Family Animation ‘Ploey 2 – The Legend of the Winds’ to Launch into International Markets With The Playmaker (EXCLUSIVE)

Good afternoon Insiders, Jesse Whittock with you in London, where the TV world has decamped this week for a series of screenings. Read on, and sign up for the newsletter here.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael MacMillan retired from the world of television 17 years ago. Except, he didn’t.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has closed a raft of pre-sales deals on “Ploey 2 – The Legend of the Winds,” which was presented to international buyers for the first time at the European Film Market this month. The Playmaker screened an exclusive first-look teaser at its booth in Berlin as well as a promo for attending buyers.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Germany’s Beta Film is introducing at the London TV Screenings the first episode of “Maxima,” a six-part drama about the love story between future Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and the then Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. The series is produced by Millstreet Films “The Neighbors”), with Videoland (RTL Netherlands) holding Dutch broadcasting rights.

EXCLUSIVE: SkyShowtime‘s drama original Codename: Annika is taking its art crime sensibilities around the world.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Swiss investment firm Crédit des Alpes is launching a new film financing division called The Film Bond, which offers an online tool that it claims reduces standard costs of completion bonds that most indie producers need to get their projects off the ground. A completion bond is simply a guarantee that a film’s production will be completed on time and on budget.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Match Factory has revealed multiple distribution deals for two Berlinale competition titles: German director Matthias Glasner‘s “Dying,” which won the festival’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, and Russian director Victor Kossakovsky‘s documentary “Architecton.” “Dying,” which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. Variety‘s review describes the film as “a profoundly affecting exploration of life and loss.” The Match Factory closed deals for the film in France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media), Poland (Aurora), CIS (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (MCF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film) and South Korea (Pancinema).

Jessica Kiang The shortest distance between two points is popularly believed to be a straight line. But if one of those points is the chin, cheekbone or torso of some sneering and/or psychotic Korean gangster, the shortest route is actually the arc described by either one of Korean megastar Don Lee‘s fists, here playing the fists of Detective Ma, protagonist of the ludicrously watchable “Roundup” series.

Lunar New Year is a key box office period in several Asian territories, but nowhere was it more hotly contested this year than in Vietnam, where several local, Japanese and Hollywood movies were slugging it over the week-long holidays (February 9-15).

Welcome to Deadline’s London TV Screenings list, our definitive look at next week’s buzzy event taking Soho by storm. If you’re wondering who’s exhibiting, what’s on offer and want to dive deeper into the distribs’ strategy, we’ve done the hard work for you, presenting profiles from nearly 30 exhibiting sales houses. Below, check out profiles for all the London TV Screenings founders, along with the outfits based in the UK. Read on, and find all our London TV Screenings content throughout the week here.

CPH: DOX, Copenhagen’s International Documentary Festival, has set the full lineup for its 2024 edition, including 84 world premieres, 32 international premieres, and 9 European premieres. 

Twilight sparked a level of fandom that most movies hope to achieve but never do. Years after its initial debut, we’re still talking about the franchise!

Manchester United legend Roy Keane has been linked with a return to Sunderland, having hit out at 'idiots' he fell out with at the club in the past.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Twin directors Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who are known to Berlin Film Festival audiences for stylishly gritty dramas “Boys Cry” and “Bad Tales,” are back with eclectic detective series “Dostoevskij,” premiering in the fest’s Berlinale Special section. Set in the stark Roman hinterland, the six-episode show — produced by Sky Studios with Rome’s Paco Cinematografica — stars Filippo Timi (“Vincere,” “The Eight Mountains”) as Enzo Vitello, a policeman whose mind is warped by an incident involving his daughter Ambra.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cohen Media Group, the U.S. distribution company behind Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano,” has acquired North American rights to “The President’s Wife,” a biting movie starring Catherine Deneuve as the former first lady Bernadette Chirac. The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s Morena, Mediacrest and Estrategia Audiovisual are joining forces with Italy’s Fandango on “The Sleeper,” a thriller doc following an alleged Caravaggio painting, directed by producer-helmer Álvaro Longoria. Rome-based Fandango also handles international sales rights.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety is premiering the trailer (below) for feature documentary “Transition,” which follows Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon, a trans man, as he embeds with a Taliban unit as they retake control of Afghanistan. The film, directed by Monica Villamizar and Bryon, will be released in the U.S. on March 26 by Gravitas Ventures.

Shayeza Walid MacArthur Fellow Annie Baker is an acclaimed playwright and theater director, winning the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for drama for “The Flick,” among other accolades. Now, with the release of the delicate mother-daughter drama “Janet Planet,” both written and directed by Baker, the esteemed theater veteran makes her directorial film debut. Baker began writing “Janet Planet” in the early days of the pandemic, completing it in December 2020.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Films Boutique has closed a raft of deals on the Chinese movie “Brief History of a Family,” which will play at the Berlinale in the Panorama section. Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie‘s feature debut, “Brief History of a Family” premiered at Sundance and will be screening for buyers at the EFM as well. Films Boutique has sold the movie to Benelux (September Films), Italy (Movies Inspired) and Spain (Karma Films).

The very best of the British and international film industries will be celebrated at the 77th BAFTA Film Awards this weekend. Hosted by Scottish actor David Tenant, the ceremony takes place at the Royal Festival Hall within London's Southbank Centre.