EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is on the verge of greenlighting French and German versions of reality format Surviving Paradise from Squid Game: The Challenge producer Studio Lambert and Raw TV, as it steps up its strategy in the premium unscripted space.
Nothing is signed but Deadline understands a deal is relatively close. If greenlit, the two versions would be filmed in their respective languages and Netflix would take a similar approach to The Circle, with Studio Lambert and Raw producing the different versions from a central hub.
In Surviving Paradise, 12 players believe they’re about to live it up for a summer at a beautiful villa. However, when they arrive, some remain in the villa while others are condemned to camping in the wilderness, and they all compete to enter the villa and win a $100,000 cash prize. The show has shades of Studio Lambert’s Channel 4 format Rise & Fall, in which contestants are separated between luxury and poor conditions at the top and bottom of a tower block.
Surviving Paradise may not have been handed the marketing might of Squid Game: The Challenge but it entered the Netflix global top 10 list in several countries when it launched in late October.
An English-language recommission could also be on the cards but in the meantime a deal is close to being struck for the French and German versions, Deadline has been told.
Studio Lambert has experience producing several versions of The Circle for Netflix from a central hub. The All3Media-backed indie was initially making The Circle for Channel 4 in the UK before Netflix greenlit versions in the U.S., Brazil and France. The latter two have since been canceled but the former is one of Netflix’s longest running reality formats, with filming recently moving from the UK to Atlanta.
Studio Lambert co-produces Surviving Paradise with Raw TV, which has made a number of hit Netflix docs including The Tinder Swindler and Don’t F**k with Cats.
Studio Lambert’s Squid Game: The Challenge competition format, which is co-produced with The Garden, is currently sitting in Netflix’s top 10 in nearly 100 countries, and it has topped the U.S. list for the past fortnight.
Netflix declined to comment on Surviving Paradise.