Coming out of MIPCOM, The Fremantle Corp. is to partner with Italy’s DeAngelis Production & Distribution on two primetime series.

Also in the pipeline from the Toronto company is The Further Adventures of Black Beauty, 26 new episodes of the 1970s franchise structured as a Canadian/Australian coproduction.

Fremantle director/principal Irv Holender says the first, as-yet unnamed project is 22 episodes of a classic western set in the 1880s and 1890s, to be produced in Vancouver. DAP last year produced the miniseries Doc West, which starred Terence Hill and Paul Sorvino and featured much western gunplay and mayhem.

Holender says it will be written and produced by Canadians, with the DAP producers overseeing the production of music and effects in Europe to comply with coproduction obligations. Announcements on separate Italian and German broadcast deals are expected in early November.

The second action series, also unnamed, comprises 12 episodes and is based on a bestselling book. The titles and further details on both series are due to be released by the German and Italian networks shortly.

The Further Adventures of Black Beauty reboot will be set 15 years after the 1970s series, again based on Anna Sewell’s 19th-century novel.

Fremantle, which has no direct corporate relationship with Fremantlemedia, will coproduce the series — to be shot in Australia with partner Avoca Media Holdings for delivery in late 2010.

Los Angeles-based Holender also signalled that Fremantle, a U.S.-based TV distributor acquired by Toronto-based Kaleidoscope Entertainment in 2006, is shifting from its staple of game shows, soaps and reality series to coproducing extended dramas, typically with minimum 22-episode orders to amortize steep production costs.

The success of the CTV/CBS police drama Flashpoint has pointed the way, he adds.

‘We’re trying to get away from reality and the type of shows that have no shelf life or evergreen value. We find that not only is there a market for dramas and suspense series and thrillers, it’s a market that is needing content,’ Holender says.