Croatia lands the first local “Death in Paradise”
Fifteen years after its UK premiere, “Death in Paradise” is finally being remade for a local market. Croatian public broadcaster HRT1 has ordered “Ubojstvo u raju” (“Murder in Paradise”), the first international adaptation of the BBC One crime format. CGM Films — the production house behind Croatia’s local version of “Sram” — will produce, with principal photography set for spring 2027 on the island of Brač.
Bruno Mustić and Ivan Lovreček will produce the series, with Jelena Gavrilović directing and Sonja Tarokić and Valentina Batalić attached as writers. The drama will be set in a fictional island community, with production based around Supetar.
Why BBC Studios is pushing the format now
The original show is a distribution machine with unusually long legs. It has reached audiences in more than 230 territories and remains a BBC One mainstay: its 16th series is currently in production, with a 17th already ordered. Two spin-offs — “Beyond Paradise” and “Return to Paradise” — are already on air.
That makes a Croatian remake a low-risk way to extend an asset that may already be close to finished-tape saturation. For BBC Studios, which distributes both the finished series and the format, selling remake rights turns a proven procedural into a new revenue line without having to mount the production itself. For HRT, it buys into a familiar brand: Lovreček notes the original has been a “well-established and recognizable brand in Croatia for over a decade.”
Localization as strategy, not decoration
The producers are explicit that this is not a translation job. They want to preserve the essence of the original while rebuilding its characters, cases and setting around Adriatic island life.
That means leaning on details the British template cannot supply: the contrast between continental and coastal mentalities, the role of tourism, and the gap between how an island appears to visitors and how it works for the people who live there.
“For an hour, you’re somewhere else,” Lovreček told Variety. “On a gray winter evening, that’s pure escapism. That’s a big part of why it works all over the world.”
Three decisions worth watching
- The engine stays, the skin changes. A crime-of-the-week whodunit stays intact; the fictional island, relationships and local police team are rebuilt from Croatian material.
- Existing trust is reused. HRT’s commissioning editor for the project, Maja Fišter, frames the CGM Films relationship built on their previous “Sram” adaptation as the foundation.
- Specificity is the pitch. Mustić argues a story becomes universal only when it is specific — the fictional island gives freedom to draw on traditions from across Croatia’s thousand-plus islands.
What to watch
The test for format owners and buyers is whether the escapist warmth of the British original survives a different culture’s rebuild — and whether a strong Croatian run attracts more remake orders from other markets. The primary audience is Croatia and the wider region, but the producers say they are “absolutely hoping” the series travels. If “Ubojstvo u raju” delivers, it could become the template for the next phase of a franchise that has already pushed far into distribution and spin-offs.
Source: Variety
