Francois Ozon Says Berlinale Opener ‘Peter von Kant’ Explores Power Dynamics in Passion, Creative World

Apple TV+ has officially confirmed a limited event series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin. The Oscar winner executive produces the project about the American polymath, from John Adams writer-executive producer Kirk Ellis, TV director, writer and producer Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos), Tony Krantz and his Flame Ventures and Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions under the company’s deal with Apple Studios. Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, the series, which has been casting for the past couple of months, is a co-production between ITV Studios America and Apple Studios.

Joe Wright’s Cyrano twirls onto 797 screens, the highest-profile specialty release in weeks (as the market awaits Focus Features The Outfit with Mark Rylance and Sony Pictures Classics Mothering Sunday). But the well reviewed period musical romance from UAR starring Peter Dinklage is landing in a tough place. Industry estimates anticipate a low single digit opening given the inconsistent reception for movie musicals and the fact that its key older demos, especially women, have been the slowest to return to theaters.

Clayton Davis Kodi Smit-McPhee has maintained a stronghold this awards season for his work as Peter Gordon in Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog,” winning the most critics prizes, including the Golden Globe for best supporting actor. However, he doesn’t take his acting craft for granted and is still learning with each new outing.“I always treat myself as a student, not only my craft but of the world,” McPhee tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I’m in a constant state of observing and acting like a sponge and taking everything in.

Peter Andre has delighted his fans by sharing a rare family snap with all four of his children on a ski trip.The family spent a week in Borovets in Bulgaria, enjoying skiing, snowmobiling and a Valentine's Day meal. And in the cute picture shared by the Mysterious Girl singer, as well as a series of other snaps from their trip, it’s clear the family are loving the snow and sun on the slopes.

Emily Andrea has revealed to her exclusive OK! column readers that none of her friends guessed she was pregnant aged 24, because she was "quite young". The 32 year old NHS doctor - who welcomed her first child in 2014 - said she managed to keep her pregnancy "in the dark" from everyone, so it came as quite a surprise for many that she and Peter Andre, 48, were expecting a baby. "I think maybe no one guessed with me because I was quite young when I got pregnant with Millie, so no one was expecting it!" she shared.

Afternoon subscribers. Max Goldbart here with your weekly dose of International Insider news and analysis and it’s been as busy as ever over the past seven days. Scroll down for more.

Manori Ravindran International EditorEntertainment One has hired Left Bank executive producer Sharon Hughff to serve as creative director of scripted television out of the U.K.In her new role, she will oversee the scripted team and pipeline from the U.K., while spearheading efforts to expand the slate into buyers in the U.K. as well as Europe and Asia.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic“You are not here for a cure,” the founder of a 26-day sexual therapy retreat tells the small group of women enrolled in her program at the outset of “That Kind of Summer.” Laying out the ground rules for the sensitive self-awareness exercise that follows — a loosely structured hiatus from unhealthy temptations, designed for those whose out-of-control impulses have made their lives unmanageable — she reassures, “You are not forbidden any sexual thoughts or behavior here. You are not sick.”Shot on grainy Super 16 with the kind of unsteady handheld aesthetic that suggests the cameraperson really ought to get their inner ear checked, Denis Côté’s radically nonjudgmental “let’s talk about sex” drama looks and feels like a documentary — at least, it could pass as one until a giant CG tarantula crawls up the wall while one of the women is masturbating late in the game.

Caitlin Quinlan In her debut feature, “Fogaréu,” director Flávia Neves interweaves the broader impact of colonialism in Brazil with a close-up tale of insidious goings on in Goiás, her home town in central Brazil. Having gained support from the CNC’s Aide Aux Cinemas du Monde, “Fogaréu” is an accomplished first film that offers a nuanced critique of power dynamics within a bold, cinematic thriller framework.

