Beta Film to Stage Live Virtual Beta Brunch, ‘La Unidad’ Q & A with Movistar Plus

By Mackenzie Nichols

By Kaleem Aftab

By John Hopewell

A German court on Tuesday proposed ending a criminal trial resulting from a fatal mass panic at the 2010 Love Parade techno music festival, citing questions over when the proceedings could resume in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the age of coronavirus, everyone is experiencing some level of loneliness. But Germany-based singer Finn Ronsdorf wants to point out that, even when you're in a relationship under normal circumstances, loneliness is still there.On Tuesday (April 7), Ronsdorf unveiled the video for his new single "Blue," a tender, heartbreaking look at the existential meaning behind love.

By Elsa Keslassy

Coronavirus or not, the German film industry has determined that the show must go on. Germany will still hand out its equivalent of the Oscars, the German Film Awards, in a live ceremony in Berlin on April 24, despite the country being on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

By Tom Grater

Farce is not a genre we commonly associate with the Germans, but then, as “Curveball” reminds us at the outset, this wildly atypical Teutonic satire — which plays like a cross between “Wag the Dog” and “Dr. Strangelove” in its portrayal of incompetence at the highest levels — is “A true story.

MADRID — Paco Plaza, co-director of [“REC”] and Netflix hit “Veronica” – is attached to write and direct “Roman Ritual,” inspired by the cult graphic novella from Spain’s El Torres,  and created together with producer Enrique López Lavigne (“28 Weeks Later,” “The Impossible”).

By Nancy Tartaglione

About 20 years ago, a collector found something quite rare at a flea market: a group of 55 photos taken on the set of the seminal 1920 German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Set to air in April on Germany’s ARD, Beta Film has sold Dreamtool series “The Turncoat” throughout Scandinavia to public broadcasters NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark and YLE in Finland. Negotiations are underway in the U.K. and U.S.

Germany’s Studio Babelsberg is seeking to find a settlement with hundreds of film crew members following the shutdown earlier this month of Warner Bros.’ “The Matrix 4” and Sony Pictures’ “Uncharted” amid the coronavirus outbreak.

MADRID — As the world’s international TV distribution goes virtual, these are a pick of Spanish TV shows – at project stage, in production or completed, and mostly drama series – being brought onto the market, or available for partnering for production or straight acquisition:

MADRID  —  Telefonica’s Movistar Plus was set to show off a pair of dramas at this year’s MipTV before the market was canceled. Now, Movistar has prepared online presentations on Monday where it will screen episodes of both series as well as conversations with producers and creatives from both series.

MADRID – Originally planned to premiere alongside fellow Movistar Plus Original “La Unidad” at this year’s MipTV, “La Línea Invisible” will now instead screen for international buyers digitally in an online showcase hosted by the Spanish broadcaster on Monday.

MADRID — In one of the first detailed breakdowns from a major European company of marketing strategies in the Series Mania/MipTV online marketplace, Germany’s Beta Film has announced that it will stage a virtual Beta Brunch on March 31.

Disney Plus zoomed out of gate in Europe and the U.K. on Tuesday, according to third-party data estimates — reflecting pent-up demand for the Mouse House’s streaming service and, perhaps, agita among parents looking for relief amid governmental stay-at-home directives.

Germany’s Beta Film, a prime mover of this and next week’s virtual TV marketplace, has sold “Cryptid,” produced by Dramacorp for the Nordic Entertainment Group’s Viaplay SVOD service, to Joyn, the new German AVOD venture launched in 2019 by Discovery and ProSiebenSat.1.