EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Alpha Violet has posted fresh sales on Mexican director Lila Avilés’s family drama Tótem, which world premiered in competition at the Berlinale to acclaim in February.
13.02.2023 - 15:33 / completemusicupdate.com
Universal Music’s German division has announced that it has cut its ties with metal act Weimar after it emerged that the band’s members have far right connections – including at least two members having previous links to neo-Nazi bands.The decision comes after German newspaper Der Speigel published an article on the band’s members and their apparent beliefs.“Based on the information we recently learned from a journalist’s inquiry, we terminated our relationship with Weimar, which consisted of distribution of one album”, said the major label in a statement. “That has been stopped with immediate effect”.”The information that has come to light made clear that any relationship with the band was absolutely unacceptable to us and inconsistent with our values”, it went on.
“We feel deceived by the band. If we knew then what we know today, we would never have released the album in the first place”.The band perform in masks and have seemingly used other means to hide their identities.
Though, while their lyrics do feature lines that have been deemed to have similarities to other anti-Semitic language, the Weimar project itself is not overtly neo-Nazi.However, in its article, Der Speigel says that three of the band’s four members – Richard Wegnar, Kurt Ronny Fiedler and Till Schneider – all met in the neo-Nazi scene in Thuringian in central Germany.All appear to have used aliases while working with Universal in order to mask their past associations. Fiedler (who the newspaper identifies as Steffen P) and Schneider (aka Konstantin P) have both previously played in overtly racist and anti-Semitic bands, it is claimed.Meanwhile, the newspaper says that there is evidence that vocalist Wegnar is actually Christian P – who has had links
.EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Alpha Violet has posted fresh sales on Mexican director Lila Avilés’s family drama Tótem, which world premiered in competition at the Berlinale to acclaim in February.
While it's nothing new, and we're certainly not complaining, Harry Styles' name is inescapable right now.
Deadline. "At the same time, what has been at the heart of the show are the two characters Din Djarin and Grogu."He added, "It's a big galaxy, and we have many characters in it — many characters are fighting for their screen time.
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights for German director Christian Petzold’s new film Afire, following its award-winning world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory has unveiled a slew of deals for German director Christian Petzold’s Berlin Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Afire.
Wu-Tang Clan and Nas have announced a sprawling world tour for this year, covering Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the UK and North America from May to October. The new run marks a continuation of the co-headlined ‘N.Y. State Of Mind’ tour – named for Nas’ 1994 ‘Illmatic’ cut – which initially hit the North American touring circuit over 25 dates last year.
The trailer for Kiana Madeira‘s new movie has been released!
Guy Lodge Film Critic “Till the End of the Night” opens with what initially seems a Brechtian flourish: a nifty time-lapse shot of a bare shell of an apartment being painted, fitted, decorated and accessorized to an apparently lived-in state, as a vintage German torch song by Heidi Brühl crackles over the soundtrack. It’s not a film set being dressed, however, but a police one — the home base for an elaborate undercover investigation. It’s not the first time Christoph Hochhäusler’s romantic detective thriller will hint at subversive ambitions that turn out, upon closer investigation, to be rather conventional. Tossing a fraught transgender love story in the middle of an otherwise standard cop procedural, the film doesn’t much satisfy on either level, with superficial sexual politics and slack suspense. Despite a Berlinale competition slot, prospects beyond home turf appear limited.
EXCLUSIVE: Cleopatra Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Argentinian director and producer Nicolas Onetti’s slasher picture What The Waters Left Behind: Scars.
Queen of the Universe returns for a second season on Paramount+ with Graham Norton as host. The show is set to premiere on the streamer starting March 31 in the U.S. and Canada with the U.K., Latin America, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Australia seeing it on April 1.
Guy Lodge Film Critic If any writer has ever retreated to a remote, idyllic rural pad with the intention of getting some work done, and proceeded to have a productive and creatively fulfilling time, it has certainly never happened in the movies. Leon, the callow young novelist at the center of Christian Petzold’s canny, many-layered new film “Afire,” is the latest in a long line of onscreen scribes to learn that lesson. But over the course of a hot, rainless summer by the Baltic coastline, the elusiveness of his imagined masterwork turns out to be far from his greatest problem: Writer’s block spills over into bitter social paralysis, exposing every facet of life he doesn’t yet know how to live, let alone write about. All the while, the surrounding woodsy landscape wilts and scorches, the threat of natural disaster lending an urgent pull to this dry, elegant comedy of manners — so dry, in fact, it’s just a breath of wind away from tragedy.
