Erin Lee Carr Talks Kim Wall True-Crime Doc and Revisiting the Michelle Carter Story (Exclusive)

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLess than two years after joining France Televisions, former Canal Plus executive Manuel Alduy has contributed to bolstering the French public broadcaster’s roster of international series with shows such as “Bardot,” a mini-series biopic of Brigitte Bardot, and “L’Insoumise” about Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker ever. Ahead of France Televisions’ press conference at Series Mania, Alduy said the broadcaster’s first-look initiative with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has yielded several prestige projects, including “Bardot.” The EBU represents 113 organizations across the 56 countries, including the BBC in the U.K., ARD in Germany, DR in Denmark, SVT in Sweden, Rai in Italy and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIn the 16 years since “An Inconvenient Truth” became an unlikely box-office sleeper and Oscar winner, the climate change documentary has grown into its own distinct subgenre — one that has to devise increasingly eye-catching ways to net the attention of viewers who may have heard the message before, but have yet to really internalize it. The Al Gore-led PowerPoint presentation of Davis Guggenheim’s film looks positively quaint beside the grandiose, you-are-there spectacle of “Into the Ice,” which keeps the science simple and instead concentrates on ravishing imagery to remind us of a grim, inarguable and oft-repeated reality: The ice caps are melting, and we are barely doing a thing about it.

Sam Heughan has stolen hearts across the world for his charming portrayal of Highland warrior Jamie Fraser in Outlander.

Lise Pedersen Organizers at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which is going ahead in-person for the first time in three years, are taking a stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine with a dedicated program of seven specially curated films.Spirits may be high in the Danish capital at the prospect of finally having a live event after two editions that were pushed online due to the COVID-19 pandemic but, as the fest’s artistic director Niklas Engstrøm stressed, “All our thoughts go to Ukraine and the many refugees who are currently being forced to leave their homeland.”As the event’s programmer, Mads Mikkelsen, explained to Variety, organizers had already put together a selection of films from or about Ukraine when they closed the program in late January.

Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has shared a video of himself pranking drummer Danny Carey with a dildo during a recent concert in the US.The clip, which you can view below, sees the frontman crouching down behind Carey’s drum kit with a dildo, which he uses to replace the drummer’s gong mallet.When Carey reaches for his mallet, he instead grabs the plastic phallus, and hits the gong with it.It is the second time in the last month the frontman has pranked his bandmate.A post shared by Tool (@toolmusic)He previously shared a humorous clip of himself trying to play Jenga behind Carey.However, Keenan’s game was ruined after Carey smashed his giant gong at the back of his drum set, causing the frontman to jokingly yell: “What the fuck! What’s wrong with you?!”Last Friday, Tool shared their first video in 15 years with ‘Opiate²’, a re-imagined and extended version of Tool’s 1992 single ‘Opiate’, with both the song and video marking the 30th anniversary of the EP of the same name’s release.Meanwhile, the band are due to hit the road for their UK and European tour next month which takes in shows in Manchester, Birmingham and two nights at London’s O2 Arena.

Sasha Urban editorWhen it comes to acting roles, few compare to Noomi Rapace’s history of switching things up. Rapace is fluent in five languages, and the last two years have seen her acting in Icelandic (“Lamb”), Norwegian (“The Trip”), English (“The Secrets We Keep”), and even without any speaking at all, as her shape-shifting witch character does in the recent release “You Won’t Be Alone.”Now, Rapace is celebrating a homecoming with Adam Berg’s “Black Crab,” releasing on Netflix this Friday.

Shalini Dore Features News EditorThe Danish film “Flee,” with Oscar nominations in animated, documentary and international film categories, tells the tale of Amin, a gay refugee from Afghanistan who is separated from his family.Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says that when his school friend opened up about his childhood, the helmer had intended to make a short, which grew to feature length as more details were spilled. “It really started out as a conversation between two friends,” he says.“We are exposed to so many of these stories in the media so I think a lot of people, me at least, I have a tendency to block things out because it becomes too much,” he says.

Manori Ravindran International EditorChannel 4 has renewed the Lesley Sharp-fronted crime thriller “Before We Die” — an English adaptation of a Swedish series, produced by the team behind Walter Presents.Sharp will return as detective Hannah Laing, who joins forces with maverick detective Billy Murdoch (Vincent Regan) in a desperate bid to protect her son Christian (Gibson). Season 2 won’t follow the same storyline as its Swedish counterpart, which aired in 2019, but will see Hannah pitched directly against Dubravka, played by Kazia Pelka, the matriarch at the head of the Mimica Croatian crime family.The adaptation is produced by Eagle Eye Drama, which was formed in late 2019 by Walter Iuzzolino, Jo McGrath and Jason Thorp, the creative team behind the global drama company Walter Presents.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentViaplay has ordered a third and final season of “Face to Face,” the popular Danish psychological crime drama starring Lars Mikkelsen (“The Witcher,” “House of Cards”). “Face to Face” is created and directed by Christoffer Boe (“Warrior,” “A Taste of Hunger”) and produced by Miso Film.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorFeature-length documentary “Outside,” directed by the Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba, has debuted its trailer, ahead of its premiere in the main competition section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).The film tells the story of the turbulent youth of Roma, a 13-year-old street boy neglected by his family and the state, who becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014.

