Venice Days Title ‘The Zola Experience,’ Centered on Stage Production of Emile Zola’s ‘L’Assommoir,’ Picked Up by Syndicado (EXCLUSIVE)

Manchester United and Manchester City are not far away from discovering who they will be facing in the Champions League this season.

E! is mixing the most controversial reality show stars under one roof in House of Villains. Hosted by Joel McHale, the series is set to premiere on Thursday, October 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with a supersized 75-minute episode airing simultaneously on Bravo, SyFy and USA.

Megan Thee Stallion has hit out at her “haters” after Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting the rapper.Last December, Lanez – real name Daystar Peterson – was found guilty of three felonies related to the 2020 incident. The Canadian artist, 31, was sentenced last week.

Portugal. The Man.Earlier this month (August 6), Charlie Day – who stars in the long-running TV sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – joined Portugal. The Man during their concert at the Hollywood Bowl to perform the song that he had created for the hit TV series.Watch the performance – and the crowd’s singalong – of Portugal.

Usher opened up about some of his earliest memories with Beyonce.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Rome-based sales agency True Colours has added Edoardo de Angelis’ “Comandante,” which opens the Venice Film Festival, to its slate. The film, which plays in the main competition section, stars Pierfrancesco Favino (“World War Z,” “Angels & Demons”).

Cassadee Pope had a “really good” experience on The Voice — apart from one “weird” moment with producers behind the scenes.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor “The Vanishing Soldier” is a coming of age story, as breathless as its protagonist: the kind of film that will make cinephiles of seventeen-year-olds. Which is one of the reasons that Dani Rosenberg, the film’s 43-year-old director, is delighted to be in Locarno, where the film, sold by Intramovies, is screening in main competition, and has just got a trailer, and poster, shared in exclusivity with Variety. “We had options for other festivals,” Rosenberg told Variety at the Swiss fest.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Italian producer Andrea Iervolino, whose credits include Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” “Waiting for the Barbarians” and “Tell It Like a Woman,” has invested around 50 million euros ($55 million) in the construction of Tuscany Film Studios, a technologically advanced studio with the largest virtual set in Italy, and a 360 studio for live-action productions. The production facility, which is being built just outside Florence, will also host a movie theater and luxury hotel with the aim of attracting premium international productions to Italy.

Ellise Shafer “Lost in Paris” directing duo Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon have shared a first look at their new film “The Falling Star,” which premieres at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Abel and Gordon also star in the film, which follows Boris (Abel), a former activist who works at a bartender at the Falling Star. According to the film’s official synopsis, Boris’ “guilty past resurfaces when a victim finds him and wants revenge.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Prime Video has acquired the Ancient Rome gladiator drama series “Those About to Die” in multiple European territories. The show is directed by “Independence Day” helmer Roland Emmerich and Marco Kreuzpaintner. The 10-episode first season will debut exclusively on Prime Video in Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Turkey, Andorra, Monaco, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Following Sinéad O’Connor’s death, her 2021 memoir Rememberings has soared to the top of the bestseller lists.

Marta Balaga Starring Deva Cassel, Laura Luchetti’s “The Beautiful Summer” (“La Bella Estate”) has bowed sales and a trailer, ahead of its world premiere at this week’s Locarno Festival. In a first deal to go down for sales agent True Colours, Palace Films has swooped on distribution rights to Australia and New Zealand. Xenix Filmdistribution will release in Switzerland “The Beautiful Summer,” which is loosely based on Cesare Pavese’s novel.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Be For Films has boarded “The Summer With Carmen,” Zacharias Mavroeidis’ colorful Greek comedy that’s set to world premiere at the Venice Days at the Lido. “The Summer With Carmen” takes place at Athens’ queer beach, where 30-something Demosthenes offers to help his friend and aspiring filmmaker Nikitas in drafting an idea for his feature debut, inspired by the events surrounding a dog named Carmen.

Follow OK! on Threads here: https://www.threads.net/@ok_mag Spongebob Squarepants star Ethan Slater is reportedly dating pop sensation Ariana Grande. However, the news seemed to have blindsided his estranged wife, Lilly Jay, who was reportedly unaware of the budding romance until just a few days before it went public. “Ethan sat Lilly down a few days before the news broke about him and Ariana and said that he wanted a divorce,” the source told Us Weekly.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Film has sold more than 100 hours of drama series to PBS Distribution-backed Walter Presents for the U.S., and Channel 4-backed Walter Presents for the U.K. Five seasons of Italy’s gritty crime series “Rocco Schiavone” as well as Canadian mystery dramas “The Wall – The Chateau Murder” and “The Wall – The Orchard” will be available in both territories.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French director Élise Girard’s “Sidonie in Japan” starring Isabelle Huppert as a French writer mourning her husband’s death while on a book tour of Japan, is among titles set to launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori. The section, also known as Venice Days, has unveiled its lineup comprising ten titles world premiering in competition – six of which first works – and films in other sections all displaying a wide range of genres and visual styles, but tied together by “A common discourse,” said the section’s artistic director Gaia Furrer.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Starring “Bones and All’s” Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, “Mother, Couch!” the feature debut of Sweden’s Niclas Larsson, features in a currently 11-title lineup of San Sebastian’s 2023 New Directors section, the most important sidebar at the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world. Of just announced titles, also in the mix is “The Other Son,” Juan Sebastian Quebrada’s anticipated coming-of-age drama picked up by Film Factory. “Carefree Days,” the second feature from Chinese actor-director-screenwriter Liang Ming (“Wisdom Tooth”), will open New Directors.

Ethan Slater informed his wife, Lilly Jay, that he was done with their marriage shortly before his romance with Ariana Grande went public, according to a source.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired North American distribution rights for Portuguese director Pedro Costa’s short film The Daughters of Fire, following its buzzy world premiere in Cannes this year.