CPH: DOX Sets 2023 Main CompetitionThe Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, affectionately known as CPH: DOX, has set the full lineup for its 2023 edition. This year, the festival will screen more than 200 new documentaries, with over 100 world premieres – the largest number at CPH: DOX. Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s long-awaited film A Storm Foretold about Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone will debut at the fest alongside a new doc by One Child Nation director Lynn Zhang. This year CPH: DOX also celebrates 20 years. Guests set to visit include Wim Wenders, Joan Baez, Nathan Fielder, and Jeremy Deller. You can check out the full lineup here.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Anke Engelke and Bastian Pastewka will star in a new German original series for Prime Video to be produced by Bldundtonfabrik (btf). The series is due to appear on the platform next year. Further details on the show have yet to be announced. “Anke Engelke and Bastian Pastewka are a real dream team in front of the camera. Viewers can look forward to their first series project together on Prime Video,” said Philip Pratt, head of German originals for Prime Video. The series joins a lineup of German originals that includes “We Children from Bahnhof Zoo,” “Deutschland 89” and “LOL: Last One Laughing.” Engelke, who is best known for her comedy roles but also appears in dramas, has recently been seen in “Kurzschluss,” “Der Onkel” and “Eingeschlossene Gesellschaft.” Among her shows that took German Television Awards were best comedy for “Ladykracher” (2002) and best entertainment show for “Wer stiehlt mir die Show” (2021).
K.J. Yossman Joseph Fiennes is set to play England soccer manager Gareth Southgate in a new play written by “Sherwood” scribe James Graham. Fiennes, known for his turns in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Shakespeare in Love,” will take on the role at London’s National Theatre. “Spring Awakening” director Rupert Goold will helm the production. “It’s time to change the game,” reads the logline. “The country that gave the world football has since delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t England’s men win at their own game?”
Emiliano De Pablos Banijay’s Endemol Shine Israel and Munich-based producer Neuesuper (“8 Days”) have inked German adaptation rights to Israeli hit comedy series “Nevsu,” to air on public broadcaster ZDF. Israel’s “Nevsu” won the International Emmy Award for best comedy series in 2018. Its German adaptation, “I Don’t Work Here,” sees three generations from two worlds come together to form one family. Revolving around Laura and Dawit, a young multi-racial couple, and their daughter, the pair are battling living with her parents and facing huge scrutiny from her mother-in-law.
Ed Meza @edmezavar Political assassinations, war, espionage, royal scandals, teen angst and magic: new German series are setting the bar ever higher in terms of challenging and risky subject matter. The Berlinale Series Market’s Up Next: Germany showcase on Monday presented four forthcoming series projects that look set to entice international buyers: Presenting “Herrhausen,” creator Christer von Lindequist and actor Oliver Masucci discussed the impact of the 1989 assassination, which continues to reverberate in Germany. It was also the subject of Andres Veiel’s acclaimed 2001 documentary “Black Box BRD.”
Sydney Sweeney heats up the red carpet in a red hot dress for the premiere of her movie, Reality.
Ed Meza @edmezavar German cinema looks set for a major boom this year with a strong lineup of diverse works that span historical dramas, coming-of-age tales, high-octane nostalgia, animation and sci-fi fun. The Berlin Film Festival is bowing a muscular selection of local titles, among them “Afire,” by Berlinale mainstay Christian Petzold (“Undine”), screening in competition. The films centers on a group of young people staying at a holiday house near the Baltic Sea during a hot, dry summer, exploring volatile emotions that start to sizzle when a wildfire spreads through the surrounding forest. Likewise vying for the Golden Bear is Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic “Ingeborg Bachmann: Journey Into the Desert,” starring Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) as the radical Austrian author. The film examines her relationship with Swiss writer Max Frisch and her 1964 journey of self-discovery through the Egyptian desert.
“I was always a big fan of the original movie, but I did feel while watching subsequent American or British war films that is a question of perspective that I can’t tell,” All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger said of his motivation in finally bringing a German version of the iconic World War I tale to the big screen.
A ‘sweet’ German shepherd with a big heart is still searching for a forever family after a tough year. Kaiser was found as a stray and taken to Manchester Dogs Home almost a year ago, but simply hasn’t found ‘the one’ just yet.