FAST Becomes Truly Global at MIPTV 2023

In this series of I'm a Celebrity, set in South Africa, there is no public vote with show favourites at risk of being dropped during tough survival challenges or if fellow campmates vote them off. In tonight's episode (Tuesday May 9) of the spin-off to crown a 'legend' from over the past 20 years, former EastEnders star Joe Swash became the latest jungle favourite to be axed.

Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has rocketed past the $300M mark globally through Monday. At the same time, it will propel The Walt Disney Company across $2B worldwide for 2023 to date with today’s numbers included.

Naman Ramachandran The Malta Film Commission is launching the first-ever Mediterrane Film Festival, a new annual event dedicated to celebrating film and creativity. Running from June 25-30, the festival will take place at Valletta, Malta’s capital, and other locations across the country The festival aims to serve as a platform for Malta to continue building its film brand image worldwide and attract more film business to the islands. Prominent films shot in recent years in Malta include Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind” and Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World Dominion.” The program, which will be revealed during the Cannes Film Festival, will showcase films from each of the MED9 (an alliance of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union member states: Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) nations. Screenings will be accessible to the public, and the featured films will be in the running for various awards.

Filmmaker James Gunn’s Marvel Studios swan song, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, is blasting off this weekend, the de facto start of the summer box office, with an eye at $250M worldwide. Of that $110M is coming from domestic, and $140M from overseas.

EXCLUSIVE: Germany’s top scripted conference Seriencamp is headed for a new home in Cologne this summer, and its line-up is coming together.

Prime Video Picks Up Karl Lagerfeld Doc

Naman Ramachandran Cineflix Rights has acquired international rights to Finestripe Productions‘ feature documentary “The Mysterious Mr. Lagerfeld,” which premiered on BBC Two on April 26, and has sold to Prime Video for Australia, Canada and New Zealand. “The Mysterious Mr Lagerfeld” tells the story of Karl Lagerfeld, the legendary Chanel designer who transformed high fashion into blockbuster, dramatic entertainment over 40 years. The film, directed by Michael Waldman, delves into the life of the charismatic showman who lived a lavish personal life as he earned and spent millions, often courting controversy with his provocative statements. Lagerfeld had an extraordinary entourage, including his beloved cat, Choupette, who is expected to be one of the main heirs of his fortune. The documentary provides insight into the man behind the sunglasses and his legacy.

Canada has brought its Online Streaming Act into law after years of heated debate.

The CW has always had a thing or two for an international acquisition and it seems that this strategy is continuing under new ownership.

‘Philomena’ Writer Martin Sixsmith Sets Next Project

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has powered to $871 million at the global box office as the animated family film barrels closer and closer to the coveted $1 billion mark. By next week, it’ll be the first 2023 release to join the billion-dollar club. Over the weekend, the movie captured the top spot at the domestic and international box office with $58.23 million and $70 million, respectively. So far, “Mario” has generated $434.33 million in North America and $437.5 million overseas. With those ticket sales, the all-audience “Super Mario Bros. Movie” stands as the biggest film of the year at the global, domestic and international box office.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Warner Bros. Intl. Television Prod. (WBITVP) has appointed former Fremantle exec Harry Gamsu as new VP, creative, for format, development and sales. He will report to Andrew Zein, SVP creative, for format development and sales and oversee relations between WBITVP’s international division and the WB’s U.S. TV production units Warner Horizon, Telepictures and Shed. Gamsu will also evaluate formats in WB’s catalogue for international exploitation and format sales to Canada. He succeeds Adam Steinman, who ankled WBITVP earlier this year. In his previous role as VP of non-scripted content acquisitions at Fremantle, Gamsu managed the U.S. content acquisition team and working on factual and entertainment series.

Ahead of the release of “Fast X,” we now know who will be taking the director’s chair for the 11th and potentially final installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Universal Pictures has brought back French action filmmaker Louis Leterrier to direct “Fast & Furious 11,” according to a report from Variety.

Indian actors Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who headline the cast of the Indian spin-off of the upcoming Prime Video show “Citadel,” joined Priyanka Chopra Jonas at the show’s London premiere.

MipTV 2023 is coming to an end, with many international execs and stars having jetted in for the 60th edition of the sales confab and Canneseries events. Despite large portions the Croisette being dug up as construction work went on before the Cannes Film Festival next month, there was a positive feel. That will please organizer RX France, which has faced down of ongoing talk of the event’s reduced status in the post-Covid 19 era. Footfall was notably lighter than pre-pandemic, but a less frenetic pace isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Read on for our key takeaways.

Netflix Orders Season 2 Of ‘Rana Naidu’

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Sydney Film Festival will present ‘Jane Campion – Her Way,’ a retrospective of films by the pioneering director. Campion herself will appear in conversation with David Stratton on June 10 at the 2023 edition of the festival, its 70th anniversary presentation (June 7-18). Held in association with ACMI and the National Film and Sound Archive, ‘Jane Campion – Her Way’ will encompass screenings of all nine of Campion’s feature films, as well as a selection of her short films. The selection will go on to tour the ACMI in Melbourne (June 15 – July 2) and at NFSA in Canberra (July 20-30). “For our 70th edition, we wanted to present a retrospective commensurate with the milestone, reflecting the audacious and boundary pushing filmmaking synonymous with our festival and region. Campion is a ground-breaking filmmaker who has made a profound impact on cinema with her daring and unforgettable films,” said Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley.

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.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Netflix has swooped on “Vortex,” the event drama-fantasy series which recently launched on France Televisions and garnered stellar ratings. The limited series will be available on Netflix in 190 countries starting June 2. The mini-series was produced by Quad Drama, the banner behind “Women at War” and “The Bonfire of Destiny” — a pair of highly successful shows which were jointly commissioned by Netflix and TF1. Set in 2025, the show stars Sisley as Ludovic, the police captain in the French city of Brest who lost the love of his life, Melanie, 27 years prior in a tragic accident. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar CJ ENM Sells Remake Rights to hit Korean Drama ‘Train’ to Firebrand Studios The U.K.’s Firebird Studios has acquired remake rights for hit Korean drama “Train” from entertainment giant CJ ENM. “Train” follows a detective investigating his love’s death who discovers a parallel universe, where his late partner is very much alive. Moving back and forth between the two worlds, he tracks down the truth behind her death in one, while protecting her in the other. “With two unforgettable central characters, ‘Train’ is a love story, a detective show, a journey across the multiverse,” said Firebird Pictures CEO Elizabeth Kilgariff. It’s “a story that defies expectations at every turn and one that we can’t wait to re-tell in a British setting.”