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ASOS shoppers were left gobsmacked after spotting a pair of 'market slippers' being sold on the site for a hefty £42. The black sandals, featuring a solid flat bottom and a sheer top adorned with beads, have caused quite the stir online.

Top Middle East and North African independent distributor and talent agency MAD Solutions is adding a new string to its bow with the launch of Arab cinema-focused international sales company MAD World.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amsterdam- and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films is to pre-sell Chinese crime drama “Family at large,” kicking off at the Cannes Market. The film had previously been announced with sales handled jointly by Fortissimo and Rediance. Now, Fortissimo alone is representing rights worldwide, ex-China. Directed by Kang Bo, the film is set in the chilly far north of the country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Skyline Media, a leading Vietnamese studio, is getting ready for Cannes with a string of sales on its local and Southeast Asian film sales slate. Since appearing at FilMart in Hong Kong in March, Skyine has licensed Cambodian horror title “The Night Curse of Reatrei” to Taiwan’s Cai Chang International and to Exponenta Film for the CIS region.

Murtada Elfadl Documentary festival Millennium Docs Against Gravity, running in Poland from Friday to May 19 and online from May 21 to July 3, is in its 21st edition, but its industry section is a relatively recent addition. However, it is growing in size and impact. The section started small four years ago, as Anna Szczypińska, head of the section, explains.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean sales firm Finecut has inked multiple deals for horror thriller “Noise” and for “A Traveler’s Needs,” the recent Berlin prize-winner directed by Hong Sangsoo.“Noise” is a “multi-sensory and realistic horror” film that intertwines societal motifs of “floor noise” with suspenseful elements. Directed by Kim Soo-jin, the film centers around a woman with a hearing aid haunted by inexplicable sounds linked to her sister’s disappearance in her own apartment and attracting a malevolent presence.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian production powerhouse Film.UA is developing a bone-chilling slate of horror films all set within the same cinematic universe, the company revealed exclusively to Variety on the eve of this year’s Cannes Marché du Film. Steeped in local folklore and delving into the rituals, sorcery and mysticism that are woven into the fabric of Ukrainian culture and mythology, the films will transport viewers into a realm where ancient powers stir and darkness reigns, unspooling stories that are rooted in historical and cultural facts and set against the backdrop of current events.

A Scots mum has told how she was made to feel like a 'hypochondriac' when seeking a diagnosis for an invisible condition that led her to retire in her 40s.

A man was left with 'life-changing injuries' after a horror stabbing outside a pub in Middleton. The victim, aged in his 20s, was found injured along Market Place, beside the Assheton Arms Hotel on Tuesday night (May 7).

EXCLUSIVE: The in-demand Sydney Sweeney, coming off hit rom-com Anyone But You and horror pic Immaculate, is shifting gears again as she is set to portray trailblazing boxer Christy Martin in a new biopic which could be a knockout for buyers at the Cannes market where Black Bear will be launching.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has set the producers and producing teams invited to join the PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career creative producers.

EXCLUSIVE: Lizzy Greene (A Million Little Things) is set to star in and executive-produce High Tide, a survival thriller that strands a group of friends on a swiftly submerging tidal island deep in the Pacific, where they are soon hunted by the ocean’s greatest predator.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator) will re-team with his Unhinged director Derrick Borte on the action-thriller Bear Country.

Television Academy chair Cris Abrego announced on Wednesday his appointees to the Television Academy Executive Committee for 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based genre sales specialist Raven Banner has added Neon Noir horror pics Brute 1976 and Garden of Eden to its Cannes Film Market slate.

K.J. Yossman Israel’s leading documentary co-production market CoPro is set to return next month for its 26th edition in a hybrid format amidst the ongoing war in the region.

