Asacha Media Group Buys ‘Les Misérables’ Producer SRAB Films

Neon’s boutique label Super has secured U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s acclaimed drama Saint Omer, following its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Joshua Jackson could be on his way to being Hollywood’s next big mogul. Maybe not, but his company Liquid Media Group is doing what they can to help indie filmmakers get their movies made. “In its most basic form, it is a studio for the modern age,” Jackson told me earlier this summer shortly after being named Liquid Media Group’s interim CEO. “I’ve gone through this as an independent producer. It is like pulling teeth to try to find the right agent to package it and then to find the right financing for it and then find the gap financing at the end for it and then find all the creatives who you need to like get the thing done and then get it edited and then get it finished and then get it distributed.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor WhatApp, the popular messaging app owned by tech giant Meta, is bowing its first original entertainment project later this month — a short film featuring NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo, born in Greece to Nigerian parents, was named the 2021 NBA All-Star MVP and led the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA Finals title that year. In the 12-minute film, titled “Naija Odyssey,” the pro basketballer “tells his origin story of many origins as he reconciles his roots, birthplace and sense of belonging between cross-cultural worlds,” according to WhatsApp’s description. The athlete inked an endorsement deal with WhatsApp in February of this year.

Naman Ramachandran “Gangs of London” producer Pulse Films has unveiled the first clip from “Name Me Lawand,” which will have its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Directed by Edward Lovelace (“The Possibilities Are Endless”), the film is in competition at the festival’s The Grierson Award for documentaries. The documentary, filmed over four years, follows Lawand Hamad Amin, who spent his early years in Iraq unable to hear or communicate. His profound deafness meant he could not learn language, and with no access to a deaf education, Lawand grew isolated and trapped inside himself.

Variety.The French language film was directed by Christian Carion (“Joyeux Noel”) and is playing in the Official Selection at the Toronto Film Festival.“Driving Madeleine” stars Dany Boon (“Bienvenue chez les ch’tis”) who plays Charles, a taxi driver in Paris who is struggling under mounting stress. His debts are coming due, his driver’s license is in danger of being suspended because of numerous fines, and his marriage is falling apart. He has no way of knowing his life is about to be transformed when he picks up Madeleine, a 92-year-old woman who is soon to move into a care facility.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cohen Media Group has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Driving Madeleine,” a stirring new drama directed Oscar-nominated filmmaker Christian Carion (“Joyeux Noel”), and starring Dany Boon (“Bienvenue chez les ch’tis”). The film is playing in the Official Selection at the Toronto Film Festival. Besides “Joyeux Noel,” Carion’s wide-ranging films include the Cold War spy thriller “Farewell,” the World War II tale “Come What May,” the mystery “My Son,” and the rural drama “The Girl from Paris.”  “Driving Madeleine” stars Boon as Charles, a taxi driver in Paris who is struggling under mounting stress. His debts are coming due, his driver’s license is in danger of being suspended because of numerous fines, and his marriage is falling apart. He has no way of knowing his life is about to be transformed when he picks up Madeleine, a 92-year-old woman who is soon to move into a care facility. She asks Charles to make certain stops during what may be her last ride through the city. Charles grumbles but is slowly charmed by Madeleine’s warmth and fascinated by her tales as she slowly reveals the dramatic and shocking story of her life.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For Asian media operators, the death of Queen Elizabeth II occurred in the middle of the night — Buckingham Palace made its announcement at 6.30 p.m. BST on Thursday — which meant some needed to play catch-up. That was achieved quicker by online and TV outlets than print media. In Australia, a Commonwealth country which has also lost its monarch, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black. Programming has switched to reflect the Queen’s life and seven decades of reign. News Corp., which operates major print news brands in Australia, said it will publish souvenir issues on Saturday. These will include the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser.

Knowing her worth. Davina Potratz believes she hasn’t been given her due as a cast member on Selling Sunset.

