EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is going French and Brazilian for British reality hit The Circle.
Earlier this year, the SVOD service snapped up the international rights to Studio Lambert’s format, which was originally produced for the UK’s Channel 4, and announced it was remaking the show for the U.S. Deadline can now reveal that it is remaking the show with French and Brazilian contestants.
The series, which is essentially Big Brother-meets-Catfish for a social media-obsessed audience, is produced by All3Media’s Studio Lambert, producer of Undercover Boss and Gogglebox, and Motion Content Group, the WPP-backed programme funder. Deadline understands that Studio Lambert will use the London apartment block where it filmed the UK version for these international versions and will work with local production talent on the adaptations.
The Circle features a range of individuals from all walks of life competing in a popularity contest to win a prize of around £50,000 (US$65,000). They will all live in one modern block but separately in individual apartments, interacting with one another exclusively through a bespoke voice-activated social media platform called The Circle. In the show, the contestants will chat, make friends, argue and maybe even fall in love, while building their own profiles as well as forming cliques and private allegiances. They must avoid being judged least popular by the rest of The Circle. In the British version, contestants who have made it to the final include a man impersonating his girlfriend, a turtle-loving former real estate agent, a loud Essex call-center worker and a fashion student-turned model.
The UK version of the show is presented by My Dad Wrote A Porno co-host Alice Levine and Maya Jama, who presents MTV’s True Love Or True Lies with Danny Dyer.