‘Dexter’ Producer Daniel Cerone Boards U.K. Adaptation of Japanese Crime Format ‘Connected’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Trinidad Barleycorn French director Louise Carrin, whose home for the past 13 years has been Lausanne, Switzerland, has an urge to create every day, she tells Variety. Moviemaking being a long process, for about 10 years now she has found equal satisfaction in music. She is about to release her debut rap album “Banana Part” under her alias Lweez.

In the Apple TV+ series Pachinko, Solomon (Jin Ha) speaks Korean, Japanese and English. The show, based on Min Jin Lee’s book, traces four generations of his family from Korea and Japan (as Zainichi Koreans), so all three languages are involved. Ha does not speak Japanese and studied the different dialects with vocal coach Yu-Mi Kang.

EXCLUSIVE: Lupin and Intouchables star Omar Sy will now co-star opposite Emmy winner Kerry Washington (Scandal, Django) in Lionsgate action-thriller Shadow Force, we can reveal.

Squid Game actress Jung Ho-yeon is set to star in the upcoming A24 film The Governesses alongside Lily-Rose Depp and others.Jung will appear in the forthcoming film alongside Lily-Rose Depp (2018’s A Faithful Man), who is the daughter of actors Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp, and award-winning Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve (2021’s The Worst Person In The World). The specifics of the trio’s roles have yet to be announced.The Governesses will be the second film Joe Talbot will direct for A24, having made his directorial debut with the studio in 2019 with the critically acclaimed The Last Black Man In San Francisco.The Governesses is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by French writer Anne Seree, which was translated into English for the first time in 2018.

Siwa told late-night host Jimmy Fallon. “Of course, not everybody in the world is going to accept it right now, but there are so many people who are going to accept it right now.

EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Olson (Our Flag Means Death) and Britian Seibert (The Knick) have been cast in heavily recurring roles on Retreat, a limited series from The OA creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, starring Emma Corrin.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterJapanese film producer Umekawa Haruo has been accused of sexual harassment by Bunshun Online, a sister site of the Shukan Bunshun weekly tabloid publication.According to a shortened web version of a longer story that is set to appear in print, Umekawa has pressured actresses for sexual favors in exchange for being cast in his films.The veteran producer has been active since the 1990s and is an associate of cult director Sono Sion. On Monday, Sono was accused of being a sex predator by the Shukan Josei PRIME entertainment news and gossip site.Umekawa’s credits include the 1990 indie drama “Swimming Upstream,” Sono’s 2008 international festival hit “Love Exposure” and his 2011 drama “Themis.” Umekawa’s most recent credit is Netflix’s lesbian-themed road movie “Ride or Die.” The multiple accusations against prominent figures appear to suggest that the #MeToo movement has belatedly arrived in Japan, where the entertainment industry has previously succeeded in sweeping many such matters under the carpet.On Wednesday, Sono issued a handwritten statement on his company’s website apologizing for the “inconvenience and disturbance” caused by the Shukan Josei report.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentGaumont, the powerhouse behind “Narcos,” “Lupin” and “Barbarians,” has boarded “Le Prince,” a period mystery thriller series written by Charles den Tex and Paul de Vrijer (“Hunter Street”). Currently in development, “Le Prince” will be produced by Gaumont, as well as Stories, a label launched by France TV Distribution, and Dutch producers Paradise Media.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentTwo-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi and his French producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy are denying reports that the Iranian auteur has been sentenced and found guilty on a charge of plagiarism pertaining to his latest film, “A Hero.”Farhadi’s former student Azadeh Masihzadeh has accused the filmmaker of stealing the idea for “A Hero” from a documentary she made during a filmmaking workshop held by Farhadi in 2014 in Tehran.“A Hero” is about an earnest-looking man named Rahim who, while on furlough after being imprisoned for debt, returns a lost handbag full of gold coins — an act that appears to make him a good samaritan. However, the story ends up being more complicated.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticOver cigarettes in a Tokyo nightclub, a newbie crime reporter eager to make a mark is speaking to his source. Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), an American who’s become fluent in Japanese to work as a journalist far from home, uses the language to ask his source Jin Miyamoto (Hideaki Itō) whether the city of Tokyo has officially recorded murder cases at all. Miyamoto, a corrupt cop, is briefly caught up in all the flashes of distraction the nightclub has to offer — bright lights, music, liquor on order and young women ambiently available — before explaining the situation to this outsider.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorGillian Anderson, speaking at a masterclass at the Canneseries TV festival on France’s Côte d’Azur Saturday, teased that she is developing “something else” based on the life of a historical figure, following her roles as Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” and Eleanor Roosevelt in upcoming series “The First Lady.” No further details were forthcoming from the actor, who recently signed a producing deal with Netflix.Speaking about receiving recognition for her career achievements, such as the Variety Icon Award she accepted Friday in Cannes, she said it felt “kind of surreal actually,” adding, “it kind of feels like it is happening to somebody else.”Asked by French journalist Nora Bouazzouni, who was the onstage interviewer, whether she had realized that her role as Dana Scully in “The X-Files” would change the face of female leads on television when she first read the script, Anderson responded: “Oh God, no.” She saw it just as a job, and “figured it might be a year’s worth of work.” Anderson concurred with Bouazzouni’s assertion that Scully was a “badass” – “confident” and “no push over” – and that had set the tone for her whole career. “I think that the badass-ness pre-existed in me […] and she brought that out in me.

