AFM: REinvent International Sales Boards Thailand-Set Horror Thriller ‘River of Blood’ (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Jack Kilmer (Palo Alto), Paris Jackson (Gringo), and Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight) are in production in Atlanta on Open Wounds, an indie horror thriller from director Ronald Krauss (Gimme Shelter). Rounding out the cast of the pic are Lambert Houston (Resurrection Factor), Renata Notni (Zorro), Richie Radichi (My Best Friend’s Dead), and Jay Giannone (American Hustle).

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Ted” series coming to Peacock has set its premiere date. The seven-episode event series, which serves as a prequel to the two “Ted” films, will debut on Peacock on Jan. 11.

Peacock is finally ready to show the world Ted, its event series from Seth MacFarlane.

EXCLUSIVE: Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) and Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason) have entered production overseas on Hallow Road, a new psychological thriller, which Under the Shadow‘s Babak Anvari is directing from a script by William Gillies.

Emiliano De Pablos Disney+ has picked up Latin American rights to Diego Yaker’s Argentine-Spanish revenge thriller “Una jirafa en el balcón” and is planning a theatrical release in Argentina and Uruguay. Barcelona-based indie studio Filmax is handling Spanish distribution and international sales rights on the film. Hitting the final straits of its shoot, “Una jirafa en el balcón” is filming in Barcelona over Nov.

A record number of international distributors will be at the London TV Screenings in 2024.

Producer Chris Fenton has joined the international advisory council of APCO Worldwide, the advocacy and consultancy firm.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unscripted queer reality dating series “Boys Like Boys” is to air on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TLC channel in Taiwan in early 2024, making it the first local LGBTQ+ dating reality show to air on linear TV in the territory. The show is an original production by GagaOOLala, Asia’s out and proud LGBTQ+ streaming service, which is pitching an expanded array of queer content at the Taiwan Creative Contents Fest (TCCF) that launches Tuesday in Taipei. “Boys Like Boys” had its premiere at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival and is now available worldwide on GagaOOLala and WeTV in the Philippines and Thailand, where the ‘Boys Love’ genre has become highly popular.

The world’s most valuable company narrowly topped estimates but saw another revenue dip — its fourth in a row — with sales down about 1% to $89.5 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood war epic “Pippa” will get a direct-to-streaming release on Prime Video. “Pippa” is based on the book “The Burning Chaffees,” written by Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta and the screenplay is by Ravinder Randhawa, Tanmay Mohan and Menon. Ishaan plays Captain Mehta of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron who fought on India’s eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

Naman Ramachandran Signature Entertainment has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to horror thriller “Don’t Move” from Capstone Global. The film follows a seasoned killer as he injects a grieving woman with a paralytic agent.

EXCLUSIVE: James McAvoy (X-Men franchise), Lucas Bravo (Emily In Paris), Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) and Almudena Amor (The Good Boss) have been set for thriller Turn Up The Sun! which has begun production in the UK under an Equity PACT agreement.

Carole Horst The American Film Market kicks off Oct. 31 and runs through Nov. 5 in its new headquarters at the Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Industry veterans Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina and Seth Needle are teaming up to launch Blue Harbor Entertainment, a new distribution, marketing and consulting company. The news comes as the American Film Market kicks off this week in Santa Monica where the executives will be on the ground looking for partners. Blue Harbor is looking to distribute 10 to 15 feature film releases per year, as well as provide advisory services to third parties.

Mister Smith Entertainment has hired Augusta Charlton as Director, International Sales & Acquisitions. 

K.J. Yossman Kaleidoscope Film Distribution have snapped up Scottish thriller “Kill” for the U.K. market and are set to launch international sales at AFM.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based genre special WTFilms has boarded Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s horror thriller ‘The Soul Eater’ ahead of the AFM.

Christopher Vourlias XYZ Films has acquired North American sales rights to the horror-thriller “Deus Irae,” the debut feature of Argentine filmmaker Pedro Cristiani, and will introduce the film to buyers at the upcoming AFM. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s bone-chilling trailer (see below).

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Boys’ Love, or ‘BL’ as it is also known, was once a minor and lightly regarded type of Japanese manga catering mainly to female fans, delivering stories of handsome young guys falling in love with each other. Now its popularity has spread beyond Japan to much of East Asia and beyond, while metamorphozing into a film, TV and online genre with millions of fans. Just how big BL has become was evident in a Wednesday TIFFCOM seminar on the BL phenomenon in Thailand: Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Appeal and Diversity of Thailand’s Boys’ Love Contents. The eleven speakers, including an official from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Japan, vigorously pitched partnerships with Japanese content companies, which seemed to be a classic case of selling ice to Alaska’s indigenous inhabitants. Members of the packed seminar room might beg to differ, however.

AGC International has nabbed international rights to Late Night With The Devil from Aussie filmmaking duo Colin and Cameron Cairnes and will launch sales at the upcoming American Film Market.