Berlin’s Co-Pro Series Pitch Event Draws Big European Names

Jameela Jamil and Sarah Hyland are set to star in Peacock’s upcoming Pitch Perfect spinoff series!

EXCLUSIVE: Dan Stevens (Legion, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga) has been tapped for a key role in the Hulu limited series Immigrant (working title), starring and executive produced by Kumail Nanjiani, from Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel.

K.J. Yossman Sky have released first look images for a new Sky Original drama, “Unwanted.”Inspired by the book “Bilal,” an investigative book from journalist Fabrizio Gatti, the eight-part series tells the story of an undercover human rights defender who is helping migrants journey from Africa to Europe as they battle human traffickers and government officials.Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”) created and wrote the series in collaboration with with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero.

Afternoon subscribers. Max Goldbart here with your weekly dose of International Insider news and analysis and it’s been as busy as ever over the past seven days. Scroll down for more.

The Berlin Film Festival’s industry wing, the European Film Market (EFM), has confirmed that 600 exhibitors from 62 countries took part in this year’s virtual edition, up from last year’s figure of 504.

Gojira have rescheduled their upcoming UK and European tour due to COVID-19 restrictions.The French metal titans were supposed to hit the road last month, beginning in Helsinki, with stop-offs in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and other cities throughout January into February and March.However, they’ve announced that they will now kick off their European tour on July 5 in Brussels and conclude it in Milan on July 31 at Carroponte.The UK and Ireland leg of the tour, meanwhile, has moved to 2023 and will begin on February 11 in Dublin and conclude at London’s Alexandra Palace on February 22.Gojira will then play rescheduled shows in Bordeaux, Paris, Luxembourg and Lyon between February 24 and 28, 2023.“We cannot express how much we appreciate your continued patience and support while we worked through last month’s postponement,” the band said in a social media post.“Despite our best efforts to resume touring this month, the continued uncertainty in various territories has left us with no other choice but to reschedule the remaining dates of the tour as well.“In light of this unfortunate news we are pleased to share the rescheduled dates for the entire European Tour below.”A post shared by Gojira Official (@gojiraofficial)Original tickets for the tour – which sees support from special guests Alien Weaponry and Employed To Serve – remain valid.

Holly Jones Karlsson: It’s also the expectations they put on themselves. Harry’s constantly torn between what he feels is good music and what is just making money, a concern he shares with his father.

Berlinale Series Market. It has grown into one of continental Europe’s biggest TV events. Following, seven takes on this year’s edition.TV Tail Wags Film DogThe Berlinale Series Market used to be a burgeoning sidebar.

Jamie Lang Featuring in this year’s eight iteration of the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series, Italian drama “Belcanto” will hope to follow a trail blazed by former participating European standouts such as “Babylon Berlin,” “Freud,” “Furia,” and last year’s Series Mania winner “Blackport.”Co-created by the trio of Mariano Di Nardo, Antonio Manca and Federico Fava and produced by leading Italian distribution-production house Lucky Red, the series project is set in 1798, as 14-year-old Carolina, her 17-year-old sister Antonia and their mother Maria seek refuge in the city of Milan after stabbing their violent father to death.The elder sister dreams of becoming a renowned singer, much as her mother once hoped for when she was the girl’s age. However, an unhappy and often violent marriage waylaid young Maria, who is now willing to go the extreme lengths to ensure that her daughter is afforded every opportunity withheld from herself.

Jamie Lang Belgium’s Panenka, producers of recent VRT breakout hit “Two Summers” – which premiered last week to a jaw-dropping 51% market share in its prime-time slot and which will soon be released worldwide by Netflix – will virtually pitch one of their upcoming projects, “This is Not a Murder Mystery,” at Berlin Co-Pro Series.One of 10 such projects set for this event, Co-Pro Series marks the first public pitch for “TINAMM,” with the creative team looking to the right co-production and distribution partner to help realize their murder mystery series. Panenka producer Kristoffel Mertens hosts the virtual Co-Pro pitch with co-creators Paul Baeten and Christophe Dirickx.Baeten is a novelist, essayist and TV screenwriter, whose credits include two seasons of the acclaimed drama series “Over Water” and the aforementioned “Two Summers.” Dirickx has written and produced several feature films, including Cannes players “The Misfortunates” from director Felix van Groeningen and Frank Van Passel’s “Manneken Pis.” International Emmy-nominee Hans Herbots (“The Spiral”) and Matthias Lebeer, a winner of two Golden Lions at Cannes for his work on GT Academy Europe, will direct.

