Basque Country Consolidates As Fresh Talent Hub

Retired rugby player Damian Browne of Galway, Ireland, became the first person to row from New York City to Ireland after his boat made a treacherous arrival on the coast of County Galway in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, Irish broadcaster RTE reported.  Browne left New York City on June 14 in his Cushlamachree, a 20-foot ocean rowing boat that was custom-built for this journey.  The term "Cushlamachree" means "darling" or "sweetheart" in Irish, according to Merriam-Webster.

A mass shooting at a daycare center in northeast Thailand Thursday afternoon left more than 30 people dead, including children, police said.  The gunman, believed to be a former police officer, took his own life, police said.  The deaths include at least 23 children, two teachers and a police officer.  (AP) The shooting happened in the province of Nongbua Lamphu.  Mass shootings are rare in Thailand but in 2020, 29 people were killed in a shooting spree by a disgruntled soldier.  This is a breaking story.

of some . (Some days, I just wanted to call in sick to school and lay in bed with a heating pad.) The birth control worked, thankfully, and my pain gradually lessened and my period became super predictable. But over time, I came to see birth control less as a way to control pain and more of a way to protect myself from an .When I started having sex with my high school—and then college—boyfriend, I knew the last thing I wanted was to get pregnant.

Following the announcement of huge cuts to the BBC World Service, with many staff being asked to relocate overseas, journalists have said plans to move the Vietnamese service to Thailand will pose dangers to press freedom. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has not had the start to the season he would have wanted at Manchester United.

Jon Weisman At the start of 1955, the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn, and Jaime Jarrín was a reporter in his native Ecuador, covering the National Congress. Four years later, the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles, and Jarrín was broadcasting their games on the radio. Jarrín arrived in Los Angeles on a permanent resident visa that June and worked in a factory until a part-time job opened up at the city’s only Spanish radio station, KWKW. He made fast progress, and by the time the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, Jarrín was KWKW’s news and sports director. They didn’t play much baseball in Quito, but Jarrín had become a fan of the sport in California, going to see the minor league Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels. Still, when KWKW’s owner, William Beaton, announced that the L.A.-bound Dodgers had made a deal to broadcast their games in Spanish, Jarrín didn’t consider himself an automatic choice. But by the following year, he was in.

The presence of Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay-TV/SVOD operator, is hard to ignore at this year’s San Sebastian film festival, with two original TV series and one feature film helmed by the streamer scattered throughout the program. The Telefonica-owned platform also had a hand in every Spanish feature in the festival’s Official Selection. Domingo Corral, director of original fiction at Movistar Plus+, caught up with Deadline at San Sebastian to discuss the company’s drive into original production, the current boom in local Spanish productions, and how he competes with global streamers like Netflix and HBO.

Europe’s Big Hope: Platforms Really Embracing Cinema In the U.S., the platforms already buy big when it comes to movies. Think Sundance. Europe is another land: Platforms have largely held back much more, thwarted in France, for instance, by regulated windows.

Adam Sandler has undergone hip surgery. The 'Uncut Gems' actor has been pictured walking with a cane and sources told TMZ he is relying on the aid during his recovery from an operation. According to the outlet, the 56-year-old actor didn't have a sudden injury or medical emergency, but had specifically scheduled the surgery to be timed between his projects, and he is expected to be fully healed and ready to go when his comedy tour kicks off late next month.

“Blue Files” (“Karpeta Urdinak”, Ander Iriarte, Spain-France)  Iriarte directs a doc investigating his father’s potential torture while in police custody. The investigations take the doc deeper into findings from Basque’s “Research project on torture and ill-treatment in the Basque Country between 1960-2014.” Produced by Gastibeltza, Filmak, and Iriarte’s own Mirokutana.

Netflix’s global non-English charts this summer and 17 Basque films of ever greater renown participating at the San Sebastian Festival, led by Mikel Gurrea’s feature debut “Suro” and Fernando Franco’s “The Rite of Spring,” the region’s film and TV industry has flashed signs of real growth and international recognition.  Further advances are expected next year with the launch of up-to-70% tax credits in Bizkaia.  Leading Basque production company Irusoin backed “Suro” and is producing Disney+’s most notable TV project in Spain, “Balenciaga.” “It makes perfect sense; Disney wanted to make it here because the character and the story originate from the region,” says Irusoin producer Xabi Berzosa who has observed an already crowded market with three to four shoots happening simultaneously, including The Mediapro Studio’s “Pelotaris.” 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Woody Allen has announced his retirement from filmmaking. While in Europe to work on his 50th film, Woody Allen told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that he intended to retire from making movies and to dedicate more time to writing during his twilight years. What is now set to be his final film is set in Paris and will be shot entirely in French in a couple of weeks. Allen described his upcoming film to be similar to “Match Point,” in that it would be “exciting, dramatic and also very sinister.” Allen recently wrote his fifth collection of humor pieces, “Zero Gravity,” which will be published Sept. 27 by Alianza in Spain. In the U.S., it was published by Arcade and distributed by Simon & Schuster.

Naman Ramachandran HBO Max in Hungary will stream a local version of hit survival reality format “The Bridge.” The competition sees participants tasked with building a 250-metre-long bridge to an island for the chance to win a large cash prize. Presented by Csaba Magyarósi, “The Bridge Hungary” is produced locally by Free Monkeys Production. This is the sixth adaptation of the format, which was created in Spain by Zeppelin, part of Banijay Iberia and has U.K., Brazil and Australia versions.. Banijay Rights struck multiple deals for the U.K. version with broadcasters in the Netherlands and across Africa and Latin America. The U.K. series also aired on HBO Max in the US, Latin America, and Asia.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Atresplayer Premium, the burgeoning OTT service behind HBO Max hit “Veneno,” has renewed “The Gypsy Bride” (“La novia gitana”), whose Season 1, from “Penny Dreadful” director Paco Cabezas, world premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival.  Atresmedia Television will produce with Banijay Iberia’s Diagonal TV, producer of Netflix hit “Heirs to the Land.”Produced by VIS with the participation of Atresmedia Television and the collaboration of the Diagonal TV, the first season of “The Gypsy Bride” will bow on Atresplayer Premium on Sept. 25.  Directed in its totality by Cabezas, whose credits also include “American Gods,” Season 1 is set in a gypsy community on Madrid’s humble outskirts as homicide inspector Elena Blanco, (Nerea Barros, “Marshland”) is called in to investigate the torture and assassination of a young woman just before her wedding.

HBO Max To Build ‘The Bridge’ In Hungary

Deadline.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Timothy Olyphant is set to star in the upcoming HBO Max series “Full Circle” from Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon, Variety has learned. Olyphant is the latest addition to the cast of the six-episode series alongside previously announced cast members Zazie Beetz and Claire Danes. The official logline for the show reads, “An investigation into a botched kidnapping uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day New York City.” Character details are currently being kept under wraps. Olyphant recently wrapped filming on “Justified: City Primeval,” in which he revived the character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens whom he played for six seasons on the FX series “Justified.” Olyphant’s other TV credits include the Disney+ “Star Wars” shows “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” as well as “Fargo” at FX and “Santa Clarita Diet” at Netflix. He is also known for his role in the HBO series “Deadwood,” which was revived as an HBO film in 2019. He has starred in films such as “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Live Free or Die Hard,” “The Crazies,” and “The Girl Next Door.”