Month: October 2018

Carsten Jensen’s bestselling historical saga “We, the Drowned” is being adapted for TV, and prolific director and cinematographer Mikael Salomon (“Band of Brothers”) is on board. Salomon will direct the seafaring epic, which will be produced in English by Denmark’s Marlowfilm Productions. Banijay Rights has snagged international rights to the series and will hold early-stage
0 Comments
October 13, 2018 9:34PM PT A feature documentary secretly filmed in off-shore camps in the Pacific that hold asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat will launch internationally at Mipcom. “Stop the Boats” has been acquired by indie distributor Limonero Films, which will take it out to international buyers in Cannes. The film is directed
0 Comments
Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman” will be sold to networks internationally for the first time after Lionsgate scored a rights deal that will see it launch sales of the show at Mipcom, the biggest global program-trading get-together of the year. With Netflix and Amazon retaining global rights to their originals, some of the biggest shows in the world
0 Comments
October 13, 2018 7:52PM PT “All of us at CMG are incredibly shocked and saddened to learn of the untimely passing of our colleague and friend,” EVP Greg Marella says. Joe Rainey, Vice President of Pop Promotion and Marketing at Capitol Records, passed away suddenly on Friday, at the age of 43. Capitol Music Group
0 Comments
Kanye West returned from his brief self-imposed social media hiatus on Saturday with a series of videos apparently posted from Africa, including a nine-minute one titled “Mind Control.” In it, he delivered a now-familiar free-associative rant that touched on such topics as mind control, social media, “positive energy” and what he described as a request
0 Comments
Across the globe the TV industry is being disrupted and turned upside-down by the explosive rise of OTT content consumption — and China is no exception. As high-speed internet continues to roll out in the country, and 5G transforms the mobile universe, China’s OTT growth is forecast to soon be double that of traditional television.
0 Comments
Damon Albarn likes sending mixed messages. Take what’s going on with his now 20-year-old, dub-pop-hop cartoon act, Gorillaz. Before the start of Gorillaz’s arena-sized “The Now Now Tour” — which had its U.S. debut at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Thursday (Oct. 11) — Albarn announced everything from a new Gorillaz album for 2019, to
0 Comments
The Art of Crime (season 2)Created by Pierre-Yves Mora, Angele HerryBroadcaster: France 2Production: GaumontA detective teams with an art historian on mysteries of French heritage.Sales: Gaumont BalthazarWritten by Clothilde Jamin, Clelia ConstantineCast: Tomer Sisley, Helene de FougerollesBroadcaster: TF1Production: Beaubourg AudiovisuelThe cop series follows a handsome and cheeky forensic physician working with a policewoman to solve
0 Comments
Faced with the rising competition from global streaming services and the inflation of sports rights, French networks such as TF1, France Televisions and Canal Plus have ramped up their investment in international drama series in a major way to sustain ratings, boost their brands and lure millennials. Public broadcasting group France Televisions is spending €280
0 Comments
Magic Leap’s first-ever L.E.A.P. developer conference in Los Angeles this week was a chance for the company to finally stop the naysayers. Decried as over-funded vaporware for years, the event represented a unique opportunity for Magic Leap to show that it was the real deal, and that it mattered for the future of visual computing.
0 Comments
International TV drama’s golden age is continuing. As buyers and sellers from around the world congregate in Cannes, Variety speaks to the stars, writers, and distributors of 10 of the scripted series that will be the talk of the Croisette. The Bisexual (pictured top left)(All3Media Intl.)Desiree Akhavan wrote the first draft of “The Bisexual” right
0 Comments
British animator Julia Pott, the creator of Cartoon Network’s new children’s series “Summer Camp Island,” said it spoke “to people who are craving gentleness,” during a presentation of the show Saturday at MipJunior in Cannes, France. Pott compared her animated series, which follows two friends at a magical sleepaway camp, to “Gilmore Girls.” “Nothing bad
0 Comments
President Donald Trump has vowed to seek “severe punishment” if officials from Saudi Arabia are found to have been involved in the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump made the remarks in a sit-down interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl that was recorded Thursday at the White House. The President has been criticized
0 Comments
October 13, 2018 1:40AM PT Lucky Pics, a joint venture with Banijay-owned Brainpool, is set to produce “Catch!,” a sports event show which will showcase Luke Mockridge (“Lucky Man”), the Canadian-Italian comedian who lives in Germany. “Catch!” is being created as a high-energy entertainment series following four celebrity-led teams who fight out for eight rounds,
0 Comments
Tandem Films, in co-production with fellow Spaniards Gloriamundi Producciones, Brown Films AIE, Producions A Fonsagrada and Argentina’s Pampa Films will launch their first animated feature, “La Gallina Turuleca” (“Turuleca the Hen”) in August of 2019. Banking on the international success of the already well-established Spanish and Latin American character, the Madrid-based production company attended this
0 Comments
CANNES — Federation Kids & Family, the Paris-based premium  family content distributor, has closed U.K. rights on “The Ollie & Moon Show” with Tiny Pop, the U.K. pre-school TV channel owned by Sony Pictures Television Networks. Produced by Cottonwood Media, FK&F’s production arm, in association with Sprout and France Télévisions, the buddy slapstick comedy features
0 Comments
Finland’s Kalle Kujala, backed by Family Vijakainen Holding & Investment, has established a new production company called Walking Walnut, which will focus on transmedia original animated content for kids. Brazil’s Spirit Animation Studios are co-producing and animating while the Finnish government is backing the accompanying educational content. The company, its first series and the show’s
0 Comments
CANNES — France’s TeamTO and China’s UYoung Culture & Media Co. have struck a longterm development, production and distribution alliance. The agreement gives the Beijing-based UYoung, one of China’s foremost children’s entertainment production-distribution companies, the opportunity to co-develop and co-produce TeamTO shows. UYoung has also acquired Chinese distribution rights to the series, as well as
0 Comments