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Fawlty Towers.Confirmation of the new incarnation of the beloved comedy came in February, when Cleese revealed he had written a two-hour play based on three episodes from the series – ‘The Hotel Inspector’, ‘The Germans’ and ‘Communication Problems’.The production will debut at London’s Apollo Theatre on May 15, nearly five decades after the first episode was filmed at the BBC Television Centre in December 1974. Tickets can be found here.And now, Cleese has said that the slurs from the original version of ‘The Germans’, which he co-wrote with Connie Booth, will be taken out of the new adaptation.In one scene of the original, the army veteran Major Gowen uses the N-word when referring to a Caribbean cricketer, and another racial slur to describe an Asian cricketer.At the press conference launching the stage show, Cleese said: “Those scenes where the Major used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, we took them out.”“There’s always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded,” he continued.

Naman Ramachandran Some of the Sony Music Group‘s top European artists are backing a voter participation campaign. Sony has launched what it describes as a “non-partisan campaign,” titled Your Voice, Your Power, Your Vote, to encourage voting in the June European Union elections, with a focus on young people and underrepresented groups.

EXCLUSIVE: Venezuelan Filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz, best known for Resistance and Hands of Stone, has signed on to direct the feature Cottonwood for Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures. 

Naman Ramachandran The London West End stage adaptation of “Fawlty Towers” will be free of racial slurs, creator John Cleese has said. “Fawlty Towers – The Play” is based on the classic 1975 sitcom and is written by Cleese and Connie Booth and adapted for the stage by Cleese. Cleese, who co-wrote the original 1975 TV series with Connie Booth and starred as Basil Fawlty, has written the two-hour play based on three of the original TV episodes – “The Hotel Inspector” and “The Germans” from Season 1 and “Communication Problems” from Season 2.

Succession’s Kieran Culkin in the Storyteller Series segment.The festival will also feature anniversary celebrations of some of the most iconic films and TV shows, including two long-time collaborators teaming up with an iconic hip hop artist.Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro will join rapper Nas in conversation about Mean Streets, as the crime drama film celebrates its 50th anniversary. Nas is also set to introduce a screening of the hip hop drama Beat Street in its 40th anniversary.Tribeca will also feature a reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos, seeing members of its cast and crew reunite for the conversation.A new documentary about the acclaimed crime drama series, titled Wise Guy: David Chase And The Sopranos, will premiere at the festival.In other news, Nas recently announced details of a new UK and European tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his iconic album ‘Illmatic’.The rapper will kick off the European leg of the tour in Helsinki on October 22, wrapping up at the Stadthalle Offenbach in Germany on November 8.He will then tour the UK, starting with a slot at O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester on November 10, before stopping at Edinburgh and Wolverhampton.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor David Wnendt, the German director behind controversial coming-of-age movie “Wetlands,” Hitler satire “Look Who’s Back” and teen crime drama “Sun and Concrete,” is once again pushing boundaries with his next feature film project. Backed by distributor-producer Constantin Film and with Seven Elephants lead producing, Wnendt has embarked on the feature film adaptation of the award-winning novel “Athos 2643” by Nils Westerboer. Wnendt, who will both write the screenplay and direct the theatrical film, promises an “emotional and spectacular experience that will take the audience into the vastness of outer space,” according to a press statement.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller. Totem brought together the directors and writers of the projects they are developing to take part in a Script Circle in Berlin, led by consultants Françoise von Roy and Franz Rodenkirchen. Totem partners Bérénice Vincent and Laure Parleani said that the production companies they are working with, Garagefilm, TamTam and Kalekone, were “enthusiastic about this collaborative idea, so were the directors and scriptwriters.” They added: “It is very nurturing to have a mix of different personalities, countries and backgrounds.

Jadon Sancho left pundits purring with his first-half display against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final first-leg tie on Wednesday.

Manchester United's slim hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season have been ended partly thanks to the performance of Jadon Sancho.

Kate Winslet‘s Lee finally has a debut teaser trailer.

One of Chorlton's most legendary spots is set to give away free Frankfurter sausages this week. The first 100 people through the door at Electrik will be able to claim their Wurst to celebrate the bar's new food collaboration with a German food vendor.

