EXCLUSIVE: The 2006 film Starter for 10, which helped launch the big-screen careers of James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Dominic Cooper and James Corden, is being developed into a stage musical.
31.03.2023 - 10:13 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: What started as a short open letter about working conditions in the UK unscripted sector has turned into a full-on campaign with backing from more than 1,000 people and the nation’s largest broadcasting union.
Off the back of the open letter signed by more than 1,000 TV industry workers in less than a week, Bectu has today launched a campaign to establish an agreed set of terms and better regulation of working practices for UK freelancers working across entertainment, docs and factual.
The union’s desire is to bring UK unscripted TV working conditions more in line with scripted, which recently saw a new deal brokered between Bectu and indie trade body Pact – although this took almost a year of negotiations.
Inspired by the open letter, which was penned by Inside The Worlds Toughest Forces producer-director Anna Collins, Bectu is calling for the standardization of employment conditions across the unscripted sector, including a maximum 10-hour working day on shoots, scheduled rest breaks and protections to ensure freelancer rates are not reduced to supplement production budgets. The open letter also called for a pre-agreed payment if a freelancer breaks contract through no fault of their own and changes to the rules around ‘prep and wrap’, which governs what happens before and after a shoot.
UK unscripted has long been seen as a working conditions wild west and the labor is majority freelance. But using drama and comedy gains as a blueprint, multiple pressure groups have sprung up in recent years seeking standardization and an end to poor working conditions. The likes of the Production is Broken group has recently been lobbying super-indies.
For too long, unscripted TV freelancers have “battled unsustainable
EXCLUSIVE: The 2006 film Starter for 10, which helped launch the big-screen careers of James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Dominic Cooper and James Corden, is being developed into a stage musical.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rakuten TV has announced the launch of two new owned and operated FAST channels, bolstering its role as a curated channel programmer in the free ad-supported streaming TV services space. The channels, announced during MipTV’s FAST Summit, will see the growing pan-European video-on-demand streaming service enter the TV series landscape by launching a reality/factual entertainment channel in the U.K. and crime series channels across German speaking territories and in France, Italy and Spain. Rakuten’s Real channel which was launched in the U.K. on April 12, will feature shows such as culinary bootcamp series “Worst Cooks in America”; reality show “My New BFF”, with Paris Hilton; and “Undercover Boss.”
Limp Bizkit have announced a massive outdoor gig in London’s Gunnersbury Park for this summer – find full details below.After a show at the capital’s Wembley Arena tonight (April 17), the nu-metal icons will return to London on August 13 to play the massive show.Supporting them at the new gig will be Pendulum, KennyHoopla, Joey Valence & Brae and Deijuvhs.Others to play the summer series at Gunnersbury Park include Boygenius, who will play one of their first UK gigs at the venue alongside MUNA and Ethel Cain.More 2023 shows at the venue come from Kygo, Joji and N-Dubz.Tickets for Limp Bizkit’s new show go on sale on Friday, April 21 from 10am BST.You can buy your tickets here.JUST ANNOUNCED // @limpbizkit will play a HUGE London show with very special guests @Pendulum, @KennyHoopla, @JoeyValence & Brae and @Deijuvhs this August.Tickets for the Gunnersbury Park go on sale at 9am this Friday via
ITV is launching a brand-new true crime drama that recalls the manhunt for Raoul Moat, a huge search that involved a bizarre intervention from a footballing legend. Premiering on Sunday (April 16), The Hunt for Raoul Moat shines a light on the human tragedies that lay behind Britain’s biggest manhunt, told through the eyes of those who sought to bring a violent killer to justice.
Tesco has reduced the price of a key shopping essential, with other retailers following suit.
EXCLUSIVE: Hyde Park has a big package here heading into the Cannes Market: The feature take of Kevin Barry’s New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year, Night Boat to Tangier starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Negga. The Ashok Amritraj studio will be presenting the James Marsh-directed project to global buyers at the Cannes Marche Du Film next month, with the Oscar-winning filmmaker and Fassbender in tow. Barry is adapting the screenplay from his novel.
As Brits up and down the country prepare to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III next month, the official maker of UK coins The Royal Mint have revealed a range of commemorative coins to mark the momentous event.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Leading European distributor Global Screen, part of the Telepool group, will launch premium quality spy drama “Davos” at MipTV. The six-part series is inspired by real events that occurred in the early days of the secret services in Europe. Available to buyers for the first time at MipTV, “Davos” boasts a stellar cast headed by Dominique Devenport (“Sisi”), David Kross (“The Reader”), Jeanette Hain (“Never Look Away”), Max Herbrechter (“Rauhnächte”), Sunnyi Melles (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Stipe Erceg (“Vienna Blood”). World War I is ravaging Europe. By contrast, Davos, the aristocratic spa town in the Swiss Alps, seems like an oasis of peace. But behind the scenes, neutral Switzerland takes center stage in a relentless battle between the secret agents of the world powers. Young nurse Johanna Gabathuler unexpectedly gets caught between the fronts: to win back her illegitimate child, she starts to work as a spy for the German secret service – and suddenly becomes the tipping point in a risky plan that decides over war and peace.
