City Babylon Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Frank Doelger’s eco-thriller drama The Swarm has made a splash on German TV.

EXCLUSIVE: Alicia Witt (I Care a Lot) and Blair Underwood (Caste) have signed on to star alongside Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe in Longlegs — the horror-thriller from Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan’s C2 Motion Picture Group (Babylon), which Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter) is directing from his own script.

Marta Balaga Berlin-based X Filme Creative Pool will adapt one of the most successful German-language podcasts, “Zeit Crime” (“Zeit Verbrechen”) into an anthology series for Paramount +. Awarded the German Podcast Prize, “Zeit Crime” is based on the criminal investigations of Sabine Rückert and Andreas Sentker. According to producer Jorgo Narjes, it currently boasts 5 million streams per month and an average of 1.5 million listeners per episode, “most of them female and in their late twenties.” So far, the podcast consists of more than 100 episodes.  Filming started this month and will continue until the end of June 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: Neon is in pole position to win North American rights to Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe horror-thriller Longlegs in the first sizeable domestic deal of this year’s EFM.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Keaton’s “modern comedy” Goodrich is launching sales at the EFM for Black Bear International, we can reveal.

The German-based distribution and production company Port au Prince Film And Kultur Produktion has hired Roshanak “Rosh” Khodabakhsh as a producer and executive board member.

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the EFM, Michael Rothstein and Sam Hall’s Mossbank is launching international sales on action-horror film Azrael, starring Samara Weaving (Ready Or Not). CAA Media Finance and UTA will co-rep domestic.

Amsterdam and Babylon have kept busy on the . While her red-carpet appearances have been about playful experimentation and sexy elegance— an example of the former and her draped green Bottega Veneta gown, the latter—talk-show sofas and photo ops have called for smart tailoring.Power suits have become a signature for some of Hollywood’s most stylish leading ladies– and come to mind–and now, Robbie is a keen advocate.

Awards season continues! Nominations for the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards have officially been announced.

Forever a Hollywood heartthrob! Brad Pitt turned heads at the 2023 Golden Globes — but he avoided posing for pics on the red carpet.

Pretty in pink! Margot Robbie arrived at the Golden Globes channeling Barbie in a halter-neck gown worthy of accolades.

The curtain is being raised Thursday night on what looks to be an idiosyncratic festival awards season, as organizers of the Palm Springs Gala to kick off the Palm Springs Film Festival with a hope that audiences somewhere, somehow, will start talking about movies.

It seems this time of year every critic is going to weigh in with their 10 Best List for something or other. It is what we do at the end of the year, and 2022 is no different. And as I always do , I cheat. So, sue me. In what has turned out to be a very good year I think for movies, considering the sad state of box office success for the more ambitious and adult-aimed films out there, it has actually been heartening in this still pandemic-affected era to see the Hollywood studios so heavily in the game of producing quality crowd pleasers that also are good enough and deserving enough to make any of these lists, unless that is you are one of those grumpy critic-types who only go for the most obscure anti-entertainments out there. That ain’t me. I like to cheer on what I call movie movies, and I don’t penalize any of them for making some money along the way and bringing back audiences. If they are good, big or small , they are worth championing and so this annual ritual is just another cog-in-the-wheel of doing just that. Now for the “cheating” part.

Is a new celebrity couple brewing? Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon are “spending time together” following her split from Paul Wesley, a source tells Us Weekly.

After enormous success and Oscars for films ranging from Whiplash to La La Land to First Man Director/Writer Damien Chazelle returned to an early dream project first envisioned 15 years ago, a no-holds barred look at early Hollywood, a time when not only movies were transitioning from silent to sound, but Los Angeles itself was booming from desert to bulging metropolis. People were caught up in a turbulent time of change, and it didn’t always work out for some. As witnessed in the resulting film and years of meticulous research, Babylon is a sight to behold, a decadent, free wheeling, at times even poignant look at a series of dreamers, stars, fringe players, and all who wanted a piece of a world that felt out of control, uninhibited, and full of promise – and downfall.

Ahead of the opening of Damien Chazelle’s $80M early Hollywood opus Babylon, the Brian Robbins-run Paramount Pictures studio is doubling down on the filmmaker and his producer wife Olivia Hamilton with a multi-year, first look directing and producing deal with their Wild Chickens Productions.

