Margot Robbie's 'Neighbours' Episodes Recut as Vertical Microdrama

RoseBerry Media is recut­ting the Australian soap "Neighbours" into short-form vertical video for its epis platform — and it is starting with episodes starring Margot Robbie.

Robbie played Donna Freedman on the series from 2008 to 2011, before her rise to global film stardom. For the "Neighbours" microdrama launch, two storylines featuring Robbie's Donna will be edited down into vertical micro-episodes totaling around 150 minutes of content.

RoseBerry will carry out the transformation using RedSnapper, its proprietary production workflow that applies AI to convert TV and film libraries into vertical series. The company announced the vertical edits of "Neighbours" on Monday together with series producer Fremantle.

"Neighbours" offers no shortage of material. The Australian soap premiered in 1985 and ended in 2025, running to roughly 9,363 episodes. Its alumni include Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Jesse Spencer, alongside Robbie.

"'Neighbours' is an iconic piece of television history and exactly the kind of premium entertainment IP we believe can thrive in the vertical format," Guy Hameiri, co-founder and CEO of RoseBerry Media, said in a statement. "This is the first time we've had the opportunity to apply RedSnapper to a long-running soap with such a rich library of characters, storylines and cultural moments, and Fremantle has been a fantastic partner in helping bring that vision to life."

Fremantle's commercial and international CEO Jens Richter framed the deal as a test case for archive economics. "'Neighbours' has an extraordinary legacy, with decades of memorable characters, stories and talent," Richter said in a statement. "Working with RoseBerry allows us to explore incredible archive in an entirely new way, bringing much-loved IP to new audiences while demonstrating how established television libraries can continue to evolve, find new relevance and importantly create new commercial opportunities. It's an exciting example of how technology and creative thinking can unlock new value from our diverse catalog and content library."

RoseBerry already holds deals to adapt IP for mobile and other platforms with Banijay Rights, All3Media International, A+E Global Media and Cineflix Rights, in addition to Fremantle. Hameiri said the "Neighbours" agreement marks only the start of reimagining existing programming for different distribution.

"For RoseBerry, this is a powerful proof point for the infrastructure we are building to support the future of premium vertical television," Hameiri said. "We believe premium vertical television will become a significant new entertainment category, and partnerships like this demonstrate how iconic IP can find new audiences, new relevance and new value in that future ecosystem."

The deal points to a shift within the fast-growing vertical video and microseries category. Attention so far has concentrated on original, low-budget content made for the format, but a secondary market has emerged for pre-existing fare edited into micro-sized bites. Snips, another player in the space, holds a deal with Banijay Rights and BIG Media to adapt some of their series and films into minute-long episodes.

If Robbie's Donna Freedman storylines find audiences in vertical form, RoseBerry's RedSnapper pipeline has 9,000-plus episodes of Ramsey Street history — and Fremantle's broader catalog — left to mine.