‘Animal’ Producer Plimsoll Productions Promotes Execs Jonathan Jackson, Lucy Bilson to Top Roles (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Arthouse genre distribution company Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired North American rights “Rebel,” a music-filled thriller by the Belgian directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The pair broke into Hollywood with “Bad Boys for Life” starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and are set to direct the sequel for Sony Pictures. “Rebel” was produced by Caviar, the banner behind the Oscar-winning film “Sound of Metal” as well as “War Pony.” It world premiered at Cannes last year in the Midnight section and be theatrically released later this year. “Rebel” follows Kamal, a young man seeking meaning for his life, who leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria. Once there, he is forced to join ISIS and discovers the propaganda, manipulation, and atrocity the militia is responsible for. Back home, Kamal’s brother Nassim is slowly indoctrinated by radical recruiters and persuaded to join Kamal in Syria, while their mother fights to keep what’s left of her family together.

Marta Balaga Nina Kiri, known for her role as Alma on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” has joined the cast of dystopian sci-fi adventure “Absolution.” The title will be brought onto the market at Cannes’ Marché du Film Frontières platform, featuring in its Proof of Concept strand.    The Serbian-Canadian actor is no stranger to genre, having appeared in “The Heretics,” “The Haunted House on Kirby Road” or “Let Her Out.” Soon, she will also be spotted in Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” alongside Jessie Buckley.  Directed by Filip Kovacevic, “Absolution” – a co-production between Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro – takes place in a barren wasteland, far removed from the mythical city of gods, with only one human settlement left. 

Ben Croll After putting the finishing touches on chapters two and three of motion-capture VR experience “Jailbirds” earlier this year, writer/director Thomas Villepoux will next adapt his tale of freedom and confinement into a feature, Variety has learned. Currently in development, the upcoming “Jailbirds” feature will nearly triple the runtime of a nearly finished short that Villepoux and producer Griselda Gentile will bring to Cannes’ Marché du Film next month. Deploying the same motion-capture techniques Villepoux honed on his three VR pieces, both iterations of the “Jailbird” saga will delve even deeper into the work of Belgian cartoonist Philippe Foerster, whose work in the cult comics mag “Fluide Glacial” inspired the recently completed VR series.

Myriam Ullens, a Belgian entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector has died. She was 70 years old. The story is tragic, as she was shot in her car, and her stepson is the suspect.

Megalopolis – with the movie now over 40 years in the making.Coppola’s passion project first came about in 1980 – however, the director didn’t have the funds at the time to make the movie a reality, eventually putting his film on the shelf. The Godfather director finally got the movie off the ground nearly four decades later and has now been completed.The announcement was made on the film’s Instagram page last week, captioned: “That’s a wrap #MegalopolisFilm”.A post shared by Megalopolis (@megalopolisfilm)According to reports, film studios were initially unwilling to support Coppola’s passion project, which led him to fund it alone.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent  Sideshow and Janus Films have dropped the clip for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s “Tori & Lokita” which had a strong opening in New York and Los Angeles on March 24 and is expanding this weekend to additional markets. The latest film by the two-time Palme d’Or winners, “Tori & Lokita” tells the timely story of two immigrants struggling to survive on the margins of society. The humanist drama won the 75th Anniversary Prize at Cannes in 2022. “’Tori Lokita’ is one of the most devastating cinematic experiences I’ve had in a long time,” said Martin Scorsese in a statement sent to Variety. “I’ve always admired the way that Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make movies—their mastery is inseparable from their spiritual and ethical commitment to their characters, trying to make their way through an unforgiving world,” Scorsese continued. He went on to describe the film as “one of the Dardennes’ most harrowing films,” “also one of their greatest.”  

K.J. Yossman “The Rising” Season 2 has been canceled just months before production was due to start, Variety has learned. Cast and crew were gearing up for the Sky Studios show when they were told to down tools two months before principal photography got underway. “It was canceled before they were due to start filming,” a source familiar with the project told Variety. “All the cast and everything [were ready to go] and they just pulled the plug.” Variety understands there were a “number of reasons” the production will not go ahead. The second season, which was set to be titled “Risen,” was due to have a similar premise to the first but with different characters, settings and themes, turning the show into something of an anthology series.

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, providing the voices for Mario and Luigi in the hotly anticipated scored them some real «cool» points with their kids.Pratt and Day sat down with ET's Matt Cohen over the weekend at a press day for the forthcoming animated adventure — based on the iconic video game franchise — and opened up about what their children thought of them being a part of bringing the iconic Mario brothers to the big screen.«We're cool again,» Day said with excitement. «We're back into cool dads status.»Day and his wife, actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis, share one son, 11-year-old Russell, and the star said, «This is a big deal in the Day household. This is no joke this, this gig.»For Pratt, he says his 10-year-old son Jack — whom he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris — was excited, but specifically because he's «a Luigi fan.»«Like he plays and he's like, 'Dad, I own at , I own everybody at.

