Month: October 2023

Banijay has launched a global accelerator program aimed at supporting female creators developing promising unscripted formats. The company has also commissioned a first-ever study on women in the non-fiction space. Named Banijay Launch, the competitive program was unveiled at Mipcom by Sharon Levy, Endemol Shine North America CEO and James Townley, Banijay’s CCO of development. Levy and

Classic cult film streamer Cultpix has signed a content rights partnership with the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), formerly known as the Taiwan Film Institute. The agreement, the fast-growing streamer’s 50th, will kick off with two films, “The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior” (1961) and “The Bride Who Returned from Hell” (1965), which have both been

Kate Ward joined BBC Studios, the corporation’s commercial arm, last year to oversee its factual portfolio. Ward moved over from Vice Studios, where she was global president, and has jumped into the challenge of stewarding one of the world’s most powerful factual brands, which includes 66-year-old leader in the space the BBC’s Natural History Unit

“Gangs of London” has officially started production on Season 3, with Sky and AMC+ revealing the director and writer of the show’s next installment. South Korea’s Kim Hong Sun (“Project Wolf Hunting”) will direct and executive produce the upcoming eight-episode season, with Peter McKenna (“Kin”) serving as lead writer and executive producer. Kim’s most recent

“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is based on Holly Jackson’s bestselling book-series about 17-year-old Pip, who finds herself drawn into a murder investigation when she begins to suspect the police have got the wrong man. Moonage Pictures are now adapting the book alongside the BBC (who own a minority stake in Moonage) and German

This year’s edition of the View Conference, an English-speaking event taking place between Oct. 15-20 in the Italian city of Turin, has been greatly influenced by some of the most urgent questions permeating the entertainment industry today. A world-class event on animation, VFX, games, AR, VR, XR, MR, virtual production, Metaverse and immersive media, the

“Motherland” star Anna Maxwell Martin has joined the cast of BBC drama “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” Variety can reveal. She is set to play Leanne, the mother of lead character Pip Fitz-Amobi, who will be portrayed on screen by “Wednesday’s” Emma Myers. Gary Beadle (“Small Axe”) plays Pip’s father Victor while Mathew Baynton

Stuart Ford’s AGC Television has boarded the series adaptation of F.G. Haghenbeck’s novel, ‘Primavera del Mal’ (‘The Spring of Evil’) alongside Mexican-American filmmaker Fernando Lebrija of Cielo Content and Irreversible Pictures.  To be retitled “Amapola,” the upcoming historical drama series is set in the early 20th century when the Chinese held sway over the drug trade along the Mexican-U.S. border.  In

Any new show by producer Frank Doelger – whose credits include “Game of Thrones,” “The Swarm,” “John Adams” and “Rome” – must rate as an event. That event takes place Oct. 17 at Cannes Mipcom trade fair, with the world premiere of “Concordia,” on which Doelger serves as executive producer and showrunner. Produced by Intaglio

Vienna-based Terra Mater Studios, a subsidiary of Red Bull, is developing its first fictional series “Salon of Sugar.” The historical drama will focus on Berta Zuckerkandl, born in 1864: a writer, journalist and a hostess of an important literary salon in Vienna, frequented by the likes of Auguste Rodin, Gustav Klimt, director Max Reinhardt or

“Three,” a socially relevant, teen musical drama that celebrates diversity is the latest production from Paramount’s Israeli shingle Ananey Studios. Making its debut at Mipcom and sold internationally by Beta Film, the show follows three 16-year-olds in Tel Aviv from very different cultural backgrounds: Yasmin, an Arab Muslim girl; Ella, a Jewish girl and daughter

In a deal unveiled at Mipcom, Movistar Plus+ International, the prominent Spanish pay TV/SVOD platform’s sales division, announced at Mipcom a key sale to HBO Latin America of series “La Mesías,” hailed as the buzziest title at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. The series is written, directed and produced by Javier Ambrossi and

As commissioning budgets continue to tighten, and with content powerhouses feeling the economic squeeze, there is renewed pressure to think laterally in the international formats business. “Producers are struggling to survive. People need to up their game and think outside the box in terms of their business models and how shows are made,” says Jan

Sipur and Heroes Formats, a division of production company United Heroes Group, have joined forces on a new cooking competition series “SUPERmarketCHEF.” Teased as a “fast-paced” show, it will “celebrate delicious and simple meals prepared by the best home cooks from diverse cultures,” it was revealed. Recruited at neighborhood supermarkets, unsuspecting shoppers will have to