EXCLUSIVE: As it preps for the release of notable titles like Nickel Boys, production company Louverture Films has added a handful of key execs and collaborators, including two principal partners and a chief financial officer.
25.06.2024 - 11:49 / deadline.com
When Comcast-owned Sky Deutschland cancelled its usual drama event at the Munich Film Festival at short notice last summer, it came as a surprise. That surprise quickly turned to shock and bitter disappointment when the pay-TV giant revealed it wasn’t simply nixing a networking bash, it was exiting the original drama business full stop.
More bad news followed as the local impact of Paramount Global reining in spend on original international drama kicked in – German shows were yanked off the streamer and projects in the works canned. This wasn’t that long after HBO Max had pulled out and Starz Play closing simply added to a stream of bad news. Apple, Disney+ and Prime Video remain in the German drama business, but commission in such low volume that it is the thinnest of silver linings for the vast majority of local scripted prodcos. The strategy at Netflix, easily the most active of the streamers, is a talking point right now, as well.
That’s why as we head into the next edition of the Munich Film Festival, many see Germany’s TV drama market nearing an inflection point, and believe coming months will shape things for many years to come. Despite remaining the giant of European mainland broadcasting, there are widespread fears from production sources that hundreds of projects in development will never see the light of day or will create a log-jam that stifles new projects. It was the talk of the industry at the Seriencamp festival and conference earlier this month.
Indeed, the global streaming market correction is being felt and there is little real insight into what rate the international streamers will commission at, especially with slow-moving media law reform potentially commanding them and local services such as
EXCLUSIVE: As it preps for the release of notable titles like Nickel Boys, production company Louverture Films has added a handful of key execs and collaborators, including two principal partners and a chief financial officer.
Here we are Insiders, the sun is shining and Max Goldbart is present to guide you through the week’s headlines. Read on, and sign up here.
Naman Ramachandran The international documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc concluded its 35th edition in La Rochelle, France on June 27, drawing 2,100 participants from 68 countries. The four-day event, themed “Mapping the Future,” showcased 90 exhibitors and hosted 250 international decision-makers.
Sunny Side of the Doc, the world’s biggest documentary-focused marketplace in the world, wrapped its 35th edition Thursday, after gathering 2,100 participants over four days in La Rochelle, France.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Baby,” which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week where it won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for joint acting lead Ricardo Teodoro, has closed further sales. Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal have sold the distribution rights to Ama Films for Greece, Mezipatra z.s for Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Falcon for Indonesia.
Manuel Ugarte is the latest player Manchester United have shown interest in this summer.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has acquired international sales rights to the provocative satirical thriller “The Protected Men,” based on the novel “Les hommes protégés” (The Virility Factor) by Robert Merle. The film is set in Germany, where a mysterious disease afflicting only men strikes, leading to a women-led government takeover.
Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 keeps on soaring, reaching $799.7M globally through Tuesday. Within that, its international box office crossed the four-century mark at a running cume of $411.9M from 44 overseas markets through Tuesday. In North America, Inside Out 2 rose to $387.8M, moving well up the domestic animated chart.
Ally McCoist thinks Cristiano Ronaldo should be dropped by Portugal manager Roberto Martinez.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which runs July 21-28, will open with horror film “Indera” by local director Woo Ming Jin and starring Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O’ My Heart” by Nick Cheung.
The wait for news is over… Babylon Berlin is officially coming back for a fifth and final season.
EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+ has boarded the fast-paced German medical drama KRANK Berlin.
Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter After just two weekends of release, “Inside Out 2” is towering above the rest as the highest-grossing movie of the year. Disney and Pixar’s sequel has generated $355 million in North America and $724 million globally to date, overtaking the previous record holder of “Dune: Part II” ($282 million domestically and $711 million worldwide). At this rate, it’ll soon be the first movie of 2024 to cross $1 billion worldwide.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A jury headed by French Vietnamese director Tranh Anh Hung awarded its Golden Goblet (Jin Jue) prizes for the Shanghai International Film Festival’s main competition. The top prize for best feature went to “The Divorce,” directed by Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Salamat. The jury praised the film for its sophisticated story-telling which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy, and “which moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and its feeling of innocence.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Wim Wenders will be a special guest of Italy’s Cinema Ritrovato Festival dedicated to cinematic treasures of the past where a freshly restored copy of his “A Trick of the Light” (“Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky”), which pays tribute to forgotten pioneers of the moving image, will have its world premiere. Shot by Wenders with a group of students from the Munich Film Academy in 1995 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, the film is about the origins of cinema and its German inventors: the Skladanowsky brothers who On Nov.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brazilian romantic comedy “Perfect Endings” has sold to distributors in North America and several territories in Europe. Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal is handling world sales rights.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Flow,” a director-driven animated feature which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and just swept three awards at Annecy Film Festival, has been embraced by a raft of major distributors in key territories, including the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Spain and Italy. The movie is represented internationally by Charades.
Jack Grealish won't be gracing the pitch in Germany this summer as Gareth Southgate omitted him from the England squad for Euro 2024 – with injury troubles throughout the season being a contributing factor.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Along with a red-carpet opening ceremony, a press conference with the members of the main competition jury is a staple event of major film festivals and the 26th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off in traditional form on Friday. Along with Vietnam-French director Tran Anh Hung, previously revealed as jury president, the other members of the decisive committee this year are: Australian director and screenwriter Rolf de Heer; German director Matthias Glasner; Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai; Argentinian director Santiago Mitre; Chinese director Sonthar Gyal; and, the jury’s only woman, star actor Zhou Xun. A packed audience lobbed familiar questions about the criteria they jurors would employ to decide the Golden Goblet prize winners, and what informs those views.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed further deals for Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,”following the North American deal with Strand Releasing and the first international sales previously announced by Variety.The film has been acquired by Nour Films in France, One From the Heart in Greece, Mezipatra in Czech Republic and Slovakia, HBO Europe in Eastern Europe, Beta Film in Bulgaria and Falcon in Indonesia, in addition to the already announced deals with Vedette in the Benelux, Karma in Spain, Trigon in Switzerland and Lev in Israel.Films Boutique is in negotiations with potential buyers in the U.K., Latin America, Germany and Japan.Additionally, New Voice Film Productions Ltd. secured distribution deals with Golden Scene for Hong Kong and Macau and Flash Forward Entertainment in Taiwan.“All Shall Be Well” is written and directed by Yeung and was produced by Yeung’s frequent collaborator Michael J.