Brendan Fraser Actioner ‘Professionals’ Finds Global Distribution With Rainmaker Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian sales company Vision Distribution has scored sales on soccer icon doc “My Name Is Francesco Totti” by Roman director Alex Infascelli (“S Is for Stanley”) to Sky for the U.K.

Henry Winkler is sharing his family's story about how they smuggled heirlooms out of Germany during the Holocaust.

Manori Ravindran International EditorDeepa Mehta’s latest film, an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s Sri Lanka-set coming-of-age novel “Funny Boy,” has been picked up by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing, and will land worldwide on Netflix this December, Variety can reveal.The Oscar-nominated “Earth” and “Midnight’s Children” director wrote the screenplay for the film alongside Selvadurai, whose debut 1994 novel is set in Sri Lanka during the 1970s and 1980s and was ground-breaking in its

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSony Pictures Television has picked up exclusive format and global distribution rights to “Medici” producer Lux Vide’s hit Italian medical drama “Doc – Nelle Tue Mani”.Under the deal, SPT Studios will develop a U.S. adaptation of the show, which has scored record ratings on Italy’s public broadcaster RAI.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Mama Weed,” Jean-Paul Salomé’s comedy starring Oscar-nominated actor Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”) as a French-Arabic translator working for the anti-drug squad in Paris, has been thriving at the box office in France, Germany and Austria. “Mama Weed,” based on Hannelore Cayre’s popular novel, follows the story of Patience Portefeux (Huppert), who gets embroiled in a failed drug deal, inheriting a pile of marijuana.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorBilly Leroy, the star of Travel Channel’s Baggage Battles, is to front a global series for Discovery in which he opens a vintage, antiques, and collectibles store in Brooklyn, New York.Billy Buys Brooklyn (working title) is produced by MY Entertainment and will stream on dplay, as well as play on linear channels including DMAX UK, Italy, Spain and Germany, and Discovery Channel US and Europe.The show follows Leroy as he opens Billy’s Antiques & Props and uses

Christopher Vourlias Chile’s Oscar-winning Fabula Films (“A Fantastic Woman”), the company co-founded by producer Juan de Dios Larraín and director-producer Pablo Larraín (“Jackie,” “No”), is producing “The Sorcerers,” which will be presented this week during the Rome-set film and TV market Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (MIA).

Ed Meza @edmezavarReal Film, the Berlin-based co-producer of the hit Emmy-winning Netflix series “Unorthodox,” looks set to continue its recent success with a slew of hard-hitting fact-based series.The Studio Hamburg subsidiary is focusing on German-language productions aimed at the international market, including a take on one of the biggest automotive industry scandals in history and an exploration of Germany’s role in international money laundering.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBeta Film has closed multiple pre-sales deals on “Atlantic Crossing,” the prestige Norwegian period drama starring Sofia Helin (“The Bridge”) as Crown Princess Märtha, and Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks”) as U.S. President Franklin D.

Leo Barraclough Senior International Correspondent“Enfant Terrible,” which received the Cannes 2020 label, is set to start its international journey with its first distribution deals announced as it joins the international festival circuit. The film, directed by Oskar Roehler, is about the life of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.The German film, which received its local festival premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival, was released on home turf by Weltkino on Oct.

ZDF Enterprises, the highly active international production and sales arm of German public broadcaster ZDF, has sealed a major multi-territory deal with Viasat World’s Epic Drama channel on “Dead Still,” continuing the macabre dramedic mystery series’ rollout in much of the world.Backed by U.S.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe life of Germany’s first gentleman will be the focus of a new comedy series currently in development at Berlin-based Readymade Films, maker of local hit “MaPa.”Joachim Sauer, a quantum chemist and professor of physical and theoretical chemistry, is also the husband of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Manori Ravindran International EditorArthouse streaming service Mubi has snapped up rights to Toronto International Film Festival title “Shiva Baby” for the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, India, Turkey and Latin America.Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Emma Seligman, “Shiva Baby” follows a young bisexual Jewish woman at a shiva — a mourning tradition in the Jewish community — at which she must confront her over-achieving ex-girlfriend as well as her sugar daddy, his girlfriend and

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios sells Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe”; ZDF commissions natural history series “Africa From Above”; “Married at First Sight” gets live wedding; ITV orders game-show format “Game of Talents”; travel format “Heads and Tails” goes to Spain; Jellyfish promotes Natalie Llewellyn; German Film Office opens in New York; and Monte-Carlo TV Festival sets 2021 dates.BBC Studios has secured several global pre-sales for Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen‘

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe first two episodes of Sky’s Euro series Romulus, about the events that led to the foundation of Rome, will launch at the Rome Film Festival next month. Produced by Sky, Cattleya and Groenlandia, the show comes from director Matteo Rovere, marking his TV debut, and will star Andrea Arcangeli, Marianna Fontana and Francesco Di Napoli.

David Harbour, Noah Jupe, Kieran Culkin and Brendan Fraser have joined the all-star cast of Steven Soderbergh’s heist thrillerNo Sudden Move. The casting comes as the HBO Max and Warner Bros.

Dave McNary Film ReporterHBO Max and Warner Bros. Pictures are back in production on Steven Soderbergh’s period crime drama “No Sudden Move,” with David Harbour, Noah Jupe and Brendan Fraser joining previously announced stars Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro.The cast also includes Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw and Julia Fox.

Also Read: Steven Soderbergh to Lead Directors Guild Committee on Restarting Production With Social DistancingEd Solomon wrote the film that is set in Detroit in 1955 and is a heist thriller about a group of small time criminals who are tasked with stealing a simple document, only to discover that its ultimate purpose is far more complicated once their plans go horribly wrong.Casey Silver is producing “No Sudden Move,” and the movie is being made under Soderbergh’s overall deal with HBO Max.“The

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, Fremantle passes 130 territories sold for Samuel L. Jackson’s “Enslaved,” Lineup Industries is set to license NHK’s formats slate, Red Sea International awards more than $1 million in grants, and Walter Presents nabs five Nordic series.Samuel L. Jackson’s Epix docuseries “Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade” will air in 130 territories after Fremantle closed deals including France’s Histoire TV, History in Germany and Movistar Plus

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMPM Premium has closed a raft of deals on “Ghosts,” a Turkish drama by emerging helmer Azra Deniz Okyay (“Hayaletler”) which won the Grand Prize at Venice’s Critics Week. The movie was just picked up for Spain by ConUnPack in a deal that was closed during the San Sebastian Film Festival.