‘Charcoal’ Producer Bionica Drives into English-Language Production With ‘The Eyes of Another’ (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Costa Rica’s Juli Films has boarded Nicaraguan Gloria Carrión’s “Pantasma,” building production partner backing for one of the most ambitious titles at a talent packed Locarno’s Open Doors Projects Hub. A stop motion doc-feature, the film will narrate how the Sandinista-Contra War of 1982-1989 in Nicaragua forced Félix, a 17-year-old revolutionary, to become an adult in the battlefield, “Pantasma” is now set up at Costa Rica’s Caja de Luz, Carrión’s label, and Juli Films, whose credits also take in documentaries “Songs from Bosawas” (2014) and “Patrol” (Mountainfilm Festival, 2023).

Marta Balaga Producer Marianne Slot will continue her successful collaboration with Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, following 2018 “Woman at War” with TV show “The Danish Woman” and upcoming feature film “Normal Men.” “It’s a comedy, as you can imagine. Benedikt Erlingsson and a feminist producer – that’s a good combination,” she laughs, recalling their previous film about an environmental activist going rogue. “’Woman at War’ was so joyful to make.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Italian producer Andrea Iervolino, whose credits include Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” “Waiting for the Barbarians” and “Tell It Like a Woman,” has invested around 50 million euros ($55 million) in the construction of Tuscany Film Studios, a technologically advanced studio with the largest virtual set in Italy, and a 360 studio for live-action productions. The production facility, which is being built just outside Florence, will also host a movie theater and luxury hotel with the aim of attracting premium international productions to Italy.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Tiempo Libre, the Lima-based production house behind Peruvian Oscar candidate “Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes),” has boarded “Valves” (“Valvas”), the second feature film from Andrea Hoyos, whose feature debut “Autoerotic,” established her as one of the forthright rising stars of Peru’s still expanding film industry. Verony Centeno, a Peruvian actress with significant experience in film and dance, is attached as the film’s lead. Hoyos is at Locarno as part of its Directors’ Club at Open Doors, its major Latin American project and talent platform.

We got the chance to catch up with fan fave Below Deck star Captain Lee Rosbach!

Lindsey Horan scored a game-saving goal during a high-stakes U.S. versus Netherlands match in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In one of the big deals announced out of Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival, XYZ Films has boarded North American sales rights to “New Life,” John Rosman’s feature directorial debut which is hailed by Fantasia itself as “one of the major discoveries of Fantasia 2023.” “New Life” stars Sonya Walger (“For All Mankind,” “Lost”) and Hayley Erin (“Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” “General Hospital”) and Tony Amendola (“Annabelle,” “Curse of Llorona”). XYZ Films has also dropped the film’s first teaser, shared in exclusivity with Variety, ahead of “New Life’s” world premiere on Aug.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli “Euphoria” and an exec producer on its U.S. version, has been added to Iberseries & Platino Industria’s conference strand – signalling a larger paradigm pivot at one of the biggest film-TV events in the Spanish-speaking world as it expands to encompass an ever more globalized international TV scene.

Doja Cat fans are at their limit.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Brooklyn-based Roller Coaster Road Productions, best known for its documentaries (“History of Food”), has joined Paris’ Mad Films to develop one of the most singular titles hitting the market at this week’s Frontières Market at Fantasia: “High Pressure,” a literally immersive live action underwater survival thriller with a VR viewership option for key scenes.   The producers have initiated talks for James Marsden (“X-Men”) to star in the film. Paris-based Alba Films (“Daisy Quokka,” “The Wishmas Tree”) will handle the film’s theatrical distribution in France. Two-and-a-half minutes of an animated revisualisation of the movie will be presented at Frontières.

EXCLUSIVE: Noah Hawley’s Alien FX series has started production in Thailand but without its stars who are SAG-AFTRA members — including the two leads — due to the ongoing strike.