The following article contains footage that some readers may find distressing. Oscars 2022 producer Will Packer has broken his silence over the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock during Sunday night's (March 27) Academy Awards presentation. During the live broadcast Smith walked onto the stage and slapped Rock in the face, after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith while preparing to announce the winner of the Best Documentary Oscar.

Christopher Vourlias CAA Media Finance is representing worldwide distribution rights to a new documentary feature from the producers of “The Lost Leonardo,” Variety can reveal.The untitled project follows a Swiss art dealer and Russian oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money, telling the inside story of an international, billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency. The film is produced by Elk Film (Denmark) and Pumpernickel Films (France) and directed by Andreas Dalsgaard, whose previous credits include “The Lost Leonardo” and “The War Show.”The pulled-from-the-headlines documentary follows the scandal that erupted in 2015 with the arrest of the Swiss businessman and free port magnate Yves Bouvier, “a very discreet guy who was suddenly arrested in Monaco, accused of swindling a billion dollars from the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev…[through] the purchase of 38 masterworks,” according to Dalsgaard.

Ben Croll Following only the U.S. and Japan (though operating, it should be noted, on an exponentially smaller scale) France has become the world’s third-biggest animated content supplier, producing an average of 300 hours of programming each year and banking $137.7 million in global sales in 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has the first exclusive track from Jeff Danna’s score for Julia, which is set for release tomorrow via Watertower Music.

Doubling down on investment and expanding its offer in Japan, Prime Video has unveiled a slate of new Japanese originals including a reboot of iconic game show Takeshi’s Castle and a local adaptation of anthology series Modern Love. The streamer revealed the lineup at a showcase event in Tokyo today, where it also announced it will livestream the World Bantamweight title fight between Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire on June 7.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBanijay has acquired Tooco, the production banner behind the non-scripted hit “Guess My Age,” to further bolster its French outpost. Under the pact, Tooco will be part of the Banijay France brand and will focus on originating concepts for the French and international markets.Tooco, spearheaded by Aurélien Lipiansky and Mikaël Moreau, has been delivering popular French formats, such as Le club des invincibles, produced with Banijay’s Air Production; and Guess My Age which has so far travelled to 22 countries, including Italy, Spain, and Germany.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentHot off the success of “No Man’s Land,” Israel’s Spiro Films and France’s Haut et Court TV are re-teaming on “Armageddon,” a sprawling thriller miniseries looking at Christian extremists operating in the Holy Land.The show is being created by David Ackerman, who previously worked in national security in Israel and went on to pen the film “Blank Bullet” inspired by the story of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, and “Jerusalem,” a gritty geopolitical thriller drama which competed at last year’s Series Mania.Ackerman is currently writing the script for “Armageddon,” which weaves several characters, including a Christian American priest who travels with a few disciples to the Kibbutz Megiddo. Appearing friendly and charitable, the group starts forging bonds within the small community, including a mother and a son, while pursuing their secret agenda: find the Antichrist who will provoke a war that will fulfil their biblical prophecy – the second coming of the Christ.

Diane Garrett Ambitious in scope and storytelling, “Pachinko” seems tailor-made for today’s international streaming wars. It arrives March 25 on Apple TV Plus with a literary pedigree and “Minari” Oscar winner Yuh-jung Youn in a starring role.