Naman Ramachandran Oliver Pearn’s feature directorial debut “On the Line” has been snapped up for U.K. and U.S. distribution by Trinity Creative Partnership and 101 Films.
06.09.2023 - 09:43 / variety.com
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Abacus Media Rights has pre-sold the feature documentary “The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee,” to Sky Arts, SBS Television Australia; to NonStop Entertainment for Scandinavia, Iceland and the Baltics and to Movistar for Spain.
Lee is known as the Dracula character and for transitioning from 1960s Hammer horror films to a distinguished acting career that encompassed James Bond films, the “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” franchises.
Less well-known are his aristocratic Italian roots, a close family connection to James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, Lee’s wartime experiences in the British and Finnish military, post-war Nazi-hunting adventures and a side career as a heavy metal rock singer. As an actor, Lee achieved a Guinness world record for the highest number of screen appearances.
Produced in association with the British Film Institute and Trigger Films by Canal Cat Films, “Life and Deaths” is an innovative documentary which uses fresh interviews, archive material and multiple forms of traditional and cutting-edge animation, including marionation, to bring one of the world’s leading actors back to life on screen.
A-list directors and actors set as contributors include Peter Jackson, John Landis and Joe Dante, as well as Lee’s niece, actor Dame Harriet Walter.
Directed by Jon Spira (“Reel Britannia,” “Hollywood Bulldogs,” “Elstree 1976”), produced by Hank Starrs (“Reel Britannia,” “Being Frank”) and executive produced by Adam F. Goldberg (“The Muppets Mayhem”), the documentary is narrated by popular actor and voice artist Peter Serafinowicz (“Star Wars,” “John Wick 2,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”) who plays the voice of Lee.
Naman Ramachandran Oliver Pearn’s feature directorial debut “On the Line” has been snapped up for U.K. and U.S. distribution by Trinity Creative Partnership and 101 Films.
Take That have shared their first new single in five years, ‘Windows’, and announced details of their ninth album and a huge UK and Ireland tour. See all the details below.The group – comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen – premiered the song on BBC Radio 2 this morning (September 22) where they told host Zoe Ball about their next chapter.“New music, it is exciting,” Barlow said.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Director Clara Law (“The Goddess of 1967”) has been set as president of the jury which will discern this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. She will be joined by Malaysia’s Yeo Yann Yann (“Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season,” American Born Chinese”), German producer Anna Katchko (“Stepne,” “Happiness”), and Faisal Baltyuor, producer and CEO of Muvi Studios in Saudi Arabia. A separate jury for documentaries and animation will be headed by Taiwan-based Myanmar director Midi Z, India’s Rima Das and Japanese documentary maker Toda Hikaru. The APSAs will be presented at a ceremony in Gold Coast, Queensland on Nov.
Naman Ramachandran British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards. Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Paramount+ streaming service will launch in Japan in December as a free-of-charge addition to cable and internet provider J:COM’s platform and to pay-TV service Wowow. Paramount+ originals including “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will be available at the launch of the service and for the first time in Japan. Japan will be the second country in East Asia where the service becomes available, following a launch in South Korea in June last year.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Filming is now underway in Australia on “Desert King,” a neo-western drama series for Netflix that is positioned to be one of the streamer’s iconic prestige productions in the Asia-Pacific region. The story revolves around money and power in Australia’s harsh Outback regions with filming locations in the remote Northern Territory and near Adelaide, South Australia. When the world’s largest cattle station is left without a clear successor, generational clashes threaten to tear the Lawson family apart. Sensing this once great dynasty is in decline, the outback’s most powerful factions – rival cattle barons, desert gangsters, Indigenous elders and billionaire miners – move in for the kill,” says Netflix by way of a synopsis. While describing the six-part series as “one of the largest local screen productions filmed in both the [Northern] Territory and South Australia,” and “an extraordinary cast,” the streamer has not disclosed the identities of any cast. Directed by Greg McLean (“La Brea,” “Wolf Creek”), the show is a joint production between Easy Tiger and Ronde.
Naman Ramachandran India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which enjoys the support of cinema greats Martin Scorsese and Amitabh Bachchan, is conducting the third edition of the Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives. The global film preservation training workshop is coming to India for the first time and will be held at the India International Centre in Delhi Oct.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japan’s Dean Fujioka (“Fullmetal Alchemist,” “The Man From The Sea”) and the U.K.’s Callum Woodhouse (“All Creatures Great and Small,” “The Durrells”) are set to star in “Orang Ikan,” a WWII-set creature horror film. The picture is scripted by Singapore and Indonesia-based Mike Wiluan (“Buffalo Boys,” HBO series “Grisse”) who will also direct the picture from next month. International rights to “Orang Ikan” have been picked up by London-based SC Films International, which will give the project its sales launch at the Busan festival and accompanying market next month. Set in the Pacific, 1942, a Japanese ship transports prisoners of war to occupied territories as slave labor.
