Cohen Media Group Buys U.S. Rights to Toronto Film ‘Driving Madeleine’ From Pathe (EXCLUSIVE)

Norman Reedus had a major career moment Tuesday when he received his star was unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ET was with the star as he celebrated the momentous occasion with his family and loved ones, including longtime love Diane Kruger, son Mingus and his mom.«I think having Diane and Mingus here, and my mom, is the biggest to me,» Reedus told ET of the celebratory family affair. «We all live in New York, so they're not out here very often.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Grasshopper Film has acquired the North American distribution rights to “Rewind & Play,” Alain Gomis’ feature documentary on the late jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. The film is set to screen at the 60th annual New York Film Festival later this month, and will open in theaters early next year. The doc uses an interview with Monk in France from 1969, which many would now consider to be deeply problematic, as its centrepiece. In December 1969, Monk arrived in Paris for a concert at the tail end of a European tour. While there, he was invited to appear on a television interview program, where he was to answer questions in an intimate, one-on-one studio stage.

New season, new ‘do! Emily in Paris is coming back with a bang … literally.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Music Box Filmshas acquired U.S. distribution rights to Alice Winocour’s heartfelt drama “Paris Memories” which world premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and had a gala screening at Toronto. It’s one of the five finalists for France’s official submission to the 95th Academy Awards. The critically acclaimed film stars Virginie Efira as Mia, a survivor of the terrorist attack that hit Paris venues, including the Bataclan concert hall and several bistros, in November 2015. Three months after the tragedy, Mia still feels unable to pick her life back up so she sets off to investigate her memories to find a way back to happiness.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen will return to the French capital for his 50th movie which he’s described as a “poisonous romantic thriller” with a pair of French stars, Valerie Lemercier (“Aline”) and Niels Schneider (“Love Affair(s))”. The untitled film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps, will start filming next month and will be entirely in French with a budget in the $10-million range. Allen has described the film to be similar to “Match Point,” in that it would be “exciting, dramatic and also very sinister.”  Allen sparked headlines earlier this week after Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia ran a story reporting that the New York-based filmmaker had told them he was planning on retiring. Allen’s representative then issued a statement saying that the director had “no intention of retiring.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a new deal secured at this week’s San Sebastian Festival, Birgit Kemner’s Manny Films has partnered with Chile’s Storyboard Media to co-produce “Un Buen Día Para Morir” (“A Good Day to Die”), the third feature by Marcelo Ferrari (“Subterra,” “Bombal”). Inspired by the real story of pianist María Paz Santibáñez whose life took a dramatic turn during a protest against General Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1987, the drama turns on 24-year-old piano student Pachi who is shot in the head during a protest against the military regime. Seriously injured and pregnant, she manages to survive and give birth to her daughter. Escaping Chile, she settles in Paris where – against all odds – she fulfills her dream to become a concert pianist.

Woody Allen is not bringing his career as movie director to an end.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian-American director Dina Amer’s politically sensitive drama “You Resemble Me,” the story of Hasna Aït Boulahcen who in 2015 was wrongly believed to be Europe’s first female suicide bomber, is getting a Middle East release via Front Row Filmed Entertainment. Amer’s feature debut, which world premiered positively at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, is a deeply researched character study of the fragile young Muslim woman who became linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris even though she didn’t participate in them. Aït Boulahcen died during an anti-terrorism raid alongside her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was one of the ringleaders of the coordinated assaults that killed 130 people in the French capital, including 90 at the Bataclan theater. 

Lise Pedersen Paris-based premium kids content producer Cottonwood Media has announced its sister distribution company, Federation Kids & Family, has nabbed world rights for its upcoming TV series “Welcome to Lolyland.”  The project is one of 80 being pitched this week at Cartoon Forum, the leading European event for animated TV series in development aimed at industry professionals, that runs in the south-eastern French city of Toulouse. Based on the original comic books “Lolicornes” by Cédric Asna, Emmanuel Martin and Pierre Walterspieler, who are working on the TV adaptation, the series will be made up of 52 11-minute episodes aimed at six to nine-year olds. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+, France’s leading pay TV group, has signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony to ramp up its programming of U.S. movies. Under the pact, Canal+ now has access to the studios’ new films six months after their releases. Sony’s “Spiderman : No Way Home” is currently being broadcast on Canal+’s linear pay TV channels, along with its transactional VOD platform, My Canal. The news was half-revealed by Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group’s chair and CEO, during the company’s upbeat press conference on Sept. 14, which was held at their posh headquarters in Paris. Saada, who recently joined the management board of Vivendi, Canal Plus Group’s parent company, said the outfit already boasts partnerships with Fox, Disney and Warner, as well as Paramount.

