As ViacomCBS Grabs U.S. Rights To Serie A Soccer From ESPN, Sky-DAZN Battle Heats Up In Italy

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmazon Prime Video this month launched the local version of its comedy show “LOL: Last One Laughing” in Italy where it has rapidly become the most watched title ever on the platform’s Italian service, says Amazon Studio Head of Italian Originals Nicole Morganti who in an exclusive interview with Variety discussed Amazon’s local strategy a little over a year after moving into Italy with a multi-genre slate. Edited excerpts.Thanks.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentU.S. writer-producer Jacqueline Hoyt (“The Good Wife”) is set to pen drama series “Audrey” about Hollywood icon Audrey Hepburn, which is being produced by Italy’s Wildside, the Fremantle company behind “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Friend.”The previously announced series on Audrey Hepburn‘s life is based on a treatment co-written by her son Luca Dotti and Italian journalist and writer Luigi Spinola.

EXCLUSIVE: Universal executive Xavier Albert, who has been Managing Director for France since 2016, is taking on a dual market role with the studio and will also become Managing Director for Italy. Albert will take over the post from Richard Borg who is retiring in July after 30 years with the Universal Pictures International organization.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s 3zero2 shingle, which is a co-producer of Brendan Foley’s pan-European noir “Body of Water,” is ramping up and expanding into film after bringing on board producer Giuseppe Saccà who shepherded Berlin prizewinning drama “Bad Tales.”The Milan-based outfit founded and headed by veteran TV exec Piero Crispino (pictured, left) has been quietly gaining prominence in Italy in the kids’ space by producing shows for Disney that have travelled

Italy, and confirmed their suspicions when they cross-referenced the work with a database of known stolen antiquities, the statement said.Italy for decades has worked to recover looted antiquities that have ended up in private collections, famous museums and commercial antique shops around the world.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAbout Premium Content (APC) has boarded “Ever After,” a relationship drama produced by the award-winning Italian banner Indigo Films (“La Grande Bellezza,” “Youth”) in the run up to MipTV. “Ever After,” created by Giacomo Bendotti (“The Stolen Caravaggio”), is a six-part Italian drama series portraying a broken couple.

EXCLUSIVE: Arthouse streamer and theatrical distributor MUBI has acquired all rights to Sundance documentary Faya Dayi in the UK and Ireland, Latin America, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey and India.

Italy is in a coronavirus lockdown, with live music and theatrical performances barred, cinemas shuttered and many sporting activities limited, competitive ballroom dancing is alive and well here, albeit with precautions.The couples at the New Dancing Days hall are preparing for the Italian Championships in Rimini in July and as such are allowed to keep practicing, given that the government considers their activity in the national interest.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly has officially abolished film censorship by scrapping legislation that since 1913 has allowed the government to censor scenes and ban movies such as, most famously, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris.”The move — which is symbolically important, though censorship is de-facto no longer practiced — definitively does away with “the system of controls and interventions that still allowed

Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are battling it out to see who can become the top late-night pizza chef.

Italian Serie A soccer games, led by Cristiano Ronaldo and his Juventus team, are moving from ESPN to CBS Sports and Paramount+ in the U.S. market starting next season.

ROME -- Cristiano Ronaldo’s games with Juventus are moving from ESPN to CBS in the United States starting next season.The Italian league on Tuesday approved a contract with CBS for Serie A and Italian Cup rights worth about 64 million euros ($75 million) per year for the next three seasons.Ronaldo has one more season remaining on his contract with Juventus.Serie A is concluding a three-year stay on ESPN, which streams most of the Italian games online — with a few matches on ESPN2.Previously, the

Starzplay has picked up a bunch of international rights for Peacock’s true-crime limited series Dr. Death, starring Joshua Jackson, Alec Baldwin, and Christian Slater.

Amazon Prime Video has snapped up the rights to German coming of age series We Children From Bahnhof Zoo for the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Benelux.

Jared Leto wears a bright blue puffer jacket while walking around town with a friend on Friday (March 19) in Milan, Italy.

Manchester United continue their Europa League campaign on Thursday evening, as the Reds take on Italian giants AC Milan at San Siro.