Bound Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based company Indie Sales has acquired Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature “Pamfir” which will world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight. The banner is handling international sales on the movie. Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk previously directed the short film “Weighlifter,” a European Film Award contender and winner of the Best Short Film Award in Angers.“Pamfir” takes place in Western Ukraine, on the eve of a traditional carnival.

Alex Rodriguez got in some time with his blended family! On Saturday, the former MLB star shared a picture of him, his two daughters, his ex-wife, Cynthia Scurtis and her husband, Angel Nicolas, heading to Memphis for the NBA playoffs.

The Broadway-bound revival of the musical 1776, which begins a pre-New York engagement at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts next month, has announced a cast comprised fully of performers who identify as female, non-binary, and trans.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLevelK has boarded the buzzed-about Australian horror movie “Sissy” which have its world premiere at SXSW’s Midnighters section. The company is handling international sales on “Sissy,” while XYZ films is representing North American rights.Penned and directed by Hannah Barlow (For Now) and Kane Senes (Echoes of War, For Now), the film stars Aisha Dee (The Bold Type) as Cecilia, aka Sissy, a twenty-something girl whose best friend is Emma.

Rylan Clark has revealed he's been forced to take a break from his radio show after falling ill with the flu.The 33 year old TV and radio star announced the news with is 1.6million Twitter followers on Friday evening. He wrote: "Gone and got the flu (not surprised) been in bed for a couple of days. "Have lat tested and not Covid thankfully but won’t be able to go on the wireless tomorrow.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Convenience Store,” by director Michael Borodin, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.Borodin’s feature debut follows an Uzbek immigrant working at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. As with the rest of the immigrants at the store, she’s forced to work without pay and to endure mental and physical abuse, until the day she overcomes her fear and takes her fate into her own hands.Based on real-life events and the active legal cases of immigrants in Russia, “Convenience Store” captures the horrors of modern slavery in a visceral blend of realism, documentary-style filmmaking and grand-scale cinema.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali has revealed the first trailer for his long-awaited film “Gangubai Kathiawadi,” which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Starring Alia Bhatt (“Gully Boy”) in the titular role alongside Ajay Devgn (“Tanhaji”), the film is based on the book, “Mafia Queens of Mumbai,” written by S. Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges.

Marnie Simpson - who is expecting her second baby this May - has revealed she feels "depressed" after being so unwell and "bed-bound" with an illness, which saw her being sick "10 times a night" last week. The pregnant Geordie Shore sensation, 30, tells her OK! VIP readers she feels her second pregnancy is "never-ending" and has forgotten what it's like to "feel normal". She told us: "I’ve also been having trouble with my breathing.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorIrish writer/director Colm Bairéad’s narrative feature debut “The Quiet Girl,” which world premieres at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation Kplus section, has debuted a clip from the film with Variety. Rosa Bosch Films is handling world sales.The film is a complex and delicate coming-of-age drama that explores questions of family, neglect and grief through the eyes of its young protagonist. Commenting on the film, director Mark Cousins said: “What a tender jewel of a film.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorWorld sales company Global Screen has released the first-look image of “Recipes for Love and Murder,” which has been chosen for Berlinale Series Market Selects lineup at the European Film Market. Acorn has the rights to the series for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.The 10-part South African and U.K.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired “Coma,” the latest film by celebrated French director Bertrand Bonello (“Saint Laurent”). “Coma” will have its world premiere premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Encounters section. Weaving genre, animation and live action, the stylish movie boasts an exciting cast including Louise Labeque (“Zombi Child”) and Julia Faure (“Camille Rewinds”), with voices by beloved late actor Gaspard Ulliel, as well as Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste.

If you missed the AFC Championship game on Sunday (January 30), the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Kansas City Chiefs in an overtime upset. The Bengals are now Super Bowl bound and will compete against the Los Angeles Rams for the Lombardi trophy this year.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Working Class Heroes,” by director Miloš Pušić, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand. Variety has also been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer.Starring award-winning Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić, who played the lead role in Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-nominated “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” “Working Class Heroes” follows a cold-hearted businesswoman working for a construction investor of dubious morals.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorNazi-era drama “The Forger,” starring Louis Hofmann of Netflix’s supernatural series “Dark” and the Oscar nominated “Land of Mine,” has debuted its trailer (below) ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale Special Gala section of the Berlin Film Festival. Beta Cinema will be selling the film at the European Film Market.Based on a true story, Maggie Peren’s film centers on 21-year-old Cioma Schönhaus, who won’t let anyone take away his zest for life.

