Estonia Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Celebrities continued to show their support for tennis superstar Serena Williams at the U.S. Open 2022.  During Williams' second round of the annual championship, she defeated Estonia's Anett Kontaveit at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Court. Williams, 40, revealed that she may retire after this Grand Slam to focus on her personal life, including family and other business endeavors.

Serena Williams is on fire! After beating Danka Kovinic 6-3 in her first match at the US Open on Monday, the tennis professional beat Anett Kontaveit after three sets. The first set was close for Williams, who only beat her by one point, 7-6. But Kovinic came back ready for vengeance, winning the set 6-2.Williams put the second set behind her, and came back hard for the third, resetting and taking the final round 6-2.

Tiger Woods couldn’t contain his excitement as he watched Serena Williams defeat Estonia's Anett Kontaveit during the second round of the US Open -- and he wasn't the only famous face in attendance to watch her at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.While the 46-year-old professional golfer sat in Williams’ personal box at the tournament alongside her sister, Venus Williams, and his girlfriend, Erica Herman, other celebs, including Anna Wintour, Zendaya, and Anthony Anderson, watched from elsewhere at the venue.The most important people in attendance for Serena, however, were her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughter, Olympia, who continued to prove they are her biggest supporters.

Serena Williams is a tennis pro with friends in very high places. The sporting legend, 40, boasts Meghan Markle among her close friends and the pair even posed with Serena’s four year old daughter Olympia for a snap. It’s no surprise then that whenever the tennis star has a match, her box and the front row of the game is full of A-listers from the worlds of fashion, beauty and sports.

Serena Williams' post-game interview following her U.S.

There’s a reason they call her the Greatest Of All Time.

Serena Williams had the support of fellow GOAT Tiger Williams during Wednesday’s match against Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit during the US Open.

K.J. Yossman “The English” is set to get a star-studded red-carpet premiere in Cannes this October during Mipcom. Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer and writer/director Hugo Blick are all set to attend the Oct. 16 premiere of the high-octane Western, which will open the festival. Mipcom runs from Oct. 17-20. The six-part series is set to air in November on BBC Two and iPlayer in the U.K. and on Prime Video in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand Drama Republic, a Median company, and Eight Rooks produce the show in association with All3Media, who are distributing the series. “Dancing With The Stars” is coming to Latvia and returning to Estonia after BBC Studios upped its deal with All Media Baltics.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticNazi ghouls have figured in plenty of horror movies, whether preserved (1966’s “The Frozen Dead”), newly bioengineered (1978’s “The Boys from Brazil”) or zombiefied (too many to list). Edging close to that terrain, “Burial” revolves around a corpse — the corpse, as far as WWII’s end was concerned — that does not reanimate or otherwise come “back to life,” but poses a grave threat nonetheless.Not-quite-horror despite its macabre theme and mood, this sophomore directorial feature for Ben Parker is a handsomely produced period thriller that delivers in terms of action and atmospherics, even if his somewhat convoluted story doesn’t maximally pay off. IFC Midnight is releasing the Estonia-shot U.K. production to limited U.S. theaters and on-demand platforms Sept. 2.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Seasoned Finnish producer Ilkka Matila (“The Eternal Road”, “All the Sins”) of MRP Matila Röhr has signed with Estonia’s Taska Film and locked early support from the Finnish Film Institute and local commercial channel MTV3 for the $2.7m film “Between the Hammer and the Sickle.” Nordisk Film holds Scandinavian rights. To be pitched on Aug. 24 at the Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, Norway, the title will be one of Matila’s most defining projects, a feature which he believes will stay, along the lines of the multi-awarded “Mother of Mine” or “The Eternal Road.” “Between the Hammer and the Sickle” will be one of the first features ever to portray Finland’s illustrious former president Urho Kekkonen. Head of state for nearly 26 years, Kekkonen served as the longest-serving Finnish president from 1956 until 1981 and masterminded his country’s policy of neutrality, keeping at bay the threatening Soviet Union with which Finland shares 800 miles of border.

If you’re ready to feel thrills and chills of the mind, the prequel to the 2009 horror movie “Orphan,” premiering Aug. 19, might be for you.Isabelle Fuhrman returns to the screen in “Orphan: First Kill” as Esther, who cleverly escapes from Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to the U.S.

