Munich-based sales agency Global Screen has sold crime drama “Dark Woods” to streaming service Walter Presents for the U.K., where it’ll be shown on Channel 4’s All 4 platform, and across the Nordic Region, via C More. The drama, which was produced by ConradFilm and Bavaria Fiction on behalf of NDR and ARD Degeto for
Television
Netflix’s “Squid Game” and “The Guilty” have debuted on BARB, the U.K. television audience measurement currency, as the organization has revealed a “once-in-a-generation upgrade.” Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and video-sharing platform measurement has been introduced in BARB’s service bouquet. BARB is now able to measure the reach and total time spent viewing SVOD services such as
“Gangs of London” producer Pulse Films has secured the rights to Anna Whitehouse and Matt Farquharson’s Sunday Times-bestselling novel “Underbelly.” Released early in August, the book tells the story of two women, Lo and Dylan, who are living parallel lives while being worlds apart. Lo is a middle-class mother with perfectly polished Instagram posts, while
You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have: “The Facts of Life.” But there’s no bad, only good — no, make that great — casting here for next week’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” remake of the classic 1980s sitcom. Joining the previously announced Ann
“Pen15,” Hulu’s comedy series created by Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, will end with its second season. The remaining episodes of the now final season will debut on the streamer on Dec. 3. A Hulu representative confirmed the news to Variety, stating that Erskine and Konkle “feel the story they wanted to tell has come to an
Muse Entertainment Enterprises has tapped film and TV vet Alex Jordan to serve as its new senior VP of production. Jordan, who starts on January 1, will be based in Toronto and focus on producing programming for the international market. Jordan most recently served as a producer on Paramount Plus’ “Mayor of Kingstown.” He also
Chris Cuomo is, once again, making headlines instead of delivering them. CNN said Monday that is was placing new scrutiny on the actions its most popular anchor took when his brother Andrew, the former governor of New York, was facing accusations of sexual harassment that eventually led him in August to give up his role
Christopher Walken series “The Outlaws” has been renewed for a second season. Walken will also return as Frank Sheldon. Created by Stephen Merchant (“The Office”) and Elgin James (“Mayans M.C.”) the comedy thriller follows seven convicts completing community service in Bristol, U.K. The second season, which has already wrapped and is due to air next
Ivanna Sakhno has been cast in the Ahsoka Tano series at Disney Plus, Variety has confirmed. Sakhno will appear in the series opposite Rosario Dawson, who will play Tano, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who was recently announced as the “Star Wars Rebels” character Sabine Wren. Details on the character Sakhno is playing are being kept under wraps,
“Chucky” has been renewed for Season 2 at USA Network and Syfy. The series, based on the “Child’s Play” horror film franchise, will air its season finale on Nov. 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, with the full first season then available to stream on Peacock starting Dec. 1. The new season will debut in 2022.
Kevin Steele, the district attorney from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who put Bill Cosby in prison in 2018, has filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the disgraced comedian’s conviction. Cosby was released from prison on June 30 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that former prosecutor Bruce Castor’s decision not to prosecute
Jury selection is underway in a Chicago courtroom in the case of Jussie Smollett, who is accused of faking a hate crime against himself nearly three years ago. Smollett, onetime star of “Empire,” faces six counts of “disorderly conduct” for allegedly filing a false police report about the attack. Smollett, who is Black and gay,
“Cobra Kai” season three ended with an epic showdown between Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and John Kreese (Martin Kove). As the episode and season come to an end, the first epic fight happened at the LaRusso house, where the younger characters got into a fight. But there was more – one last fight that happens
Michael K. Williams had completed much of the second season of his Vice TV docuseries when he died in September. Now, Vice has assigned a premiere date for the return of “Black Market with Michael K. Williams.” The show, featuring some of Williams’ final on-camera work, will premiere its second season on January 10 at
In this social media age, experiential events have become a crucial part of entertainment marketing plans. Instagram-friendly pop-ups had become common in recent years — Netflix turning a Baskin-Robbins location into the Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor from “Stranger Things” or Amazon Prime Video taking over the Hollywood Athletic Club to promote its Emmy contenders,
