Are Selena Gomez and Francia Raísa back on good terms?
19.02.2023 - 10:55 / variety.com
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor When Frank Doelger, a six-time Emmy award-winning showrunner, whose credits include “Game of Thrones,” “John Adams” and “Rome,” was preparing to adapt Frank Schätzing’s 900-page novel “The Swarm” into an eight-part eco-thriller, he resolved to place it in a different genre. Whereas the novel read like a “disaster movie,” Doelger wanted the series to be a “monster movie” — but with a twist, the monster was us. In the first few episodes of the show, which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday, seemingly random, unconnected events occur in different parts of the world in which marine creatures start behaving in abnormal ways that threaten the lives of those who come in contact with them. After each event, scientists are given the task of finding the cause of the change in behavior, and they slowly start to wonder whether the events are connected, and ask what is triggering them.
For Doelger, adapting the book presented two major challenges. “The novel is largely driven by the investigation into the events that are happening, and also it takes a lot of time exploring and explaining the science. So the thing we had to figure out was how to turn it into a compelling, character-driven emotional drama. I felt it was very important that we discovered the world through the characters. We also had to update the science, and we had to update the world in which the characters lived.” As already stated, he approached the series as a “monster movie.” “It’s a story about a group of people who know something’s out there. They don’t know what it is. It’s clearly acting in an intelligent, strategic way. And the question is, how do they identify what it is? And what do they do about
Are Selena Gomez and Francia Raísa back on good terms?
Dawn French is famous for her exceptional impersonation skills but in her latest photo, shared on Thursday, she upped the ante with an unrecognisable transformation you will not believe.Taking to her Instagram account, the Vicar of Dibley star, 65, donned an a chunky black fringe, knitted grey roll-neck jumper and added lashings of concealer to her lips as she transformed into Strictly Come Dancing host, Claudia Winkleman, who was also captured in the photo giggling away. Dawn sent fans wild with the hilarious updateCaptioning the hilarious moment, the star penned: "Coming soon…#traitors #comicrelief." The image was also reshared by Claudia herself who couldn't get enough of her "hero's" new look.Claudia wrote: "Coming soon…#traitors #comicrelief.
It’s transfer time for Phil Dunster, who has played AFC Richmond’s star striker Jamie Tartt on the Emmy-winning comedy drama Ted Lasso for three seasons. The actor is joining Gugu Mbatha-Raw on Season 2 of her psychological thriller Surface, Breaking Baz can reveal.
Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key are stepping into a darker world for season 2.Apple TV+ dropped the official trailer Tuesday for the upcoming six-episode season, which finds Melissa (Strong) and Josh (Key) diving deep into Schmicago, the reimagined world of 1960s and 1970s musicals. Schmicago, they soon discover, is vastly different from the bright and lively colors of Schmigadoon, as familiar scenes from popular musicals like and Hair are sprinkled throughout.«Clearly we're in the next era of musicals here.
Frank Doelger’s eco-thriller drama The Swarm has made a splash on German TV.
EXCLUSIVE: Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato was allegedly stabbed to death in her house by her daughter Cheryl Crane in 1958.
EXCLUSIVE: Bryan Cogman (Game of Thrones) is attached as writer, showrunner, and executive producer of Disney Branded Television’s Zorro (wt) series, starring and executive produced by Wilmer Valderrama.
EXCLUSIVE: The Gifford Media Group has acquired film and TV rights to Harvard-trained physician-turned-novelist William Maz’s Cold War thriller The Bucharest Dossier from Oceanview Publishing.
slowthai is this week’s guest on The FADER Interview podcast. The U.K.
Katie Reul editor HBO has released the official trailer for “Succession” Season 4, which is now confirmed to be the final season of the hit show. The new trailer teases the Roy kids’ final battle against their father Logan (Brian Cox), who outmaneuvered them — with some sneaky help from Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) — from stopping the Waystar Royco deal with GoJo in the Season 3 finale. Here’s the official logline: “The sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.”
Dawn French debuted the much anticipated return to her signature bob whilst attending the opening of a West End show on Tuesday.The 65 year old comedian, who is best known for starring in Vicar of Dibley, had previously cut her hair short into a pixie cut whilst she was growing out her greys after revealing last year that she’d lost interest in dying her hair at home. Appearing on The One Show in December of last year, Dawn had said: "I just couldn’t be bothered to keep doing it.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prior to becoming an actor, Giancarlo Giannini, who on March 6 will be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, studied electronic engineering, a skill he’s been known to put to good use even on movie sets. “I was meant to start working on the first artificial satellites, or on the first computers at IBM,” the Italian film and theater thesp recalls. But then Giannini enrolled in acting school and soon was given major roles, first by Franco Zeffirelli and then by Lina Wertmüller, with whom he went on to make nine movies that brought them both international fame. “I owe it to Lina that I will be getting the star. The only other Italian actor who has one is Rudolph Valentino,” he notes.
