Filmax Takes International Rights to WWII Resistance Drama ‘Ashes in the Sky’

Naman Ramachandran Psychological illusion specialist Derren Brown is returning to U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 for the first time in three years with “Showman,” his recent, interactive one-man live stage show. Brown, who has a long relationship with the broadcaster, was on Channel 4 in 2020 with the special “Derren Brown, 20 Years of Mind Control: Live.” “Showman” is billed as Brown’s most personal and emotional show to date, centering on themes of how life’s difficulties bring people together, and living life attentively. Half a million people were taken through the journey of the show in theaters across the U.K. It concluded a 14-week run at London’s Apollo Theatre earlier this month.

Scarlett Moffatt has given fans a glimpse inside her baby's nursery as she prepares to welcome her first child. The former Gogglebox favourite, 32, is expecting a son with long-term boyfriend Scott Dobinson.

William Earl Powerhouse producer SISTER has been selected as the 2023 recipient of the Variety International Achievement in Television Award, to be presented at global content market MipTV in April.  The award is presented in recognition of leadership and innovation in the international television marketplace with co-founder and chief content officer Jane Featherstone accepting the award in Cannes for all three founders, including executive chair Elisabeth Murdoch and CEO Stacey Snider, and the wider company. Featherstone is a pioneering producer responsible for some of the U.K.’s most ground-breaking and beloved TV shows. As the former chief executive of Kudos and co-chairman of Shine U.K., Featherstone helped to grow the company into one of the country’s most recognized independent outfits. Under her leadership, Kudos produced such acclaimed shows as “Broadchurch,” “Life on Mars,” “Spooks,” “The Hour” and “Utopia’, to the breakout BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning drama sensation “Chernobyl” for HBO and Sky Atlantic with Sister Pictures, the scripted production company Featherstone founded in 2015.  

Apple is said to be interested in bidding for the rights to broadcast English soccer games, according to a new report published this morning.

EXCLUSIVE: 1091 Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to the new romantic drama Under My Skin. The film marks the feature debut of Australian writer-director David O’Donnell and is produced by Raynen O’Keefe and Alex Russell. 1091 Pictures is planning a June 6 on-demand release.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose trilogy of female biopics, “Nico, 1988,” “Miss Marx,” and “Chiara” all launched from the Venice Film Festival, is set to direct the TV series “Fireworks” depicting the struggle of Italy’s partisans against Nazis and Fascists through the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl named Marta. Shooting is set to start on May 8 in the Piedmontese Alps on “Fireworks,” which is being produced by Domenico Procacci’s Fandango and Rome shingle Matrioska. Fandango, who is the show’s lead producer, is in advanced talks with Italian state broadcaster RAI to come on board. Fandango is also talking up the six-episode limited series at the Series Mania confab in Lille, France, where they are seeking prospective international partners.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent DR Sales has boarded “Behind Every Man,” an off-beat restaurant drama from Julie Rudbæk and Jesper Zuschlag, the actors-turned-screenwriters duo whose credits include “Love You For Now” (“29”). Produced by Drive Studios for the Danish broadcaster DR Drama, “Behind Every Man” takes place at a high-end restaurant in Copenhagen and explores power struggles in that hectic work environment. The show’s creators, Rudbæk and Zuschlag, will also take on the lead roles as Michael and Nadia. The cast is completed by prominent Nordic talent, including Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (“Ride Upon The Storm,” “The Killing”) and Camilla Lau (“Those Who Kill,” “Ride Upon The Storm”).

Duran Duran are reportedly in the process of working with former guitarist Andy Taylor on a new album.Taylor – who played with the band on-and-off between 1980 and 2001 – was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer four years ago.He was set to reunite with Duran Duran last year when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame but a setback with his treatment forced him to miss the occasion.Bassist John Taylor has now confirmed that the band are working with the guitarist again. “When he dropped the bomb two days before the Hall of Fame, it was really shocking and terribly sad,” he said (via The Mirror).

Ed Meza @edmezavar Estíbaliz Urresola Solaguren’s celebrated Spanish feature “20,000 Species of Bees” and Kattia G. Zúñiga’s Panamanian drama “Sister & Sister” took the top prizes at the Malaga Film Festival, garnering the Golden Biznagas for Spanish and Latin American pictures respectively.   “20,000 Species of Bees” also won best supporting actress for Patricia López Arnaiz and picked up theSpanish Cinematographic Informers Association’s Feroz Puerta Oscura award. The film’s success follows two awards in Berlin, including a Silver Bear for Sofía Otero for her portrayal of a young girl going through a gender crisis. For Zúñiga, the Golden Biznaga is sure to help further propel “Sister & Sister,” an autobiographical story about two teenage sisters who travel from Costa Rica to Panama in search of their absent father.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French pay TV group Canal+ has ordered a second season of its dazzling historical drama “Marie Antoinette.” BAFTA-nominated Ed Bazalgette (“The Last Kingdom,” “Doctor Who”) will direct the first four episodes. While Deborah Davis (“The Favourite”) still on board as creator, season 2’s writing team is led by Louise Ironside, joined by Charlotte Wolf, Francesca Forristal and Andrew Bampfield. The series, which is being backed by Banijay and Capa Drama (Newen Studios), is expected to start filming in the fall. The new season will continue telling the epic story of the avant-garde young queen, played by Emilia Schüle (“Ku’damm 56/ 63”), with Louis Cunningham (“Bridgerton”) as the king of France, Louis XVI.

