Fremantle & IBI Forge $162M Scripted Fund Backing Projects Including Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas Biopic Starring Angelina Jolie

Caroline Brew editor Podcast producer Glisten+ (a portmanteau of “great” and “listen”) launched Tuesday with two initial programs, part of a larger slate of scripted fare that it plans to roll out in the coming months. The first original series include the young adult-geared “Can’t Relax,” about a relaxation app that secretly places murderous messages into the brains of its teen listeners.

Brent Lang Executive Editor New Works Provincetown, a developmental theatre lab founded by producer Mark Cortale with Jonathan Murray and Harvey Reese to create and develop new theatrical works, has commissioned its next slate of projects, including new shows about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s tumultuous marriage and an adaptation of Ira Sachs’ “Love Is Strange.” The shows are from creators like Mona Mansour, Hannah Corneau, Douglas Lyons, Craig Lucas, Daniel Messé, Nathan Tysen, Mindi Dickstein and Carmel Dean. Among the shows is “Beautiful Little Fool,” which is a new musical inspired by the Fitzgeralds’ relationship.

A famous painting created by Pablo Picasso in 1932 is being prepped for auction and fine art experts believe it could sell for more than $120 million.The painting, known as “Femme à la Montre” in French or “Woman in Watch” in English, is now in the hands of the New York City-based fine art auction house Sotheby’s, according to a press release obtained by FOX Business.If the pre-sale estimate holds true, Femme à la Montre would become the second most expensive Picasso painting to sell at auction.Sotheby’s New York is planning to sell the painting in November through a single-night auction. The painting belonged to Emily Fisher Landau, an esteemed New York philanthropist, art collector and patron, who died in March at the age of 102.Femme à la Montre is one of the 120 works that make up The Emily Fisher Landau Collection.Sotheby’s New York will auction off the items on Wednesday, Nov.

Naman Ramachandran Fremantle has acquired the global distribution rights for epilepsy-themed feature documentary “Sisters Interrupted.” Directed by Caroline Sharp, the film reveals the hidden world of epilepsy – a life-threatening seizure condition that affects 50 million people worldwide. It follows British sisters Chelsea and Tamsin Leyland as they both battle forms of epilepsy and together fight for access to a treatment that could save both their lives. Chelsea lives in New York and has gained access to medical cannabis against her neurologist’s recommendations, resulting in her being seizure-free for six years.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy-nominated “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore will play the Venice Film Festival’s master of ceremonies in the upcoming second season of the Italian version of “Call My Agent,” which will also feature a cameo by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. Impacciatore, wearing a red gown, disembarked from a water taxi at the Excelsior Hotel pier on the Venice Lido on Saturday welcomed by Barbera, as cameras rolled for a key scene in the show.

Having publicly hoped earlier this year that Danny Masterson would be found “innocent” of rape charges in his retrial, Ashton Kutcher also sought to convince the judge in his That 70s Show co-star’s case of what a great guy the defendant is.

EXCLUSIVE: Burning Man made national headlines last weekend as shocking weather ravaged the desert campout arts festival and sent thousands searching for ways out of the playa.

Holly Jones Ahead of its world premiere at this year’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos strand, Buenos Aires-based production house Historias Cinematográficas has shared with Variety an exclusive first look at the trailer for Lucía Puenzo’s energetic new film “Los Impactados,” with Variety. Produced by Historias Cinematográficas, the Puenzo family production house led by Academy Award winner Luis Puenzo (“The Official Story,” “Old Gringo”), in association with Exile Content Studio and Non Stop Studios, the project is co-produced by Juan de Dios and Pablo Larraín’s indie outfit Fábula, and turning on a study of rebirth after severe trauma. Written by Puenzo and Lorena Ventimiglia, the singular narrative follows Ada, played by Mariana Di Girolamo who starred opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” after she’s struck by lightning and on through to her intriguing metamorphosis alongside an enigmatic and experimental doctor, played by “El Último Hereje” lead Germán Palacios, and a group of fellow survivors who find themselves increasingly drawn to electric current.

Fremantle kicked off its presence at the Venice Film Festival with a bang this year with the announcement of its new €150M ($162.7M) Scripted Fund forged in partnership with Israel-based IBI Investment House. 

Director Antoine Fuqua is teasing Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic he is set to work on and says he’s “blown” away by the “uncanny” resemblance between the lead star and his real-life uncle, the King of Pop.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Maestro,” playing the legendary American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, Bradley Cooper has a light in his eye — a glow of merriment and mischief, of gleeful cosmopolitan desire. His Lenny is a prodigy, a prankster, a seducer, a monk of creative devotion and, through it all, a man of epic contradiction. In public, he tends toward the proper and stentorian; in private, he’s recklessly exuberant enough to give new — or maybe old — meaning to the word gay.

The director of Lionsgate’s upcoming Michael Jackson biopic is sharing some new details about the movie.

Ellise Shafer The stars were out in Venice for Variety and the Golden Globe Awards’ party on Thursday night, featuring Chase Stokes, Kelsea Ballerini, Lukas Gage and Pablo Larraín. Presented by Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment, the event celebrated breakthrough talent and excellence in Italian filmmaking, handing out several awards under the moonlight.

Former TOWIE star Maria Fowler, 37, has seen praise from fans as she took to her Instagram to show the effects of changing room mirrors on women’s bodies. In her Instagram caption, the reality TV star and mother of two explained: “Different changing rooms = Different experiences. I will always say it’s best to try clothes on at home..

Watching Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” one may wonder whether it’s even possible to make a film about an Italian figure and have it not be at least 80% about style. An admittedly rather inane thought, but one made a little more legitimate by the central presence of Adam Driver as the titular Enzo Ferrari.

At first glance, it might seem like Pablo Larraín’s last two films share only a couple of superficial commonalities: they are both biopics in the sense they tell stories of real-life people, Princess Diana in 2021’s “Spencer” and Augusto Pinochet in 2023’s “El Conde”; and they have both premiered in competition at the glitzy Venice Film Festival. Alas, scratch the surface and both films stand as an unlikely diptych about dysfunctional families dealing with the generational sins that have made and broken their bloodlines.

Pablo Larraín’s string of mostly 20th century biographical dramas hits a pinnacle of audacious brilliance with El Conde (The Count), a madly inspired reinvention of events embedded in the notion that longtime Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet became a vampire who ultimately tires of life and wants out after living some 250 years. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent As Chile prepares to mark 50 years since the Sept. 11, 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet, Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín is back in Venice – following “Spencer” in 2021 – with scathing satire “El Conde,” in which Pinochet, a symbol of global fascism, resurfaces as a 250-year old vampire living in a rundown rural mansion after faking his death. “Pinochet had never been portrayed in film or TV before,” Larrain said.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín returns to Venice this evening with his latest pic El Conde, a black-and-white satire of dictator Augusto Pinochet, which he co-wrote and directed for Netflix.

With six feature credits in the last decade, Pablo Larraín is among the most prolific filmmakers working today, but he returns to the Lido this week with a new proposition.