‘The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future’ Review: A Chilean Parable as Entrancing as Its Title

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The nominations for the Emmys are still weeks away. But there’s growing excitement in the Latino community as multiple lead actors continue to look well-positioned to receive deserved recognition. Two of the top contenders in the lead drama actor race — Pedro Pascal as the hardened survivor Joel from HBO’s apocalyptic video game adaptation “The Last of Us” and Diego Luna as the rebel hero Cassian in the “Star Wars” prequel series “Andor” from Disney+ — are Latino and star in buzzy sci-fi and fantasy series. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Emmy predictions in all categories.

Lily Moayeri A theme song sets the tone for a series. This is certainly the case for HBO’s awards favorite, “The White Lotus,” which won an Emmy for “Aloha” last year. The jungle sounds, exotic tones, yodels and screams laid over percussive rhythms and high-pitched flutes became instantly identifiable and an echo of the contentious characters vacationing at the Hawaii-based titular resort. Considering how iconic “Aloha” became, changing the theme for the Sicily-based second season was a bold choice. Chilean Canadian composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer drew his original musical ideas from the script and from conversations with series creator Mike White. White “wanted the music to feel like it was boiling under these characters,” de Veer says from his studio in Montréal.

Lily Moayeri The impact of “Renaissance,” the main title theme for the second season of “The White Lotus,” is felt far beyond the screen. Since the season’s premiere in Fall 2022, “Renaissance” has ushered in the Killers as they arrived on stage and Dominic Fike has closed his sets with it. But where the song has really hit is on the dance floor. Grammy-winning DJ/producer Tiësto, a huge fan of the series, began including it in his sets toward the end of 2022. His “Renaissance” remix got its official release, with HBO’s blessing. For the second season, Chilean Canadian composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer drew his original musical ideas from the script and from conversations with series creator Mike White. White “wanted the music to feel like it was boiling under these characters,” de Veer says from his studio in Montréal.

Prime Video Australia is remaking The Office as a female-led comedy starring stand-up Felicity Ward in the role Ricky Gervais first made famous.

Katherine Tulich “The Office” comedy franchise will see middle management led by a woman for the first time in an Australian version that will play on Amazon’s Prime Video. Australian comedian and actor Felicity Ward (“Wakefield,” “The Inbetweeners 2”) will portray Hannah Howard, the MD of packaging company Flinley Craddick in “The Office Australia.” In a post-COVID plot twist, Howard gets news from head office that her branch will be shutting down and that staff will have to work from home. She goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep and launches outlandish plots in order to keep her “work family” together. The Australian adaptation is the 13th iteration of the show that was originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Other international retreads have included those in France, Canada, Chile, Israel and the Middle East.

The Hollywood Reporter’s actor roundtable, Pedro Pascal shared his experience of getting an eye infection. The 48-year-old former Game of Thrones actor disclosed that he allowed fans to take selfies with their fingers in his eyes, which led to conjunctivitis.“I remember, earlier on, because of Game of Thrones and the way my character died, people were super into taking selfies with their thumbs in my eyes,” the Chilean actor told the publication.Pascal said fans wanted to recreate the scene where Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane gouged his character’s eye out in a dramatic fight.

Mr. Bungle, Melvins and Spotlights last week.Mr.

Pedro Pascal was noticeably absent at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The Chilean actor is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and the world is captivated by his every move.

The ladies of Aespa just made their Cannes Film Festival debut!

Ed Meza @edmezavar The 12th edition of Chile’s Sanfic Industria is set to kick off Aug. 20 alongside the Santiago Film Festival with new lab sections and a series focus on Chilean TV productions.   Among Sanfic Industria’s 11 sections will be the new Series Lab, which will select up to six Latin American scripted series projects. Creators and producers will receive advice from Sanfic Industria participants on the development of their works and strengthening international prospects. Industry reps will also take part in pitching sessions and one-on-one meetings for selected projects that will also be eligible for prizes and incentives. Also new is Sanfic ODS Lab, which aims to promote sustainable development goals among Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese projects. Producers, directors and scriptwriters are invited to present audiovisual projects with themes related to sustainable development and that are in an advanced state of development. Selected projects  will also receive incentives to strengthen their development and international prospects.

Naman Ramachandran Global distributor, streamer and production company MUBI has acquired Felipe Gálvez’ “The Settlers,” which bowed on Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. MUBI has acquired the film for North America, U.K., Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India. MUBI will release the film theatrically in the U.S., U.K., and additional territories with release plans to be revealed soon. “The Settlers” is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century. A wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a ‘civilizing’ raid.

Mubi has picked The Settlers, the latest pic from Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez for North America, the UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, and India.