Julian Alvarez might already have realised he will not be given any special treatment as he prepares to sign for Manchester City during the January transfer window.

Christopher Vourlias Japanese auteur Koji Fukada is developing his latest feature film, a look into the frenzied world of Japan’s idol culture, which he’ll be presenting during the Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart co-production market this week.The project will then head to the European Film Market next month as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express, a collaboration between the two markets.Fukada spoke exclusively to Variety about his tenth feature film, “Love on Trial,” which tells the story of a burgeoning pop star who falls in love with an old schoolmate – only to have her life and career unravel because that romance violates a “no boys” clause in her contract.The film is inspired by the improbable, real-life court case of a 15-year-old Japanese pop star who was sued by her talent management company for falling into a romantic relationship that violated the terms of her contract.

Christopher Vourlias Spanish-Chilean filmmaker Théo Court is prepping the follow-up to his Venice prize-winner “White on White,” which won the Silver Lion for best director in the festival’s Horizons strand in 2019, and was Chile’s submission in the best international feature film Oscar race this year.Court spoke exclusively to Variety about “Tres Noches Negras,” which he’ll be presenting during the Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart co-production market this week.Set in the Chilean countryside, the film tells the story of a peasant who asks the devil to grant him a wish beneath a full moon. A young Haitian man soon appears dead on the grounds of the mansion that looms over the peasant’s feudal, rural community, setting off an investigation that will unravel the complex social and human fabric of modern-day Chile.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe trailer for Francesco Costabile’s Mafia family drama “Una Femmina,” which premieres in Berlinale’s Panorama section, has debuted. Intramovies will handle sales at the virtual European Film Market.The film centers on Rosa, a restless young woman who lives with her mother’s relatives in a remote village in Calabria, Southern Italy.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLe Pacte has unveiled a trailer for Christos Massalas’ “Broadway,” which will unspool in the Big Screen competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) 51st edition.Massalas’ feature debut, “Broadway” is supported by the Greek Film Center and the Sundance Institute. It was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Atelier Cinéfondation de Cannes in 2019.The helmer’s previous shorts have been critically acclaimed, including “Copa-Loca” which played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight in 2017.

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime has put in development Jumpmen, a sneaker industry drama from writer Shaye Ogbonna (God’s Country). Justin Hillian (The Chi, Snowfall) is overseeing the project as part of his overall deal with Showtime, and producing along with 3 Arts.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKeshet International (KI) has picked up the anticipated Flemish drama “Storm Lara” which is set to world premiere at the Berlinale Series Market Selects. The four-part thriller series marks the first scripted project to be commissioned by Belgian streamer Streamz. Produced by the Belgian banner A Private View, “Storm Lara” takes place in real-time during a two-hour radio call-in show.

Before the pandemic, if there was something studio executives rubbed their hands about, it was the near total eclipse of the theatrical window.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBerlin-based Films Boutique (“Lingui, The Sacred Bonds”) has acquired “Talking About The Weather,” Annika Pinske’s contemporary debut film which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. The movie follows Clara, who has just got away from her native provincial East Germany and is now living a bohemian life in Berlin, teaching philosophy while finishing her Ph.

WME music agents Marissa Smith, Matthew Morgan and Buster Philipps have left the agency and are bound for UTA, sources tell Variety. The news follows the exit of Scott Clayton, who was one of three co-heads of music at WME.

Steven Oxman “Paradise Square,” an ambitious new musical heading to Broadway in March, is a fictionalized historical take on the Five Points area of Manhattan and the social forces leading up to the violent Draft Riots of 1863, where what began as immigrant protests against the Civil War draft turned into violence against the Black population of the city.

EXCLUSIVE: Seoul- and Los Angeles-based Bound Entertainment (AppleTV+’s Dr. Brain), is teaming with YA author Marie Lu to develop a series adaptation of her dystopian fantasy novel, Legend.