Warner Bros Int'l Announces Asian Adaptations of GOSSIP GIRL, ER & PLL

Three of the Warner Bros. Television Group's most successful long running and award-winning scripted series Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and ER have been commissioned and optioned as local versions in the Philippines, Thailand and India.

Pretty Little Liars, one of today's most successful and talked-about series among young women in the U.S. and around the world, is currently in production in the Philippines. Produced by ABC Development Corporation the 22-episode local adaptation is due to air on the fastest growing network in the Philippines, TV5, in April this year.

Produced in the US by Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television, Pretty Little Liars ranks as the number one original series of all time on ABC Family, where it's soon to start airing its fifth season this summer. It also ranks as the number one most Social series in the U.S., where it continues to break records for the number of show-related posts on Twitter.

Filled with mystery, Scandal and intrigue, Pretty Little Liars revolves around four teenage girlfriends who lost touch with one another after the mysterious death of their friend, Alison. The girls are suddenly reunited when they each begin receiving messages suggesting Alison is actually alive ... and watching them.

Meanwhile in Thailand, one of the country's leading production companies, Kantana Public Company Limited, is producing an 18-episode local adaptation of the pop-culture phenomenon Gossip Girl. The first local adaptation of the series, Gossip Girl Acapulco, aired in 2013 in Mexico and was a great success.

Following a group of affluent young elite who use their money, access and appetite to explore all the temptations urban life has to offer, Gossip Girl was a cult hit for The CW for five years. Produced by Fake Empire, Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, the series became synonymous with setting trends in the worlds of fashion, music and social media, winning a legion of devoted fans.

Finally, the mega-hit series ER is under option in India by Gold Television Network. This news comes shortly after a Colombian version of the show was announced at NATPE last month.

Originally produced in the U.S. by Constant c Productions, Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Television, the series premiered on NBC in 1994 and ran for 15 seasons in the U.S. and across the globe, with over 300 episodes produced. The most Emmy-nominated series in history, with 124 nominations, ER was honoured with more than 116 awards during its run, including 23 Emmy Awards and a prestigious Peabody Award.

"We are seeing a significant increase in the number of our scripted formats which are travelling successfully around the world and we are delighted to be able to partner with such a high calibre of production companies to bring these programmes to the screen in Asia. Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and ER are all such iconic Warner Bros. shows proved to be audience favourites in the US and we're confident about their potential to equally entertain the audiences in the Philippines, Thailand and India," commented Andrew Zein, Senior Vice President, Creative, Format Development and Sales.

Warner Bros. International Television Production

Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) aims to establish or acquire production companies in the major television territories around the world in order to become a leading producer of local scripted and non-scripted programming.

In those territories where WBITVP establishes a production base, it operates by developing and producing original programming and also producing local versions of formats owned and controlled by the group such as "The Bachelor", "Who Do You Think You Are?", "Impractical Jokers" and "Hello, Goodbye". Where WBITVP has no local production capability it licenses Warner Bros. formats to 3rd parties.

WBITVP has taken significant steps by acquiring a majority stake in both UK production group Shed Media, one of the UK's largest and most successful independent production companies which operates both in the UK and the US, and in BlazHoffski Holding B.V., a leading independent television producer in The Netherlands and Belgium.

Need more TV Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...