Liberation reports that people close to the Franco-Swiss director have confirmed that he died today (September 13).The filmmaker is known for movies including Breathless (1960) and Contempt (1963), which pushed cinematic boundaries.Godard’s films showcased handheld camera work, jump cuts and existential dialogue that revolutionised French cinema and filmmaking in the 1960s.As Reuters writes, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is often cited as one of a more recent generation of pioneering directors who were initiated by Godard and his Paris-based contemporaries.Godard was born into a Franco-Swiss family on December 3, 1930 in Paris’s plush Seventh Arrondissement. His father was a doctor, his mother the daughter of a Swiss man who founded Banque Paribas, then an illustrious investment bank.Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) has paid tribute the late filmmaker, saying that he was “one of the most influential, iconoclastic film-makers of them all”.“It was ironic that he himself revered the Hollywood studio film-making system, as perhaps no other director inspired as many people to just pick up a camera and start shooting.”RIP Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most influential, iconoclastic film-makers of them all.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Following the world premiere of “My Neighbor Adolf” on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, Beta Cinema has sold the dark comedy to Vendetta Films, which will bring the Udo Kier and David Hayman starrer to cinemas across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of next year.  Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before. The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes. One day, a mysterious old German man – played by Kier – moves in next door, and Polsky suspects that his new neighbor is… Adolf Hitler. Since nobody believes him, he embarks on a mission to uncover the evidence. In order to gather it, however, he will need to come closer to his neighbor than he would like – so close that the two could almost become friends.

Chevalier is a biopic about violin virtuoso Joseph Bolonge Chevalier de Saint George directed by Stephen Williams and written by Stefani Robinson.

Variety.The French language film was directed by Christian Carion (“Joyeux Noel”) and is playing in the Official Selection at the Toronto Film Festival.“Driving Madeleine” stars Dany Boon (“Bienvenue chez les ch’tis”) who plays Charles, a taxi driver in Paris who is struggling under mounting stress. His debts are coming due, his driver’s license is in danger of being suspended because of numerous fines, and his marriage is falling apart. He has no way of knowing his life is about to be transformed when he picks up Madeleine, a 92-year-old woman who is soon to move into a care facility.

Banijay Kids & Family has bought UK drama specialist Kindle Entertainment and Italian animation firm Movimenti Production. The deals bring the total number of production within Banijay’s youth-focused arm across France, the UK and Italy to six, sitting alongside distribution, marketing and licencing arm, Zodiak Kids & Family Distribution.

K.J. Yossman Nicely Entertainment has tapped ex-TF1 exec Rachel Siegenthaler for vice president of international sales. Siegenthaler will remain in Paris for the newly-created role, which will be focused on expanding L.A.-based Nicely’s European presence. The role will include responsibility for EMEA and Asia sales and co-productions, which include ten movies set to debut at Mipcom next month. The Mipcom slate includes “Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas” (pictured above), “A Christmas to Treasure,” “A Royal in Paradise” and “Baked with a Kiss” as well as family documentary “Beyond the Reef,” which introduces audiences to the Great Barrier Reef. The feature, which is set to be released in IMAX, is narrated by Shuang Hu.

.«I said yes to doing [the show] because for me, you know, I have had a very peculiar journey,» Victoria tells ET over video call. «When I say peculiar, you know, I never knew that it was possible to ever work in fashion — I didn't even know that was a thing — and I have worked really, really hard to get to where I am at and it's been a really long journey along the way.»«My family was like, 'You can't go to New York, it's too dangerous,'» she recalls.