News

Exclusive: Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films heads to Cannes with a sales slate of completed titles including upcoming Tribeca Festival world premiere Our Hero, Balthazar, and SXSW selections The Dutchman, Fantasy Life, Baby Doe, and Brother Verses Brother.

Oscar Boyson’s satire Our Hero, Balthazar will screen privately for buyers ahead of its Tribeca slot and follows a wealthy New York teenager who posts on social media calling for stricter gun control in the hopes that his activist-minded crush will notice. When an online troll comments on his video and messages Balthazar, he becomes convinced that he is communicating with...

Ahead of its broadcast premiere on France’s TF1, “Cat’s Eyes,” the anticipated live-action show set in Paris and based on the cult manga series, has been sold by Newen Connect to a flurry of European broadcasters.

The eight-part action-packed show was picked up by Germany’s Zdf and Italy’s Rai, among others. The show was previously sold to Belgium (Rtl) and Switzerland (Rts). It was co-financed by Amazon which bought a second window for France, while the first window was picked up for Latin America and Japan.

Directed by Alexandre Laurent (“Women at War”), “Cat’s Eyes” is a heist series starring Camille Lou, Contance Labbé (“Balthazar”), and Claire Romain (“Where It All Begins”) as the Chamade sisters who are on the prowl for the most beautiful and secured artworks in Paris on display in a high-class exhibition at the Eiffel Tower.

“The siblings hope that the artwork which belongs to their father,...

Federation Studios Taps TF1 Head Of Drama

Former TF1 Head of Drama Anne Viau has joined Paris-based film and TV company Federation Studios, as she launches her own production company, Quelle Aventure!. Her fledgling banner joins another 20 labels, also including Bonne Pioche, Cottonwood Media, Fabula Pictures and Picture Perfect Federation, a joint venture between Patrick Wachsberger and Federation Studio co-heads Pascal Breton and Lionel Uzan. Viau was Head Of Drama at TF1 from 2018 until this month, overseeing series such as The Bonfire of Destiny or Women at War, Hpi, Balthazar, One of Us, Tomorrow is Ours and Ici Tout Commence. Viau said Quelle Aventure! marked a new chapter in her professional life. “This venture also allows me to return to my first love, which is writing and which is central to my new role as a producer, alongside attracting key talent and sourcing great stories,” she said. The partnership will...

Ghanaian-Australian vocalist Genesis Owusu has announced his sophomore album Struggler, out August 18th via Ourness/Awal. He’s offering a preview of the record with its lead single and opening track “Leaving the Light,” which comes with a dramatic accompanying music video.

Owusu’s follow-up to his 2021 album Smiling with No Teeth was recorded with a small army of producers between the US and Australia, and was inspired in part by Samuel Beckett’s tragicomic play Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s magical realism novella Metamorphosis. It’s billed as “an imminent exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life,” with inspirational undertones of endurance and perseverance.

“The struggler runs through an absurd world with no ‘where’ or ‘why’ at hand,” Owusu explains in a statement. “Just an instinctual inner rhythm, yelling at them to survive the pestilence and lighting bolts coming from above. A roach just keeps roaching.

Assassin Club is a sleek new action thriller which is now available to buy on Digital, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray™ June 6, 2023. The film stars the delightful Henry Golding as a skilled but secretive assassin who is tasked with killing six people around the globe, who also turn out to be deadly assassins themselves. With an excellent supporting cast including Sam Neill, Daniela Melchior, and Noomi Rapace, Assassin Club is a fun adrenaline rush with constant action.

There's a certain perspective that French filmmakers have given to action cinema, having incorporated classic Hollywood movies, Hong Kong action of the '80s and '90s, and cheesy direct-to-video American fun into a unique amalgam that stands out in the genre. From Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita and Leon the Professional, to Louis Leterrier's Transporter movies and Pierre Morel's Taken, District 13, and From Paris with Love,...

Polish maestro Jerzy Skolimowski calls Eo, winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize and just this week the Best Foreign Film award from the New York Film Critics Circle, “practically a road movie” whose POVs from the titular donkey “were the most effective element of the whole filming and editing.”

Eo is a vision of modern Europe seen through the eyes of a donkey on a stoic journey through a world where disaster and despair alternate with unexpected bliss. From Sideshow & Janus Films, it’s Poland’s entry into the Best International Feature Film Oscar race.

Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage

Comparisons have been made to Robert Bresson’s 1966 study of the same breed of animal in Au Hazard Balthazar, something Skolimowski welcomes. During Deadline’s Contenders Film: International event, Skolimowski discussed the profound impact that movie had on him.

“I was a young unknown filmmaker...

Young Sheldon is set to introduce Georgie’s potential future in-laws.

The Big Bang Theory spinoff has tapped Will Sasso (MADtv) and Rachel Bay Jones (The Good Doctor) to recur as Mandy’s parents, Jim and Audrey McAllister, our sister site Deadline reports.

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Jim is a “good-natured father” who gets caught in the “crossfire between his pregnant daughter and stubborn wife,” according to the official character breakdown.

For any Ghosts fans looking to dress up as their favorite character from the show for Halloween this year, we’ve got some advice on how to nail your look from none other than the cast of the hit CBS comedy. Because who better than the people wearing those same outfits, day after day, to offer up costume tips?

In the above exclusive video, the stars share the key pieces — peasant top, no pants, arrow, of course — needed to dress up as one of the ghosts. Or if you prefer to be more living than dead, Rose McIver has a...

Life is seen through the eyes of a put-upon beast of burden in this beautifully photographed homage to Au Hasard Balthazar by the veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski

Jerzy Skolimowski is the celebrated veteran director who first came to Cannes in 1972 with King, Queen, Knave starring Gina Lollobrigida and David Niven; now he has returned to the festival competition with a winter’s tale of a film, inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar from 1966. I’m not sure this is my favourite Skolimowski film, but it is engaging in many ways: beautifully photographed, sentimental and surreal in equal measure; and also stubborn – as stubborn as its hero – in its symbolism and stark pessimism.

Like Bresson, Skolimowski makes his lead a donkey, the beast that carried the Virgin Mary to Bethlehem and Jesus into Jerusalem. Skolimowski calls his animal “Eo” – after its braying “eee-ohhh” sound. The place is present-day Poland,...

U.K. broadcaster ITV increased external revenues by a strong 27% in the half year ending June 30, 2021, according to financial results released on Wednesday.

Total external revenue was up 27% at £1.54 billion ($2.14 billion), compared to Covid-impacted 2020’s £1.21 billion. Production and sales arm ITV Studios’ total revenue was up 26% at £798 million compared to 2020’s £632 million, with most programs, including flagship show “Love Island,” back in production and also benefitting from a number of programs and licences being delivered earlier than expected. ITV Studios external revenue was up 31% at £523 million.

Total media and entertainment revenue was up 25% at £1.02 billion, up from 2020’s £822 million, with total advertising revenue up 29% within which video on demand advertising (AVOD) was up 55%.

Advertising revenues in June were up 115% compared to the same period in 2020, a direct result of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in the U.K. and the Euro soccer championship. Total advertising revenues for June and July...

France’s Robert Bresson’s theory about a ‘pure’ cinema defies basic rules of the movie mainstream — like, ‘no acting allowed.’ But his movies remained faithful to his creed, even as they became increasingly pessimistic. This story of an unloved and abused young girl is considered one of Bresson’s masterpieces. The theme is human suffering in the void left by the absence of faith, and the tone is unrelentingly pitiless.

Mouchette

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 363

1967 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 81 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal, Paul Hebert, Jean Vimenet, Marie Susini, Suzanne Huguenin, Marine Trichet, Raymonde Chabrun.

Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet

Film Editor: Raymond Lamy

Original Music: Jean Wiener

Written by Robert Bresson from the book Nouvelle histoire de Mouchette by Georges Bernanos

Produced by Anatole Dauman

Directed by Robert Bresson

The first time one sees Robert Bresson speak, we...

Despite the 'Covid-19' virus wreaking havoc throughout the movie industry, the TV studios continue to fight back, with vaccinations on the rise and February 2021 broadcast dates scheduled for new and returning series:

February 1: 

Bucket List  February 2: The Pembrokeshire Murders  February 3: 

Firefly Lane The Fixers  February 4:  

Mary McCartney Serves It Up Fast Foodies Impractical Jokers Impractical Jokers: After Party Swamp People Summer House  February 5: The Snoopy ShowLong Island Medium: There In Spirit  February 6: Devil May Care 

February 7: 

Super Bowl Lv The Equalizer Puppy Bowl Xvii  February 8: 

Black Lightning Love Games Studio C Balthazar Love My Way  February 9: 

Basketball Wives The Food That Built America    February 10: 

Tough as Nails Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel  February 11: Clarice February 12:  Hip Hop Uncovered Are You Afraid of the Dark? Unseamly: The Investigation of Peter Nygård 

February 14:  American Idol...