EXCLUSIVE: A big opportunity for drama writers from the north of England is coming.
The Work and Pensions Select Committee has launched a new inquiry to look at whether working age benefit levels in the UK are adequate to meet the needs of the people claiming. The cross-party Committee of MPs, chaired by Sir Stephen Timms MP, will ask if it is possible for the UK Government to reach consensus around what an ‘adequate’ benefits system would look like and how it would operate.
BreAnna Bell “Murder Mystery 2” was Netflix’s top film title after its March 31 debut. In its first three days of availability, the film took the title for Netflix’s second biggest opening weekend for a comedy film with over 42 million views. The sequel starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston earned 64.42 million hours viewed total during the viewing window and also appeared in the Top 10 in 91 countries. The first film in the franchise also joined the list of film titles at No. 2 with 24.7 million hours viewed. On the English TV side, “The Night Agent” continued to stay ahead of the competition taking the No. 1 spot for the second week. The action-thriller has pulled in an 385 million total hours viewed in its first two weeks and now has more than 47 million views. Netflix calculates total views by taking the total hours viewed and dividing that by the show’s runtime hours, which in this case was 8.2 hours. The streamer also recently renewed the series for a second season.
Ahead of the Easter bank holiday, budget supermarket Lidl has confirmed it will be closing for part of the long weekend. The retailer is expecting a rise in customers over the weekend - and has now revealed the best time to shop to bag a bargain.
Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records who launched the recording careers of Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Pretenders, died Sunday of cancer in Los Angeles. He was 80.
Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst has debuted another striking new look as the band played their first gigs of 2023 this week.On Thursday (March 30), the band began their rescheduled UK and European tour in Munich, playing hits from across their career.The show also saw a new wardrobe for Durst, who surprised fans in the summer of 2021 by debuting a dramatic new look that defined the band’s most recent era.While that style revolved around long lighter-coloured hair and a new handlebar moustache, the start of the new tour saw Durst embrace a country aesthetic, wearing dungarees and sporting a short-sleeved shirt, a red beanie and a long beard.See the new look below alongside footage from the Munich show.A post shared by Fred Durst (@freddurst)Loving Fred Durst's new look pic.twitter.com/fYBOqZYZmk— Scott Colothan (@scottcolothan) March 31, 2023Limp Bizkit were initially set to return to the UK last September for a run of dates, including a two-night billing at the O2 Academy Brixton in London. However, those gigs were ultimately postponed due to Durst’s “personal health concerns”.Over the summer, Limp Bizkit told their fans that the frontman had been advised to take an “immediate break from touring” on medical grounds, and said the dates would be rescheduled.After two concerts in Germany, Limp Bizkit are due to make stop-offs in Vienna, Prague, Frankfurt and Tilburg before visiting Manchester on April 12.Tickets for the original 2022 dates remain valid – you can find any remaining tickets (UK) here and see the dates below.APRIL 202312 – Manchester Academy, Manchester 13 – O2 Academy, Birmingham 17 – Wembley Arena, LondonLimp Bizkit released their sixth and latest studio album, ‘Still Sucks’, in October 2021.
EXCLUSIVE: The Late Late Show with James Corden maker Fulwell 73 has launched its first UK label, a factual production outfit with Blowing LA EP Sheldon Lazarus.
EXCLUSIVE: The BFI is to involve Bectu with its Skills Task Force after being slammed for the “disappointing” decision to initially exclude the union.
As the 2023 Amazon Spring Sale gallops into the final furlough, the online retail giant is still expected to pump out flash deals until it concludes at 11.59pm tonight (Wednesday, March 29) but with thousands of deals to choose from it can be hard to know where to look.
May 2023 marks 20 years since the release of Girls Aloud's debut album Sound of the Underground.
The Money Saving Expert website has officially named the best chocolate Easter egg for 2023 - and the winner beat out big name brands such as Lindt and Thorntons.
HYBE Labels subsidiary ADOR, home to K-pop girl group NewJeans, have opened online auditions for a potential new boyband.Today (March 28), ADOR unveiled several posters and videos on social media and YouTube announcing its ‘The Real Hype Boys’ audition. The label will be accepting online auditions on ador.world from now until 1pm KST on April 14.An unnamed male trainee as well as the members of NewJeans feature in the promotional video for the auditions, which details the online application period and host countries where in-person auditions will take place.Per ADOR’s guidelines, the auditions are open to boys born between 2004-2012.