COVID-19 Vaccine Creators Take on Cancer in National Geographic Documentary

Taylor Swift is adding even more dates to The Eras Tour!

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sky Italia celebrated its 20-year anniversary on Tuesday by announcing a rich slate of upcoming originals, including a second season of the Italian adaptation of “Call My Agent,” which will see “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore joining the cast. The Sky Italia originals slate comprises previously announced high-end drama “M. Son of the Century” by British director Joe Wright, alongside less lavish shows in various stages – most of which have international potential. It underscores how the Italian unit of the Comcast-owned pay-TV service continues to be a major Italian industry driver. While Sky’s German unit, which is believed to be up for sale, has put production on pause, Sky Italia is cranking out Italian originals through the platform’s Sky Studios unit at a steady pace, showing no signs of a slowdown.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sales agency The Playmaker has signed with Lieblingsfilm to handle international sales for their Zlin Film Festival winner “What the Finn?!” (“Kannawoniwasein”). “What the Finn?!” is based on the children’s book by Martin Muser, which was adapted for the screen by Klaus Döring, Adrian Bickenbach and Stefan Westerwelle, who is also the director of the film. The film had its world premiere at Zlin, where it won the main prize, the Golden Slipper Award for Best Feature Film for Children. The Playmaker will present “What the Finn?!” at the upcoming German Films Previews in Potsdam (July 5 – 8), where it will screen for international buyers.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is stumbling in its box office debut, generating $70 million internationally and $130 million globally to start. Those ticket sales wouldn’t be bad for a film aimed at older audiences, except for the fact that Disney and Lucasfilm spent $295 million before marketing to bring the fifth and final action-adventure, starring Harrison Ford, to the big screen. “Dial of Destiny” is posting similar numbers to Warner Bros. and DC’s misfire “The Flash,” which opened to $75 million internationally and $139 million globally but cost $100 million less to make. Both tentpoles are expected to lose money in their theatrical runs.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections.

When you think of films and TV series by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, you think of dark, gritty stories. These are stories where anyone can die at any moment and the lines between good and bad are awfully blurry.

Naman Ramachandran Keshet International (KI) has racked up several deals for scripted formats and finished tape in the Central and Eastern Europe region. KI has sold the format rights for Duo Productions’ 8 x 60’ relationship thriller “Too Much Love” (“L’homme qui aimait trop”) to Slovakian free-to-air broadcaster TV JOJ. Originally created by Canadian writing duo Michel d’Astous and Anne Boyer (“Taboo”) for Bell Media’s Quebecois streamer Noovo, the Slovakian adaptation will be produced by Piknik Pictures (“Traffic Light”). Currently in pre-production, with casting in progress, shooting will commence later this year ahead of a 2024 premiere on TV JOJ.

McKinley Franklin editor The Palm Springs International ShortFest winners were announced on Sunday, with Japan and the U.S.’s “The Old Young Crow” taking the prize for best of the festival. Lithuania’s “Way Better” won best animated short and China’s “Will You Look At Me” landed best documentary short. Additionally, the award for best live-action short over 15 minutes went to France’s “Sèt Lam” and Spain’s “Mystic Tiger” took home the award for the best live-action short 15 minutes and under. The festival handed out cash prizes worth $25,000, as well as five awards to help winners qualify for the Academy Awards. The competition included some 299 short films within the official selection. The annual festival began on June 20 and will conclude Monday, June 26.

Refresh for latest...: After two major studio movies bowed last weekend, this session was one of holdovers for Hollywood with mixed results.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Rachel Zegler and Emily Mortimer are in talks to join the cast of “Paddington in Peru,” the third opus of the beloved bear’s adventures. Set to start filming on July, the third installment film will also star Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin. Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton will also be back as the voices of Paddington and Aunt Lucy, respectively. Filming locations will include the UK, Peru and Colombia. The movie will mark the feature film directorial debut of Dougal Wilson, and reteams Studiocanal with Heyday Films following their collaboration on the first two films of the Paddington franchise. Studiocanal is fully financing and will distribute in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand as well as through partners in China and Japan. Sony Pictures will distribute in the USA, Canada and other key international territories including Latin America.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The members of the international juries that will decide the Magnolia prizes at the ongoing Shanghai Television Festival were Thursday made to do double duty as speakers in public masterclasses that were open to a generation of aspiring documentary and animation makers. David Stephan, jury president in the animation category, along with fellow judges Spencer Ooi and Jia Fou, spoke at length about getting their starts in the business and finding inspiration. “When I studied animation, I didn’t have a textbook available. I saw extremely limited things, so I did further research to make myself understand what I was doing in such a career,” said Jia.

wrote that it “takes us into the intimate, inner circle of family ties to tell a larger story of our time.” The picture concerns the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters, detailing a family history through interviews and reenactments to deconstruct how the two eldest kids were radicalized to the point of joining ISIS.  “We were immediately captivated by Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful documentary Four Daughters, a riveting piece of filmmaking that takes an innovative and provocative approach to nonfiction storytelling,” said Kino Lorber SVP of Theatrical Distribution and Acquisitions Wendy Lidell.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sony Pictures International Productions and Italy’s Colorado Film have teamed up on Italian comedy/road movie “50km per Hour” which has started shooting with multi-hyphenate Fabio De Luigi directing and starring. The film is an Italian remake of Sony’s 2018 German box office hit “25 Km/h,” written by Oliver Ziegenbalg and directed by Markus Goller about two estranged siblings who reunite at their father’s funeral and make a spur of the moment decision to fulfill their childhood dream of driving across the country on their old motorbikes. It has also recently been remade in Mexico with the title “A Todas Partes” (“All the Places”).

While some men might not love the term “golden retriever boyfriend,” Chase Stokes is fine with the label given to him by his girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini’s fans.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift announced 2024 international dates for her Eras Tour Tuesday, beginning with a Feb. 7-10 run of four shows at the Tokyo Dome and running through Aug. 16-17 gigs at Wembley Stadium in London. Besides the U.K. and Japan, countries on the agenda for next year include France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Altogether, it was 38 overseas dates that Swift announced in Tuesday’s major rollout. “EXCUSE ME HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY,” she tweeted. “Can’t wait to see so many of you on The Eras Tour next year at these new international dates! Visit http://TaylorSwift.com/tour for more information on your registrations, pre-sales and on-sales!!”

Take That member Howard Donald has said he is “deeply sorry” after making a “huge error” by “liking social media posts that are derogatory towards the LGBTQIA+ community”. Howard, 55, who performs in the pop group alongside Gary Barlow and Mark Owen, has been dropped from playing at Groovebox’s Nottingham Pride Festival event in July.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes, has scored a raft of sales following its launch. The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.

Hello Insiders, Jesse Whittock here to take you through a scorching week in international TV and film. Don’t forget to subscribe. Let’s go.

Here are your Wednesday morning Manchester United headlines.

National Geographic has announced a documentary special with the working title of “The Cancer Vaccine.”The documentary special will follow Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci – the husband-and-wife team who built German biotechnology giant BioNTech and created the Pfizer BioNTech COVID Vaccine — as they compete in the race to find a cure for cancer.The film will chronicle Şahin and Türeci’s creation of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine, which came out of mRNA technology that, for years, had been considered useless. The couple has their own team, with whom they face competitors, skeptics, government officials and the disease itself.