Wilson Chapman editorIn November 2019, Isabelle Fuhrman began receiving a barrage of text messages from friends, family members and random acquaintances about an episode of “Dr. Phil.” The episode garnered publicity at the time for its bizarre interview with Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan who was adopted by the Barnett family, before being abandoned by them after they claimed she was an adult sociopath masquerading as a child.“Anybody that I had ever met, people came out of the woodwork messaging me being like, ‘have you seen this?'” Fuhrman tells Variety.As the interview itself referenced, the situation bore a close resemblance to the plot of “Orphan,” the 2009 Jaume Collet-Serra thriller that featured an 11-year old Fuhrman as Esther, a 9 year-old Russian girl adopted by Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga and Peter Saarsgard).

The latest piece of the international Warner Bros. Discovery management puzzle has slotted into place, as the wider reshaping of the business continues. WBD General Manager Warner Bros. Discovery CEE, Baltics and Middle East (CEE MENAT) Jamie Cooke, who took on his post in June, has unveiled his team. Senior roles have gone to the likes of Lee Hobbs and long-serving Warner Bros. sales exec Roni Patel.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian documentary “Dad’s Lullaby” and Romania’s “Between Revolutions” won the Docu Talent Awards, chosen from a field of nine documentary features from Central and Eastern Europe, at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Monday.The Docu Talent Award for the most promising project went to “Dad’s Lullaby” (pictured, above), directed and produced by Lesia Diak. It tells the story of a Ukrainian veteran who returns home burnt out and traumatized from war but hoping to find peace for himself and his family.

Latest DealsA score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug. 10.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn a deal which transforms a local project into an international production, Taiwan’s Tydal Productions has struck a co-production deal with the Czech Republic’s Lonely Production to make “Malice,” a potentially arresting high-sea thriller to be directed by Lungyin Lim.Set up at Lungyin Lim’s Tydal Productions and Aview Images, both based in Taiwan, “Malice” is produced by Aview Images’s SheeHeng Kuek and Ivy Shen Yu-hua.Scheduled to shoot from December 2023, it will now be co-produced by Prague’s Lonely Production, founded by producer-director Michal Sikora.Lonely Production will oversee the post-production package in the Czech Republic and Europe. Lim has a preference for shooting in Super 16 mm with digital VFX, European expertise feeding into the traditional film process.

France, Match Me! focuses on emerging producers. Featuring new projects from tracked auteurs – Lithuania’s Ignas Jonynas, India’s Payal Kapadia and Mexico’s Francisco Vargas – and winners at Cannes, San Sebastian and other major meets, many producers look only a title or two from full emergence. If the fulsome slates of some producers are anything to go by – DR’s Leticia Brea, Estonia’s Tallifornia and Kask Films, for instance – production is a going concern in countries outside traditional production centers. (Distribution, whether to platforms or in theaters, may be another matter).

Palaye Royale have unveiled details of an extensive European and UK tour for 2023 – check out the dates below.The band will tour from January to March and in the UK, they will play a night at London’s Brixton Academy.You can get tickets for the shows here from August 12 onwards.Palaye Royale European and UK Tour 2023:JANUARY21 – Krakow, Poland22 – Warsaw, Poland24 – Berlin, Germany26 – Copenhagen, Denmark28 – Stockholm, Sweden29 – Oslo, NorwayFEBRUARY5 – Cologne, Germany7 – Manchester, UK8 – Glasgow, UK10 – London, UK12 – Wolverhampton, UK13 – Paris, France15 – Barcelona, Spain17 – Lisbon, Portugal19 – Stuttgart, Germany20 – Zurich, Switzerland25 – Munich, GermanyMARCH1 – Vilnius Lithuania2 – Riga, Latvia3 – Tallinn, Estonia4 – Helsinki, Finland7 – Sofia, Bulgaria8 – Bucharest, Romania10 – Istanbul, TurkeyIt comes after the band recently announced the release of their fourth studio album ‘Fever Dream’, their first since 2020’s ‘The Bastards’.The band have released four singles in support of the album so far, including, its title track, ‘No Love In LA’, ‘Punching Bag’, ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Broken’.The album is out on October 28 via Sumerian Records and was made in collaboration with producer Chris Greatti, who has worked with the likes of Yungblud and Willow.Speaking about the new album recently, the band said: “Making this record felt like getting back to when we first fell in love with music.“This record is very much about self-belief and self-empowerment, and overcoming all the obstacles that life throws at you. It’s the first time we’ve really taken a hopeful approach in our music.”The band are currently playing festivals in Europe before they head on their North American from September.