Jamie Lang Norwegian broadcaster NRK has boarded Hummelfilm’s coming-of-age crime drama series “Nowheresville,” one of 10 projects participating in this year’s Berlin Co-Pro Series where producer Marte Hansen and series creator-director Rebecca W. Kjellmann are virtually pitching the series to potential partners, financers and broadcasters.Development on the project is already well underway, with four finished scripts and outlines for the show’s other four episodes already banked.“We are currently continuing the writing process, while working on the financing and production set-up for the series,” the partners explained to Variety before pitching in Berlin.

Marta Balaga Danish helmer Lone Scherfig is already developing the second season of “The Shift”, she revealed on Monday during an online Berlinale Series Market talk “From Film to Series.”Set in a maternity ward and starring Sofie Gråbøl and Pål Sverre Hagen, it’s the first series as a showrunner for Scherfig, who in 2019 opened Berlinale with “The Kindness of Strangers” and won a Silver Bear for “Italian for Beginners.”“It’s a tribute to the people who work in the healthcare system under extreme pressure, to the care and the love they show, even despite tough working conditions,” she said. “The Shift” is produced by Creative Alliance, with Beta Film handling the sales.

European Film Market has felt lopsided.Sony’s $60 million deal for Tom Hanks’ “A Man Called Otto,” an adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s bestselling Swedish-language novel “A Man Called Ove” — which was made into an Oscar-nominated  Swedish feature — that grabbed headlines early on (Variety understands it boiled down to a bidding war between the studio and Apple), but hasn’t necessarily spawned the usual flurry of deals from Berlin halfway through the festival.One buyer from a major U.K. distributor says the EFM vibe has felt “muted” for a company of its size, with an absence of broad-appeal product available once “Otto” was snapped up by Sony.

Longtime Fleet Street fixture Baz Bamigboye is joining Deadline as a columnist and international editor at large. Bamigboye comes from London’s Daily Mail, where he has been the newspaper’s chief chronicler of showbusiness in the UK for three decades.

EXCLUSIVE: Todd Strauss-Schulson and Adam Devine are reuniting for a third time as the former has signed on to direct and exec produce the pilot episode of Peacock’s Pitch Perfect (w/t) spinoff series

EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+ has handed a formal 10-episode series order to Sunny (fka Dark Manual), a half-hour darkly comedic drama starring and executive produced by Rashida Jones, from Katie Robbins (The Affair, The Last Tycoon) and A24. Lucy Tcherniak (Station Eleven, The End of the F***ing World) is attached to direct.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFrance’s Anamaria Vartolomei, star of Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner “Happening”; Ireland’s Clare Dunne, whose character in AMC’s Dublin-set series “Kin” has been dubbed “the female Tony Soprano”; and Croatia’s Gracija Filipovic, who made a splash in Alamat Kusijanovic’s “Murina,” winner of the 2021 Cannes Camera d’Or, are among the 10 young actors selected by European Film Promotion for the 25th anniversary edition of European Shooting Stars.Due to coronavirus concerns, EFP, which is the umbrella organization of national film agencies across Europe, will shine a spotlight on these standout talents with a hybrid event culminating with an in-person red carpet awards ceremony Feb. 14 in Berlin during the film festival.This year’s Shooting Stars roster — seven women, three men — was picked from a pool of nominations by a jury comprising Swedish-Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin; Timka Grin, who is president of the Intl.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinedigm has acquired North American rights to Coast, a coming-of-age drama starring Fatima Ptacek (Dora the Explorer), stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo (Cristela), Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and Ciara Bravo (Cherry), with plans to release it day-and-date in theaters and on VOD on April 8. VMI Worldwide, which is handling international sales and distribution, will rep the film at the Berlin Film Festival when it kicks off on February 10.

Radiohead side-project The Smile have announced a UK and European tour for 2022 – see all the details below.The trio – comprising Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – released their debut single ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ and its follow-up ‘The Smoke’ earlier this month.The Smile then took to the stage for three gigs at the Magazine venue in London over the weekend (January 29/30), with each performance being live-streamed online.Today (February 1) it’s been confirmed that the band will hit the road this spring for a run of European headline shows. Kicking off in Zagreb on May 16, the tour also includes appearances in Vienna (May 17), Prague (19), Berlin (20), Stockholm (23), Oslo (24) and Amsterdam (27).Yorke and co.