‘Eurovision Murder Mystery’ & Vatican Drama Selected For Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions

It's hard to believe that for a whole decade, the Gogglebox cast have been making us laugh with their unique and often funny views on the week's most talked about TV moments. From Lee and Jenny's unmissable banter to some of the clever one-liners from Giles and Mary - the Channel 4 show has continued to be a part of our weekly TV routine every Friday night.

Joe Wright, director behind the Golden Globe and multi-BAFTA winning films Pride and Prejudice, The Darkest Hour and Atonement, is set to direct and executive produce The Department, based on the acclaimed French espionage political thriller The Bureau, from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios. Wright replaces Clooney, who initially was slated to direct the series.

EXCLUSIVE: Beta Film has picked up distribution rights to French thriller Homejacking, which is co-created by Lupin writer Tigran Rosine, and will launch sales at Series Mania.

Andrew Scott stars as the infamous Tom Ripley in Netflix’s new limited series “Ripley,” which premieres on April 4. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling novels, the series begins when a wealthy man hires Ripley to travel to Italy and convince his vagabond son to return home. In accepting the job, this marks “the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder,” per the release.

Andrew Scott plays grifter Tom Ripley in the new Netflix limited series Ripley, which is set to premiere on April 4. The new trailer, which you can view in the video above, shows the extent that Ripley will go through to get the job done.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Seriesmakers, a joint initiative of Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV festival, and European film-TV powerhouse Beta Group, has revealed the 10 top-notch project lineup of the second edition of its novel and high-powered mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut. This year’s Seriesmakers features in development drama series from Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (“George Blake”), behind “The Last King Of Scotland,” and from Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti, who burst onto the scene co-writing with Juho Kuosmanen the latter’s “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Makki,” a 2016 Cannes Un Certain Regard winner.

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is rumoured to have fans back at his old club Ajax, despite recent scrutiny of his role at Old Trafford.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning Nomadland producer Peter Spears has optioned Mike Nichols: A Life, the 2021 biography of the director by Mark Harris, for development as a dramatic feature film.

Anne Whitfield, who appeared at age 15 in the 1954 Hollywood Christmas chestnut White Christmas and went on to a prolific career in episodic TV throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, died February 15 at a hospital in Yakima, Washington. She was 85.

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has been banned from football for four years after doping.

Former HBO Europe execs Johnathan Young and Ioanina Pavel have resurfaced with their own indie.

Series Mania brings the world of drama together every year in March in Lilles, France. It has public screenings and competition strands spanning various types of scripted TV. The industry component, the Forum, includes the Co-Production Pitching Sessions, which have become one of the event’s signature elements.

Emiliano De Pablos U.K.-based distributor DCD Rights has pre-sold the fourth season of New Zealand’s mystery drama “My Life Is Murder” to a raft of territories ahead of its Feb. 27 official launch at the London Screenings. Starring Lucy Lawless (“Top of the Lake,” “Spartacus,” “Xena: Warrior Princess”), the series’ brand new season rights have been secured by YLE Finland, TV2 Denmark, Quebecor Content Canada and Yes DBS Israel.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Is this now an age of TV caution? A brace of big swings at this week’s London TV Screenings belie that trend, and few come bigger than the English-language action thriller “Paris Has Fallen,” which Studiocanal launches at this week’s London TV Screenings. Like other major LTVS plays, it takes a mainstream genre – such as, elsewhere, the historical drama (“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light”), true crime (“A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story”) and the bio (“So Long, Marianne”) – and aims to elevate them to another level.

EXCLUSIVE: Sebastian Roché (1923) is making his K-drama debut in Netflix‘s Queen of Tears premiering March 9. He will portray Dr. Braun, a German doctor who has an interesting relationship with the two leads.

Alex Ritman “La Cocina,” the Rooney Mara-starring drama that recently bowed in competition at the Berlinale, has been acquired for most international territories. HanWay Films has closed sales for France (Originals Factory), Australia and New Zealand (Vendetta), Spain (Avalon), Italy (Teodora Film), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Scandinavia (Mis.

Only Murders in the Building costars, who are both in their seventies, were spotted leaving dinner with friends in tow in Santa Monica, California. opted for black pants, a pink button down, and a red jacket whereas Short dressed up a little in a gray sweater and black sport coat.Talk of a budding romance began after Streep and Short were seated together at the 2024 Golden Globes.

Marta Balaga Slovakia’s explosive political drama “Our People” will head to Series Mania’s Forum Co-Pro Pitching Sessions in March. Produced by Jakub Viktorín and Tomáš Hrubý for nutprodukcia and written by Miro Šifra, it will be directed by Tereza Nvotová. The miniseries, inspired by tragic real events, depicts the killing of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kušnírová.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “A True Novel,” directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, manga-inspired “Issak,” written by Itaru Mizuno (“Double Booking”) and “4 Blocks” Richard Kropf, look like potential highlights at this year’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, the centerpiece at Series Mania’s Forum, as its projects expand ever more their geographic compass, here welcoming their first titles co-produced by Japan. They are joined by titles from around the world such as Argentinean Daniel Burman’s “Witness 36,” which won the Series Mania Award at the Berlinale Series Market on Tuesday, and a slice of Vatican noir and which reunites the team of “De Grace,”and The Forum runs March 19-21 during Series Mania, Europe’s biggest dedicated TV festival, which will unspool this year over March 15-22 in Lille, Northern France.

EXCLUSIVE: Manta is transporting its K-drama platform into the French-speaking world.