Portuguese producers are looking to strike gold with a hit series that could follow in the footsteps of European shows such as “Money Heist,” “Hierro,” “The Bridge,” “Trapped” or “Skam.” They have several advantages: Portugal has competitive production costs which can compensate for more limited budgets; they’re fast learners, as shown by the rapid development
Almost anyone over 30 has owned a Nokia phone at some point in their lives, but not many people know that the iconic brand was created at a Finnish company formerly specializing in rubber boots. Once the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer at the turn of the 21st century, the company was nearly wiped out of
Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s sweeping saga of family and finance “The Lehman Trilogy,” which is a hot ticket on Broadway in a Sam Mendes-directed adaptation, is being developed as a TV series for the international market by Italy’s Fandango, the prominent shingle behind Elena Ferrante skein “The Lying Life of Adults” for Netflix. Fandango chief
Fictional detective Ellery Queen is set to make a return to television – this time as a woman. Incendo and BlackBox Multimedia have optioned the TV adaption rights to the collection of novels and short stories in which Queen, originally written as a male character, appears. The two companies will co-develop and co-produce a modernized,
BBC Studios Drama Productions has set a development partnership with Nigerian television pioneer Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu, founder and CEO of global entertainment network EbonyLife Media. The partnership will kick off with action-adventure series “Reclaim,” written by BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Rowan Athale (“The Rise”), based on an original idea by Mo Abudu, Heidi Uys and Bode
David Tenant’s upcoming series “Around the World in 80 Days” hasn’t yet hit screens but producers are so confident in the show they’ve already greenlit a second season, with Ashley Pharoah (“Life on Mars”) returning as showrunner. Variety also hears Tenant is almost certain to reprise his role as adventurer Phileas Fogg for season 2.
The tumultuous events surrounding the making of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1973 film “Last Tango in Paris” will be the subject of a limited series to be co-directed by Lisa Brühlmann (“Killing Eve”) and José Padilha (“Narcos”). The series, titled “Tango,” is part of the international first-look agreement between CBS Studios and Stampede Ventures, an independent entertainment
Paris-based production banner Cinetévé is powering up several international-driven premium series across different genres, including the contemporary Afghanistan-set “Kabul,” procedural “Birdwatcher,” mystery thriller “L’ile prisonnière,” feminist dramedy “Split” and a French adaptation of “On the Spectrum.” “Kabul,” co-developed by Cinétévé’s Thomas Saignes, Fabienne Servan Schreiber, Matthias Weber and Thibault Gast at 2425 Films, is a
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the seventh episode of “Succession” Season 3, titled “Too Much Birthday.” An easy, comically tall target for jokes at his expense, Greg doesn’t get to celebrate many victories in “Succession,” but at Kendall’s 40th birthday party, he finally notches a win and asks out Comfry,
The first edition of ONSeries Lisboa (Nov. 25-26) brought streaming platforms, international broadcasters and co-producers to Lisbon for a two-day event that showcased Portugal’s new TV series aimed at the international market. Nuno Artur Silva, Portugal’s secretary of state for cinema, audiovisual and the media emphasized the economic potential of the country’s audiovisual sector and
Mailing envelopes full of anthrax spores to individuals is certainly an intimate and personal attack, but because of the ability of anthrax to infect anyone in the area who inhales it once it is in the air, it is also a widespread act of terrorism. The second season of National Geographic’s “Hot Zone” anthology, aptly
Italian producer Domenico Procacci, after shepherding more than 100 movies and several TV series, including Netflix’s upcoming Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lying Life of Adults,” via his Fandango shingle, is debuting as a director with six-part documentary series “The Team.” Variety speaks to Procacci exclusively about what prompted him to go behind the camera for
When “Nash Bridges” came to an end in 2001, series star Don Johnson felt like they “didn’t get a chance to finish the story.” The detective drama had been on the air for six seasons, but “political circumstances” between producer Paramount Network Television and network CBS kept it from getting renewed, the actor recalls. (Paramount
As the days grow shorter and families hunker down cozily in front of the TV, British holiday programming has grown into a dependable export around the world, thanks to the success of Christmas specials for shows like “The Office” and “Gavin & Stacey.” “Demand for British content is higher than ever across the board,” says
“Seinfeld” remains one of the definitive TV sitcoms of all time, forever altering the way comedy could be approached and what was acceptable behavior from characters you watched week in and week out. The show started off with a minuscule six-episode order at NBC (not exactly a vote of confidence) and yada yada yada ended