Angelique Jackson Christina Milian continues her streak of rom-coms at Netflix with the upcoming holiday movie “Meet Me Next Christmas.” The project marks the actor and musician’s third collaboration with Netflix following her popular destination romances, 2021’s “Resort to Love” — which spent four weeks on the streamer’s global top 10 film list — and 2019’s “Falling Inn Love.” Milian will executive produce and star in “Meet Me Next Christmas,” playing Layla, who, in pursuit of a fairytale romance with the man of her dreams, must race through New York City to get her hands on the hottest ticket in town: the sold out Pentatonix Christmas Eve Concert.

BreAnna Bell “Each survivor must determine if the darkness is coming for them or from them,” reads Showtime’s official description for Season 2 of “Yellowjackets” and the writers this season reveal they were not holding back as they embarked on this follow up to their explosive debut. Executive producers Jonathan Lisco and Drew Comins teased the themes of trauma and ptsd explored in Season 2 of Showtime’s thrilling drama “Yellowjackets,” and how it will affect the present-day players at the second season premiere held at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater on Wednesday night. With new cast members including Simone Kessell and Lauren Ambrose, who portray adult Lottie and Van, the teenage and adult yellowjackets crew along with creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson walked the red carpet to the theater for a special screening which was followed by a brief Q&A segment.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Fremantle has acquired a majority stake in Belgium’s A Team Productions the indie outfit behind hit drug gang drama “Patsers” by directorial duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and standout short “ “Baghdad Messi.”  The company, which was founded in 2009, is headed by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé and scored its first major international in 2011 with the short “Land of the Heroes” which won the International Jury Prize at the Berlinale that year. They are also behind short “Baghdad Messi,” by Belgium-based Kurdish director Sahim Omar Kalifa, which won prizes at dozens of international fests and was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014.

Fremantle Acquires Majority Stake In Belguim’s A Team ProductionsFremantle has acquired a majority stake in A Team Productions (ATP). Based in Belgium, A Team Productions was founded in 2009 and is led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé. The company is behind the 2011 short film Land of the Heroes, which won the International Jury Prize at Berlin in 2011. A Team also produced the short Baghdad Messi, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014. Other credits from the outfit include Patser (Gangsta) by filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Later this year, A Team will release the feature-length film Baghdad Messi and the high-end fiction series Alter Ego. “I have long admired Kobe, Hendrik, and the whole ATP team’s work,” said Dave Heuten, CEO Fremantle Belgium. “I am excited to be going on this journey with them, finding synergies and developing new content together – I can’t wait to work with this brilliant team and achieve great things together.”

While he started out as a member of the alt-country group Drive-By Truckers for six years, American singer-songwriter Jason Isbell has now won four Grammy Awards and become a beloved star in his own right. Isbell is famous for a lot of things, but maybe in the movie world, you may know him for writing the soulful, melancholy ballad “Maybe It’s Time” from the “A Star Is Born,” movie and soundtrack where it was performed by actor Bradley Cooper‘s character, Jackson Maine.

Uncork’d Entertainment has acquired the prison break action film “Breakout,” which features the late Tom Sizemore in one his final roles. The film is set to release in April.

A project from Finland and a Belgium-Uruguay co-production have won the Seriesmaker initiative here at Series Mania.

EXCLUSIVE: Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place Part II and Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy is embarking on his next project with the feature adaptation of Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novel Small Things Like These. Murphy will star in and produce the film that’s been greenlighted by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity which will finance the project. Principal photography is underway in Ireland.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Mobile 101, a Nokia Story,” a series about the dramatic rise and fall of the Finnish phone company, has been acquired by Disney+ and Walter Presents in multiple territories. The series was produced by Finland’s Rabbit Films and is represented in international markets by the outfit. The six-part series, which sheds light on how a small Finnish company specializing in rubber boots became the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer at the turn of the 21st century, has been picked by Disney+ Italy, Netherlands and Belgium. Walter Presents, meanwhile, bought it for the UK & Ireland. RUV Iceland has also acquired season one of the series.

, Jennifer Garner is a welcome addition to the cast of the Starz comedy as Evie, a film producer who falls for Henry (Adam Scott) and starts spending more and more time with him while he spends time working for the titular catering company. By episode four, «KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau,» which debuted on Friday, their relationship is in full swing when the two decide to spend his latest shift working a pre-concert Malibu luau on mushrooms. But they're not the only ones who decide to take the hallucinogenic, with the rest of the team -- played by Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoë Chao -- joining in on the hilariously unexpected adventures that follow, especially for Garner's character, whose emotional ups and downs allow the 50-year-old actress' comedic chops to really shine. «It was terrifying,» Garner tells ET's Will Marfuggi about learning what she had to do in the episode.

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Naman Ramachandran Distribution and production company Signature Entertainment has revealed four new executive roles across the U.K. and U.S. Kristin Ryan joins Signature’s London office as marketing director. Ryan was most recently head of home entertainment marketing at Studiocanal where she led the home entertainment releases of both films in the Paddington franchise, “The Railway Children Return” and “Another Round.” She had previous stints in the marketing departments at eOne and Momentum Pictures. Meanwhile, after seven years in the U.K. marketing team, most recently as acting head of U.K. marketing, Emilie Barra is moving into a new role as head of international marketing. Barra will look after the marketing for international acquisitions and distribution as well overseeing marketing for the company’s in-house productions.