Salma Hayek has shared several glimpses from her breathtaking vacation earlier this year over the past few weeks, but her latest shot left many fans feeling a little fuzzy inside.MORE: Salma Hayek throws it back for Super Bowl in the best cheerleader uniformThe actress took to Instagram to share a stunning snapshot of herself mid-deep sea dive, donning a wetsuit and snorkel, with her husband François-Henri Pinault.WATCH: Salma Hayek and daughter Valentina make surprising confession about London homeThe two rarely appear together on her social media, although the shot marked not only was meant to celebrate Valentine's Day, but another special occasion.Salma and François-Henri also marked their wedding anniversary on the special day, having married each other on Valentine's Day of 2009 in Paris.MORE: Salma Hayek posts dreamy bikini selfie - and you should see the poolSalma encouraged her followers to embrace all of nature with her post, captioning it with: "In [sic] this day as we celebrate LOVE, let's not forget to love the oceans, nature, the air , and most importantly life.

Naman Ramachandran Projects from France-Iran and India were the big winners at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market, which is part of the European Film Market.The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, endowed with €20,000 ($22,628), went to the producers of Caractères Productions from France, and Honare Khiyal from Iran for their project “My Favourite Cake” by directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam. The VFF Talent Highlight Award with prize money of €10,000 went to director Shuchi Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls.” The film is to be produced by Pushing Buttons Studios, an outfit founded by Indian actors Ali Fazal (“Death on the Nile”) and Richa Chadha (“Gangs of Wasseypur”) and co-produced by Sanjay Gulati and Pooja Chauhan of Crawling Angel Films (2020 Berlinale selection “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs”) and Claire Chassagne of Dolce Vita Films (2019 Venice and Cairo winner “A Son”).

EXCLUSIVE: Shooting upcoming Netflix pic Against The Ice was no straightforward task, as its stars and director reveal to Deadline in a first interview as a trio.

Outré horror maestro Peter Strickland is back. The filmmaker behind such Eurotica, vintage, throwback classics such as “Berberian Sound Studio” (2012), “The Duke of Burgundy” (2014), and “In Fabric” (2018), returns to the Berlin Film Festival this week (today, in fact), with his latest deliciously bizarro offering, “Flux Gourmet.” The premise? Something like beef within the culinary/sonic art collective world and a whole set of egos and intestinal issues.

Ben Croll “I asked myself, why was it so difficult to name a Quebecois film from the past 25 years that treated sexuality as its central theme?” Côté told Variety. “Why could France foster directors who filmed the human body in direct and unselfconscious ways, and Quebec could not? Were Quebecois more prudish than others?”And so the Montreal-based filmmaker started on his 14th feature, which follows three so-called “hypersexual” women, plagued with troubled histories and fragile mental states, as they participate in a month-long therapy retreat. But as he developed the script with a local sexologist, the filmmaker saw potential traps in two very different directions.“The film could never be meant to judge,” Côté explained.

The adage “write what you know” works well for writer-director Peter Strickland with his Berlin Film Festival Encounters feature Flux Gourmet. The former member of The Sonic Catering Band makes rich work of a fictional culinary performance collective, while also tackling taboos in the depiction of stomach problems on screen.

Just as the Tiktok-ers and Instagrammites of the world had completed the mainstreaming of ASMR, master of the tactile Peter Strickland has returned to restore the unsettling, alien quality to sensation. In “Flux Gourmet,” his latest and most bizarre film — a hotly contested title he earns with this feverish stew of murdered turtles, torrid orgies, and heartrending fart-tending — texture is everything.

Outré horror maestro Peter Strickland is back. The filmmaker behind such Eurotica, vintage, throwback classics such as “Berberian Sound Studio” (2012), “The Duke of Burgundy” (2014), and “In Fabric” (2018), returns to the Berlin Film Festival this week (today, in fact), with his latest deliciously bizarro offering, “Flux Gourmet.” The premise? Something like beef within the culinary/sonic art collective world and a whole set of egos and intestinal issues.

EXCLUSIVE: Organizers of the Berlin Film Festival have told us that the world premiere screening of opening film Peter Von Kant was disrupted last night due to “a server problem”.