Audiovisual Producers Finland Announces Series Slate & New ‘Focus On Finland’ Industry Event Set For Berlin

Streaming pay-TV bundle provider FuboTV closed 2022 with 1.445 million subscribers in North America and posted healthy numbers in many financial categories in the fourth quarter.

J-Hope, a member of K-pop supergroup BTS, has cancelled his request to delay enlistment in Korea’s mandatory military service, according to the group’s agency Big Hit Music. 

Slowthai has announced the UK and European legs of his ‘UGLY’ 2023 world tour – see the dates below and buy tickets here.The Northampton rapper’s forthcoming third album, also titled ‘UGLY’, is due out on March 3 via Method Records. So far, it’s been previewed by the singles ‘I Know Nothing’, ‘Selfish’ and ‘Feel Good’.This September, he will bring the new album on his biggest UK and European tour to date, featuring a full band for the first time and support slots from Nia Archives and Sainté.The dates begin in Glasgow at the Barrowland Ballroom on September 20, before other UK dates in Manchester, Birmingham and at London’s Alexandra Palace.He’ll then head to the continent for gigs in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels.Tickets for the ‘UGLY’ UK and European tour will go on sale on Friday, March 3 at 10am GMT.

Inventing Anna’s and Rihanna’s beau , to announce the faces of its new Gucci Guilty campaign. The teaser image sees Elliot wearing a Hawaiian shirt and looking straight at the camera. (You can see it .) “Oscar-nominated actor, director and producer Elliot Page stars alongside A$AP Rocky and Julia Garner in the new Gucci Guilty campaign.

When Laurence Herszberg first launched Series Mania back in 2010 in Paris, the former Forum des Images director was keen to apply her deep knowledge of film and the film festival model to the television sector. At the time, says the French exec, no one was doing any kind of TV festival “solely dedicated to series.”  

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warner Bros. Pictures is revamping the “Lord of the Rings” film franchise. On a Thursday earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that newly-installed studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have brokered a deal to make “multiple” films based on the beloved J. R. R. Tolkien series. The films will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. The first series of films, helmed by Peter Jackson, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide. Embracer Group AB made the deal with he studio for adaptations of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”

Naman Ramachandran Berlin’s just concluded European Film Market (EFM), which had a physical edition this year after two online editions in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic, has reported “record results” according to the organizers. There were 230 stands and 612 companies from 78 countries and more than 11,500 market participants from 132 countries. Some 773 films were shown in 1,533 screenings, including 647 online screenings and 599 market premieres. The total number of buyers also rose to 1,302. 629 film projects were presented on the new Producers & Project Pages. “After the past two irregular years, we’re pleased to return to the physical in full force, and with a vibrant, bustling and strong market. The exhibition areas at Gropius Bau and the Marriott Hotel were sold out, and the exhibitors reported strong sales and good business. The decision to group all the market happenings together with the Berlinale Series Market and the market screenings at Potsdamer Platz, and to provide the industry with an efficient infrastructure, was extremely well-received by our market participants,” said EFM director Dennis Ruh.

Marta Balaga If you want to attract a younger audience, you have to watch what they watch. Not what you think they are watching, says producer Dean Devlin, best known for “Independence Day” and “Stargate.” But he never designs his shows for one market. “It’s no longer all about gender or age demographic. If you go to a sci-fi convention, they are not just kids, they are not just older people. It’s everybody!” At Berlinale Series Market Selects, which runs as part of the European Film Market in Berlin, with his latest show, sci-fi series “The Ark,” Devlin continues to pay homage to the kind of stories he loved as a child, from Douglas Trumbull’s “Silent Running” to “The Omega Man.”

