France Televisions Orders ‘Lucky Luke’ With ‘Lost Bullet’ Star Alban Lenoir and Period Female-Led Racing Show ‘Rallye 82’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Qatar-based powerhouse BeIN Media Group, a co-owner of U.S. indie studio Miramax, has taken distribution rights across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to live-action pre-school series “Saïd & Anna,” which has been nominated for this year’s Banff World Media Festival‘s Rockie Awards.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor French broadcaster M6 has greenlit a French-language adaptation of Turkish crime drama “Persona,” to be titled “Mémoire Vive.” Instead of a male protagonist, as in the Turkish version, it will have a female main character, Esther Lefevre, to be played by Clementine Celarie, whose credits include “Six Women,” “Betty Blue” and “Two Is a Family.” “Mémoire Vive,” which will comprise four hour-long episodes, is being produced by Calt Studio. It is written by Laurent Burtin (“Astrid: Murder in Paris”), Anne-Gaëlle Daval (“Ladies”) and Hélène Lombard (“Call My Agent!”).

Refresh for latest…: A busy holdover weekend for wide studio releases was led by the trio of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two. And, in a soaring performance, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winner The Boy and the Heron swooped into China helping the market set a new Qingming holiday record. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent France tv distribution has boarded international sales for “Deep Blue Horizons – Exploring the Seas,” a documentary series hosted by journalist and explorer Diego Buñuel. A reboot of France Televisions‘ iconic wildlife format “Thalassa,” the factual title is being unveiled to buyers at Mipdoc in Cannes.

Selome Hailu Netflix is at or near the top of both Nielsen and Luminate‘s streaming rankings every week, but achieved that with some titles that differ from its usual fare during the March 29-April 3 viewing window. As expected, “3 Body Problem” remained the most-watched streaming original series of the week per Luminate with 964.1 million minutes watched (an estimated 3.6 million views) — unsurprising, as the title is the follow-up from “Game of Thrones” helmers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who created the show alongside Alexander Woo.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES — For years, reports of MipTV’s terminal decline were somewhat exaggerated. Now, however, they’re real. On March 26, RX France, organizers of MipTV, announced the launch of Mip London, over Feb.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mediawan Rights has boarded “Kabul,” a highly anticipated thriller series produced by France’s 24 25 Films and Cinétévé. Shervin Alenabi (“Tehran”) and “Euphoria’s” Eric Dane (in a small role) have joined the international cast of the show, which already comprises Jonathan Zaccaï (“Le bureau des legendes”), Thibault Evrard (“The Night of the 12th”), Vassilis Kukalawi (“Kandahar”), Jeanne Goursaud (“Pax Massilia”), Gianmarco Saurino (“L’estate piu Calda”) and Valentina Cervi (“Medici: Masters of Florence”). The series, set against the backdrop of U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent With one week to go before the press conference unveiling the 77th Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, director Thierry Fremaux is pledging to remain zen — despite wrestling with submission delays, reverberations of Hollywood’s double strikes and high expectations after last year’s edition unveiled Oscar winners “The Zone of Interest” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” This year’s edition is already heating up, with George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” confirmed to premiere at the festival and Quentin Dupieux’s “A Second Act,” starring Léa Seydoux, set as the opening night film. In his first and only interview ahead of the lineup reveal, Fremaux tells Variety all about this year’s edition, including his hopes to welcome back Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” and Yorgos Lanthimos with “Kinds of Kindness,” his appeal to Ted Sarandos to lure Netflix back on the Croisette, his stance on France’s new #MeToo reckoning, the presence of female directors at the festival and how geopolitical turmoil may shape the Official Selection. Last year was a milestone year for the Cannes Film Festival. How did you approach this year’s lineup, and how many films have been selected so far? The unanimous feedback we got is that 2023 was a really great year.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux‘s “The Second Act,” a star-studded surreal French comedy headlined by Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, Variety has learned. The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology.

Anna Marie de la Fuente While a number of films have been made about Panama’s Indigenous communities, few are by native filmmakers themselves. To date, perhaps only three Indigenous Panamanian filmmakers have ventured into filmmaking. Duiren Wagua, whose documentary feature debut “Bila Burba” plays at this year’s 12th Panama International Film Festival (IFF Panama), running April 4-7, is hoping to change the status quo.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Mario Van Peebles has been tapped to direct “That’ll Be the Day,” the story of how Buddy Holly and other musicians of the late 1950s helped give birth to rock ‘n’ roll and influence the wider societal and cultural landscape, including the civil rights movement. Music has been central to much of Van Peebles’ work, from his 1991 gangster movie “New Jack City” to his work on “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” which he co-executive produced for Hulu.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Takashi Yamazaki, the Japanese filmmaker behind Oscar-winning smash hit “Godzilla Minus One,” has signed with CAA for representation. “Godzilla Minus One,” on which Yamazaki served as writer, director and VFX supervisor, earned the first-ever nomination and win for a Japanese production in the VFX category at the Academy Awards earlier this month. The film beat strong contenders such as “The Creator,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

EXCLUSIVE: After smashing records in Vietnam, Tran Thanh’s hit romance drama Mai has now set a new milestone for an opening weekend at the international box office, becoming the first Vietnamese title to score a $1M debut outside the home market.

Series Mania was Warner Bros. Discovery’s European roll-out timeline for Max, announced Thursday at the climax of the Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues. The most keenly anticipated session was nearly Series Mania’ Forum first: a Netflix showcase hosted by a confident Larry Tanz who significantly proved the only goal streamer exec to drill down on volume commitment.

Ben Croll Facing greater international competition alongside smart TV interfaces that grow all the more convoluted, France Televisions president Delphine Ernotte issued a clarion call to Gallic broadcasters: It’s time to launch a new shared streaming platform that could offer a single point of access for local programing. ‘We’re stronger together,” said the public broadcasting exec.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In one of the most anticipated keynotes at Series Mania Festival, JB Perrette, president/CEO of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, dropped the launch date for Max across the first nine European countries on May 21.

French commercial broadcast giant TF1 is taking its streaming service international. CEO Rodolphe Belmer told Series Mania on Thursday that TF1+ will start rolling out in the middle of this year before a wider series of launches in 2025.

Holly Jones Premiering in January to a Sundance Dramatic World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, “Sujo” from “Identifying Features” filmmakers Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez has expanded its global reach, closing multiple distribution deals forged by Paris-based Alpha Violet, who heads international distribution. Paris-based Damned Films has picked up the title for France while Twelve Oaks Pictures, Trigon Films, Cinobo and MCF Megacom have swooped on the film for Spain, Switzerland, Greece and Cyprus and Ex-Yugoslavia territories respectively, with Auckland’s Vendetta Films securing rights to the title for the Australia and New Zealand markets.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at Series Mania Festival, Larry Tanz, Netflix‘s VP of EMEA Content, unveiled ambitious new shows commissioned from France and the Netherlands, including an untitled thriller series starring Isabelle Adjani, and “Amsterdam Empire,” a Dutch crime series starring and executive produced by Famke Janssen. The untitled French thriller series revolves around a young mother on the run finds an unexpected opportunity to bounce back by becoming a picker in a prestigious flower farm in Provence. But the mysterious death of the family patriarch of the company casts her under the spotlight as the prime suspect.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After creating a U.K. genre label with Jed Benedict, Studiocanal has forged a partnership with French production company WTFilms to focus on genre films.