‘Space Nova’ Animated Series From SLR Productions Sets Repeat Mission – Global Bulletin

UPDATED with latest: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell can pursue her negligence and other claims against Alec Baldwin, who fired a loaded gun on the New Mexico set of the indie Western last year that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.

Sausage Party is heading to the small-screen.

Hollywood shakeup! Meghan Markle wasn’t a stranger to fame when she fell in love with Prince Harry — but following their 2018 wedding, actresses started clamoring to play her on screen.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K.’s BFI has revealed details of the National Lottery Audience Projects Fund, with £15 million ($16.9 million) available over three years to support the U.K. exhibition and distribution sector to grow audiences for U.K. independent film and XR/broader screen work. Applications, which open Nov. 4, are invited from organizations that are focused on increasing access and growing the engagement of audiences that are representative of the U.K. population. The fund will make awards of between £20,000 and £200,000 depending on the scope and reach of the project, with an upper limit of £500,000 for projects of “exceptional scale and ambition,” the BFI said in a statement. Eligible applicants will need experience of film distribution, film exhibition or audience development activities in the U.K. For research and development projects, applicants can apply for between £10,000 and £20,000.

Angelique Jackson Prepare for more Black lady hilarity as Robin Thede’s Emmy-winning HBO comedy series “A Black Lady Sketch Show” has started production on its fourth season. Created by and starring Thede, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” was renewed in June following a strong third season that netted two Emmys — one for outstanding picture editing for variety programming (a trophy the series has won in back-to-back years, with editors Stephanie Filo, Bradinn French, Taylor Joy Mason and S. Robyn Wilson honored for Season 3) and outstanding directing for a variety series (Bridget Stokes). The first three seasons of the sketch series have garnered 13 Emmy nominations and three wins.

Liza Foreman Set to run April  14-19, Canneseries has introduced a new competition documentary section, the International Documentary Series Competition, to be included in its next go-round in Cannes. The idea is to keep storytelling at the heart of the event. “Whether the main character is sport, history, a crime, a celebrity, the environment or a changing society, it is always about telling stories. And Canneseries, which promotes serial writing in all its forms, had to highlight this narration of reality,”, said Albin Lewi, artistic director of Canneseries. Bavaria Media International has sealed a distribution agreement with major Portuguese production house SPi  to handle worldwide distribution of “Codex 632.” The six-part series is based on the bestseller of the same name by José Rodrigues dos Santos. “Codex 632” is a co-production between SPi, Portuguese TV station RTP, and Brazilian streaming provider Globoplay, and is scheduled to premiere in 2023.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore has banned the release of “#LookAtMe,” a feature film by local director Ken Kwek. The InfoComm Media Development Authority said that the film exceeds film classification guidelines because it denigrates a religious community. Supposedly based in true events, the film depicts a man who is offended by a pastor who preaches against homosexuality, but whose behavior contradicts his teachings. The protagonist’s viral video about the aberrant priest lands him in jail, causing the man’s gay identical twin to fight for justice. “#LookAtMe,” premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival and local media report that the film has been selected for next month’s Singapore International Film Festival. But the IMDA ruling means that it cannot now be shown in any form in Singapore unless Kwek is successful with an appeal.

Liza Foreman Fremantle is partnering with electronics giant Samsung to bring a dedicated FAST channel, “The Jamie Oliver Channel” to audiences in the U.K. Available from 12th October, the channel is dedicated to the most well-known titles from the British chef, catering to Samsung TV Plus watchers with cooking content for all occasions. Samsung TV Plus delivers over 1,600 channels across 24 countries, spanning news, sports, and entertainment. London-based Future Studios has launched factual series “Unbelievable Me” (10 x 45’) at Mipcom.

Liza Foreman Cineflix Rights has presold Helium’s ten-part Australian crime drama “Last King of The Cross” to Sky.  Starring Tim Roth, the series will air exclusively in all Sky territories in Italy, the UK, Ireland and Germany, the company has announced.  Inspired by John Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography, which follows his rise from a poverty-stricken immigrant to Australia’s nightclub kingpin, “Last King of The Cross” tells the story of two brothers who lose each other in their ascent to power. Set in Sydney’s Kings Cross in the 1980s and 1990s, the cast includes Lincoln Younes (“Grand Hotel,” “Tangle”), Claude Jabbour (“Eden,” “Stateless”), and Callan Mulvey (“300: Rise of an Empire”). Cineflix Rights is the exclusive international distribution partner.   

