BossaNova Media, the content creation, funding and distribution company has announced the launch of its latest ‘Original’ series, The Flight Attendant Murders. It has also revealed that Getty Images, the largest privately‑owned archive in the world, will be the first sponsorship partner to help deliver new plans for a separate in-person only strategy for its popular Development Day programme.

The Flight Attendant Murders is a 4x60 documentary series produced by award-winning Flicker Productions which explores the murders of four flight attendants in the 1970’s and 1980’s in Texas. The pitch for The Flight Attendant Murders was one of the winning offerings in terms of buyer feedback at BossaNova’s Development Day in January last year, with the series now rolling into production with pre-sales partners poised to sign up to the project.

Over four episodes Flicker unpicks the story, reassessing the evidence available and tracing the timeline of each case to ask if the cases are individual crimes or could potentially tie together. All four women worked for the same airline and their murders bear striking similarities. While one man, Jon Reed, is in prison, found guilty of the first murder, three of the other murders took place while he was in prison. The show explores what it is like for the victim’s families to exist in limbo for decades and asks whether present day DNA techniques and modern policing can finally provide a definitive answer as to what really happened to each of the women?  The show is executive produced for Flicker Productions by Colleen Flynn and Charlotte Nicholls and Paul Heaney for BossaNova Media. Director of Photography is Duncan Stingemore and series producer is Karen Hoy. The series is also produced and directed by award-winning Jasleen Kaur Sethi.

BossaNova will now split future Development Days into separate strands to accommodate both live and virtual events to better serve domestic and international buyer’s needs. The first of these new live events will be held in Central London on October 12th 2023 where Getty Images will partner with BossaNova for the first time, sponsoring the event and selecting projects that have clear potential to be archive led.

Simon Wood, senior sales director at Getty Images said: ‘“With an unparalleled archive and deep expertise in how archival content can support producers in making compelling, cost-efficient programming, we are well positioned for creative partnership - from the idea stage through to production. Having supplied a range of content to various Bossanova Originals over the past few years, we are excited to take a more creative, developmental role in helping generate the next raft of Bossanova Originals as part of its Development Days initiative. We can’t wait to get started!”

Claire Runham, who recently joined the company as its new head of acquisitions said: ‘The Flight Attendant Murders’ is another excellent example of our precise curating on what buyers tell us they want to be pitched and then using this data to get these shows into production. The new Development Days are evolving each time and we hope to provide buyers on their way to MipCom with the perfect pitch.’

In further news, two of BossaNova’s most prolific shows currently on air have been reported as ratings hits. Border Force USA: The Bridges renamed for Discovery US as Contraband: Seized At The Border is delighting primetime audiences in the US. Another Development Day success, historical travelogue Ancient Egypt by Train (4 x 60 mins) with Professor Alice Roberts produced by Spark Media has also been a consistent ratings success on Channel 4 in the UK.