Anna Marie de la Fuente With the writers’ strike dragging on, unscripted content is expected to dominate programming grids. A panel organized by C21 Media at the L.A. Screenings Independents on the format’s outlook in Latin America could not have been more timely. Rising costs, shifting consumer tastes, the advent of streaming platforms and the sway of social media have indeed posed new challenges, even to such mainstays as Banijay’s “Big Brother.” One of Banijay’s biggest reality shows, it first broadcast in 1999 in the Netherlands and was syndicated to more than 60 countries worldwide. “It was a gigantic challenge when we decided to produce ‘Big Brother’ again after 10 years had passed since the last edition,” said Guillermo Pendino, VP content and programming, FTA Brands, Latam Sur, Paramount (Argentina-Chile). “It was no longer the same world, there were the platforms, the social networks and you had to speak to a new audience, an audience that didn’t even know what ‘Big Brother’ was because they were still very young the last time it was broadcast,” he noted. “From Paramount we see the unscripted format as a great opportunity, especially at Telefe Argentina and Chilevisión,” he said.

Marta Balaga Debuting Chilean director Felipe Gálvez doesn’t shy away from controversy. On the contrary: he actually welcomes it. “I love to be controversial,” he tells Variety in Cannes, where he is introducing blood-soaked Western “The Settlers,” posing some uncomfortable questions about his country’s colonial past.   “If something is controversial, it’s a good sign. It means it’s interesting. I am trying to provoke with my film, because this conversation is far from over.” Set in 1901, “The Settlers” sees three men (Benjamin Westfall, Mark Stanley and Camilo Arancibia) hired by a rich Spanish landowner (Alfredo Castro) to mark out his immense property. One is American, one Scottish, one of Indigenous descent. But what is really expected of them is to get rid of the Indigenous tribes.

EXCLUSIVE: Avatar Entertainment is in Cannes launching The House on Tifton Lake, a Mexican horror starring Vadhir Derbez (Sense8, The Seventh Day).

Christopher Vourlias A host of emerging talents gathered at Cannes’ Plage des Palmes on May 22 for the latest edition of Focus COPRO’, an event launched in 2018 by the Cannes Court Métrage Rendez-vous Industry program to give a boost to first-time feature directors. Seven up-and-coming filmmakers whose previous shorts have bowed at the Cannes Film Festival and other prestigious fests including Berlin, New Directors New Films and Clermont-Ferrand, gathered under sunny skies on the French Riviera for an informal lunch with a host of industry decision-makers. The event offered a casual setting for the directors to chat about their upcoming feature debuts, seated alongside veteran producers and sales agents, as well as reps from leading co-production markets, labs, residencies, workshops and institutions focused on identifying and nurturing emerging talent.

An English lieutenant, an American cowboy, and a mixed-race Chilean sheepherder venture into the inhospitable limits of the Tierra de Fuego region at the southernmost tip of the South American continent—the ends of the Earth, some might call it. Under the orders of their employer, landowner José Menéndez (the always masterful Alfredo Castro), the trio’s mission is to savagely murder as many Indigenous people as they encounter in their path.  READ MORE: 2023 Cannes Film Festival: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch Set in 1901, “The Settlers” (Los Colonos), a scorching Western on Chile’s blood-soaked national myth, takes aspects from the official text-book history and probes at their conveniently sanitized interpretations of how they shaped the country’s future.

aespa have announced the Europe, US and Latin America legs of their 2023 ‘SYNK: Hyper Line’ world tour.Today (May 19), aespa revealed that they will be going on a tour of Europe, US and Latin America later this year, as part of their 2023 ‘SYNK: Hyper Line’ world tour. The US leg will kick off in Los Angeles on August 13.Following which, the girl group will plays shows in Dallas, Miami, Chicago and more over the next month, before wrapping things up in New York City on September 5.

EXCLUSIVE: Here at the Cannes Film Festival, Mubi has taken rights in North America, UK, Italy, Latin America, Turkey, India and Benelux to Un Certain Regard movie The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes).

Emiliano De Pablos Top Chilean fiction house Parox, producer of “Invisible Heroes,” has kick-started principal photography on international co-production “Los mil días de Allende” (“Allende, the Thousand Days”), a historical drama mini-series about the last three years in the life of Chilean President Salvador Allende. Alfredo Castro – one of Latin America’s most respected actors and a Pablo Larraín regular, star of films such as “Karnawal” and “El Club” – leads the mini-series cast as Allende; Benjamín Vicuña (“Besieged,” “Locked Up”) plays Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The four-episode, 55-minute fiction drama shoot is taking place entirely in Chile, lensing from May 15 for two months, under “Besieged” and “Inés of My Soul” director Nicolás Acuña.