The remnants of Hurricane Lee are hitting Scotland today in a deluge of rain that could bring flooding and travel delays.
Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster ITV has signed a deal with UEFA to become the new home of England men’s soccer qualifying games. All European qualifiers, UEFA Nations League ties and friendlies between major tournaments will be shown on ITV from September 2024 through to June 2028.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oscar-winning Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari,” “Pachinko”) will headline the Actors’ House section of the upcoming Busan International Film Festival, it was announced on Thursday. Introduced in 2021, Actors’ House is a special series that connects audiences and film enthusiasts with iconic actors from the current generation through its in-depth discussions. “There’s much anticipation to hear her words of wisdom, as she’s known for her insightful observations,” said the festival. Others this year include: Han Hyo-joo, Song Joong-ki and Korean-American actor and author John Cho.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Top actor Asher Keddie will co-produce and star opposite David Wenham in Paramount+ Australia’s freshly-commissioned “Fake” drama-thriller series. Keddie has a long TV career with recent credits including “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,” “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “Stateless.” Her movie credits include smaller roles in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and eccentric comedy “Rams.” Wenham’s filmography includes “SeaChange,” “Elvis,” “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers & The Return of the King.” “Fake” follows Keddie’s character, a smart and brilliant writer who thinks she has found her ideal match when she meets a successful rancher, portrayed by Wenham, on a dating app. But after she commits, she discovers that her boyfriend isn’t all he has led her to believe. The show is inspired by the book “Fake” by Stephanie Wood and was created for television by renown screenwriter, Anya Beyersdorf with award-winner director, Emma Freeman (“Secret City,” “Glitch,” “The Newsreader”). The eight- part series is produced by Kindling Pictures’ Imogen Banks (“Safe Home,” “Offspring”) and Emelyne Palmer (“Safe Home,” “RFDS”).
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “No More Bets,” the smash hit Chinese crime thriller that has earned more than half a billion dollars in its home market, is hurriedly adding new territories to release. It will release in the U.K. and Ireland from Friday through distributor Trinity Cine Asia.
She may have been the longest-serving monarch in British royal history, but the Queen’s death on 8 September, 2022 – after a record-breaking 70 years on the throne – nonetheless came as a devastating blow to the nation. Unrealistic as it may have seemed, many of us simply thought she would go on forever. She had been a pillar of stability throughout the lives of generations of Britons – a steadying hand guiding her people during troubled times, but also a figurehead for celebration during some of our country’s most triumphant moments.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kim Jee-woon’s black comedy “Cobweb,” which debuted this year at Cannes, is set for a U.S. theatrical release in early 2024.
As Danielle Harold arrives at the studio for her fabulous OK! photoshoot, she’s marking the end of an era after spending more than a third of her life on the set of EastEnders. For the last year, the London-born star threw all she had into the emotional conclusion of the storyline which saw her character Lola Pearce-Brown diagnosed with and decimated by a devastating brain tumour. We meet just days before the National Television Awards, and having been nominated for Serial Drama Performance, Danielle beams as she tells us how – win or lose – this public honour means so much to her.
Franne Lee, a Tony-winning costumer and set designer who joined the fledgling Saturday Night Live and created the looks of some of the NBC’s late-night show’s most iconic characters, including the Coneheads, the Nerds, the Killer Bees and the Blues Brothers, died August 27 in Atlantis, Florida, following a brief illness. She was 81.
Netflix has unveiled more cast, trailer (see below) and first-looks for its highly-anticipated Chicken Run sequel.
Guy Lodge Film Critic Who does a documentary truly belong to — the people who make it, the people who fund it, or the people it depicts? On the face of it, the answer seems obvious: At a spiritual level, if not always a corporate one, we tend to think of art as the property of the artist. Yet in dusting off a long-languishing nonfiction feature from the 1970s that was taken from its stymied director by his bankrollers and sent to the vault, Andrés Peyrot’s thoughtful, mirror-holding doc “God is a Woman” makes a compelling case for the third option.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Production is under way on season two of “The Twelve,” a crime drama which follows a controversial murder trial as seen through the lens of the 12 jury members, ordinary members of the public with their own realities and struggles. On completion, it will screen on Foxtel’s Binge streaming service.