Sky Italia Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Veteran international media exec Kathryn Fink has become Director of Television at public broadcaster SBS in her home country, Australia.

Sky Studios has hired CBS Studios international co-pros chief Meghan Lyvers as it seeks to significantly scale up its original UK drama output.

Naman Ramachandran Gabriella Carriere has joined Fremantle as group head of strategy, reporting into Andrea Scrosati, group COO and CEO continental Europe. Carriere joins from Sky Italia where she held the positions of Sky Wifi marketing senior director, media and commercial partnerships director and strategy director since joining in 2016. She replaces Van Truong, who held the position for five years and is now head of special projects, reporting into Scrosati and working closely with CEO Jennifer Mullin and the rest of the leadership team.Scrosati said: “Gabriella is an exceptional talent.

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Fremantle has appointed a Group Head of Strategy to support growth after striking a range of partnerships and buying up labels over the past year.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian actor-turned-director Andrea Di Stefano, who helmed well-received U.S. indie thrillers “Escobar: Paradise Lost,” with Benicio del Toro, and “The Informer,” is set to make “L’Ultima Notte di Amore,” his Italian-language debut.Universal Pictures Intl., Focus Features, and Italy’s Vision Distribution have worldwide distribution rights on the pic, which toplines Pierfrancesco Favino (Cannes competition title “Nostalgia” from Mario Martone).The film’s title, which translates as “The Last Night of Love,” is a play on words.

Eurovision Song Contest has returned for another year, bringing with it more musical drama and excitement. So far this year, Russia has been banned from the contest, while Latvia has been stamped with a censorship order and the UK afforded a rare shot at first place in the bookies. Every year, the show is presented by showbiz stalwarts from the hosting nation – and this year is no exception.

Leading community-driven entertainment company TMB (Trusted Media Brands) has signed with A3 Artists Agency for unscripted content representation.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorJuliet Stevenson has joined the cast of crime drama “Professor T,” production partners Eagle Eye and Beta Film announced at MipTV in Cannes Sunday. The companies also said that they have greenlit a second season of period drama “Hotel Portofino.” Eagle Eye’s Walter Iuzzolino said his firm was working on two further shows with Beta, yet to be revealed.Stevenson will play the therapist to the titular character, played by Ben Miller, in “Professor T,” which is shooting its second season in Cambridge and Belgium.

Walter Iuzzolino’s Eagle Eye Drama and Beta Film’s Hotel Portofino has been commissioned for a second series.

Christopher Vourlias Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has acquired world rights to “Hide and Seek” (Nascondino), the debut feature from director Victoria Fiore, which will screen in the main DOX:AWARD competition at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).The Naples-set documentary follows Entoni, a rambunctious 10-year-old, as he navigates childhood in a country where the justice system – in response to rising levels of youth criminality – allows courts to remove high-risk children from families involved in organized crime.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentLondon-based Beyond Rights has scored sales to Italian broadcasters on more than 500 hours of TV content, including topical doc “The Prince and the Paedophile.”The BriteSpark Films investigation into the friendship between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, which is also said to uncover new details on Epstein’s other British connection –– including to Ghislaine Maxwell –– has been acquired by linear broadcaster La7, which is the flagship station of the country’s third generalist TV group in terms of ratings.Comcast-owned pay TV Sky Italia re-upped their licensing deal on lifestyle show “Love It Or List It,” acquiring 290 new hours of the franchise, including four seasons from the original series and seasons from “Love It Or List It: Vancouver”; “Love It Or List It: Quebec” and “Love It Or List It: Australia.”   Discovery Italy purchased a 103-hour, multi-genre package comprising true crime titles such as “Fatal Vows,” and “Deadly Women,” plus “Massive Engineering Mistakes,” and auto show “Flipping Bangers.” AETN Italy picked up the latest two seasons of “Forbidden History” and the show’s new upcoming two instalments, one of which examines war propaganda methods used in Nazi Germany.Finally, GotGame, a new digital channel dedicated to the gaming world, bought 105 hours of science and tech programming from Beyond Rights comprising the shows “Myth or Science,” “How Hacks Work,” and “Superhuman Science.”“We are delighted that our extensive factual catalogue can meet the needs of so many key broadcasters at the same time in such an important territory as Italy.” said Sarah Bickley, Beyond Rights’ SVP sales for Italy, in a statement. 

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Vision Distribution has boarded Berlin Panorama title “Swing Ride,” directed by Chiara Bellosi, and will launch sales at the upcoming EFM on the pic about an overweight teenager named Benedetta who is pining for attention.“Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”) is set in a tiny southern Italian town where Benedetta meets Armando, aka Amanda, a young transvestite who runs the carousel and sells drugs.

