Month: February 2022

“The Wife” director Björn Runge was at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival over the weekend to tease his stars-packed passionate Swedish drama “Burn All My Letters” which SF Studios is producing. Runge was on the ground at the festival’s industry sidebar along with his producer Annika Sucksdorff, and lead actors Asta Kamma August (“The Pact”) and
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The Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School is set to launch a Series Lab with the support of Netflix and VIS Social Impact, ViacomCBS International Studios’ new cause-driven production division. Hagai Levi, the creator of “In Treatment” and “The Affair,” has joined the new program as artistic advisor. For the last decade, the film school has
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“Breaking Point,” a feature about breakdancing from the directors of hit film “StreetDance 3D” will get its sales launch at EFM. Directed by Dania Pasquini and Max Guia, who helmed both “StreetDance 3D” and “StreetDance 2,” “Breaking Point” is described as “an adrenaline fuelled, high energy deep dive into the world of breakdancing.” HanWay Films
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The future of long-running Australian soap opera “Neighbours” is in question following its cancellation by ViacomCBS-owned U.K. broadcaster Channel 5. The soap, produced by Fremantle and now in its 37th season, is watched by 1.5 million viewers a day in the U.K. but Variety understands that its Australian audience is on the wane. Although “Neighbours”
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In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Film Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard. Laura Wandel is the auteur behind “Playground” (“Un Monde”), her first feature, about the reality of schoolyard
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Darkland Distribution, an imprint of U.K.’s Parkland, has picked up British sci-fi thriller “Deus.” As well as acquiring the U.K. and North American distribution rights, Darkland will represent worldwide international sales rights to the film, described as a “provocative and thought-provoking” sci-fi thriller. “Deus” is written and directed by British Independent Film Award winner Steve
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Leading entertainment format producer Claire O’Donohoe has joined Banijay U.K. as director of programs. O’Donohoe will work closely with her long-time creative collaborator Natalka Znak, the newly appointed CEO of group companies Remarkable, Initial, and ZnakTV, a company Znak set up in 2021 after departing Sky-backed outfit Znak & Co. O’Donohoe has some two decades
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Patriotic blockbuster “The Battle at Lake Changjin II” earned just short of $400 million over the Chinese New Year holidays at a mainland China box office that weighed in at some $950 million. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Lake Changjin II” earning $152 million over the Friday to Sunday weekend, comfortably ahead of comedy
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Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt (the Munna Bhai franchise, “Vaastav,” “Khal Nayak”) is launching production company Three Dimension Motion Pictures with a view to bringing back the golden age of heroism to the industry. Dutt cites the recent pan-Indian box office success of South Indian film “Pushpa” and the films of “Baahubali” filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli as
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Australian streaming service Stan has renewed its exclusive content partnership with Hollywood studio MGM. The deal covers series and film titles. First-run MGM series featured covered by the agreement include: “Billy the Kid,” an epic romantic-adventure series from MGM’s U.S. cable network Epix; “The Box,” a supernatural psychological thriller starring Anna Friel; and the French-Riviera-set
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Netflix has been in the original programming business for a whole decade now, as Feb. 6, 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the premiere of “Lilyhammer” on the streaming service. On Sunday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos released an essay commemorating the anniversary and reflecting on the company’s roots in content for international audiences. “Looking back,
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After living through nearly two years of a pandemic that won’t end, Americans, as it turns out, were in desperate need of a laugh. That may explain why Paramount’s go-for-broke action comedy “Jackass Forever” triumphed at the domestic box office while Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic “Moonfall” turned into an epic disaster. “Jackass Forever,” the fourth
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Versatile Finnish helmer A.J. Annila (“Sauna,” “Shadow Lines,” “Peacemaker”) is on board to direct the thriller series with a working title of “ID” which marks HBO Max’s first commission of a Finnish premium TV show. Set in the art fraud world, the six-part series is co-created by seasoned writer Aleksi Bardy (“Tom of Finland,” “Moscow
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