Banijay Acquires Italian Premium Scripted Outfit Grøenlandia Group

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian producer Massimo Cristaldi, who as a production manager worked with masters such as Federico Fellini and Francesco Rosi before setting up his own company and shepherding films including prizewinning drama “Sicilian Ghost Story,” has died. He was 66.Cristaldi’s death was announced over the weekend by his Rome-based company Cristaldi Pictures in a statement that did not specify the cause.Born in 1956, Massimo Cristaldi was the only son of prominent producer Franco Cristaldi, the triple Oscar-winner who made Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style,” Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” and Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso.”In 1974 Massimo Cristaldi started cutting his teeth in the film business first as a production assistant and eventually, starting in the 1980s, becoming a line producer on many of his father’s productions, working with Fellini, Rosi, Tornatore, and many other Italian cinema greats.

Trinidad Barleycorn French director Louise Carrin, whose home for the past 13 years has been Lausanne, Switzerland, has an urge to create every day, she tells Variety. Moviemaking being a long process, for about 10 years now she has found equal satisfaction in music. She is about to release her debut rap album “Banana Part” under her alias Lweez.

Starzplay Acquires HBO’s Max’s Ken Watanabe Crime Thriller Series ‘Tokyo Vice’

Rachael Ray is bringing her home renovation adventure to the small screen.

Paramount+ has acquired the rights to “Finestkind,” a crime thriller that stars Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster. Brian Helgeland, an Oscar-winner for “L.A. Confidential,” will both write and direct the film that will begin production later this month in Massachusetts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBanijay has picked up multi-territory format rights to two Korean reality shows which it will begin pitching this week at the MipTV market in Cannes.From Korean broadcaster and producer MBC, Banijay has picked up format rights to competition show “Bloody Game” in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. From CJ ENM, it has acquired rights in the Nordics, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Australia to relationship format, “EXchange.”“Bloody Game” launched in Korea in November last year, helping draw subscribers to Wavve, a joint venture streaming platform, in which MBC is a partner. The show is nominated for a C21 Format Award, with the winner revealed during MipTV.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentTV production is growing in Italy, where U.S. streamers are gradually raising their investment levels just as pubcaster RAI, which is still the industry’s main driver, is cutting back.According to local TV producers association APA, the Italian market in 2022 will generate more than €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of scripted content resulting in double-digit growth.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe latest batch of Italian TV series for the international market is a mix of genres spanning from a new Elena Ferrante adaptation made for Netflix, to two RAI reconstructions of the country’s terrorism-plagued past and Sky’s spaghetti Western “Django.”DjangoThis English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is a Sky Studios and Canal Plus original. The show’s cast includes Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Matthias Schoenaerts.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProducer Lorenzo Mieli, who has brought to the screen top Italian TV series such as “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Friend,” is launching two new crime shows with innovative elements: “The King” and “Bang Bang Baby.”Both stem from his bent to push boundaries of genre storytelling that is “borne from authenticity,” he says.“The King,” which is Italy’s first prison drama, recently bowed positively in Italy on Comcast-owned Sky’s pay-TV service and also premiered internationally at the Series Mania fest.The dark show stars Luca Zingaretti, best known as the titular character in Italy’s widely exported “Inspector Montalbano” series. He plays Bruno Testori the sometimes psychopathic director of a maximum security penitentiary located on an unspecified Italian border territory that is not subject to Italian law.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBanijay has acquired Tooco, the production banner behind the non-scripted hit “Guess My Age,” to further bolster its French outpost. Under the pact, Tooco will be part of the Banijay France brand and will focus on originating concepts for the French and international markets.Tooco, spearheaded by Aurélien Lipiansky and Mikaël Moreau, has been delivering popular French formats, such as Le club des invincibles, produced with Banijay’s Air Production; and Guess My Age which has so far travelled to 22 countries, including Italy, Spain, and Germany.

Deadline, Baldwin and his brother William Baldwin are flying out to Italy to film Kid Santa and Billie’s Magic World, two family comedy films which blend live-action and animation. Filming on the projects has already started in Rome.The two movies reunite Baldwin with director Francesco Cinquemani, who he previously worked with on 2015 sci-fi film Andron.On October 21 last year, Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of Rust at Bonanza Creed Ranch in New Mexico, which killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.In legal documents obtained by CNN earlier this month, Baldwin claims he asked Hutchins if he should cock the gun that ultimately fired the live round of ammunition.“Baldwin asked Hutchins whether she wanted to see him cock the gun, as the script required,” reads the arbitration demand filed by Baldwin’s lawyer.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterAn Italian TV host was slated to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom this week to give testimony in the rape and sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein.But the host, Pascal Vicedomini, did not show up, after his attorney informed prosecutors last week that he would remain in Italy.Vicedomini is the founder of several film festivals, including the L.A. Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest, which is being held this week at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.Before his downfall in 2017, Weinstein was a regular guest at Vicedomini’s festivals, and according to court records the two were close friends.In 2013, Weinstein flew to Los Angeles to attend the L.A.

Five months after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the production of Rust, the film’s star Alec Baldwin is set to make his screen comeback in a pair of Italian Christmas features.

Alec Baldwin has found his next pair of acting projects on the heels of the shooting on the Albuquerque set of his Western Rust, Deadline has confirmed.

ROME -- A thief broke into the Basilica of St. Nicholas in the southern city of Bari overnight, stealing a gold ring from a finger of a statue of the saint, who is venerated by Catholic and Orthodox Christians and whose remains attract many pilgrims from Russia to the Italian church, officials said on Tuesday.Corriere della Sera daily quoted police in Bari as saying video surveillance cameras showed a hooded and masked man breaking open a metal gate to gain entrance to the basilica before dawn on Tuesday.