Manori Ravindran International Editor IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to “Operation Avalanche” director Matt Johnson’s new movie, “BlackBerry,” about the ill-fated smartphone that took the world by storm in the early 2000s. The highly anticipated film, which was first revealed by Variety last month, tells the story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the BlackBerry, and stars an ensemble cast including Jay Baruchel (“This Is the End”), Glenn Howerton (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and Cary Elwes (“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning”). The pic will detail the operations of BlackBerry’s Canadian parent company Research in Motion, which was one of the country’s most illustrious and well-known tech companies before it floundered in legal disputes and eventually lost its market advantage to competitors such as Apple and Samsung. At the heart of the story is the business relationship between co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pascal Breton’s European banner Federation Entertainment (“The Bureau”) has acquired a majority stake in Vertigo Films, the U.K. production company behind the hit TV shows “Britannia” and “Bulletproof.” The London-based company is also the producer of B.O. films such as “StreetDance 3D,” “The Sweeney” and award-winning titles including Gareth Edwards’s “Monsters” and Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Bronson.“ Founded 20 years ago by executive producers Allan Niblo and James Richardson, Vertigo is currently in post-production with Jez Butterworth’s new comedy-drama series “Mammals,” starring James Corden and Sally Hawkins for Amazon, and the 1980s-set gangster epic “A Town Called Malice” by Nick Love for Sky Max. The banner just wrapped principal photography on a new film for Sky Cinema, with further details to be announced at a later date.  

Federation Entertainment has hit the M&A trail once again by taking a majority stake in Britannia, Bronson and Bulletproof producer Vertigo Films, its first British acquisition.

David Simonsen is joining Amazon and taking over the new position of Director Prime Video, Southeast Asia. He will be based in Singapore and is starting on Monday, September 5.

Designed as something akin to a Greek tragedy for today’s moment, Venice Film Festival Competition title Athena is a torrent, an inundation, a cascade of rage, fury and frustration over the realities of life for a particular group of French families. Such conditions exist in most societies, some more dire than others, but here the wages of pent-up anger are presented with a single-minded intensity and extended duration that would be hard to exceed.

K.J. Yossman SRAB Films, producer of Ladj Ly’s 2019 Cannes effort “Les Misérables,” which was picked up by Amazon Studios, has been acquired by Asacha Media Group (AMG), according to reports.

Cohen Media Group hopes a Spanish film can dent the tough market for foreign language fare, Bleecker Street is out with a hostage drama and A24 presents Owen Kline’s directorial debut about a teenage cartoonist as the arthouse market flexes more muscle than it has in weeks.

K.J. Yossman Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta’s 60Forty Films has inked an overall deal with Apple TV+, Variety can exclusively reveal. They are already in production on upcoming Apple TV+ thriller series “Hijack,” starring Idris Elba, which they are producing alongside Idiotlamp Productions and Elba’s company Green Door Pictures. “Hijack” tells the story of Sam Nelson (played by Elba), an accomplished business negotiator whose quick-thinking, smooth-talking skills become crucial when the plane he is on is hijacked. Laurenson and Kousetta have worked closely with Apple for a number of years, including on Gary Oldman-starrer “Slow Horses” (pictured above) and “The Essex Serpent,” starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, both of which the duo lead exec produced.

Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group, which owns the Landmark Theatres chain of art-houses, has acquired HanWay Films, the U.K.-based international film sales giant founded by Jeremy Thomas and long run by his partner Peter Watson.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Cohen Media Group has acquired producer Jeremy Thomas’ prestigious international sales company HanWay Films in a major deal. Cohen Media Group owns Landmark Theatres in the U.S. and British distributor-exhibitor Curzon. HanWay Films was founded by “The Last Emperor” producer Thomas and is co-owned with his partner Peter Watson. Under the deal, HanWay Films will continue to be branded as an independent label selling theatrical titles to its distribution partners worldwide. It’s still unclear how much an exclusive tie-in there will be to parent company-owned Curzon.

EXCLUSIVE: In an eye-catching independent deal, Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group, owner of Landmark Theatres and UK cinema group Curzon, has added to his arthouse fleet with the acquisition of blue-chip international sales company HanWay Films, co-owned by stalwart Brit producer Jeremy Thomas and his partner Peter Watson.

Netflix has released a new trailer for “Athena,” the latest film from Romain Gavras which will premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival and hit streaming on Sept. 23.Described as a modern Greek tragedy, “Athena” follows a French soldier named Abdel (Dali Benssalah) who is called back from the frontline after his youngest brother, still a child, is killed in an alleged police altercation.