Banijay Completes Acquisition of Sony Pictures Television Germany, Rebrands it as Noisy Pictures – Global Bulletin

Middle East’s MBC Strikes Wide-Ranging Deal With Turkey’s Medyapim & Ay Yapim; ‘Doctor Foster’ Remake Deal With The BBC

A reboot of the 1979 cult Punjabi classic, Maula Jat, Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt is coming off of a record-breaking weekend for a Pakistan-made or Punjabi-language film. Opening on over 500 screens in 25 markets, the action fantasy grossed PRK 51cr ($2.3M) globally, a new benchmark launch for a Pakistani title worldwide. Check out the trailer below.

Mike Wass Disbelief colors Kim Petras’ voice when asked about her reaction to the global success of “Unholy.” After searching for the right words, she lands on “fever dream.” While the reality of having the biggest song in the world might not have sunk in yet, the numbers don’t lie. In addition to being No. 1 on Billboard’s Global 200, the unapologetic collaboration with Sam Smith has topped the charts in multiple countries including the U.K., Australia, and Canada, and is looking to do the same in the U.S. — looming large at No. 2 on the Hot 100. While “Unholy” seemingly blew up overnight, it was actually five years in the making. “Sam reached out pretty early in my career,” the German pop star explains in her lightly accented English. As a fan, she was eager to make it happen, but the right song never came along until Smith sent her a demo of “Unholy.” “I knew I could add something special to it,” Petras says. “A week later, we were in the studio drinking whiskey and coming up with slutty lyrics.”

Liza Foreman Fremantle is partnering with electronics giant Samsung to bring a dedicated FAST channel, “The Jamie Oliver Channel” to audiences in the U.K. Available from 12th October, the channel is dedicated to the most well-known titles from the British chef, catering to Samsung TV Plus watchers with cooking content for all occasions. Samsung TV Plus delivers over 1,600 channels across 24 countries, spanning news, sports, and entertainment. London-based Future Studios has launched factual series “Unbelievable Me” (10 x 45’) at Mipcom.

Liza Foreman CANNES – Looking at the multiple stages of audience ratings from overnights to pre-broadcast, to live, then plus-seven days and plus-28 days, launching a TV show these days is like a multistage rocket getting to the moon,” said Frédéric Vaulpré, vice president at Paris-based research firm Global Audience & Content Evolution (Glance). He was talking just before his Monday presentation on Global TV Trends at Mipcom, made with Glance head of content insight Avril Blondelot. Images created for the presentation include a rocket with plus-28-days and pre-broadcast for wings, and live forming the spaceship’s body. “You need reliable data. That’s where we come in. We see the complexity of these ratings,” he said.

Liza Foreman Cineflix Rights has presold Helium’s ten-part Australian crime drama “Last King of The Cross” to Sky.  Starring Tim Roth, the series will air exclusively in all Sky territories in Italy, the UK, Ireland and Germany, the company has announced.  Inspired by John Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography, which follows his rise from a poverty-stricken immigrant to Australia’s nightclub kingpin, “Last King of The Cross” tells the story of two brothers who lose each other in their ascent to power. Set in Sydney’s Kings Cross in the 1980s and 1990s, the cast includes Lincoln Younes (“Grand Hotel,” “Tangle”), Claude Jabbour (“Eden,” “Stateless”), and Callan Mulvey (“300: Rise of an Empire”). Cineflix Rights is the exclusive international distribution partner.   

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australia’s SLR Productions has announced production on season two of the award-winning original CGI animated series, “Space Nova” for ABC ME. The 15 x 22-minute season has received significant production funding from both Screen Australia and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation as well as development funding from ABC ME and Create NSW. “Space Nova” will be co-produced with Giggle Garage in Malaysia and distributed internationally by ZDF Studios, with ACTF representing the series across Australia and New Zealand. Targeting a six- to ten-year-old global audience, the first season sold to broadcasters or streamers in Germany, the U.K., Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, the U.S, Singapore, East Asia, Indonesia, and Brazil.

Frank Doelger is helming a surveillance drama set that counts broadcasters ZDF, MBC and France Télévisions and streamer Hulu Japan as partners.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Blackstone Publishing, Aethon Books and Sterling and Stone are among the first publishing partners to join Yonder, a new serialized fiction app combining mobile reading, a serialized experience and thousands of curated stories. Then venture is being launched by South Korea’s Naver, the tech giant that owns Webtoon and Wattpad, the story app that has germinated scores of book-to-film adaptations. The platform offers an ad-free reading experience with several chapters of each story available for free before readers are offered the chance to unlock additional material using virtual coins. At launch, Yonder is the home of exclusive new titles including “Bound to the Shadow Prince,” from Ruby Dixon, the international best-selling fantasy author of the TikTok viral sensation series “Ice Planet Barbarians”; “Bitten by Desire,” the first paranormal romance from best-selling author Ivy Smoak, (“The Hunted” book series”; and “Gravesong,” a spinoff of the popular web serial “The Wandering Inn,” from pirateaba.

Paramount’s Parker Finn-directed horror pic Smile has laughed its way across the $100M mark globally. And it did so in under two weeks of release. Through Tuesday, the gross is $102.3M worldwide, made up of $55.5M domestic and $46.8M from the international box office. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Leading producer Sabina Arnold (“Irish Crime”) and award-winning filmmaker Züli Aladag (“NSU – German History X”) are setting up High Fidelity Pictures, a new production company under the Beta Group umbrella. Felix Zackor, managing director of the production service provider and Beta subsidiary FFP, will support the new company as a partner in production services. The filmmakers will produce high-quality fiction series and feature films with a national and international focus. High Fidelity will pay particular attention to the promotion of young talent.

EXCLUSIVE: Banijay balloon format Blow Up is being inflated in Germany.

Paramount’s Smile is positively grinning ear-to-ear as the horror pic from director Parker Finn saw a wild 19% upswing in holdovers at the international box office in its second frame. The weekend gross was $17.5M in 61 markets for a $40M offshore cume and $89.9M global to date.

Paramount’s Network 10 Preps Aussie ‘Taskmaster’ 

Netflix Among Buyers Of Doc On Dutch Soccer Manager Louis Van Gaal

‘Power Of The Dog’ Producer Tanya Seghatchian To Lead London Film Festival Jury

It was a varied offering at the international box office this weekend with newcomers from Hollywood and offshore markets, as well as notable holds, as we inch closer to full-on action later in October.