Kaleidoscope Film Distribution Acquires Global Sales Rights for George Michael Documentary, Lucy Lawless’ Directorial Debut ‘Never Look Away’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Fundamental Films chairman Mark Gao and his CEO Ivy Hua are in Cannes to reconnect with the international industry as part of the Shanghai-based company’s return to international acquisitions and production. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hit crime thriller “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” received 13 nominations for the upcoming Taipei Film Festival’s Taipei Film Awards. These include nominations for best feature, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actress, and best supporting actor.

Jamie Lang Chilean actor Alfredo Castro (“The Club,” “Tony Manero”) will make his directorial debut with the psychological thriller “Los Trabajadores de la Muerte,” which translates to “the workers of death.” Based on Diamela Eltit’s novel of the same title, the film is penned by Castro and Pablo Valledor. Chile’s Storyboard Media and Les Films de l’Âge d’Or in France co-produce.

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution announced today the acquisition of North American rights to the upcoming psychological thriller Detained directed and co-written by Felipe Mucci (Two Deaths of Henry Baker) and Jeremy Palmer and starring Abbie Cornish (Amazon’s Jack Ryan, Bright Star, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Laz Alonso (Amazon’s The Boys, Avatar, Fast & Furious).

EXCLUSIVE: A third season of Acorn TV and Channel 5 detective drama Dalgliesh has begun filming in Northern Ireland.

EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Northern American rights for Joachim A. Lang’s historical drama Goebbels and The Führer (aka Führer and Seducer) for a fall 2024 theatrical and digital release.  

Golf star Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce from his wife Erica on the eve of the US PGA Championship at Valhalla. Court records show the Northern Irish star submitted a “petition for dissolution of marriage” in Palm Beach County in Florida on Monday, 14 May. The pair met in 2012 when Erica was working for the PGA of America at the Ryder Cup after she helped him get a police escort to the course after he misread his tee time for the Sunday singles.

Jamie Lang Uruguay’s José Ignacio International Film Festival (JIIFF) has launched the Pfeffer del Sur Fund, a $50,000 fund dedicated to supporting Ibero-American film projects. The Pfeffer Del Sur Fund, established by JIIFF’s primary benefactors, María and John Pfeffer, will be launched in January 2025 as part of the festival’s 15th anniversary edition. It will be awarded to one of the projects selected from the JIIFF Lab, part of the Working JIIFF industry program.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed first sales and released the first-look image from Oscar-nominated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland‘s biopic of the Czech novelist Franz Kafka, “Franz.” The project has sold to September Film in Benelux, Filmin in Spain, Vertigo in Hungary, MCF Megacom for the former Yugoslavia and Movies Inspired in Italy. The film was previously acquired for theatrical distribution by Bac Films Distribution in France, X Verleih in Germany and Austria, Bioscop in Czech Republic and TVP in Poland.

Addie Morfoot Contributor MTV Documentary Films has acquired U.S. rights to Shiori Ito’s “Black Box Diaries.” The docu, about the investigation of the director’s own alleged sexual assault, debuted in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has been an audience favorite at this year’s CPH:DOX, South by Southwest and Hot Docs film festivals. MTV will theatrically release “Black Box Diaries” this fall, beginning in October at New York’s Film Forum.

We have more news about Peacock‘s renewal and cancellation lineup for their 2024 TV season.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Pan-Arab distributor Mad Solutions is expanding operations by setting up Mad World, a Dubai-based company dedicated to selling Arab movies internationally that will officially launch in Cannes. Touted as Arab cinema‘s first global sales outfit, Mad World segues from Mad Solution’s first foray in the international distribution arena last year with Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia” which they sold widely after it’s splashy launch from Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean sales firm Finecut has inked multiple deals for horror thriller “Noise” and for “A Traveler’s Needs,” the recent Berlin prize-winner directed by Hong Sangsoo.“Noise” is a “multi-sensory and realistic horror” film that intertwines societal motifs of “floor noise” with suspenseful elements. Directed by Kim Soo-jin, the film centers around a woman with a hearing aid haunted by inexplicable sounds linked to her sister’s disappearance in her own apartment and attracting a malevolent presence.

Sheffield DocFest, the U.K.’s premiere nonfiction film festival, today revealed the full lineup for its 31st edition running June 12-17. Among the highlights: the world premiere of Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, co-directed by Bartek Dziadosz.

EXCLUSIVE: Production studio Vanishing Angle has announced the production of the ensemble drama Under The Lights, directed by Miles Levin in his directorial debut. Based on an award-winning script by Levin, the film is produced by Vanishing Angle’s Natalie Metzger, and is executive produced by Levin, Matt Miller and Carlos Quesada. UTA is handling world sales. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Films Boutique has taken world sales rights to documentary “Elementary,” directed by Claire Simon, ahead of the film’s world premiere in the Special Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film was shot at the Makarenko public elementary school on the outskirts of Paris.

Naman Ramachandran Actor Abhishek Bachchan (“Ghoomer”) is returning to producer Sajid Nadiadwala’s “Housefull” film franchise, one of the biggest hit Bollywood comedy film series of all time. The franchise began in 2010 with “Housefull” (2010) with sequels following in 2012, 2016 and 2019. Bachchan was one of the stars of “Housefull 3,” where he played wannabe rapper Bunty who circumstances force to pretend to be differently abled.

Joe Leydon Film Critic The thin line between cheating death and chasing it appears to have been smudged, repeatedly, by maverick video journalist Margaret Moth, the subject of first-time filmmaker Lucy Lawless’ fascinating documentary “Never Look Away.” At least, that’s the impression we’re left with at the end of this compact yet complex portrait of a singularly and aggressively unconventional war correspondent who inspired equal measures of admiration and anxiety among her friends, colleagues and lovers throughout her 20 years of assignments in the world’s trouble spots — Baghdad, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Zaire, you name it, she was there — for CNN. Something of an enigma even to those closest to her — “I never fully understood what was ticking inside of her” is a comment typical of responses by interviewees questioned by an off-camera Lawless — Moth was fond of proudly proclaiming, “I live life to the fullest.” But it was a life she repeatedly risked by going places, doing things and recording wartime horrors with such little regard for her own safety that a CNN teammate warned her: “There’s only so much Russian Roulette you can play.” It was also a life that she more or less reinvented herself to portray.

“I’ve felt that being called ‘niche’ is a compliment, actually,” Monkey Man star Sobhita Dhulipala tells Deadline.

Jamie Lang International Emmy-winning French animation producer-distributor Dandelooo has closed a deal with Korea’s Dream Factory Studio for the latter’s new CG preschool series “PongPong Dino.” Targeted at 2-4-year-olds, “PongPong Dino” is a new IP produced by Dream Factory and directed by animator Tacken Chae. In the show, the audience is invited to a world where playing with your food is an important part of each meal.