Berlinale Series Market’s annual project pitching event, “Tipping Point” walked off Tuesday morning with the Series Mania Award. The prize is an invitation to the production’s team to present again at the industry centrepiece at next month’s Lille-based get-together, the Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. “Tipping Point” joins 15 other projects as a sixteenth project presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.  Set in the extraordinary Svalbard – an archipelago half way between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole, it  turns on a feisty young eco-activist at constant odds with her father, an oil exec, until he is murdered. Teaming with some of his friends to investigate his death, she discovers another man from the one she knew, as she chases a stolen software which could solve climate crisis or destroy the world.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Elsa Zylberstein, one of the most famous – and bankable — faces of French cinema, known for her Cesar-winning performance in “I’ve Loved You For So Long,” is preparing to emerge as a major film producer. Having recently set up banners in France and the U.S., Zylberstein is actively developing a raft of films and series, working with the likes of Oscar-winning Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad (“The Cave”), Ted Braun (Darfur Now”) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“The Father”), among others. These include “Kingdom of Hope,” a movie about Elise Boghossian, a French acupuncturist and humanitarian worker in a war zone who has healed children victims of ISIS . The movie will be directed by Fayyad, who is based in Berlin, and is being penned by Braun, based on Boghossian’s autobiographical book “Au royaume de l’espoir, il n’y a pas d’hiver.”

Anthony Mackie picked up Steve Rodger’s iconic shield and became Captain America in the final episodes of his Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. However, is his character Sam Wilson going to follow in Chris Evans‘ footsteps and lead the rest of the Avengers?

Israeli film producer Yoav Roeh spoke passionately at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday about the threat to freedom of speech in Israel under a proposed overhaul of the country’s judiciary by Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.

Oliver Wood, an English cinematographer whose credits include “Die Hard 2,” “Face/Off,” “The Other Guys” and the original “Bourne” trilogy, died Monday, Feb. 13, following a battle with cancer. He was 80. With a career spanning across seven decades, Wood worked across a wide variety of projects, collaborating with directors like John Woo, Adam McKay, Antoine Fuqua, Barry Sonnenfeld and Larry Cohen. He was nominated for a BAFTA award for best cinematography for his work on 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum,” directed by Paul Greengrass. Born in London, Wood moved to New York City when he was 19. His first major credit came on Leonard Kastle’s 1970 crime film “The Honeymoon Killers,” making a strong impression for his technique of using available light to give the anachronistic dark comedy the look of a newsreel.

Family bonding! Kate Hudson enjoyed a shopping day out in New York City alongside her fiancé, Danny Fujikawa, mom Goldie Hawn and stepdad Kurt Russell.

Bonjour, Mademoiselle! Whitney Peak just burst on the beauty scene as the new face of Chanel’s iconic Coco Mademoiselle fragrance — and Us Weekly got a first look at the making of the campaign.

Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav earned $232 million in excess compensation in 2021, according to As You Sow’s latest annual ranking of the most overpaid CEOs among S&P 500 companies. Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix are also high up in the group’s ninth report that looks beyond total pay in its own attempt to quantify overpay and draw attention to some pressing issues in the space.

In today’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo sits down to talk about con man movies with director Benjamin Caron (“The Crown,” “Andor,” “Wallander”). The director is currently promoting his film, “Sharper,” which follows multiple con men and women in New York City who are all searching for the perfect mark and the biggest take.

Lego set. You’ve seen the Lego Central Perk building set, the “Seinfeld” apartment, complete with hidden superman stickers and a festivus pole, and perhaps most impressive, their colossal 6,000-piece “Lord of the Rings” Rivendell set. Now, Lego is catering towards the BTS Army with a “Dynamite” set inspired by the K-pop group’s chart-topping single.

Niall Horan has announced details of his third studio album, The Show.

Romeo Santos had lots of news to share with his fans on Valentine's Day! On Tuesday, the 41-year-old singer announced on Instagram the birth of his fourth child and a four-date summer tour.In the video shared on social media, Santos revealed that he and his girlfriend have welcomed a baby boy, his «fourth prince,» son Milano. The proud dad is seen leaning over Milano's crib and picking him up to cradle him.«I think that nobody noticed in the background the heartbeat of the newest member of the Santos dynasty,» he says, noting that his sons, Solano and Valentino -- whom he shares with his current girlfriend — and Alex, from a previous relationship, are on the intro to his album, Santos is now looking forward to touring in support of the album, which was released last year on Alex's birthday, Sept.