Sky Studios’ Devils and Gomorrah producer Nils Hartmann has had his role expanded to oversee both Germany and Italy, replacing Marcus Ammon in the former.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe fifth and final season of Neapolitan mob series “Gomorrah” was unveiled Monday during an emotionally charged Rome event saluting the end of the gritty, groundbreaking show.As Nils Hartmann, senior director of Sky Italia original productions, put it during the press conference, in Italian TV “there is a before and after ‘Gomorrah.’”The hyper-realistic crime skein is Italy’s greatest TV export, having sold to 190 territories since its 2014 launch,

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Naman Ramachandran International distributor Rainmaker Content has sold the Television Academy‘s 73rd Emmy Awards to more than 150 territories. New buyers include AMC Networks International for Central Europe, Catchplay Plus for Indonesia and Taiwan, Mediacorp for Singapore, U-Next Co., Ltd for and Japan and Sky Italia for Italy.

Jamie Lang Sky Italia has confirmed the rumored appointment of Andrea Duilio as the company’s new CEO, set to take office Sept. 6 of this year reporting directly to Stephen van Rooyen, Sky CEO for the U.K.

Ronin and Californication star Natascha McElhone is to headline a period drama set on the Italian Riviera, which has pre-sold to ITV/BritBox (UK), Sky Italia (Italy), and Foxtel (Australia). Titled Hotel Portofino, PBS Distribution has taken North American rights.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFremantle and Sky Italia are changing the “X Factor” format for the talent show’s upcoming Italian edition.

Celtic job though Eddie Howe is the clear front-runner. He's also been touted as a possible replacement for Jose Mourinho at Tottenham, while rumours of a return to Napoli have been rife since Benitez left his job in China.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentMaximo Ibarra and Nicola Maccanico, respectively managing director and programming chief at Comcast-owned Sky Italia, are exiting the pay-TV operation following its failure to secure a rights deal for Italy’s Serie A soccer league.Ibarra, a Colombian-Italian executive with extensive telecoms experience, had been leading Sky Italia since October 2019.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSky Italia executive Nicola Maccanico is stepping down from his post at the Comcast-owned pay-TV to become managing director of Italy’s Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, the state film entity that operates Rome’s expanding Cinecittà Studios.Maccanico’s sudden career move comes as Italy’s Culture Minister Enrico Franceschini is implementing an ambitious relaunch of the iconic studios.

EXCLUSIVE: From Quantico to Wu Assassins, actress Li Jun Li has played a variety of roles — but she’s just getting started. Li has joined the forthcoming season of the Sky Italia series Devils in a series regular role. This is in addition to her leading role in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon at Paramount where she will star alongside Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Jovan Adepo.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian author and director Niccolò Ammaniti is currently in post on “Anna,” the hotly anticipated TV series centered on a 13-year-old girl who must contend with a viral contagion that kills off all adults on the island of Sicily.Ammaniti’s second television project after “The Miracle,” “Anna” is a Sky Original series commissioned by Sky Studios for Sky Italia produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli with Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, a Fremantle

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProduction of TV dramas is back on track in Italy after a pandemic-prompted pause just as several hot new Italian shows, such as Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are,” are hitting international screens and markets.Pay-TV platform Sky Italia, which partnered with HBO on Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are,” has a slew of shows in various stages, including two very different ancient Rome skeins.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorHBO Max has acquired a raft of international titles as the WarnerMedia streamer looks to expand its library of content for subscribers in the U.S.Among the titles picked up by HBO Max is all five seasons of Gomorrah, the Italian crime drama produced by Sky Italia and Cattleya, part of ITV Studios, in collaboration with Beta Film.Gomorrah has previously premiered on Sundance TV and Netflix in America, but HBO Max will be first to stream Season 5.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorSky original drama and comedies, including David Schwimmer show Intelligence, will broadcast in Canada under a new “multi-year” output deal with Corus Entertainment.From later this year, Corus will premiere multiple Sky series, including those funded or co-produced by the Comcast-owned broadcaster’s television arm, Sky Studios.

Sports entertainment powerhouse WWE is moving its TV content in Italy from Sky Italia, part of Comcast-owned pay TV giant Sky, to Discovery. Under an exclusive multi-year agreement unveiled on Wednesday, WWE’s weekly flagship programming will become available, live and on-demand, on Discovery streaming service DPlay Plus with original U.S.