MGM Motion Picture Group president Pamela Abdy and chairman Michael De Luca are to open the Zurich Summit on Saturday with a keynote conversation with CAA Media Finance co-head Roeg Sutherland. Billed as a boutique conference, the two-day Summit gathers around 100 film producers, sales executives and creators in film, TV and entertainment as well
Month: September 2021
In telling the story of champion alpine ski racer Franz Klammer, one of Austria’s most revered and beloved sports heroes, director Andreas Schmied forewent the usual biopic tropes, focusing instead on a few fateful days that culminated in his victory at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck. It was that focus that ultimately convinced Klammer to
The latest season of Channel 4’s “The Great British Bake-Off” has gone down like a deflated soufflé with U.K. viewers compared to last year’s pandemic-induced numbers. Season 12 launched on Tuesday night with an average audience of 5.7 million, making it Channel 4’s highest rating commission so far this year. However it marks a decline
Pop singer Kikka, a.k.a. Kirsi Hannele Viilonen, who passed away in 2005 at just 41 years old, will finally get her due in the upcoming biopic being produced by Helsinki’s Komeetta. Founded by producers Daniel Kuitunen and Kaisla Viitala, the production company’s slate already includes Zaida Bergroth’s “Maria’s Paradise,” shown in Toronto in 2019, and
In the Icelandic musical adventure “12 Hours to Destruction,” writer-director Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir revels in a wholeheartedly youthful story of a school band battling nasties to save their dance. The film, part of the Finnish Film Affair’s Nordic Selection of works in progress being held this week in Helsinki, is an ambitious project, produced by
The spectacular rise of green-haired Finnish pop star Alma has inspired one of Finnish Film Affair’s most buzzy documentaries in progress, “Alma – Who Am I?” Finnish director and actor Pamela Tola spoke to Variety about her film. Produced by Helsinki production company Lucy Loves and Oskari Huttu, and being pitched at the Helsinki film
The Abu Dhabi Film Commission is understandably proud that Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures filmed at the Liwa desert, the large oasis area in the Western Region of the Emirate that doubled as the desert world of Arrakis, and in the past also served as a set for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” “Dune”
If we have learned anything from movies of recent years, it is that moving into one’s dream house will surely lead to terror and death. That improbable yet familiar arc is traced again in “Intrusion,” wherein the domesticity under threat belongs to a wide-eyed Freida Pinto. Director Adam Salky and writer Christopher Sparling’s thriller will
India’s Viacom18 Studios and media personality Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions have partnered for a theatrical, broadcast and streaming distribution slate. The two entities will collaborate on a range of Hindi-language films, which are in various stages of production and are expected to release over the next 18 – 24 months. Films under the deal include
Polish filmmaker Aga Woszczyńska – together with co-writer Piotr Litwin – started to work on the script of her first feature film “Silent Land” in 2016, and notes that since then, her film – which centers on the world’s response to migrants – has sadly become even more timely. Set in Italy, the slow-burning drama
Selected by Variety as a talent to track, Spain’s Jaione Camborda is developing her sophomore effort, “The Rye Horn,” a story that takes place in ‘70s Galicia. After a terrible event, midwife María is forced to become a fugitive and, to wrestle back her freedom, flee Galicia for Portugal along an old smugglers’ route. Camborda attended Prague’s
The trouble with unimaginable horror is precisely that: It cannot be imagined. For Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Slovakian Jews who escaped from Auschwitz in 1944 to bring evidence of the systematic genocide within the camp, the hardest part of issuing The Vrba-Wetzler Report was simply being believed. Director Peter Bebjak’s “The Auschwitz Report,”
TrustNordisk has closed key deals on John Andreas Andersen’s anticipated Norwegian disaster film “The North Sea.” Now in post-production, the ambitious movie is produced by Fantefilm Fiksjon, which previously delivered the Scandinavian blockbusters “The Quake” and “The Wave” that TrustNordisk sold around the world. The film, the trailer for which has just been unveiled by
ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV, the fast-growing, free, ad-supported, linear TV-style streaming service, is set to launch in Italy on Oct. 28 with 40 thematic channels spanning multiple genres. Pluto TV’s Italy launch will expand the service’s European footprint, segueing from successful bows in the U.K., Germany, France and Spain. It will also mark Italy’s first FAST
Viaplay, NENT Group’s leading Scandinavian streaming service, is set to launch in five new markets: U.K., Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The company began expanding its international footprint last year with a rollout in the U.S. and Poland, among other countries. The streamer’s launch in the U.K. is scheduled for the second half of 2022,
