AMC, Oble Developing Hungarian Revenge Period Drama ‘Fata Morgana’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Gal Gadot is ready to focus on her future after Wonder Woman 3 was canceled. The star of Heart of Stone is opening up about what her next projects will look like as she continues to make strides in the industry.

“As children, we fear the dark. Anything might be out there. The unknown troubles us. There are those who say we should not inquire too closely into who else might be living in that darkness.”

Charna Flam When developing her on-screen friendship with co-star Christa Miller, “Shrinking” star Jessica Williams said she positioned it as if they were hanging out “like a ‘Real Housewife of Pasadena.’” In other words, she approached the relationship between her character, Gaby, and and Miller’s character, Liz, through the lens of her fascination with reality TV and obsession with the “Real Housewives” franchise. In this episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, Williams and Miller share how that TV friendship has developed into a real-life, off-screen one as well. In separate interviews, Williams and Miller discussed the dynamic of their characters’ evolving personalities and what they hope for the second season. Listen below!

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian actor-turned-director Andrea Di Stefano, whose sleek cop thriller “Last Night of Amore” just had its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, is in advanced stages of development on “Karski” a feature about Jan Karski, the World War II Polish resistance fighter who risked his life to blow the whistle on the Holocaust. Di Stefano’s high-profile project, which is titled “Karski,” is being developed by New York City-based production company Phiphen Pictures, the indie founded by Molly Conners most recently behind Netflix’s “Like Father” and “It’s Bruno!,” the director said. Italy’s expanding Indiana Production, which shepherded “Amore,” is also on board.

“Pitching in Hollywood is like your head against a brick wall right now.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Inseparables,” Jérémie Degruson’s ambitious animated feature competing this week at Annecy festival, has been sold to a raft of territories by Octopolis and nWave. Based on an original idea by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, the Oscar-nominated writers of “Toy Story,” “The Inseparables” follows the misadventures of Don, a runaway puppet with a boundless imagination and, DJ Doggy Dog, an abandoned stuffed animal toy in need of a friend. Don and DJ Doggy Dog cross paths in Central Park and pair up against all odds for an epic adventure of friendship in New York City. The film was penned by Bob Barlen and Cal Brunker. Budgeted at $25 million, “The Inseparables” was produced by nWave Studios in Belgium, Octopolis in France and A Contracorriente Films in Spain.

Much like the other Cavaliers, Evan Mobley did not play well in his first postseason appearance. Cleveland lost in five games to a scrappy New York Knicks team. Mobley and Allen were out-hustled and overpowered in the paint on both sides of the ball.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

EXCLUSIVE: Mammoth Pictures has inked a deal out of Cannes with the Bulgarian production company Bazuka to exclusively develop and produce a narrative feature take on Kukeri, their documentary short produced for The New Yorker which was just unveiled at the beginning of the month. (View it above.)

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Family animated movie “Pirate Mo and the Legend of the Red Ruby” proved to be a smash hit with international distributors during the Cannes Film Market, with sales agency The Playmaker Munich delivering the film to multiple buyers. During the market, The Playmaker announced first presales to Benelux (Just4Kids), Turkey (Filmarti), Baltics (GPI), Greece (Rosebud) and Bulgaria (Pro Films). The company has now revealed further sales to Poland (M2 Films), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Hungary and Romania (ADS), Portugal (Outsider Pictures), and Yugoslavia (Blitz Film).

Josh Duhamel is preparing for the future, but he’s taking it several steps past most people.

Quentin Tarantino was at the Cannes Film Festival this week to present a screening of John Flynn‘s 1977 film “Rolling Thunder,” which features prevalently in his book “Cinema Speculations.” And with QT on la Croisette, Deadline sat the director down to talk about his next (and final) film, “The Movie Critic,” his thoughts on the streaming zeitgeist, and other details about his career.

EXCLUSIVE: The plight of ‘Confederados’ who left the U.S. for Brazil after the American Civil War will provide the backdrop to Disney drama series Americana.

Ed Meza @edmezavar AMC Networks Intl. Latin America has acquired RTVE hit, Spanish-Portuguese thriller “Sequía,” which will be broadcast throughout the region on its Europa Europa channel. The story centers on the mystery behind two mummified corpses – apparent murder victims — that are discovered when a long submerged village emerges from the drying Campomediano reservoir along the Spanish-Portuguese border during a prolonged drought (“sequía” in Spanish). While a Spanish inspector and investigative reporter suspect the bodies may be linked to environmental protests that took place to prevent the creation of the reservoir, a Portuguese detective is secretly investigating the possibility that one of the deceased could be the heir to the Souza Cardoso fortune who disappeared years ago.

Eating fruits such as blackberries and apples may help to lower the risk of frailty in older age, a recent study has suggested.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Paris-based sales boutique Alpha Violet has acquired Spanish filmmaker Victor Iriarte’s directorial debut, “Foremost by Night” (“Sobre Todo de Noche”). Described as a noir story with a political background, “Foremost by Night” revolves around two women who meet for the first time, one who was forced to give up her newborn child for adoption when she was young, the other who, unable to bare children of her own, adopted a child she raised as her own. The film, which stars Ana Torrent (“There Be Dragons,” “The Other Boleyn Girl”), Lola Dueñas (“Me Too,” “Volver”) and Manuel Egozkue, was among this year’s winners at the Malaga Film Festival’s Work in Progress awards, where it secured the Latido Films distribution prize and the Aracne Digital Cinema award for post production services.

Todd Haynes is having a great Cannes, isn’t he? His new film, “May December,” has earned rave reviews (including our own), with folks already predicting Oscars love. And now, it appears he has nothing but amazing projects to talk about coming in the future, including a new film with Joaquin Phoenix.

Of King Henry VIII’s six wives, his final marriage to Catherine Parr is perhaps the most ignored. The others are rife with tragedy: there are the two he detested the most that he bent the will of God to legalize divorce; there’s Jane Seymour, who died soon after giving birth to an heir; and most notoriously of all, there are the wives he beheaded.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Intramovies has acquired global rights outside of Israel and France on Israeli director Dani Rosenberg’s Gaza-Strip conflict drama “The Vanishing Soldier.”  “Vanishing Soldier” is Rosenberg’s second feature after “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which was in the official selection in Cannes 202O and won the Jerusalem Film Festival’s top prize. The film is about an 18-year-old Israeli soldier who flees the Gaza battlefield and heads back to his girlfriend in Tel Aviv only to discover that the military elite is convinced he was kidnapped in the fog of war. What ensues is a tragicomic journey and takes place over a period of 24 hours on the streets of Tel Aviv.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired the international rights of Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s debut feature “City of Wind.” The film is in post-production and will be ready for a world premiere in fall 2023. Purev-Ochir is known for several high-profile short films, including “Mountain Cat,” which was in Cannes Competition in 2020, and won best short in Busan in 2020, and “Snow in September,” which was awarded the Golden Lion for best short in Venice, and best short in Toronto last year. Ze is a timid 17-year-old shaman. He studies hard at school to succeed in the cold, callous society of modern Mongolia, while communing with his ancestral spirit to help those in his community. But when Ze encounters Maralaa, his senses are awakened and another reality seems possible.