Arab Series ‘Finding Ola’ Leads Regional Shows Looking to Grab Global Audiences

We’re getting a sneak peek at the first footage of new Fox series Alert. The network just released the first on-air promo for the upcoming character-driven police procedural from The Blacklist showrunner John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx, which will air tonight on Fox during Game 3 of the World Series.

Oliver Stone will preside over the main competition jury of the second edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, honoring a promise to attend in that role dating back to 2020.

The Superman of it all is very real. How serious is Henry Cavill about returning to the Man Of Steel role and re-entering the DC Universe? Well, there’s no more apparent sign that he’s dropping his current money project at Netflix that’s probably paid him handsomely well in the last few years.

Against all odds, 2018’s “Venom” and its sequel, last year’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” managed to make $1.36 billion worldwide at the box office. Not bad for two films that cost about $100 million each and that critics mostly reviled.

Universal/Working Title’s Ticket to Paradise has winged past the $100M mark globally. With Tuesday’s grosses included, the Julia Roberts/George Clooney romcom’s split is $20.6M domestic and $81.9M from the international box office for a worldwide total of $102.5M so far.

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal, Entertainment 360 and The Picture Company have made deals to turn the 2021 documentary film The Lost Leonardo into a limited series. Gillian Weeks will write the script.

Sarah-Sofie Boussnina (The Colony), Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist), Faoileann Cunningham (The Northman), Aoife Hinds (Normal People) and Chloe Lea (Foundation) have joined the cast of HBO Max’s Dune: The Sisterhood (wt), from Legendary Television. They join previously announced leads Emily Watson, Shirley Henderson and Indira Varma.

Sure, Warner Bros. Discovery is cleaning house and canceling a number of TV shows and streaming films coming to HBO Max.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi-owned MBC Group, which is the top broadcaster in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has forged a five-year partnership with Turkish TV production powerhouses Medyapim and Ay Yapim, officially ending a ban on Turkish soaps that had been put in place in 2018. MBC, which is the top satellite free-to-air player in the Middle East and North Africa, and also a major MENA region premium streamer, in 2018 had pulled highly popular Turkish dramas from its channels, allegedly for political reasons stemming from tensions at that time between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The move was also believed to have been made to give greater impetus to local production. Since then, several Turkish shows had gradually seeped back into MBC programming. But this deal signals a complete policy reversal.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cinemed, the Mediterranean Cinema Film Festival, is partnering up with Lebanese film org Aflamuna / Beirut DC to launch a new co-production and co-financing initiative aimed at high-profile projects from the Arab world. The new program, which is also backed by France’s National Film Board and is part of the festival’s industry showcase Cinemed Meetings, will present seven projects involving 22 Arab countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Liban, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Syria, among others. All selected projects are currently in development and are being brought by filmmakers who have previously directed at least one short film.

President Biden has not left any doubt as to whether politics played a role in his unsuccessful pressuring of Saudi Arabia to delay an OPEC+ announcement of a decrease in oil production until after the American midterm elections, Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Beach (Dahmer: Monster), Joshua Colley (Senior Year) and Lindsey Gort (All Rise) have joined the cast of Dead Boy Detectives, HBO Max’s upcoming drama series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman, in key recurring roles. The series hails from The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey, Doom Patrol’s Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. Beach, Colley and Gort join series stars George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson.

Democratic lawmakers Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., are pushing for the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has announced high-profile Italian original documentary series “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” written and directed by Britain’s Mark Lewis, who won an Emmy for the docu-series “Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.” The streaming giant has also dropped a trailer for the docuseries, produced by British TV production company Raw. The show will premiere globally on Netflix on Oct. 20. The series is the latest probe into a case that started on June 22, 1983, when Emanuela Orlandi, a 15 year-old girl living in Vatican City, disappeared under mysterious circumstances that are believed to have involved the Vatican. The case made headlines around the world.

The White House said Tuesday that President Biden believes Saudi Arabia has effectively sided with Russia’s war aims in Ukraine following the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance’s announcement last week that it would cut oil production. "We believe by the decision that OPEC+ made last week, (Saudi Arabia is) certainly aligning themselves with Russia," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Tuesday briefing.

Amazon Prime Video unveiled a slate of six new Australian originals for 2023 at a showcase in Sydney tonight, along with first looks at three Australian scripted dramas that the streamer has already announced. 

The Washington Post editorial board did not mince words about President Joe Biden’s attempts to persuade the Saudi Arabian government into helping with U.S. energy policy, saying the administration "failed" "badly." The board claimed that OPEC – heavily influenced by the Saudis – recently slashing "crude oil production by 2 million barrels per day," is a "setback" for Biden agenda, the United States and its allies.  The Saturday editorial stated that OPEC’s decision "is not quite as big of a shock as the embargo OPEC imposed on the United States between October 1973 and March 1974.

President Biden and Democratic lawmakers doubled down on the importance of hostile actors boosting oil output Wednesday after a decision from a Saudi-led group to cut production. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the powerful Middle Eastern oil cartel, and its Russian counterpart announced a massive production cut of 2 million barrels of oil per day, the largest reduction since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

Three House Democrats are introducing a bill to remove U.S. defense systems from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in response to the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day – a move that is expected to drive up gas prices in the U.S.

Netflix has previewed a selection of upcoming films and shows aimed at the Arab world and hailing from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, and Jordan.