Leo Barraclough Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

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).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Angela Schanelec’s “Music,” which will have its world premiere on Feb. 21 in competition at the Berlinale, has debuted its trailer with Variety. The film, which stars Aliocha Schneider and Agathe Bonitzer, is freely inspired by the myth of Oedipus. International sales are handled by Shellac. Found at birth abandoned on a stormy night in the Greek mountains, Jon is taken in and adopted, without having known his father or mother. As a young man, he meets Iro, a warden in the prison where he is incarcerated after a deadly tragic accident. She seems to seek out his presence, takes care of him, records music for him.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Six-time Primetime Emmy award-winner Frank Doelger, whose credits include “Game of Thrones,” “The Swarm,” “John Adams” and “Rome,” and Intaglio Films, a joint venture between Beta Film and ZDF Studios, have started production on surveillance drama thriller “Concordia,” set in an experimental utopian community. ZDF, MBC, France Télévisions and Hulu Japan have signed up as partners for the six-part series, shot in English and directed by Barbara Eder (“The Swarm,” “Barbarians,” “Cop Stories”). Doelger helms as executive producer and showrunner, alongside the executive producers Ute Leonhardt, Rafferty Thwaites, Jan Wünschmann and Robert Franke. Shooting takes place at various locations in Rome, Northern Italy, and Leipzig in Germany.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs Oct. 25-30, has unveiled Opus Bonum, its international competition section. The 16-strong lineup includes eight world premieres. Andrea Kleine’s “The End Is Not What I Thought It Would Be,” from the U.S., is set during the pandemic. Kleine, the author of novels “Calf” and “Eden,” is seen performing stand-up comedy, monologues and music in a theater without an audience. Emily Allen’s U.S. film “Cisco Kid” features a young woman living in the middle of a vast desert in the American West, in the ruins of a town where the last of the oddball inhabitants struggle to survive.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.S. director-producer Laura Poitras, who won an Oscar and an Emmy with Edward Snowden film “Citizenfour,” and recently took the Golden Lion at Venice with opioid epidemic pic “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” will be the Guest of Honor at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The 35th edition of the festival takes place from Nov. 9 to 20. Poitras will be honored at IDFA with the Retrospective and Top 10 programs, in which she curates 10 films. The Top 10 program includes reflections on political imprisonment (“Hunger” by Steve McQueen; “This Is Not a Film” by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb), incarceration and psychiatry (Frederick Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies”), and genocide (Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah”). As part of the Top 10, Poitras will be in conversation with several of her selected filmmakers during the festival’s public talks program.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, who directed the Oscar winners “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” U.S. producer Christine Vachon, whose credits includes Oscar winner “Boys Don’t Cry,” and Oscar nominees “Far from Heaven” and “Carol,” and Romania’s Alexander Nanau, the director of the Oscar nominated “Collective,” are among the jury members at the 18th edition of the Zurich Film Festival, which takes place from Sept. 22 to Oct. 2.  Farhadi will head the jury for the International Feature Film Competition. He is joined by the U.K.’s Clio Barnard, who directed the BAFTA nominated “The Arbor,” “The Selfish Giant” and “Ali & Ava”; L.A.-based Brazilian Daniel Dreifuss, a producer on the Oscar nominated “No” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s Oscar entry; Swiss/Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe, whose credits include Tribeca prizewinner “The Divine Order”; and  Sweden’s Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson, the producer of Ali Abbassi’s “Border,” which won the main award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The organizers of the annual London TV Screenings announced Thursday that next year’s event – the third edition – will run from Feb. 27 to March 3. As well as the five distributors that founded the event, participants will include 17 others, such as the international distribution arms of NBC, Paramount and Warner Bros. The first in-person event earlier this year, which followed the online event in 2021, was attended by more than 500 international buyers. At the third edition, the founding distributors from the inaugural event in 2020 – All3Media Intl., Banijay Rights, Entertainment One, Fremantle and ITV Studios – are to be joined by a further 17 partners, with others likely to take part.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Feature documentary “The Ghost of Richard Harris,” which premieres Sunday at the Venice Film Festival, looks to answer the question: “Who was Richard Harris?” The film also contains the revelation that Harris was offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies, but chose to take the part of Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” franchise instead. Variety spoke to director Adrian Sibley and Richard Harris’ son Jared Harris – a distinguished actor himself, and one of the originators of the project – about how the documentary came to be made. Sibley first broached the subject of making a film about Richard Harris some 20 years ago with the man himself, who responded: “I’ll do it, but only if I can tell the truth half the time,” Jared Harris recalls.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe 61st Monte-Carlo Television Festival opened Friday with a phalanx of stars and TV industry execs walking the blue carpet for the event, attended by Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife Princess Charlene. The opening screening was the world premiere of thriller “Last Light,” produced by MGM Intl.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMads Mikkelsen, seen recently in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” is to headline the action spy thriller “The Black Kaiser,” directed by Jonas Akerlund (“Lords of Chaos,” “Clark”). The movie is written by Jayson Rothwell and Mikkelsen, based on the Dark Horse graphic novel “Polar” by Victor Santos.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“1341 Frames of Love and War,” which world premieres in the Berlinale Special section of the Berlin Film Festival, has debuted its trailer with Variety. World sales are being handled by Reservoir Docs, excluding North America, Israel, Greece and Portugal, which are being sold by the filmmakers.The film is a documentary portrait of one of the world’s leading war photographers, Israel’s Micha Bar-Am.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorJamie Lee Curtis, who will receive Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on Wednesday evening before the out-of-competition screening of “Halloween Kills,” addressed accusations that the first film in the franchise was “anti-feminist” and “women bashing” at a press conference earlier in the day.  Curtis said that she thought “today the women’s movement would love [lead character] Laurie Strode,” who reflected women’s “strength,