Naman Ramachandran British boxing champion and “Love Island” runner-up Tommy Fury will make his acting debut with Oceana Studios‘ “The Debt Inherited.” The film also marks the directorial debut of Oceana CEO Danny Sawaf. Dubai-based distribution and production outfit Oceana, whose credits include “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend,” starring Gabriel Byrne and Mira Sorvino, “Monstrous,” starring Christina Ricci, and “Terrifier 2,” will launch sales on “The Debt Inherited” at the Cannes Film Market.

Naman Ramachandran Revenues at Bertelsmann’s Luxembourg-based RTL Group, a media giant which owns Fremantle, rose 2.6% to €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), for the first quarter of 2024, driven by buoyant TV advertising and streaming. However, this was offset by decreased revenues at the group’s global content business. Fremantle revenues were down 9.2% to €395 million (Q1/2023: €435 million), due to what RTL describes as “timing effects in the U.K., Italy and Germany.” “Revenue from Fremantle is recognized when a show or series is delivered to its clients, i.e.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has signed with Neopol Film to handle international sales for their upcoming creature horror thriller, “Paws.” Featuring polar bear creature animatronics from the renowned studio behind “Star Wars” and “Jurassic World,” the film tells the story of a climate researcher stranded in the Arctic who must forge an unlikely alliance with a polar bear in order to survive. The project will feature a stellar international cast, yet to be announced.

J. Kim Murphy Ricky Strauss is exiting from his role as head of marketing at Apple TV+ after leading the department for nearly a year and a half. An Apple spokesperson confirmed Strauss would be stepping down from his Culver City-based role.

Ricky Strauss is leaving Apple TV+ after a 16-month stint as Head of Marketing.

BBC Breakfast host Ben Thompson has announced that World Business News is being cancelled by the BBC News channel after more than 30 years. On Tuesday 7 May, he presented the morning edition of the show and revealed it would be the final one. “Before we go, some news about us,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE: We understand Dwayne Johnson is due to be at the Cannes market next week to discuss upcoming A24 wrestling pic The Smashing Machine with potential buyers.

Universal Pictures presentation and Donna Langley — chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and the newly minted chief content officer of NBCUniversal Studio Group — had yet to step on stage. Her team showed off glimpses of the sexy, action-packed tornado sequel “Twisters,” the Gen Z-leaning creepfest “Nosferatu” from Robert Eggers and an extended sequence from the latest installment of Illumination’s “Despicable Me” series.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Audiences may not be the only thing about TV that continues to shrink. Advertisers are expected to once again press for “rollbacks,” or declines in the rates they pay for reaching streaming and TV viewers, in early “upfront” talks with TV networks, according to five media buying executives and other people familiar with these annual discussions in which U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next cycle of programming.

Fireworks at Disney’s first-quarter earnings amid a bitter proxy fight quieted down in the second and the company’s commentary on a call today, especially around the parks business, generated some investor angst and knocked the stock lower.

EXCLUSIVE: Shark in the water! The third installment in the hit shark thriller franchise 47 Meters Down is launching at the Cannes market.

Before its debut presentation to ad buyers during the mid-May week of top-tier media and tech pitches, Amazon Ads is rolling out three new streaming video ad formats.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Olivia Colman and John Lithgow head the cast of “Jimpa,” a multi-generational family tale involving a nonbinary teenager and her mother who take a trip to see their gay grandfather. The Australia- and Europe-set film is directed by Sophie Hyde, whose most recent film was the breakout “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” The film is now in its third week of production in Amsterdam and will later shoot in Adelaide, Australia and Helsinki, Finland. Rights to the film are being handled by Protagonist Pictures in much of the world and by CAA Media Finance in North America, with sales kicking off at the Cannes Market next week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The video-on-demand streaming sector in Southeast Asia delivered record subscription numbers and subscription revenues in the first quarter of the year, according to a new study. Those trends represent recovery after a tough 2023. Data from consultancy firm Media Partners Asia and its AMPD research affiliate showed VOD usage at a barely changed 96.3 minutes in the five Southeast Asian countries studied (Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia). Total paying subscriptions reached 48.5 million, representing net additions of 652,000 quarter-on-quarter and 1.6 million year-on-year.