,” says Salzman. “Bringing together a coproduction on the back end with the two commissioning broadcasters provided the creative freedom to script and shoot the series we did.”

Tanweer Productions was essential in setting up the Greek shoot and bringing that key part of the story to life, according to Salzman. He says the Canadian, Norwegian and Greek crew members all worked together to create a unique cultural blend, bolster the creativity and keep the budget in check.

“You never have as much money as you want to, but this model gave us a lot of comfort creatively,” he says. “It’s becoming important to be versatile and to look at different models. Sometimes it’s a U.S.-led project, sometimes it’s global deals right out of the gate, and sometimes it’s co-commissioning and letting a distributor sell to the rest of the world, which is what we’re doing here.”

James Durie, who leads Cineflix Right’s global strategy for sales, presales, acquisitions and coproductions as the head of scripted TV, says in the case of So Long, Marianne, presales were as crucial as the production partners. In addition to NRK and Crave, Germany’s NDR boarded early on followed by ITV in the U.K. and VRT in Belgium.

While the project may appeal to Cohen fans or those who knew Ihlen, Durie says the heart of Marianne is a universal love story between two people who were completely lost. The marketing team realized that key setup at Series Mania and the London Screenings and leaned into it, building momentum to attract other markets.

“We’ve got a few outstanding territories, but we’re pretty close and having some really detailed discussions, the U.S. being a particular market we’re looking to finish off and close, and there are a few European markets as well,” says Durie. “But on the whole, we’ve had an amazing run, a great success, and there’s been a lot of interest.”

He adds that one of the most interesting things about selling this project is that it breaks out of traditional free and pay TV pigeonholes and has appealed to private and public broadcasters alike.

So far, the project has also been sold to ARD’s FabFiction (Germany), DR (Denmark), Yle (Finland), RUV (Iceland), Cosmote TV and Star Channel (Greece) and Movies Best HD (Cyprus).

“The story appeals on both sides,” he says. “We’re announcing three more broadcasters at MIPCOM which are both pay TV and traditional free TV across Europe. It’s been one of those projects that, really, each market has looked at in a slightly different way.”

Durie says he believes the sales success of So Long, Marianne stems from having a solid show that put creativity first, but that there’s also safety in numbers. In his experience, having strong commissioning broadcasters is essential and gives perspective on what the show will be as others shop the market.

“If you’re the only person to buy something then you’re often left looking around a little bit,” he says. “But if a lot of your colleagues are joining you in thinking it’s a great show, it gives you confidence to take it to the other executives at your channel.”

When it comes to the current market, Durie says there’s no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to stitching together financing. International broadcasters have realized they need to make the budget work without relying on the U.S. and its contracting market, although the aim is to still eventually find a home in America, he adds.

“Models are becoming more varied and particular to that show,” he says. “The global streamer model is becoming fewer and fewer and so now more and more independent producers and distributors are looking to be more collaborative in the way we put together our financing.”

Photo by Nikos Nikolopoulos