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorNetflix has acquired the global rights to Toby Meakins’ horror thriller “Curs>r,” starring Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education”), Iola Evans (“Carnival Row”) and Eddie Marsan.The deal was negotiated by producer and financier Anton (“Greenland: Migration,” “His Dark Materials”) and Stigma Films.The film, a dark twist on the ‘80s gaming obsession, wrapped principal photography in the U.K.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorTop Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky, who was Oscar nominated for Andrey Zvyagintsev’s films “Leviathan” and “Loveless,” is reteaming with Zvyagintsev for his first English-language film, and with Kantemir Balagov, who directed “Beanpole,” best director winner in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorShameik Moore, best known for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” is attached to lead “Silver Star,” opposite Sydney Sweeney. MK2 Films is handling international sales, with the U.S.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMona Fastvold’s “The World to Come,” starring Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby, will open the hybrid summer component – running June 2-6 – of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s 50th edition. Hirota Yusuke’s animated feature “Poupelle of Chimney Town” will close the event.“The World to Come” is a romantic drama about the forbidden love between two women, played by Waterston and Kirby, in 1850s Upstate New York.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorHugh Jackman and Laura Dern will star in “The Son,” writer-director Florian Zeller’s follow-up to the BAFTA winning and Academy Award nominated “The Father.” The film is adapted from Zeller’s acclaimed stage play by Zeller and Christopher Hampton, who is Oscar nominated for adapting “The Father” with Zeller, and who won an Oscar with “Dangerous Liaisons,” and was Oscar nominated with “Atonement.”Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, who were Oscar

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorShout! Studios has acquired North American rights to the platonic love story “Language Lessons” from Duplass Brothers Productions, following a competitive bidding situation. The news comes on the heels of the movie’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and its Audience Award win at the SXSW Film Festival.“Language Lessons” marks the feature directorial debut of Natalie Morales (“Dead to Me,” “Plan B”).

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorHelen Mirren, who won an Oscar for “The Queen,” will portray Israel’s legendary Prime Minister Golda Meir in “Golda.” The film will be directed by Academy Award winner Guy Nattiv, and produced by BAFTA winner Michael Kuhn (“Florence Foster Jenkins,” “The Duchess”).Embankment will represent international sales, with CAA Media Finance and ICM jointly handling the North American rights.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCopenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, better known as CPH:DOX, has unveiled its full program, which includes the screenings of 180 films, interactive art, and 40 live debates and talks with artists, experts and opinion-makers.The festival offers new films from a number of leading directors.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights to Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man,” which won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for leading performance for Maren Eggert.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorDirector Paul W.S. Anderson, best known for the “Resident Evil” franchise, will direct his adaptation of “In the Lost Lands,” a sprawling epic based on the story by George R.R.

Eli Countryman Creators and screenwriters from Europe discussed the importance of collaboration in filmmaking during a panel in the Variety Streaming Room.Hosted by international features editor Leo Barraclough, the conversation, titled “Lost in Translation? Visual Story Development from Script to Screen,” included creators from the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s Black Room and writers from the Face to Face program.

Eli Countryman Day three of the Locarno Film Festival StepIn 2020, moderated by Variety‘s Leo Barraclough and hosted by the Variety Streaming Room platform, brought professionals from various parts of the film festival and market sectors together for a panel on the Future of Film Festivals and Film Markets.Jérôme Paillard, executive director of Cannes Film Market; Lili Hinstin, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival; Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the Venice Film Festival; Sarah

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThough international film and TV production is currently halted due the pandemic, Russia is becoming more attractive for prospective partnerships once lockdown restrictions lift.That was the takeaway of a panel held during the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition organized by Russian promotional entity Roskino moderated by Variety’s Leo Barraclough who chatted with Marc Lorber, senior VP international co-productions and acquisitions at Lionsgate, and David