‘High Tides’ Star Willem De Schryver Set by Banijay’s Jonnydepony for Crime Drama ‘I Was a Cop in the 80s,’ Ahead of Göteborg Pitch (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comAnnika Pham Banijay Benelux’s Belgian banner Jonnydepony has set rising star Willem De Schryver from Netflix’s YA hit show” High Tides” (“Knokke Off”) for the title role of “I Was a Cop in the 80s,” ordered by Amazon Prime Netherlands and Flemish streamer Streamz.
The period crime drama in development will be pitched by seasoned showrunner Philippe De Schepper (“Arcadia,” “Missing Persons Unit”), co-writer Bas Adriaensen and producer Helen Perquy (“Tabula Rasa”) as part of a Focus on Flanders at Göteborg’s forthcoming TV Drama Vision (Jan.
30-31). Wim Geudens is directing. Perquy said that with their new premium show, De Schepper and Adriaensen were keen to depict via a character-driven story, the world of the gendarmerie [Belgium’s former paramilitary police force] in the turbulent 1980s, when the country was shaken by criminal gangs, such as the notorious ‘Brabant Killers’.
The gendarmerie’s slack law enforcement measures against the gang behind 28 killings, prompted theories that the military-based police force might have had links to the gang. “This is not what we tell, but a coming-of age fiction story of young man who fights off the omerta world of a police department.
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