Former President Barack Obama is traveling to Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin this month to stump for Democratic candidates weeks before the midterm elections. First, on Oct. 28, he heads to Atlanta, where Stacey Abrams is making another gubernatorial run against incumbent rival Gov.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Blackstone Publishing, Aethon Books and Sterling and Stone are among the first publishing partners to join Yonder, a new serialized fiction app combining mobile reading, a serialized experience and thousands of curated stories. Then venture is being launched by South Korea’s Naver, the tech giant that owns Webtoon and Wattpad, the story app that has germinated scores of book-to-film adaptations. The platform offers an ad-free reading experience with several chapters of each story available for free before readers are offered the chance to unlock additional material using virtual coins. At launch, Yonder is the home of exclusive new titles including “Bound to the Shadow Prince,” from Ruby Dixon, the international best-selling fantasy author of the TikTok viral sensation series “Ice Planet Barbarians”; “Bitten by Desire,” the first paranormal romance from best-selling author Ivy Smoak, (“The Hunted” book series”; and “Gravesong,” a spinoff of the popular web serial “The Wandering Inn,” from pirateaba.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief European-Australian firm Flying Bark Productions has been appointed as the animator of the first of three untitled ‘Avatar’ films from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. The film series, derived from the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra “animated series, originally created for Nickelodeon by Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, was announced earlier this year. The first feature will be directed by Lauren Montgomery, with Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino producing. Flying Bark, which is based in Belgium and has major facilities in Sydney, Australia, describes the film series as “[pushing] the style and boundaries of hybrid animation [..] it will couple traditional 2D animation with substantial CG elements.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese filmmaker, Bi Gan, best-known for his single-take feature “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” has seen his “A Short Story” picked up by Kino Lorber for distribution in North America. A fairy tale that follows the relationship between man and cat, the film had its world premiere in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and now has its North American premiere in the Currents section of the New York Film Festival. Kino Lorber plans to qualify “A Short Story” for the 96th Academy Awards, showing it theatrically nationwide in early 2023 in tandem with a theatrical re-release of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” “Kino Lorber rarely acquires short films, but Bi Gan has packed more cinematic delight into the fifteen minutes of ‘A Short Story’ than many feature length films deliver in two hours,” said Kino Lorber SVP Wendy Lidell. The deal was brokered by Les Films du Losange.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Production is underway in Italy on the Italian instalment of Prime Video’s global “Citadel” spy thriller franchise, produced by the Russo Brothers, with Matilda De Angelis cast as the lead. De Angelis, a rising Italian star, made her international breakthrough in Susanne Bier’s “The Undoing,” alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. She more recently appeared with Liev Schrieber in the Ernest Hemingway adaptation “Across The River and Into The Trees,” directed by Paula Ortiz. The “Citadel” start-of-production in Italy and casting announcement was made at Rome’s MIA content market during an Amazon Studios panel.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese director Kawase Naomi will lead the international competition jury of the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (Nov. 13-22). Kawase won the Caméra d’Or for best debut feature film at Cannes for “Moe no Suzaku” (1997) and also won awards there for “Mogari no Mori” (2007) and “Hikari” (2017). In 2000, her film “Hotaru” won the FIPRESCI award at Locarno. Cairo festival president Hussein Fahmy said that Kawase has had a distinguished career and possesses great experience that qualified her to obtain prestigious awards from various international festivals.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Boxing great Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez is teaming with Cartuna and Campanario Entertainment to develop an adult animated series inspired by his life and career, Variety has learned exclusively. “I’m excited to see my story and my career brought to TV through this incredible medium,” Álvarez said. “It will give my loyal fans a new way to follow my journey to the top of boxing and can also bring new followers to this beautiful sport.” Erick Galindo (“The Ballad of Chalino Sanchez,” “Out of The Shadows: Children of 86”) will write and executive produce the series. James and Adam Belfer, the co-heads of Cartuna, will executive produce along with along with Mike Flavin, senior vice president of development at Cartuna. Jaime Dávila and Rico Martínez will executive produce for Campanario Entertainment. The project is currently in development and is expected to be taken out to networks and streamers later this year.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar and Venice-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”) and fellow filmmakers Georgia Oakley (“Blue Jean”), Roberto Minervini (“What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”) and Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) were among those who protested against the imprisonment of Iranian filmmakers and other incarcerated artists around the world, and to demonstrate support for the tenacious women of Iran who are challenging for their freedom at the BFI London Film Festival on Monday. They joined festival director Tricia Tuttle, producer Madeleine Molyneaux (“Gospel Hill”); actors Aurélia Petit (“Saint Omer”) and Taki Mumladze (“A Room of My Own”); actor and writer Mariam Khundadze (“To Batumi and every single memory”); writer Morgan M. Page (“Framing Agnes”); industry leaders Tabitha Jackson, Clare Binns and Jason Wood; and other festival delegates in a moment of solidarity and reflection.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Goosebumps” live-action series at Disney+ has added three more cast members. Variety has learned exclusively that Ana Yi Puig, Miles McKenna, and Will Price have joined the show as series regulars alongside previously announced cast member Justin Long. Per the official logline, “The series follows a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together — thanks to and in spite of their friendships, rivalries and pasts with each other — in order to save it, learning much about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process.” According to Disney Branded Television, the series is influenced by five of the most popular “Goosebumps” books.