Month: April 2023

Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired North American rights to “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” a queer coming-of-age story about two teens who form a special bond after a chance meeting one summer. The sale comes a few months after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Blue Fox is planning
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Tribeca Festival has announced the lineup of its 2023 festival, which includes new films from actors Chelsea Peretti and David Duchovny and documentaries about Rock Hudson and news anchor Dan Rather. This year’s event, which takes place from June 7-18, will feature 109 feature films from 127 filmmakers across 36 countries. There will be 93
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“Cinnamon” — the inaugural project filmed under Village Roadshow Pictures’ Black Noir Cinema banner, co-founded by NBA all-star Kevin Garnett — has debuted its first trailer. Written, directed and executive produced by Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr., the Tubi original film was selected to make its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and stars
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Hugh Jackman has promised fans that his return as Wolverine in the upcoming “Deadpool 3” won’t screw with the previous “X-Men” timeline. In other words, Jackman’s Wolverine character arc from 2000’s “X-Men” to 2017’s “Logan” is safe from whatever will go down in the Marvel Cinematic Universe tentpole. Neither Reynolds nor Jackman have disclosed much
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In an unusual move that seems intended to eliminate age-discrimination in music releases, BMG, one of the world’s largest music companies, announced Tuesday that it will abandon the “outdated” industry distinction between “frontline” — a.k.a. new releases — and older catalog recordings. The company, which notes that older catalog recordings account for up to three
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A new podcast from Audible and Wondery investigates Michael Jackson’s staying power as a pop-culture force in the face of disturbing allegations. “Think Twice: Michael Jackson” is hosted by journalist and podcaster Leon Neyfakh and hip-hop radio veteran Jay Smooth. The 10-episode audio series is a co-production from Audible and podcast network Wondery (which are
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Turkish TV content powerhouse Medyapim and digital distribution company Merzigo and have forged a partnership that aims to boost the global circulation of its vast library of Turkish dramas. The four-year agreement between Medyapim and Merzigo, which uses cutting-edge technology to provide innovative monetization, marketing and distribution services, will facilitate the global distribution of Turkish
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Justin Bieber came to the defense of Frank Ocean in an Instagram post in which the “Peaches” singer praised Ocean’s controversial Coachella performance. Ocean headlined Coachella 2023 along with Bad Bunny and Blackpink, but his April 16 set proved to be a massive disappointment for fans after he started an hour late, skipped over many
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Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has picked up international rights to “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” by first-time feature director Pham Thien An. The film will have its global premiere next month in the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival. Pham Thien An previously made short films “The Mute” in 2018 and the one-take
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The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain says it’s ready to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with its U.S. counterpart if a strike goes ahead. “Many of their issues are our issues,” said WGGB chair Lisa Holdsworth in a statement shared with Variety. “Their fight is our fight. We hope that the WGA reaches a deal but
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Rakuten TV has announced the launch of two new owned and operated FAST channels, bolstering its role as a curated channel programmer in the free ad-supported streaming TV services space. The channels, announced during MipTV’s FAST Summit, will see the growing pan-European video-on-demand streaming service enter the TV series landscape by launching a reality/factual entertainment channel in
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New films from Hong Sang-soo and Michel Gondry will world premiere at Directors Fortnight, a selection running parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. This edition marks the first under the leadership of Julien Rejl as artistic director. Succeeding to Paolo Moretti, Rejl was named by the governing body of Directors’ Fortnight, the SRF (Société des réalisateurs
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Beta at MipTV has unveiled a visually dazzling first trailer for period drama “La Storia” that will be Italian pubcaster RAI’s biggest event show this year. The sweeping eight-episode saga is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary
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Stormy Daniels becomes a dating show host in Canada’s “For the Love of DILFs,” combining two groups of “internet’s favorite gay archetypes: Himbos and daddies.” Produced by Daddy TV, it premiered in January. “I was brought here by Doctor DILF, a mysterious gay relationship expert, to help these singles find the man of their dreams. I know
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Netflix has swooped on “Vortex,” the event drama-fantasy series which recently launched on France Televisions and garnered stellar ratings. The limited series will be available on Netflix in 190 countries starting June 2. The mini-series was produced by Quad Drama, the banner behind “Women at War” and “The Bonfire of Destiny” — a pair of highly successful shows
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ZDF Studios, the commercial arm of German broadcaster ZDF, is to create the position of director international content partnerships with effect from May 1. The position will be taken by Jeffrey Haverkamp. The core tasks of this position, which has an interface between ZDF Studios and ZDF, will include initiatives to strengthen ZDF’s international programming
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CANNES —  Two personal stories, one of immigration, another of sheer human decency, won out against some stiff competition at MipTV on Sunday, sharing in a dead heat the Buyers Coup de Coeur at the first MipDoc International Buyer Screenings.  A bold experiment, the Screenings saw MipTV allocate he prime market real estate of mid Sunday
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As the search for the next “Squid Game” continues, South Korea brought out the big guns at MipTV, introducing several scripted and unscripted offerings. These includes FormatEast’s intergenerational game show “Gganbu Race,” inspired by the Netflix smash hit.  “It’s a slang term meaning close friends and companions. Kids would say that when forming teams to
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Producer Timur Savci co-heads prolific Turkish shingle Tims & B that a decade ago made “Magnificent Century” the Ottoman costume drama which spearheaded the country’s TV boom. Savci and his team are currently at the MipTV market in Cannes with their new show “Modern Woman” (pictured above) in which a young working woman in Turkey
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Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong’s leading free-to-air broadcaster, has said that it is considering legal action against a group of shareholder activists. The shareholder group, seemingly led by Chow Ngai Keung and publishing its critiques on Facebook, has made a series of complaints about TVB. These include the allegation that TVB is operating a streaming app
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