Naman Ramachandran Ariel Kavoussi, whose acting credits include Netflix’s “Maniac,” Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and film “Catfight,” has wrapped her feature directorial debut “The Next Big One: A Comedy with Three Potential Problems.” In this dystopian sci-fi black comedy, a high-ranking employee at an omnipotent tech firm must help her depressed, activist brother move into their aunt’s house while a hurricane threatens New York city. Principal photography wrapped in Brooklyn, New York. Kavoussi previously directed shorts and some TV. The lead cast includes Molly Bernard (“Younger”), David H. Holmes (“The Penguin”), Deborah Rush (“Strangers with Candy”) and Kevin Corrigan (“The Get Down”).

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After screening work at the Tribeca Film Festival, Rotterdam, and SXSW, NYC filmmaker Laura Moss made their feature directorial debut at Sundance this past January with “birth/rebirth.” And it didn’t disappoint at the festival: The Playlist’s review says “Moss presents the movie as an eerie amalgam, stitching together horror roots with an off-kilter tone, dreamlike framing, and a focus on human sin over monster shenanigans.

There is growing angst about the potential impact of the confirmed SAG strike on upcoming A-list festivals such as Venice and Toronto, but the industrial action is already having a tangible effect on festivals around the world with the Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland having to pull a Q&A tonight with actor Matthew Modine.

BreAnna Bell The CW and the Roku Channel have teamed up to announce their collaboration on “Fight to Survive,” an eight-episode survivalist competition. Hosted by “American Ninja Warrior” alum Akbar Gbajabiamila, the social experiment pits 17 competitors— including former “Survivor,” “Alone,” “Naked and Afraid” and “American Ninja Warrior” contestants —against each other in an attempt to survive 25 days on a remote tropical island while facing brutal conditions to win $250,000. In one of the most intense survival of the fittest competitions ever televised, the competitors battle one another for essential tools and resources in the fight to survive. The first season cast includes Yuda Abitbol, Nathaniel Allenby, Amal Alyassiri,(“Naked and Afraid” Season 9), Dani Beau (“Naked and Afraid” Seasons 4 and 14, “Naked and Afraid XL” Season 1), Missy Byrd (“Survivor” Season 39), Robby Canton, Matthew Clarke, Sarah Danser (“Naked and Afraid” Season 8, “Naked and Afraid: Lost at Sea,” “Naked and Afraid XL” Season 4, “Naked and Ghosted” Season 11), Afften DeShazer (“Naked and Afraid” Season 4), Stephanie Gonzalez (“Survivor” Season 36), Keali’i “K” Ka’apana (“Called to the Wild”), Zane Kraetsch (“Alone: The Beast”), Christina McQueen, (“Naked and Afraid” Season 4, “Naked and Afraid XL” Season 5), Jonathan Monroe (“Naked and Afraid” Season 7), Makani Nalu (“Stranded With a Million Dollars,” “Naked and Afraid” Season 10, “Naked and Afraid XL” Season 6), J Ruiz(“American Ninja Warrior” Seasons 6, 7 and 8; “Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge”), and Libby Vincek (“Survivor” Season 36).

We got a chance to catch up with Chicago P.D.‘s LaRoyce Hawkins!

The UK and Ireland’s true crime specialists have teamed to form an association that establish best production practices in the genre.

Naman Ramachandran Pavan Grover, a writer and producer on the recent action thriller “97 Minutes” starring Alec Baldwin, has spoken out about standing firm with the star in the aftermath of “Rust.” Grover, a Houston-based spinal surgeon with a passion for cinema, debuted as a writer in 2002 with “Unspeakable” starring Dennis Hopper, and served as a producer on “Odd Thomas” (2013), based on Dean Koontz’s novel and directed by Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy”). Grover pitched the idea of “97 Minutes” — a ticking-clock thriller in which a hijacked airplane has 97 minutes before it runs out of fuel — when he met Baldwin serendipitously at Sundance in early 2021. Once Baldwin was attached, the project raised coin via presales, distribution and American and international debt financing, based on the actor’s value in those markets.