Angelique Jackson The eighth annual Icon Mann Honors dinner will salute “The Woman King” filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood, “Sidney” director Reginald Hudlin and Uzodinma Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center NYC and author of the New York Times bestseller “Beasts of No Nation.” Icon Mann partnered with Sony Pictures for the event, which has a “Reimagining African Diasporic Narratives” theme and will take place on Wednesday, March 8 at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, Calif. The dinner is part of a series of awards week events for Icon Mann, which is a media, production and management consultancy representing African Diasporic heritage. The company is a leading strategic broker for investments and enterprise within creative industries for Hollywood and media-driven African nations, cultivating a global network of creators and leaders focused on “positive narrative representation.”
EXCLUSIVE: 2x Emmy nominee Matt Walsh (Veep) has signed on to star alongside Alejandro De Hoyos (The Man from Toronto), Chelsea Rendon (Vida), Francisco Ramos (Gentefied), John Kaler (The Wrong Guy) and Jason Konopisos-Alvarez (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) in the action-comedy The Unexpecteds from writer-director Alejandro Montoya Marín.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian actor-turned-director Andrea Di Stefano, whose gritty police drama “The Last Night of Amore” is launching from the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Special Gala section, reps an Italian anomaly. “Amore,” which refers to a police lieutenant named Franco Amore, oddly marks Di Stefano debut directing an Italian-language film after helming well-received U.S. indie thrillers “Escobar: Paradise Lost,” with Benicio del Toro, and “The Informer.” Sumptuosly shot in 35mm film and set in present-day Milan, “Last Night of Amore” harks back to Italian genre films of the 70s and 80s but has a fresh contemporary feel. The plot sees the good lieutenant, played by Italian A-lister Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor,” “Nostalgia”) being called on the night before retirement to investigate a crime scene where his best friend and long-time partner Dino has been killed during a diamond heist. Complications ensue, things get very frantic, and we learn how his love for his wife Viviana, played by Linda Caridi (“The Ties”) will help Amore survive the longest and most challenging night of his existence.
Russell Crowe is back and he’s got some demons to battle.“The Pope’s Exorcist,” out in April, follows Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (played by Crowe), as he takes on his most mysterious case yet – the possession of a young boy whose experience has ties to an ancient Vatican secret. And, yes, it looks pretty spooky.Amorth was a real person (he passed away in 2016), an exorcist for the Vatican who spoke openly about his work, authoring several books about exorcism and frequently offering his opinion on the subject.
EXCLUSIVE: Showmax’s next original drama will explore marital power structures in Ghana.
Marta Balaga Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series title “Tipping Point” heads to the end of the world – Svalbard – to tell a story of a young activist at war with her oil exec father, until he is murdered. Chasing a piece of stolen software which can be used either to destroy the world or improve it, just like the atomic bomb, she is investigating his death. A ReelMedia (Finland) and Maipo Film (Norway) production, it’s set to start shooting in 2024. “In Svalbard, there are scientists, spies, military attaches, environmentalists, miners. Polar bears and even a statue of Lenin, because no one bothered to take it down. You can’t make it up,” laughs head writer Brendan Foley, promising the location will keep the tale “contained.”
posted a video on Instagram of herself running naked through the hallways of Los Angeles’ London Hotel.“What to do when your husband is feeling anxious about his movie premiere,” the 40-year-old wrote in the caption.In the video, the “GLOW” star is seen running down the hall completely nude before knocking on the couple’s door.“Waiting on Dave to answer … he thinks I’m in the shower,” reads the on-screen text.Moments later, a robe-clad Franco, 37, opens the door and looks away in shock at his wife.“Happy premiere night,” the actress yells at a bemused-looking Franco who politely asks her to come inside the room.“I’ve done three laps already,” joked the “Lego Movie” star.Franco and Brie were in LA for the premiere of his new film “Somebody I Used to Know,” which also stars Brie and is now available on Amazon Prime.The couple appeared on “The Late Late Show with James Cordon,” where Franco said that it was the least surprising thing that has happened.“As much as it was a shock to my system to open the door, it was also the least surprising thing that’s happened this year to find her naked in the hallway of the London Hotel,” joked the “Now You See Me” actor.Several social media users found the video hysterical.A post shared by Alison Brie (@alisonbrie)“Dude is married to her, so why is he looking away,” joked one user.“Imagine you pop out of your room to get ice and Alison Brie runs by naked,” a second person joked.“This is cute,” gushed comedian Chelsea Handler.
Young Belarusian Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) is impatient for a better life in Europe. Coming from a country under dictatorship and with very strong Russian ties, the political isolation of which has made it suffocating for the younger generations, he is seduced by the idea of a borderless, communal whole where everybody counts for something.