Ed Meza @edmezavar This year’s Malaga Festival and its industry section’s Latin American Focus are celebrating Peruvian cinema and talent. A number of Peruvian films are screening in the festival and industry section, including “El Caso Monroy,” by Josué Mendez, and Leonardo Barbuy’s debut feature “Diógenes,” which unspool in the fest’s main section and Zonazine sidebar. As a meeting point for producers and directors from Latin American and investors from Spain and the rest of Europe, the Malaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) serves as a key hub that promotes the co-production of Latin American projects aimed at the international market.

An emotional Brendan Fraser won his first Oscar for The Whale, thanking director Darren Aronofsky “for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale.”

Ed Meza @edmezavar Daniela Fejerman and Elvira Lindo’s “Someone Who Takes Care of Me,” a celebration of actors, their passion, craft and historical legacy, opened this year’s Malaga Film Festival in a fitting tribute to the Spanish entertainment industry.   The film, which screened out of competition, centers on three women whose careers have spanned stage, film and television, actresses of different generations whose fortunes in life have greatly differed and who struggle with untold secrets and unresolved conflicts. Aura Garrido stars as Nora, a young, award-winning actress with a promising future who carefully balances between the two main pillars in her life, her grandmother Lilith (Magüi Mira), who reigned for decades as a renowned theater star, and her mother Cecilia (Emma Suárez), whose career has languished after having achieved some glory in the 1980s, a decade of excess in which she heavily partook.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sideshow and Janus Films have bought North American rights for “Orlando, My Political Biography,” Paul B. Preciado’s film which won four awards at the Berlinale. In “Orlando, My Political Biography,” Preciado sheds light on Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando,” the first novel in which the main character changes sex in the middle of the story.  A century later, Preciado, who is a trans writer and activist, decides to send a film letter to Woolf, telling her that Orlando has come out of her fiction and is living a life she could have never imagined. Preciado organizes a casting and gathers 26 contemporary trans and non-binary people, from 8 to 70 years old, who embody Orlando.

“Morning Joe” pushed back against former President Donald Trump on Monday after he told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend that he is the only 2024 candidate who can “prevent, and very easily, World War III” and that he would settle the Russia-Ukraine war in “no longer than one day.” In response to Trump’s claim, Willie Geist pointed out that one “big reason” why Russia has not taken over Ukraine is because of the “strength of NATO” and the United States and Europe’s support of the organization. “His administration officials and people who worked alongside him said he wanted to pull the United States out of NATO, which would’ve effectively made it dissolve,” Geist added.

Emily Ratajkowski has donned an ultra bold outfit that featured a plant leaf for a top as she made an appearance in Paris for the Loewe fashion show. Modelling for the Courreges Paris Fashion Week show, the 31 year old model and author wore a striking backless top shaped like an anthurium.

Paris Fashion Week is in full swing and one thing we’re hoping to see is Belfast stars Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe reuniting at a show!

Stylized as π, Aronofsky’s debut feature stars Gullette as a mathematician who becomes obsessed with looking for patterns in the universe as part of his quest to find meaning. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 1998, where Aronofsky won his first Director’s Award. The “Black Swan” and “Requiem For a Dream” director went on to win the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.A24 released a trailer, which you can watch here or above, commemorating the re-release, which will be presented in 8K and Dolby Atmos.

When you have a film titled “Pi” and it’s on the verge of celebrating its 25th anniversary, what better day to re-release the film in theaters than March 14, aka Pi Day? It just makes sense. And that’s exactly what’s happening.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s 2,500 dubbing industry workers are on a protracted strike demanding higher wages, less frenzied work conditions, and protection against digital dubbing devices, which they claim threaten their jobs. The country’s unions representing Italian voice actors and dubbing directors have been on the war path since Feb. 21. On Tuesday they announced the strike will continue for at least another week. The unions are demanding that standard contract wages that have remained unvaried for the past 15 years be raised. But they are also clamoring for the right to be able to work at a slower pace, claiming that “current production rhythms are not conducive to [good] quality of work and of life,” according to a statement issued by Italian dubbers’ union ANAD.