French Food Entertainment Studio Chefclub Expands In U.S. Through Pinterest Cooking Series

EXCLUSIVE: Indian Two Time Grammy Award composer and environmentalist Ricky Kej has signed to compose the original music for American-Bangladeshi writer-director Asif Akbar’s spy action-thriller MR-9 featuring Frank Grillo as a villain.

Thania Garcia The South by Southwest Music Festival has revealed the first round of performers for its 37th annual celebration, taking over Austin, Texas, from March 13-18, 2023.  The full list of artists appears below, but highlights include South Korean artists Balming Tiger and Beenzino, Calle 13’s iLe (Puerto Rico), Ladaniva (France), Max Cooper (England), Mightmare, Núria Graham (Spain), the Orielles (England), Otoboke Beaver (Japan), RVG (Australia), Son Rompe Pera (Mexico) and dozens more. Like previous years, the festival will host multiple events spotlighting the 191 emerging talents on the list — with this being the first of several announcements for its planned showcases that will span six nights.

K.J. Yossman “Next Level Chef” is headed to France after Kitchen Factory Productions snapped up the French format rights to the culinary competition series. Kitchen Factory, who will produce the French version, announced the deal on Wednesday (Oct. 19) alongside Chef Cyril Lignac, producer Matthieu Jean-Toscani and Studio Ramsay Global, the joint production venture created by British chef Gordon Ramsay’s worldwide production with FOX Entertainment. (Ramsay is pictured above, left, with Lignac). The format of the show sees a three-storey stage on which each level boasts differing culinary equipment and ingredients reflecting their environment. The competing chefs – comprised of restaurant-experienced professionals, home cooks and even social media stars – must use their imagination and unleash their creativity all while keeping their cool as they attempt to climb from the challenging basement floor to the glistening top.

Middle East’s MBC Strikes Wide-Ranging Deal With Turkey’s Medyapim & Ay Yapim; ‘Doctor Foster’ Remake Deal With The BBC

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Six-time Primetime Emmy award-winner Frank Doelger, whose credits include “Game of Thrones,” “The Swarm,” “John Adams” and “Rome,” and Intaglio Films, a joint venture between Beta Film and ZDF Studios, have started production on surveillance drama thriller “Concordia,” set in an experimental utopian community. ZDF, MBC, France Télévisions and Hulu Japan have signed up as partners for the six-part series, shot in English and directed by Barbara Eder (“The Swarm,” “Barbarians,” “Cop Stories”). Doelger helms as executive producer and showrunner, alongside the executive producers Ute Leonhardt, Rafferty Thwaites, Jan Wünschmann and Robert Franke. Shooting takes place at various locations in Rome, Northern Italy, and Leipzig in Germany.

Frank Doelger is helming a surveillance drama set that counts broadcasters ZDF, MBC and France Télévisions and streamer Hulu Japan as partners.

Lise Pedersen At a time when heritage cinema is booming – thanks to outstanding progress in conservation standards and a growth in demand – Lyon’s Lumière heritage film festival Lumière is playing a leading role in uncovering long-forgotten cinematic gems.  “Dans la Nuit” (“In the Night”), widely considered one of the last, if not the last major French silent film, is one of them. It is the only film shot by French actor Charles Vanel, perhaps best remembered for his role as a desperate truck driver in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s acclaimed “The Wages of Fear,” which won both the Golden Bear and the Palme d’Or in 1953. Vanel also stars in the film, alongside Russian-French actress Sandra Milovanoff, who became a silent film era casualty as her Slavic accent was considered unsuitable for talkies. 

