Entertainment News Boom

Growing demand for a united European response to the ever encroaching dominance of streaming platforms will be high on the agenda at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin. The first EFM to take place under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival heads Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian is also introducing a new initiatives,

Since taking the helm at German regional funder Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (FFHSH) last year, Helge Albers has revamped the organization, worked to increase its budget by €3 million ($3.3 million) and introduced new initiatives aimed at young filmmakers. Albers, a former film producer who previously served as head of the German Producers Assn. and a

Viacom International Studios (VIS) has signed an exclusive first look development deal with Infinity Hill. The companies will co-develop and co-produce a slate of Spanish-language features, filmed globally and utilizing international talent on both sides of the camera. Infinity Hill is the new label from longtime Telefonica and Viacom exec Axel Kuschevatzky, one of the

Johnny Depp arrived at the Berlin Film Festival Friday to support the film “Minamata,” in which he plays celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith. In the film, based on real events, Smith is pitted against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning with mercury the people of Minamata in Japan in 1971. Also in Berlin were

Pixar’s “Onward” saw its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the film’s director, Dan Scanlon, and producer, Kori Rae, talked to the press at the festival about the film, which follows brother elves on a magical quest to reconnect with their late father. Tom Holland and Chris Pratt voice the brothers who

February 21, 2020 2:33AM PT German media company Leonine has closed an all-rights licensing deal with Pathé Films on “Asterix & Obelix, The Silk Road” for Germany and Austria. The feature film, based on the characters created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, marks the fifth live-action adventure of Asterix and Obelix, and will take

I’ve got this friend who makes his own clothes. Not the generic kind cut from dowdy prairie-dress patterns, but chic, design-it-yourself garments that look better than most anything you’d find on a ready-to-wear rack. I figure he’s the only person I know who’s not guilty of contributing to the kind of sweatshop misery writer-director Michael

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to Caroline Monnet’s feature debut “Bootlegger” which won best screenplay at Cannes’ Cinefondation in 2017. A well-known contemporary artist, Monnet has shed light on Indigenous identity and has debunked stereotypes through her works, which have been shown at the Whitney Biennial in New York, Palais

Memento Films Intl. (“Call Me By Your Name”) has acquired the Aussie revenge tale “The Drover’s Wife,” the film adaptation of Leah Purcell’s successful Australian stage play. Purcell is on board to adapt, act and direct the film which Oombarra Prods. and Bunya Prods. (“Sweet Country”) will produce. Memento Films Intl. is handling world sales

Under the new leadership of industry veteran Kristina Zimmermann, Orange Studio, the film/TV division of the French telco group Orange, is launching three new projects at Berlin’s European Film Market: “Last Film Show,” “Old Fashioned” and “Love Song for Tough Guys.” Directed by Pan Nalin (“Samsara”), “Last Film Show” follows Samay, a 9-year-old boy living

Vivo Film, the Italian shingle at Berlin with Abel Ferrara’s “Siberia,” has a robust slate in various stages including the next drama by Laura Bispuri, whose “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” both launched from the Berlinale. Bispuri later this year will shoot her third feature, which is currently titled “Di Lotta e D’Amore” (“Of

February 20, 2020 10:01PM PT “Parasite” star Song Kang-ho will head the cast of airborne disaster action move “Emergency Declaration.” Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Byung-hun co-star, making “Declaration” one of the powerful casts ever assembled in a Korean movie. The film is in pre-production and aiming for an end-of-year release. Leading studio Showbox will begin

Sony Pictures Intl. Prods. and El Estudio, a major new independent production player in the Spanish-speaking world, are teaming to produce a Mexican version of breakout Cuban feature “Juan of the Dead,” with Emilio Portés directing. Chronicling a U.S. zombie invasion of Mexico, the remake marks one in a strong first slate of titles from

Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, whose sixth feature “There is no Evil” screens in competition at the Berlinale, is one of his country’s most prominent directors even though none of his films have screened in Iran where they are banned. In 2011, the year he won two prizes at Cannes with his censorship-themed “Goodbye,” Rasoulof was sentenced

World sales agency WestEnd Films has boarded “The Score,” a heist musical starring Johnny Flynn (“Emma,” “Stardust”), Will Poulter (“The Revenant”), Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”) and Antonia Thomas (Netflix’s “Lovesick”), from one of the producers of Beatles music themed hit “Yesterday,” which grossed $154 million worldwide. “The Score” combines a heist

February 20, 2020 10:42PM PT Gaumont is reteaming with actor-turned-director Franck Dubosc on another comedy: “Rumba Therapy” follows his hit 2018 pic “Rolling to You,” which was one of the highest-grossing films in France and abroad. “Rumba Therapy” stars Dubosc as a man in his 50s who lives alone after having abandoned his wife and