Jonathan Cohen On paper, the prominent use of sensitive American singer-songwriter music from the 1970s and ‘80s in a modern Norwegian romantic comedy might seem rather incongruous, if not downright anachronistic. But five decades on from some of their biggest successes, Art Garfunkel, Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson and Christopher Cross are back on the big screen helping soundtrack Danish/Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s acclaimed “The Worst Person in the World,” which is nominated for best original screenplay and best international feature film at the upcoming Academy Awards.Co-written by Trier and longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt, “Worst Person” has already won best foreign language film from the New York Film Critics Circle and garnered Renate Reinsve the best actress award at Cannes.

is filmmaker Erin Lee Carr’s latest, must-see true-crime documentary. The two-part, HBO series chronicles the events leading up to the 2017 submarine murder of accomplished journalist Kim Wall, whose body was dismembered and left at sea by eccentric entrepreneur Peter Madsen. One person involved in the investigation of the case to unexpectedly emerge as the series’ most fascinating personality is Royal Denmark Navy Lt.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento International has sold Ursula Meier’s drama “The Line” to major markets, including the U.S. with Strand Releasing, on the heels of its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.A poignant study of acceptance and delicate family bonds, “The Line” stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“La Fracture”) and Stephanie Blanchoud (“Ennemi Public”) as a mother and daughter whose turbulent relationship and explosive fight lead to a retraining order.

Naman Ramachandran London-based documentary specialist Dogwoof has deepened its involvement with “Copa ’71,” directed by Rachel Ramsay (“Clarkson’s Farm”) and James Erskine (“Billie”). Dogwoof financed the project’s development through its production vehicle TDog and will now take it to market at the upcoming CPH:FORUM, CPH:DOX’s financing and co-production event, in March.“Copa ’71” recounts the story of the 1971 Women’s World Cup, one of the most successful female soccer tournaments of all time, where lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner and over 100,000 fans turned the historic Azteca stadium in Mexico City into a cauldron of noise while a fawning media treated the players like rock stars.

With his film Flee, which recently scored a historic trifecta of Oscar nominations in the categories of Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature, Jonas Poher Rasmussen cleverly fused two cinematic mediums to help his longtime friend tell a painful, personal story that for decades he kept to himself, while maintaining his anonymity.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThe Mediapro Studio has unveiled first key cast for Season 2 of crime thriller “The Head,” one of its biggest international hits, with John Lynch (“The Terror,” “In the Name of the Father”) and Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scotts,” “Clique”) reprising their lead roles as biologist Arthur Wilde and young doctor Maggie Mitchell.They will be joined by the Spanish actor of Armenian-Lebanese origin Hovik Keuchkerian who shot to fame playing Moscow in “Money Heist,” as well as Ireland’s Moe Dunford (“Vikings”), Sweden’s Josefin Nelden (“The Restaurant”) and British thesp Olivia Morris (“Hotel Portofino”). More substantial name cast will be announced in upcoming weeks.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFremantle has acquired a 70% stake in Italy’s Lux Vide, the prominent TV production company that has been steadily raising its standing in the international arena, most recently with the high-end TV series “Medici,” “Devils” and “Leonardo.”The long-gestating Lux Vide deal, which closed on Thursday, marks the latest acquisition by the expanding RTL-owned production and distribution giant. Fremantle, which has been on a buying spree, now owns or controls a panoply of independently operated production shingles across Europe, as well as in Israel, Australia and the U.S.Their stated goal is to invest and grow in the global scripted arena where, by their count, Fremantle delivered 81 scripted shows in 2021, including BBC One hit “The Responder,” HBO Max series “Lust,” from Sweden’s Miso Film, and Italian dystopian drama “Anna.” Previous Fremantle investments include acquiring the 12 former Nent Studios production labels in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark (now rebranded This is Nice Group); Australian-American television production company Eureka Productions; U.K.-based Naked Entertainment; French label Kwai; and Israel’s Abot Hameiri, among others.The Lux purchase also marks Fremantle’s third acquisition of a production company in Italy, where the company already owns Wildside and The Apartment, the outfit behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated “The Hand of God.” Fremantle also recently inked a pact with Italy’s Cinecittà involving the long-term rental of six sound stages at the iconic Rome studios.Founded in 1992 by Ettore Bernabei, who was a long-time former chief of Italian pubcaster RAI, Lux Vide has since been headed by his progeny, Matilde and Luca Bernabei.