iflix’s latest slate features powerful women, epic romance and horror, all with roots in well-known Malaysian and Indonesian properties but with a twist of their own. The streaming platform’s global director of original programming, Mark Francis, says data from earlier commissions means he doesn’t have to politicise decisions on new originals.

iflix’s original production initiatives have wound a steady path through the streaming platform’s often-gyrating corporate landscape, starting with low-hanging fruit (adaptations of well-known IP such as KL Gangster), reaching for the stars (securing politician Anwar Ibrahim as a guest on talk show Hot Ones), and documentary (Bangkit: 11 Days That Changed a Nation about Malaysia’s 2018 election), and, in September, KL Gangster Underworld spinoff telemovie, Rise to Power.

“Our first set of shows was planting a flag. Now we have proof of concept and we are creating the content buckets and narrowing down the genres we want to build,” says global director of original programming, Mark Francis.

What does that look like? Epic romance (Ombak Rindu) as well as iflix’s first foray into horror, a genre typically restricted and censored on mainstream TV. Francis describes horror as a “big niche... it’s a pillar that we want to grow”. iflix’s first serialised horror title is Kisah Tanah Jawa: Merapi with Indonesia’s Rapi Films (Satan’s Slaves) and Conversations with Ghosts (working title) from Screenplay. Upcoming originals also include an eight-episode second season of KL Gangster Underworld.

But first, Rise to Power. The telemovie, which premiered on 19 September on iflix’s free tier, fills the gap between action crime series KL Gangster Underworld seasons one (August 2018) and two (2020), which goes into production in November. Dynas Mokhtar reprises her role in the film as the take-no-prisoners Madam Wong, the only woman ever to lead a Kuala Lumpur gang. The film is produced by Skop Productions (Evolusi KL Drift 2, KL Gangster) and directed by Faisal Ishak and Syafiq Yusof.

Francis greenlit the telemovie for a mix of reasons, led by the time it was going to take to reunite the ensemble cast for season two of the series. Plus he thinks telemovies are under-exploited on streaming platforms.

The pull towards more from where KL Gangster was a no-brainer. “Data means I don’t have to politicise why we’re doing something,” Francis told delegates at the ContentAsia Summit in Singapore at the end of August.

For the romance element of the new slate, iflix has partnered with Infinitus Entertainment on Ombak Rindu, a four-part miniseries adapted from Fauziah Ansari’s novels about a woman sold into prostitution by her uncle, and who later convinces her rapist to marry her to legitimise the relationship. The series comes eight years after the 2011 theatrical movie and rounds out the story of Izzah (Izara Aishah) and Hariz (Remy Ishak) “as they face near-insurmountable trials of their love when dark secrets from the past surface”. Osman Ali, who spearheaded the 2011 movie, has returned to direct the series.

Francis describes Ombak Rindu as “a deeply local story” that was equally loved and panned when it was released in 2011. That’s exactly the kind of story he’s after. “I believe with drama, you have to press where it hurts, push towards the conflict and find creative solutions,” he says.

Alongside romance, there’s horror. Six-part Blair Witch-inspired series, Kisah Tanah Jawa, with Rapi Films (Pengabdi Setan), follows Andi and Babon on an ill-fated quest to find their friend, who has gone missing on a hike up the mystical Mount Merapi. The series debuts for Halloween. Kisah Tanah Jawa is followed by Conversation with Ghosts, with teen movie star Amanda Rawles as Thalia, a girl desperate to settle into a new school but plagued by supernatural events. The series is produced by Screenplay Films.

Francis’ early quest, based on a hunch in the absence of data, was the gap between high-volume free-to-air TV and movies that OTT services could fill with premium drama series. The questions he asked: “Where is real engagement with young audiences for local storytelling? Where is that ecosystem healthiest?” The answer: “It’s healthy where you have markets like Indonesia, where half the top 20 films last year were local Indonesian films. I looked at that as a sort of steer.”

And so began the quest for series of limited length, six to eight episodes rather than 20 or 30. This meant working with movie studios and “creating budgets that allow us to go into genre storytelling. That would be the differentiation we needed, to create the impact we need, in order to draw audiences with the genres – horror, romance, action adventure, comedy – that work in Southeast Asia”.

The question and dilemma for iflix (and everyone else) is, with so much content out there, how will they stand out? “That’s why I really think about the publicity and marketability of an idea before we even commission it,” he adds. And that explains the attraction of familiar entertainment franchises, like KL Gangster, and why he has gone for Kisah Tanah Jawa with Rapi Films, which was behind Indonesia’s biggest box office horror film of all time. “Familiarity is important because I make television for the uninvested viewer. If you’re uninvested... there is a plethora of content options,” he says, adding: “We need to break through the clutter”.

No conversation about iflix these days excludes a mention of the company’s hoped-for IPO, pencilled in for end-2019. Francis can’t comment, but he does have to field production budget questions from producers.

“I’m very transparent from the top,” he says. “Our budgets are not Netflix or HBO Asia budgets, but they do make sense for local studios. Often our partnerships include licensing their movies as well as extending their IP into originals. So that’s an additional incentive, at a decent budget.”

iflix’s original programming division has not been entirely insulated from the company’s pivots. Some of the projects Francis has planned have been delayed. “Those projects just haven’t gone away,” he says, adding: They’ve just slowed down to meet our ability to afford them.”

Published in ContentAsia Issue Five 2019, 3 October 2019