‘Drishyam,’ Indian Thriller Set for English-Language Remake

EXCLUSIVE: AGC Television is dropping a hot TV project into this week’s Series Mania market in Lille.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed filmmaker Hong Khaou‘s “Walled City” has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart. Khaou’s debut, “Lilting” (2014), starring Ben Whishaw and Cheng Pei-pei, premiered in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance, winning best cinematography. “Monsoon” (2019), his second feature, starred Henry Golding and premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary.

Non-English language movies stormed the Oscars this year, with five foreign language films taking home statuettes, which is the highest number ever in one ceremony.

TMZ, he got into a shouting match with his own audience. In one video clip posted by an attendee, Swardson can be seen saying he will “rally,” as he rambles and impersonates action star Jason Statham, while the crowd boos.

Ten projects have been selected for the second edition of Seriesmakers, Series Mania’s development lab for feature film directors sidestepping into series production. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Two Spanish female stars who have broken out to huge global audiences in Netflix hits – “Nowhere” and “A Perfect Story” lead Anna Castillo and Ester Expósito, highly prominent in “Elite” in early seasons – are set to star in dramedic vampire thriller “Death to Love,” (“Que muera el amor”), the first series created by “Piggy” director Carlota Pereda, who will also serve as its showrunner. “If there are two actresses you can believe are immortals, with their out-of-this-world allure and talent, it’s Anna and Ester. I can’t wait to explore this world of darkness, joy and Eternal Love with them,” Pereda told Variety.

Adam Sandler reportedly suffered for his art while filming Netflix’s “Spaceman.” Director Johan Renck, 57, claimed Sandler, also 57, was in “significant pain” while shooting scenes in zero gravity for the sci-fi movie, which is now available on the streamer.Sandler “was on wires, which means that he’s kind of fixed to the set, he can’t piss off when he wants to at all,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “He can’t move, he can’t do anything, and also under significant pain, because that’s what happens with this harness and these rigs — they start digging into your flesh, and after 24 days of shooting, that pain is real, I will tell you.”The Post has contacted reps for Sandler for comment.

$10 billion Sony-ZEE merger plans and late February’s confirmation that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (which incorporates Viacom18 and streamer JioCinema) is to tie up most of Disney’s streaming and pay-TV businesses in an $8.5 billion deal, Indian media is set to gain a new market leader. For local and international operators in the world’s most populous nation, the consequences of those tectonic shifts extend across streaming, pay-TV, channels, advertising, sports and content.

BBC Studios has paid £255M ($321M) to acquire ITV‘s shareholding in their joint venture streamer, BritBox International — the biggest ever single transaction for the BBC’s commercial wing.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival will feature a masterclass and career retrospective of UK-Irish writer and director Martin McDonagh.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A rare flagship indie producer left on the French market, Bruno Nahon‘s Paris-based company Unité is preparing to conquer international audiences with “Rematch,” a period psychological thriller chronicling the historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke, “That Dirty Black Bag”), and IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997. The sprawling show, directed by Yan England (“The Red Band Society”) and co-created with Nahon and André Gulluni (“Sam”), was commissioned by Arte in France and has already been sold by Federation Studios to major outlets around the world, including HBO Europe for Spain, Portugal, the Nordics, Iceland, Baltics, Central Europe, Greece and the Netherlands.

Paramount+ may have culled a wealth of international originals in the past couple of weeks but that hasn’t stopped it committing to a UK thriller series set in a world where men live under a strict nightly curfew.

Such has been the chaos in international TV over the past 12 months that you could argue Cineflix Rights’ Head of Scripted, James Durie, is underplaying things when he says it has been “a hell of a year.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In a milestone move, Sony Pictures Television has unveiled “La Academia,” its first Spanish-language scripted series filmed in Spain for Prime Video and 3Cat. “La Academia” is produced for Sony by Brutal Media, commissioned out of Sony Pictures Television’s international production group.

EXCLUSIVE: Jillian Bell (Brittany Runs a Marathon), Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth), Damon Wayans Jr. (Players) and Brianne Howey (Ginny & Georgia) have signed on to star alongside Amy Schumer in Kinda Pregnant, the comedy that Tyler Spindel (The Out-Laws) has been set to direct for Netflix and Happy Madison.

Ellise Shafer Adam Sandler was faced with a new challenge on the set of his upcoming Netflix film “Spaceman“: using wires to appear like an astronaut floating in space. At the film’s Berlin Film Festival press conference on Wednesday, Sandler cheekily reflected on the experience, saying the “wires hurt me.” “The wires were tough because my body’s not the most flexible body. The wires hurt me, they dug into me.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has had a busy EFM, where it’s locked a raft of major deals on “The Devil’s Bath,” a period psychological thriller in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. “The Devil’s Bath” is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy.” Set in rural Austria in 1750, “The Devil’s Bath” stars Anja Plaschg, the up-and-coming singer and composer known as Soap & Skin. Plaschg plays Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotions and limited to chores and expectations.

Jennifer Aniston helped honor her longtime friend Adam Sandler at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards and she also won an award herself!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Highland Film Group has locked key territory deals for sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut” from “A Quiet Place” producer Brad Fuller Pic stars Kate Mara (“A Teacher”), Laurence Fishburne (“John Wick” films) and Gabriel Luna (“Terminator: Dark Fate”). The film wrapped shooting late last year in Ireland. “The Astronaut” has sold to Signature Entertainment for the U.K., Capelight Pictures for Germany, Blue Swan Entertainment for Italy, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, DeAPlaneta for Spain, Spentzos Film for Greece, Cinemania Group for former Yugoslavia, Shoval Film Production for Israel, Falcon Films for the Middle East, Filmfinity for South Africa and Roadshow Films for Australia and New Zealand.

Alex Ritman Saban Films has acquired North American rights to the British thriller “Kill,” starring Paul Higgins (“Slow Horses,” “Line of Duty”), Brian Vernel (“Star Wars: Episode VII – the Force Awakens,” “Dunkirk”), Daniel Portman (“Game of Thrones, The Angel’s Share”), Calum Ross (“Wednesday”), Anita Vettesse (“Outlander,” “Guilt”), James Harkness (“Darkest Hour,” “Phantom Thread”) and Joanne Thomson (“The Victim”). The film, which explores the history of violence, the power of family and the dangers of revenge, marks the feature directorial debut of Rodger Griffiths, who devised the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Rob Drummond. “Kill” follows a hunting trip that turns deadly when three brothers plot to murder their violent, abusive father.