French Studio Magical Society Launches UK Arm Helmed By ‘Saving Mr Banks’ Producer Paul Trijbits

EXCLUSIVE: Leonine Studios’ Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion has hired international doc expert Martin Pieper from public network ZDF.

The stars of Strictly Come Dancing have reportedly been left 'hysterical' in fears that the TV studio is 'haunted' after the first live show. Some of the show's biggest dancing stars including Dianne Buswell, Katya Jones, Nadiya Bychkova and Nancy Xu are reported to have experienced weird goings-on. Strictly is filmed at Elstree Studios in London, but the judges and dancers are said to have been left feeling uneasy after hearing strange noises and having odd experiences that are unexplainable.

The Los Angeles Armenian American community is ramping up its public concerns over a international regional conflict between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijan. 

Former studio executive and prolific producer Paula Weinstein is leaving Tribeca Enterprises, where she’s been chief content officer for the past decade, to jump into political work and help “as many voices as possible be heard.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor DECO Entertainment, founded by Lascelles Stephens and Deborah Cox, will join the co-producing team of the all-new revival of “The Wiz.” The production will launch a national tour on Sept. 23, 2023 in Baltimore before returning to Broadway for a limited engagement in the 2023 t0 2024 season.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent SAN SEBASTIAN — In a first big deal to be announced during this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Madrid-based The Mediapro Studio, one of Europe’s biggest independent and international creation-production-distribution powerhouses, has acquired Cimarrón, the Uruguay, Argentina and Mexico-based production house and services company. Of “highly significant value,” TMS said Friday, the deal looks set to consolidate TMS’ presence in Latin America and beyond.

TNT is playing the long game with its NHL studio team, inking multiyear contract extensions for Wayne Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Anson Carter and Henrik Lundqvist weeks before the 2023-24 season faces off.

A sheriff has been urged to order the extradition of a French Holocaust denier who was hiding out in Scotland.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Studio Ghibli, the iconic Japanese cartoon firm behind Miyazaki Hayao’s recent “The Boy and the Heron” is selling a controlling stake to Japanese broadcaster NTV.

Box to Box, the production company behind Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive To Survive, has cornered the sports docuseries market with its breakout docuseries and similar projects in the world of golf, tennis, cycling and rugby.

AppleTV+.“I liked the oddball dialogue. I liked the relationship, because it’s not really a conventional romantic comedy. It’s really a piece about an unusual friendship,” executive producer Paul Schlesinger told The Post.

“Dancing With The Stars” Season 32 will not feature former host Tyra Banks. The “America’s Next Top Model” host headed the dance competition series for two seasons. However, she’s officially out as host.

EXCLUSIVE: French studio Samka Group has opened an LA hub and snapped up Cartoon Network SVP Tramm Wigzell to oversee the satellite.

K.J. Yossman Finland-based animation studio Gigglebug Entertainment is launching a new adult-focused label and has already begun developing its first project, Variety can confirm.

Angel Studios, the outfit behind one of summer’s biggest hits, Sound of Freedom, will release its next film and first original, The Shift, in theaters Dec. 1.

EXCLUSIVE: Brightburn producer The H Collective is launching H3 Entertainment, a company it says will look to integrate the Metaverse, Web3 and AI into a slate of films.

Kim Kardashian wants Joe Biden ‘s help!

EXCLUSIVE: House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy has produced their first short film with production partner Ellen Spence (The Essex Serpent) at new shingle Second Name Productions.

Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.

It's hard to understand why anyone would ever want to marry Neighbours' ruthless, scheming businessman, Paul Robinson. But back in the late 1980s, Gail Lewis did just that – becoming Gail Robinson in the process – when the pair cooked up the plan solely to fool Japanese businessman Mr Udagawa, thereby securing a deal with him for the Daniels Corporation, where they both worked.The backstory was that Gail had worked with Paul when they were both flight attendants, and they had both become ruthless business people, each with a previous marriage behind them.