Slipknot have had a roaring start to their European tour, kicking off the 11-date run in Romania this week.Performing on Wednesday July 20 as part of Romexpo in Bucharest – where frontman Corey Taylor donned his new mask – the Iowa outfit’s 16-track setlist (per Blabbermouth) included some of their most revered classics: ‘Spit It Out’, ‘Psychosocial’, ‘Duality’, ‘Wait and Bleed’ and ‘The Devil In I’ among them. A two-song encore comprised of 2002’s ‘People = Shit’ and ‘Surfacing’.Check out the fan-shot video of Slipknot’s performance of last year’s single ‘The Chapeltown Rag’, ‘Sulfur’ and ‘Custer’ below:The remainder of tour will see the nu-metal legends hit up Greece, Germany, Poland and Estonia among others – more details here.

BT And Warner Bros Discovery UK Sports Joint Venture Approved

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBeta has pre-sold sprawling Finnish drama series “Estonia” to Germany’s broadcaster Seven.One Entertainment Group, the parent company of ProSieben. The eight-hour drama, about the deadliest civil maritime disaster in recent European history, is now in its third week of shooting.

Pat Saperstein Deputy EditorThe Palm Springs International ShortFest wrapped Sunday with juried prizes going to Estonia’s “Sierra” for Best of the Fest, South Korea’s “The Cave” for best animated short and “The Sentence of Michael Thompson” for best documentary, in both juried and audience categories. Cambodia’s “Further and Further Away” took the best live action short over 15 minutes prize and “The Right Words” from France won the best live action short 15 minutes and under category.The winners of the top awards are eligible to submit their shorts to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration.Additional prizes included:Student Animated Short●     Winner: The Seine’s Tears (France) Student Documentary Short●     Winner: La Prova (Belgium)Best Student International Short – Winner received a $500 cash prize.●     Winner: Bug (Israel),Best Student U.S.

Arrow Strikes For UK & U.S. Rights To Horror Pic ‘The Leech’

Naman Ramachandran The Walt Disney Company’s streamer Disney+ will be available in 42 new countries and 11 new territories this week following the launch on Tuesday in Greece, Turkey and countries in Central Eastern Europe, including Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia. Tuesday’s series of launches follow the arrival of the service in South Africa on May 18 and across West Asia and North Africa on June 8.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorKarlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s industry section, Eastern Promises, has unveiled its lineup of 35 film projects, which will be showcased during the Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, First Cut+ Works in Progress and Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations.

Ted Sarandos To Be Named Entertainment Person Of The Year At Cannes Lions

K.J. Yossman The adaptation of T.M. Logan’s novel “The Holiday” has an exclusive trailer and a U.S.

David and Victoria Beckham own quite the inventory of mesmerising homes across the globe. One of which is their incredible home in the Cotswolds – a £6.2 million converted farmhouse where the couple like to relax with their children Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.MORE: Inside David and Victoria Beckham's incredible holiday homeThe house has many magnificent features, including a tennis court which has since been converted into a football pitch for Romeo and David to practice on, a sauna and steam room and much more.WATCH: Brooklyn Beckham unveils touching new tattoo in honour of Nicola Peltz's familyYoungest Beckham son Cruz took to social media to show off one of the house's most overlooked yet unique additions – an outdoor plunge pool.

Based on a true story, Firebird is a meticulously researched and produced film about two young men on a military base in Soviet-occupied Estonia in the late 1970s.Sergey (Tom Prior) is a private just weeks away from discharge; Roman (Oleg Zagorodnii) is an officer and pilot, newly assigned to the base. Their attraction is almost immediate, unfolding with a tender intimacy which is beautifully, painfully naïve to the realities of their society – both military and civilian.Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodnii in ‘Firebird’Firebird feels like a film for the ages, but also of the times.

Britain's Got Talent. The Welsh Of The West End is made up of ten professional performers who either currently perform, or have performed, in London's West End.