22/10/2024 - The eight-hour show marks the beginning of a multi-year partnership between the two content powerhouses

Discipline's showrunner and creative producer, Felipe Braga (left), and its creator, Konrad Dantas (© Beta Film)

At Cannes’ MIPCOM (21-24 October), Europe’s Beta Film and Latin America’s largest media group, Grupo Globo, announced the beginning of a multi-year partnership, set to kick off with the development of a new eight-hour crime-drama series titled Discipline.

The high-end show was created by Konrad Dantas, founder of KondZilla (a production company nominated for an International Emmy and a Latin Grammy, and the winner of three Cannes Lions), and by showrunner and creative producer Felipe Braga (the Netflix hit Sintonia, Lov3, Samantha!). Braga’s LB Entertainment and KondZilla will produce for Grupo Globo, Beta Film and newly established production boutique Janeiro Studios, led by former Beta CCO Koby Gal Raday.

In detail, Discipline dives into a business where women rarely have a voice. The series follows Maicon, a young Brazilian entrepreneur, who finds himself caught between his female-dominated family and a European crime heiress navigating her own patriarchal challenges. Their paths converge in a high-stakes collaboration across the Atlantic, centred on a precious commodity: cocaine. When Maicon is unexpectedly arrested, the dynamics of this international alliance shift dramatically, and loyalty becomes the primary currency.

Braga and Dantas lead the writers’ room, which sees the participation of Duda de Almeida (Sintonia, Lov3), Davi Kolb (Criminal Code, Verdict [+see also:
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Manuel Belmar, director of Digital Products at Globo, said: “Co-productions are a way of taking Globo’s content to the international market in a different way. We are combining our expertise with Beta Film’s in an agreement in which everybody wins, especially the public. We are looking for new partners for this project. We have already won well-known names in the audiovisual market, such as Kondzilla and LB Entertainment. We are excited about this first partnership and the development of the series.”

Christian Gockel, EVP International Operations at Beta Film, added: “Beta and Globo are excited to shift the attention to a region with a seemingly never-ending flow of new and unique stories. Discipline is the beginning of a long-lasting cooperation, and we are certain to have the right partners on board to continue Beta’s strategy and bring strong local voices to an international audience.”

Speaking about the series’ main themes, Dantas and Braga reveal: “Discipline explores a business world dominated by men through the eyes of a young man pressured between an all-female family at home and a female business partner across the Atlantic. These human conflicts, rife with cultural clashes, unfold against the backdrop of modern transcontinental cocaine trafficking.

“The series highlights the imbalance in investments in local youth, prioritising organised-crime repression over development initiatives like education. This neglect leads talented individuals, essential to Brazil's economic growth, to seek opportunities in the unregulated drug market. Consequently, violence spreads and societal issues, particularly among the youth, are exacerbated.”

Grupo Globo will hold the show’s exclusive rights in Brazil, whilst Beta Film will handle the international sales. The project will be labelled as a Globoplay Original, an exclusive production brand created to strengthen the platform’s portfolio.