A dad-of-two who was 'the life and soul of the party' sent a devastating message to his girlfriend moments before he died. Kevin Sholicar 'laughed and joked with everyone', according to his dad, John Sholicar.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor European Film Promotion has revealed the participants for its Producers on the Move program, which runs before and during the Cannes Film Festival. The promotion and networking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, brings together 20 of Europe’s most promising producers.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media’s shareholders have narrowly voted to reject a plan that would have seen the business split up.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon raked in $11.82 billion in ad revenue for the first quarter of 2024, topping analyst expectations, fueled by the ecommerce giant’s move to serve advertising by default in Prime Video in multiple markets. Advertising sales for the quarter were up 24% year over year and marked a new Q1 record. The revenue beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter of $11.7 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two essential ingredients in the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, will leave Barbieland and Los Alamos behind them as they team up for “The Fall Guy.” But will audiences turn up in force to see the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” stars when their new action comedy debuts this weekend? Well, “The Fall Guy” isn’t going to hit those films’ box office heights, but it should have no trouble topping charts as it kicks off the summer movie season. The film is expected to earn north of $30 million, with some rival studio executives pegging the opening at between $35 million to $40 million. The catch is that movie wasn’t cheap to produce, boasting a healthy budget of $130 million, so “The Fall Guy” will need strong word-of-mouth if it’s going to leg it out on the long path to profitability.

Russ has added new UK and European dates to his ‘It Was You All Along’ world tour. Check them out along with ticket details below.Back in March, the New Jersey rapper first announced his upcoming ‘It Was You All Along’ tour in North American with 6LACK and Melii as support acts.

Kacey Musgraves is hitting the road, and the set list for her show looks so good!

The Sheffield DocFest will open with Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald’s latest doc Klitschko: More Than a Fight, while Roger Ross Williams, the first African American director to win an Academy Award, is Guest of Honor.

Freely Launches In UK

Lily Moayeri While the United States continues to debate how and when hip-hop lyrics can be used in court, dissident Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death on April 24 for lyrics that criticized the Islamic Republic’s ruling regime. The sentence, handed down by the ruling Republic Court of the Islamic Republic, overturns a decree from the higher Supreme Court which, according to the New York Times, found issues with the original ruling that sentenced Salehi to six years imprisonment and banned him from making music or singing for two years. The reason given for Salehi’s execution, which the Islamic Republic administers by hanging, is his involvement with Iran’s 2022 protests through his music.

Nuremberg,” a historical thriller set in post-war Germany, will launch its sales through WME Independent at the Cannes Film Festival next month. The film stars Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon. Richard E.

Billie Eilish has accomplished more than most recording artists will in their entire lives.Over the past decade, the “Bad Guy” singer released two number one albums, hosted “Saturday Night Live” and collected nine Grammy Awards and two Academy Awards to name just a few of her many impressive achievements.This year, she’s going back for more.Eilish just announced she is embarking on the worldwide ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR’ in support of her upcoming album with the same name, due out May 17.The worldwide tour includes a stop at Newark, NJ’s Prudential Center on Wednesday, Oct. 9 as well a trio of back-to-back-to-back gigs at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Oct.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Cinema has added Andres Veiel‘s upcoming documentary film “Riefenstahl,” about controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, to its Cannes lineup. The film is an exploration of Riefenstahl’s legacy, delving deep into her complex relationship with the Nazi regime. With unprecedented access to Riefenstahl’s 700-box personal archive, the documentary navigates between her sanitized narrative and incriminating evidence regarding her knowledge of the regime’s atrocities.

Fontaines D.C. have announced a 2024 European ‘ROMANCE’ tour.

Music icon Janet Jackson has confirmed a UK tour celebrating her 50th anniversary in entertainment. American superstar Janet will bring her Together Again tour to the UK, which also celebrates 35 years since her seminal album Rhythm Nation.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Starring “3o Coins’” Miguel Angel Silvestre and “The Palace’s” Katia Fellin, “Weiss & Morales” has gone into production in the Canary Islands, boasting the credentials of a textbook procedural appealing to current market appetites. As co-production ramps up between free-to-air players in Europe, led very often by its state-backed networks, “Weiss & Morales” links two of the continents’ most powerful public broadcasters, Germany’s ZDF and Spain’s RTVE, which produce with ZDF Studios.

France’s Mediawan has acquired Germany’s Leonine Studios.

Meena Harris For more than half a century, “Cabaret” — the iconic American musical set in Nazi Germany — has been produced, revived and revived again. This story, which touches on sex work, abortion and a complex female protagonist in Sally Bowles, has spoken to audiences generation after generation. But another element of the production stayed true for nearly the same amount of time: on Broadway, “Cabaret” has exclusively been directed by men.