Former Berlinale Series Boss Joins Frank Doelger’s Intaglio Films

Roland Emmerich’s upcoming gladiator series Those About to Die has been picked up by Prime Video across Europe.

"He's the reason that we've got a club this season," sing the Oldham Athletic fans to owner Frank Rothwell. And they're right.

Todd Gilchrist editor At 90, Quincy Jones has accomplished enough for a dozen lifetimes. As a songwriter, composer, performer and producer, he’s collaborated with (and created) some of the biggest acts of all time, from Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Film has sold more than 100 hours of drama series to PBS Distribution-backed Walter Presents for the U.S., and Channel 4-backed Walter Presents for the U.K. Five seasons of Italy’s gritty crime series “Rocco Schiavone” as well as Canadian mystery dramas “The Wall – The Chateau Murder” and “The Wall – The Orchard” will be available in both territories.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. Film and TV has appointed Marcus Ryder as its new CEO and Claire Tavernier as the new chair of trustees. Ryder, who will take up the role in the fall, replaces Alex Pumfrey who has joined U.K.

Frank Iero has released a statement claiming Lego called for the removal of an L.S. Dunes music video that features the toy bricks.According to Iero, the toy company’s lawyers have called the band’s label, Fantasy Records, to ask them to “take down” the band’s video for the track ‘Grey Veins’ which features Lego figures throughout.Iero, of My Chemical Romance fame and one of the guitarists in L.S.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Frank Spotnitz, “The X-Files” exec producer and “Medici” creator, will figure alongside Israeli producer Eilon Ratzkovsky and broadcaster-producer Johnathan Young as facilitators and mentors at the third edition of the Full Moon Creative Lab, a program open to European screenwriters specializing in thriller, horror and fantasy TV series. Launched by the Romanian Film Promotion and Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, the Full Moon Creative Lab consists of creative residencies taking place in Romania’s Transylvania this October and in February and June 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Frank Grillo action film MR-9: Do or Die has struck a North American distribution deal with Canadian outfit Swapna Scarecrow.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-lister Varun Dhawan’s next film is the keenly anticipated Prime Video film “Bawaal,” from Nitesh Tiwari, director of India’s all-time highest grosser “Dangal.” Dhawan plays a charming, vainglorious and image-conscious history teacher who gains redemption via profound realizations stemming from his study of WWII and from his new bride, portrayed by Janhvi Kapoor. The film shuttles between Lucknow in northern India and Western Europe. Dhawan and Kapoor read for their parts separately with Tiwari, deliberately. “It’s like yin and yang, we’re like two opposites that attract and form a team. But we really did go about this film as a team. There was a little method approach to it, like in the first half of the film, when my character is not very nice to hers. When we were shooting in Lucknow, I didn’t interact much with her, I was a little cold to her,” Dhawan told Variety. As the film progresses, their relationship thaws.

EXCLUSIVE: The prayers of The Chosen fans have been answered with news that season four of the popular Jesus of Nazareth series has been granted a waiver from SAG to continue filming amid the strike.

Former Netflix TV boss Cindy Holland has joined Elisabeth Murdoch and Jane Featherstone’s Sister as Global CEO.

K.J. Yossman “Silk” screenwriter Peter Moffat is adapting Jonathan Freedland’s non-fiction novel “The Escape Artist,” which tells the true story of two Jews who escaped from Auschwitz. Margery Bone’s Bonafide Films has secured the rights to Freedland’s novel, which is set to be made into a high-end limited series. Bonafide, who have a development and distribution deal with BBC Studios, recently produced Nicôle Lecky’s BAFTA-winning “Mood.” “The Escape Artist” centers around nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba, a Slovakian Jew who manages to escape Auschwitz alongside fellow internee Fred Wetzler, and warn the world about what was happening. Their actions saved the lives of at least 200,000 Jews who were facing immediate deportation from Budapest to the world’s most notorious death camp.

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed away in 2018, but her estate is still in flux, pitting her sons against each other. This week, a Michigan jury ruled that a handwritten document found in her couch after Franklin’s death is a valid will. It is a victory for Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin, whose lawyers had argued that papers dated 2014 should override a 2010 will which was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at the Franklin’s home in suburban Detroit.

the same thing hadn’t happened last year. Viewership for the soapy Western drama far outstrips anything else on cable or broadcast, but perhaps the ongoing alleged “feud” between series star Kevin Costner and “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan — the latter of the reported “God complex” — had supporters on both sides whispering to each other to slag off the other guy this time around.

Sofia Franklyn is sharing her side of the story.

The Berlin Film Festival has said it plans to reduce the size of its 2024 program and cull two competition strands as part of a widescale restructure to tackle a serious budgetary hole.

Thania Garcia A Michigan jury has ruled that a set of handwritten notes found under Aretha Franklin’s sofa stand as a valid will, according to a report by the Associated Press. Jurors deliberated for almost an hour on Tuesday before determining that the handwritten documents discovered under a sofa cushion by Franklin’s niece were legally binding documents of record they had been signed by the “Respect” singer in 2014. Lawyers for the singer’s sons Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin won the case that argued the 2014 documents were valid and superseded a 2010 version of the will that Franklin had left in a safe before she died of pancreatic cancer in 2018. The 2010 pages were discovered in a locked cabinet — and by the same niece who discovered the 2014 version — in Franklin’s Detroit home.

Sinatra, The Musical has cast Tony Award-winning actor-singer Matt Doyle as Frank Sinatra in the world premiere production of the musical bearing Ol’ Blue Eyes’ name, to be staged at Birmingham Rep in Birmingham, England, from September 23 through October 28.

Katie Thurston is venturing outside of Bachelor Nation to find her next love interest.

EXCLUSIVE: Woody Harrelson (True Detective) and Owen Wilson (Loki) have been cast as leads in feature thriller Lips Like Sugar, which will be directed by Grammy-winner Brantley Gutierrez and has been written by Anthony Tambakis (Warrior).