Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.
This week we’re featuring Drops of God, an Apple TV+ creeper hit whose origins can be found in Japanese manga and the vineyards of France. Hailing from Franco-Vietnamese writer Quoc Dang Tran, the project involves partners from Asia, Europe and the U.S. and has been a critical smash since launch on April 21 — sitting on a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. With budgets tightening and the need for international collaboration more evident by the day, the quiet but emotionally impactful series about two people competing to be awarded a multi-million dollar wine collection could be a model for producers to follow in the future.
Name: Drops of God
Country: France/Japan
Networks/streamers: Apple TV+, France Télévisions, Hulu Japan
Producers: Les Productions Dynamic (Dynamic Television), Legendary Television in association with 22H22, Adline Entertainment
For fans of: The Queen’s Gambit, The Lunchbox
Distributor: Legendary Television
When Weekly Morning magazine first published a manga about wine back in 2004, it didn’t seem the most obvious property to become a high-end drama series nearly two decades later, but that’s exactly what happened. 神の雫 (Kami, No Shizuku), from writer Tadashi Agi and with artwork by Shu Okimoto, was an unusual story about a Japanese man who is forced to become a wine expert to win his late father’s extensive and expensive wine collection. The TV version somewhat incorporates a more international narrative but, broadly, stays true to the source material.
French actress Fleur Geffrier (Elle) stars as Camille Léger opposite Tomohisa Yamashita (The Head) in the eight-part series, with Geffrier assuming the role of the estranger child (changed to a French daughter in the series), who learns she must master and correctly identify the properties of 13 wines to assume control of her newly deceased father’s collection. Yamashita plays renowned young oenologist Issei Tomine, effectively adopted into the famous Alexandre Léger’s family in Tokyo and been given the same opportunity to win the fortune. The pair become involved in a tense duel of the senses, as Camille realizes she has exceptional abilities of taste and smell and can compete successfully with Issei’s wine expertize.
The TV concept was forged when international co-production specialist Dynamic Television (Harry Wild, Ginny & Georgia, The Sommerdahl Murders) optioned rights to the Kodansha manga after partner and series executive producer Klaus Zimmermann observed the comics were popular in both Japan and wine-loving France. He contacted an old acquaintance — Call My Agent!, Marianne and Paralleles writer Quoc Dang Tran — to explore an adaptation. (The pair had previously worked together on UK-French drama series Death in Paradise back in 2011.)
“I read the manga and thought it would be impossible, but I didn’t say ‘no’ right away,” recalls Tran. “I thought about it overnight and even though I am a wine neophyte there were things that appealed to me, like the family relationships.”
Zimmerman adds: “Looking back at my career, I’ve always taken on challenges. When people said it was impossible it raised my interest.”
Once Tran had agreed to adapt the books – a departure for a scribe mainly known for genre writing – the Paris-based writer assumed he would move the entire story to France, but he quickly realized there was a bigger international story to tell. “That’s when the trouble began,” he says, with mischievous glint in his eye. What resulted was a series set in the world of fine wine shot in French, Japanese and English, with Oded Ruskin, who has directed episodes of Amazon’s Absentia and Hulu’s No Man’s Land, attached as director. Filming took place in Japan, France and Italy.
The show has an estimated budget of around $30M. Legendary Television took international sales rights and struck a major worldwide deal with Apple TV+ for the first window, as Deadline first reported back in January. This meant co-producers France Télévisions and Hulu Japan took non-exclusive second windows, with Apple then becoming the exclusive home of the show in both countries. We understand the Apple deal covered Legendary’s deficit funding.
Tran says the challenge was making the wealthy and secretive world of fine wine both exciting and relatable, while remaining quiet and understated. “If you’ve watched [Hulu’s] The Bear, Drops of God is at the other end of the spectrum,” he says. “The contest plot helped but at the same time we had to find other plot points that were exciting enough. We knew that the scenery around it would be beautiful and elegant, but the world could be seen as elitist, so we tried to create relatable characters and say more about the human condition.
“You might come for the wine, but you stay for the characters.”
Those expecting something more akin to Sideways, Alexander Payne’s Oscar-nominated 2004 feature starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, should probably think again. Instead, Zimmermann points to narrative similarities with BAFTA-nominated Indian movie The Lunchbox from a decade ago about a young housewife connecting with an older man through notes in a lunchbox — due to the focus on placing the story’s emotional heft on the senses. “Every time a TV show or movie achieves that, it gives me goosebumps,” he says.
“Sideways is about two middle-aged men having an existential crisis, talking and drinking wine as they go through inner turmoil,” adds Tran. “We tried to do something very original — every episode is in a new setting and is a different experience. I had no reference at all when I wrote Drops of God, so it was liberating. I knew it would be very difficult to convey the senses – wine is about taste, smell and even touch and the audience doesn’t have these — but I think it worked out.”
The series launched on April 21 on Apple TV+ and has been garnering good reviews since, although Deadline could not obtain ratings data. Even one of the more middling write-ups, from the Telegraph in the UK, said the show gives off “strong notes of The Queen’s Gambit“, the Netflix series starring Anya Taylor-Joy that made the nerdy world of chess sexy and engrossing.
Europe & Asia combine
The show marks a rare Europe-Asia high-end scripted co-production — in recent years this has been limited to drama series such as the BBC and Netflix’s Giri-Haji (2019) and HBO Max and Wowow’s Tokyo Vice (2022). “You need a bridge between Europe and Asia, and the script needs a reason to exist,” says Tran. “If it’s artificial, viewers will sense it.”
For Zimmermann, Drops of God‘s success “opens up big, new opportunities,” but he warns: “At the same time it is getting harder. Everybody is looking at co-production as a financial necessity and not something that’s creatively driven.
“You get the space to work in but to fulfil the equation you need to make sure you don’t make a pudding where nobody is happy at the end. The more people who you have around the table, the more people you have to serve.”
And while European-U.S. co-pros are still tough to assemble, Zimmerman notes, more positively, that some American viewers will now watch “authentic” scripted shows in any language. “Hopefully, there is an opening up culturally, not just in the industry but also with the audience,” he says.