In today’s Global Bulletin, DJ Khaled signs on to host the MTV Africa Music Awards Kampala 2021, Newen corrals its production labels as Newen France, Foxtel snags “The Drew Barrymore Show” in Australia, “Sas: Who Dares Wins” gets a Swedish adaptation, BFI Future Film Festival announces this year’s program, San Sebastian Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos is honored by France’s Ministry of Culture, and Disney Plus and Hotstar Specials reteam to broaden the “Special Ops Universe.”

Awards

Grammy-winning producer, DJ and record exec DJ Khaled will host the MTV Africa Music Awards Kampala 2021 (Mama), broadcasting globally for the first time on MTV Feb. 20. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Khaled will host the virtual ceremony from his home in Miami.

Mama Kampala 2021 features 20 awards handed out to celebrate the best in African talent over the past year. In addition to more general prizes: best male artist, female artist,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Netflix picks up the rights to Spanish feature “Sky High” for a series adaptation, French crime series “Balthazar” posts record audience numbers for TF1, Mexican filmmaker Juan Ernesto Regalado Morales receives this year’s Guillermo del Toro-backed Jenkins-Del Toro Scholarship, and French journalist Augustin Trapenard announces he’s leaving Canal Plus.

Adaptation

Netflix has acquired global rights to the feature film “Sky High,” the leading Spanish film at the domestic box office over the holiday period, trailing only “The Croods: A New Age” and “Wonder Woman 1984” from abroad, and will develop the IP into a new original series.

Creators Daniel Calparsoro and Jorge Guerricaechevarría will helm the small-screen adaptation, set to pick up where the film drops off. Netflix is teaming once again with the film’s producers, Vaca Films, having previously commissioned the company’s thriller series “The Mess You Leave Behind.

ITV Studios has said that 80% of its productions impacted by coronavirus have now resumed shooting or have been delivered, but that international travel restrictions have limited the scope of filming.

Broadcaster ITV said in its August earnings call that 70% of the 230 productions impacted or paused by lockdown had resumed. That figure has now risen, with around 23 more shows back in business or pushed through in the last month. However, in an interview with Variety, Lisa Perrin, managing director of international production for ITV Studios, said “most countries are staying where they are” in filming new shows, as multi-location shoots are rife with challenges due to shifting quarantine orders.

In Europe especially, shoots are increasingly complicated by changing regulations around travel, particularly for the U.K., which has been steadily plucking countries such as France, Spain and Croatia off its safe travel list.

“’Love Island Germany’ is happening in Mallorca because...

Julie Meldal-Johnsen, executive VP of global content at ITV Studios, said Wednesday that the company’s continuing move into European drama through its various subsidiaries was creating unique opportunities across the continent.

Presenting the group’s upcoming new series at the Berlinale Series Market and Conference, Meldal-Johnsen spoke to Variety about local productions that are aimed at global auds.

“It’s so exciting to have the infrastructure and the ambition and the experimental risk taking that our studio allows us to do,” Meldal-Johnsen said, pointing to the ambitious historical drama “Romulus” as an example. The series, produced by Italy’s Cattleya and Groenlandia, explores the origin of Rome and will be shot in Latin.

“That’s crazy but brilliant,” Meldal-Johnsen quipped. “It’ll be subbed and dubbed into all sorts of different languages and no one will understand it, but it just gives it that sort of flavor and from...

Madrid — André and Maria Jacquemetton, the Emmy and WGA Award-winning writer-producers of AMC’s “Mad Men” and consulting producers on Amazon Studios’ “The Romanoffs,” will serve as Guests of Honor at Series Mania’s Ugc Writers Campus, a workshop whose participants include Denmark’s Christina Miller-Harris and Israel’s Noy Carmel.

The Jacquemettons will deliver a masterclass and help steer workshops. Lorraine Sullivan, the former director of the Berlin Film School’s Serial Eyes, serves as head of studies, Nicola Lusuardi, a story editor and creative producer for Sky Italy, and Christian Rank, head of drama at Denmark’s Dr, serve as tutors. Trainers are Donna Sharpe, a screenwriter on Zdf/Svt’s ambitious English-Language espionage thriller “West of Liberty,” which received a Berlin Drama Series Days Market Screening, and Michaela Sabo.

Made by France’s Series Mania and Ugc Series, the TV production arm of the Ugc Group, the...