Angelique Jackson “The Inspection” writer-director Elegance Bratton is living out a prayer. “I was in a homeless shelter on my way to joining the Marine Corps, give or take a few years. I didn’t even necessarily understand exactly what I was praying for,” Bratton tells Variety, thinking back to 20 years ago. “I had gotten the job title Combat Camera, which was the first job title I ever had that sounded cool —most times it’s like, I’m the shift supervisor at whatever — so I was just praying that this could mean something more,” he continues. “I wanted it to change my life and it really did.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent On a cobblestone-paved square in the ancient town of Tivoli, north-east of Rome, in late September, a large crew is prepping to shoot a key scene in Italian period drama “La Storia,” which will be pubcaster RAI’s biggest event show next year. Based on a bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – “La Storia” is set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy. The eight-episode series, being unveiled by Beta Film to buyers at Rome’s MIA content market, stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who earlier this year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “La Mesías,” from “Veneno” creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, drinks deep from Catholic tradition from its very title — literally, “The Female Messiah” — to iconography  and focus on faith.  Another awaited Movistar+ series, “The Left-Handed Son,” created by “The Plague” screenwriter Rafael Cobos, was presented to the press in July against a spectacular backdrop taking in, just across a waterway, Seville’s iconic Torre de Oro and, a little further away, the Giralda bell tower of Seville’s Cathedral. In line with platform production trends the world over, rather than playing down local elements, Movistar+ is playing them up. For the Telefonica SVOD/pay TV player in Spain, this has been a longterm philosophy, reaching back to its earliest series in 2017. 

Sade have been recording new music at Miraval Studios in France, which have been freshly renovated and reopened by Brad Pitt and producer Damien Quintard.The news was revealed yesterday (October 10) in a Billboard cover story in which both Pitt and Quintard were interviewed, with the pair sharing that Sade have visited Miraval Studios in the time since its renovation.Quintard spoke of Sade frontwoman and solo artist Sade Adu, saying that “you could feel the love that she and the band had for [Miraval Studios]”. Quintard went on to explain that the band – who previously recorded at the studio during its active years in the 2000s – are one of the acts with a “special connection [to] Miraval that can’t really be explained.”“It’s a dream come true to see this place activate again,” Quintard said.

A Nevada man delighted fast food patrons by bringing a rescue camel to an In-N-Out restaurant in Las Vegas last week. Fergie, a dromedary camel, stood calmly as she was surrounded by cars in the restaurant's drive-thru on October 4.  Video shows the camel slowly moving through the drive-thru at the West Coast fast food chain while onlookers laughed and admired the animal from afar. After securing her meal, the camel walked with her handler to the parking lot area where she was surrounded by people who watched her enjoy her food.  Rescue camel Fergie was filmed standing patiently in an In-N-Out drive-thru before getting her French fries.

Paramount+ today debuted the official mid-season trailer for season one of its original animated kids’ series, Star Trek: Prodigy. The trailer was introduced by executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman, during the “Star Trek” universe panel at New York Comic Con.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Grappling with free-falling theatrical admissions and misplaced blame by exhibitors on so-called “auteur” movies, the leading lights of the French film industry sounded the alarm about the state of the country’s cinema sector during a dramatic and emotional conference. The jam-packed event on Thursday, called Appel aux Etats Generaux (Call for General Assemblies), was organized by some of France’s most established producers including Saïd Ben Saïd, Judith Lou Levy and Philippe Carcassone, who work frequently with directors Paul Verhoven, Mati Diop and Florian Zeller, respectively. The conference was held at the Institut du Monde Arabe, a cultural venue headed by Jack Lang, who served as minister of culture throughout the 1980s. More than 400 people attended the event, including members of the independent distributors guild (DIRE) and the directors guild SRF, the governing body of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt called it quits in 2016, but the incident that led to their split has remained contentious years after their divorce.

Year-round development for the broadcast networks became something of a buzz phrase during Covid as the likes of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC battled the pandemic to get new shows on the air.

Victoria Beckham has sent a heartfelt message to son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz after rumours of a family feud emerged. The entire Beckham clan was reunited earlier this week as Victoria made her Paris fashion week debut to show her Spring/Summer collection of 2023, including eldest son Brooklyn and his new wife Nicola Peltz. Rumours of a feud between Victoria, 48, and Nicola, 27, have been circulating for months now - since Brooklyn and Nicola's wedding day in April - however, it seems the former Spice Girl is keen to put the to bed once and for all.