Drug-induced decadence is nothing new in Los Angeles, but director Damien Chazelle sought to capture it in its extreme in Babylon, his exploration of 1920s Hollywood during the advent of the “talkies era.”

Sir Horace Ové, the pioneering filmmaker nicknamed the Godfather of Black British filmmaking, has had a $57,000 Film and TV Charity grant named after him to help people from ethnic minority backgrounds navigate their way through the industry.

“The silence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or anti-Semitism in general is dismaying but not surprising,” the letter also stated, likely referring to Adidas’ refusal to cut ties with Ye. “What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense.”The letter was signed by founders Mordecai Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, and VP Scott DeVries.Here is the letter in full:Re: Shelving of Our Kanye West Documentary and Two Important Lies This morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners, we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recently completed documentary about Kanye West.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It’s pitch dark and stormy and Pelle Heikkilä, one of Finland’s biggest stars, is getting slammed by massive waves in a 10-meter-deep water tank. The shoot of “Estonia,” a Scandinavian limited series about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster, is underway in Belgium at an indoor water stage. The eight-part cinematic show, which is budgeted at €15 million ($14.7 million) and is being shopped by Jan Mojto’s Beta Film (“Babylon Berlin”) at Mipcom, charts the sinking of the MS Estonia on Sept. 28, 1994, which killed over 850 people. The series is directed by Swedish director Måns Månsson (“The Real Estate,” “Chernobyl”) and Finnish director Juuso Syrjä (“Bordertown,” “Helsinki Syndrome”), who are polar opposites, one coming from festival-friendly auteur filmmaking, the other coming from high-end commercials.

EXCLUSIVE: German TV dramas are continuing to sell internationally ahead of Mipcom Cannes.

Paramount Pictures has unveiled the first stills from Babylon, the latest feature from Oscar winner Damien Chazelle (La La Land), which hits theaters in limited release on Christmas Day, going wide on January 6th.

Sky Studios has poached Academy Award-nominated producer Tobias Rosen from Warner Bros. International Television Production to the newly-created role of Vice President in Germany.

K.J. Yossman Sky Studios has appointed Tobias Rosen as vice president of Sky Studios Deutschland.

EXCLUSIVE: We have learned that filmmaker Sally El Hosaini has signed with CAA.

Lady Gaga has said she thought she’d “never be on stage again” ahead of her current world tour.The singer and actor has faced a number of health issues over the years, including anxiety and depression as well as fibromyalgia, which causes chronic pain.Gaga said she had been helped out by “trust, truth, bravery, talent and dedication” ahead of her tour, which began in Germany on July 17.She tweeted: “There was a time I thought I’d never be on stage again. I was so sad I couldn’t even dream anything but a painful nightmare.“I’ve overcome my nightmare with love, support, trust, truth, bravery, talent and dedication. I am so grateful.

EXCLUSIVE: The latest casting round of tributes and mentors in Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes includes Irene Boehm, Cooper Dillon, Luna Kuse, Kjell Brutscheidt, Dimitri Abold, Athena Strates, Dakota Shapiro, George Somner and Vaughan Reilly.

An apocalyptic drama from the makes of Deutschland 83, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and an emotionally-driven series set in Alabama are European giant Sky Deutschland’s latest trio of original dramas.

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we’ll shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we’re talking with top German talent agency Players. Headed up by Mechthild Holter and Fabian Haslob, the duo have clients that have worked across recent projects such as Babylon Berlin, Unorthodox and Deutchland ’89. In a rare interview, they tell us why now is a great time for German-speaking talent to cross borders.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBeta Cinema will handle international sales on “The Fox,” a drama about an Austrian soldier and his friendship with a wounded fox cub, set during World War II. Alamode Filmverleih will release the film in German-speaking territories in early 2023.The film is directed by Adrian Goiginger, whose directorial debut “The Best of All Worlds” became a break-out hit after premiering at the Berlinale in 2017, winning more than 100 awards around the world.Beta Cinema will introduce “The Fox” to select international buyers at the German Previews, the annual industry event organized by German Films in Munich from June 20-23.“The Fox” is the true story of Franz Streitberger, Goiginger’s great-grandfather, a motorcycle courier for the Austrian army, which was incorporated into the German Wehrmacht.