Willie Garson was, in his most famous role as “Sex and the City’s” Stanford Blatch, a constant. Lovers came and went for Stanford’s best friend, Carrie Bradshaw, but Stanford was a perpetual presence — reliably warm, witty and humane even when being drawn in once again to Carrie’s chaos. It’s a testament to Garson, who
Two of the largest broadcast groups in India are to merge, it was announced on Wednesday morning local time. Publicly-listed Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is to merge with Sony Pictures Networks India. The merged business will be headed by Zee’s Punit Goenka, but following a cash injection of $1.57 billion from Sony India’s backers, the
The Rolling Stones played the first — albeit unofficial — show of their 2021 No Filter tour at a private event on Monday night. Organized by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the small concert took place at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., and was their first show since the death of drummer Charlie Watts
Following a dismal summer, China’s box office over this year’s three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday hit its lowest point since 2014. Chinese citizens had to work on Saturday, Sept. 18, but enjoyed a three-day vacation for the holiday from Sept. 19-21. Cinemas are operational, but at reduced capacity due to the pandemic. The cumulative box office
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the Sept. 21 episode of “Bachelor in Paradise.” This week’s episode of “Bachelor in Paradise” saw Kendall Long struggle to watch her ex-boyfriend Joe Amabile fall in love with Serena Pitt. She confided in bartender Wells Adams and ultimately decided that she needed to talk
After news broke on Tuesday that Willie Garson had died, stars took to social media to pay tribute to the actor who won audiences over as Stanford Blatch in “Sex and the City” and Theodore “Mozzie” Winters in “White Collar,” among other roles. Garson’s career began in the ’80s, when he played small roles in
NBC has ordered “The Endgame,” starring Morena Baccarin and Ryan Michelle Bathé, to series. Described as a “high-stakes thriller,” the show follows Elena Federova (Baccarin), a “very recently captured” international arms dealer and criminal mastermind who can orchestrate many complicated and coordinated bank heists, even while in captivity, and Val Turner (Bathé), the “principled, relentless
Starz is developing a drama series about Texan citizen journalist “Lagordiloca” (an alias for Priscilla Villarreal) penned by playwright and filmmaker Hilary Bettis, Variety has confirmed. Inspired by Texas Monthly’s coverage about Villarreal, the show centers on the titular protagonist’s rise as a street journalist and modern-day folk hero in her border-town of Laredo, as she
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Releases 2021 Lineup The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (HSDFF) has released the lineup of films and honorees for its 30th edition, which will take place Oct. 8-16. The opening night presentation will be a screening of Samuel D. Pollard and Rex Miller’s “Citizen Ashe,” a biographical piece about the
A battalion of producers and stars worked the opening night red carpet of the Beijiing Intl. Film Festival Tuesday for the world premiere of their mammoth Chinese war film “The Battle of Changjin Lake,” which is expected to rank amongst China’s highest grossing films of the year. The nearly three-hour-long historical epic is a grind
“It’s not that Mama doesn’t like this house — this house doesn’t like Mama,” explains Tsidi to her young daughter Winnie about the roomy, comfortable Cape Town pad in which they’ve recently taken up residence. Tsidi knows the place well. For as long as she can remember, it’s been home to her mother Mavis, which
Willie Garson, an actor best known for playing Stanford Blatch on “Sex and the City” and Mozzie on “White Collar,” has died. He was 57. A family member of Garson’s confirmed his death to Variety. A cause of death has not been disclosed. In HBO’s wildly popular “Sex and the City” series, Garson portrayed talent agent
300 Entertainment CEO/founder Kevin Liles is making a sizable investment in Vancouver-based cannabis lifestyle company Burb as it closes a $4 million Series A funding round led by Connecticut-based private equity group KarpReilly. For Liles, the combination of cannabis and music is a natural fit. As a Def Jam executive, Liles’ bonafides go back to
It’s been a long time coming, but the U.K. Government’s response to the recent report into the economics of music streaming has finally arrived. However, anyone hoping for a neat conclusion to the fierce debate that has pitted labels against artists and songwriters will be disappointed. Indeed, if this was a soccer match, it would
Endeavor has no plans to exit the content creation business once it completes the required sale of its production unit. Mandated by the franchise agreement the company signed with the Writers Guild of America in February, the forthcoming sale of Endeavor Content will see Ari Emanuel’s shop part with 80% of its interests in making
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