France TV Distribution Boards Sci-Fi Series ‘Sea Shadows’

Lise Pedersen Berlin-based Rise and Shine World Sales has picked up the rights for “E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea,” which is vying for the top Dox:Award at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX, one of Europe’s leading documentary festivals. Variety is debuting the trailer and poster, below.

Tan France and Bobby Berk are celebrating the 2024 Academy Awards at opposing parties amid rumors of a feud.

Queer Eye.In November last year, the interior designer announced he was to depart from Queer Eye after its eighth season. He has appeared on the hit Netflix revival since its first season along with France, Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski and Karamo Brown.Though he did not give an official reason for his leaving, an explosive Rolling Stone report has claimed Berk fought with hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness and fashion designer Tan France on set. It also accused the latter of campaigning “to replace Berk with interior designer and friend Jeremiah Brent”, according to three sources.Now, France has addressed the rumours on an Instagram reel.

Tan France has entered the chat!

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com Tan France — co-host and fashion expert on the Netflix “Queer Eye” series — has addressed the recent allegations that he pushed for the hiring of his friend Jeremiah Brent to replace former cast member and interior design expert Bobby Berk. In a recent Rolling Stone article, sources claimed that France (with alleged support from co-host Antoni Porowski) “campaigned” for Berk to be replaced with new hire Jeremiah Brent. Brent is set to join the cast for Season 9.

Tan France is setting the record straight on that bombshell Queer Eye exposé.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Bruno Dumont’s “The Empire,” a sci-fi satire starring Anamaria Vartolomei (“Happening”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent!”), Lyna Khoudri (“The Three Musketeers”) and Fabrice Luchini. “The Empire” just world premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize.

The Serpent Queen season two is on the way!

French director Claire Denis is set to return to West Africa for her next feature film, an adaptation of late French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’s 1980 work Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens).

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.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Director Joe Wright and writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth have all boarded the upcoming Paramount+ series “The Department.” The Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios series, which was announced with a straight-to-series order in February 2023, is based on the French drama series “Le Bureau des Legendes” created by Eric Rochant. Wright will direct the first two episodes and executive produce, while the Butterworths will writer and executive produce all episodes.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Judith Godrèche is burning down the house. Her hope is that something better will emerge from the ashes.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After making its debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with Jean-Luc Godard’s last work and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Strange Way of Life,” Anthony Vaccarello‘s Saint Laurent Productions has boarded Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” as a co-producer. The musical thriller joins Saint Laurent Productions’ roster of prestige projects, including Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope,” David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” and the next films from Abel Ferrara, Wong Kar Wai, Jim Jarmusch and Gaspar Noé.

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.

Designer Jeremiah Brent has joined Netflix‘s Queer Eye for Season 9, following Bobby Berk’s exit in November following 8 seasons. Production on Season 9 is set to begin in Las Vegas later this spring.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The Sundance queer drama “Sebastian,” directed by up-and-coming Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä, has been bought by Kino Lorber for U.S. distribution, along with a string of international buyers. Represented in international markets by LevelK, the film made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries “The Staircase,” has once again struck a chord with “Samber,” a limited series about a French serial rapist that explores the damages of sexual violence against women and children. “Samber,” a six-part thriller series directed by de Lestrade, charts the true case of Dino Scala, a seemingly ordinary family man who sexually assaulted and raped more than 50 women and minors over three decades in Northeastern France.

Sandra Huller is nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Anatomy of a Fall and she just picked up a Cesar Award for her work!

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.