France’s TF1 & M6 Enter Exclusive Merger Negotiations To Create $4B Media Giant

The lineup for the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled. After taking a pause due to the pandemic in 2020, this year’s festival will take place with an in-person event in July with several high-profile titles, including Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch”, the Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard musical “Annette” and new works from Oliver Stone, Todd Haynes, Francois Ozon, Sean Penn, and more.

Christopher Vourlias Sony Pictures International Productions has acquired remake rights for the Russian blockbuster comedy “Son of a Rich,” the country’s highest-grossing film of all time, Variety has learned.The studio has secured the Mexican, Indian, South Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian adaptation rights.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentDespite current travel restrictions, a flurry of high-profile U.S. films and series are set to shoot in France, including Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” and Netflix’s “The Gray Man.” Starz mini-series “The Serpent Queen,” meanwhile, has been shooting in southern France since April.Paris hadn’t hosted any big American shoots for over a year as France struggled to ride out the various waves of the pandemic.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMusic Box Films and Brainstorm Media have acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Mama Weed,” Jean-Paul Salomé’s crime comedy starring Isabelle Huppert.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWith the Cannes Film Festival just over a month away, France has unveiled more details around how U.K. visitors can expect to enter the country amid rising cases of the so-called Indian variant.

The French Ministry of the Interior has identified its so-called “compelling reasons” that would allow travelers from the UK to enter France. As of today, there is no specific exemption for entertainment business professionals, raising further questions as to how this might affect folks wanting to attend the Cannes Film Festival which runs from July 6-17.

Xbox exclusive for two years after an article leak by the French Xbox Wire team.Dolby Atmos and Vision, the latter of which is already available to participants of the Xbox Insider Program, is the Xbox’s licensed answer to the PS5’s Tempest Engine.As reported by the Wired Up Report the French Xbox Wire page briefly hosted a post that claimed that Dolby’s 3D audio tech and their vision improvement software would be exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S for a period of roughly two years.The translated

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentTatino Films, a French production and consultancy company involved in industry events in Asia and Europe, is launching the Full Circle Lab, a new workshop program which will take place in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in France.Spearheaded by industry veteran Matthieu Darras, the Full Circle Lab will support six film projects during each session.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPluto TV has signed a long-term strategic content partnership with Mediawan to bring more than 1,000 hours of French content from Mediawan’s library to Pluto TV in France and across 18 countries in Latin America.The pact with Mediawan will allow Pluto TV, ViacomCBS Networks International’s ad-supported streaming service, to grow its portfolio in France, adding 12 new linear streaming channels in the country as well as two more channels in Latin

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCOLCOA, the Los Angeles-based French film festival, is set to hold its 25th edition on Nov. 1-7 as a live event which will be held at the Directors Guild of America Theater on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.The event, which is organized by the Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF), had to cancel last year’s edition due to the pandemic.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” is finally set to world premiere in competition at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, Variety has learned. The Searchlight title doesn’t have a release date as yet, and Disney is expected to unveil one soon for later this year.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMunich-based Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest independent TV companies, has acquired worldwide distribution rights outside France to “The Island of Thirty Coffins,” a French series adaptation of a novel by “Lupin” author Maurice Leblanc.An atmospheric crime thriller from Leblanc – whose Arsène Lupin character, created in 1905, inspired Netflix biggest foreign-language global hit “Lupin” – “The Island of Thirty Coffins” stars Virginie Ledoyen

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMediawan-owned Storia Television is teaming up with French public broadcaster France Televisions on “Et la montagne fleurira,” an ambitious period drama which starts to shoot today (May 19) in the French Riviera. Eléonore Faucher, whose feature debut “A Common Thread” won Cannes’ Critics Week in 2004, wrote and is directing the series.

Starzplay is partnering with Studiocanal, Europe’s leading film-TV production-distribution-sales company, on Starzplay’s first French co-production, the series “All Those Things We Never Said.”Adapting the bestselling novel of the same title by Marc Levy, France’s most-read living author, the comedy-drama series is commissioned by Starzplay and Studiocanal parent, Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group — Europe’s second-biggest pay TV/SVOD operator.Written by Levy, who will also showrun, the 10-part

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBouygues, the parent company of TF1 Group, France’s leading commercial network, is on track to buy a 30% stake in M6 Groupe from Berteslmann, Variety has confirmed.

It was a pretty safe bet that Tan France’s future son would be the best-dressed baby around, but after chatting with the 38-year-old Queer Eye star, Us Weekly can confirm that little one will be making a style statement from day one! 

EXCLUSIVE: With 18 parties at the table, Erin French’s bestselling memoir Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking A Life From Scratch was acquired by Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content. They will develop a movie based on the touching life of the chef and entrepreneur whose Freedom, Maine-based restaurant The Lost Kitchen is so hot that the only way to eat there is to send a postcard and be chosen.