IATSE Charters Production Workers Guild Local 111, With National Jurisdiction In TV Commercials

Ed Meza @edmezavar The Zurich Film Festival boasts a strong lineup of international films, among them Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” and high-profile guests that include Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Ethan Hawke, Todd Haynes and Wim Wenders. The ZFF this year screens a record number of world and European premieres — 52 from a total of 148. Another 52 films are debut works.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Indiana Production – which has just become part of pan-European studio Vuelta Group – is staying true to its roots with production kicking off this month on gender swap movie “Romeo is Juliet,” directed by quality comedy specialist Giovanni Veronesi, just as the company expands its horizons. This latest title in Indiana’s slate stars A-lister Sergio Castellitto and Pilar Fogliati (“Romantiche”) who plays an actress named Vittoria who after being brutally rejected by a cynical stage director when she auditions to play Juliet in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” decides to reinvent herself as a man to audition for Romeo and gets the part.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier will next direct “Sentimental Value,” a family drama starring Renate Reinsve, who won best actress in Cannes for her role in Trier’s Oscar-nominated 2021 film “The Worst Person of the World.” “Sentimental Value” will follow Nora (Reinsve), an actor, and her sister Agnes, who are grieving the loss of their mother while their father Gustav reappears in their lives after a long absence. Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, has written a script for a comeback movie and offered the main part to his daughter Nora, but she categorically refuses the role.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 28 – Oct.

Dick Clark Productions said Thursday that it has hired Richard A. Pizante as its new SVP Production. The veteran producer, whose credits include co-executive producing on the first season of NBC’s The Voice and working on the Primetime Emmys, the BET Honors and the 2019 TV special Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry, will be based out of Los Angeles and begin immediately.

Visual effects workers at Marvel Studios and seven of its subsidiaries have voted 32-0 to unionize with IATSE in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The union called the unanimous vote an “historic first” for the industry’s VFX workforce.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone are starring in the brand new trailer for their new Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon.

Jordan Moreau In a historic move, Marvel Studios’ visual effects worked unanimously voted in favor of unionizing with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) in an election held bythe National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the company announced Wednesday. This marks the first time a unit of solely VFX workers has unionized with IATSE.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mipcom, the Cannes-set international TV showcase, will pay tribute to Arthur Essebag, the well-known French TV host and founder of Satisfaction Group. Essebag will receive the international format awards at a gala ceremony on Oct. 15.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer and director Ginevra Elkann, whose delicate first feature “If Only” opened the 2019 Locarno fest garnering critical praise, is at the Toronto Film Festival with her tonally different follow-up, “I Told You So.” The movie features a group made up mostly of women who are having a mental meltdown amid an unprecedented January heat wave in Rome. As the heat rises, so do the characters’ obsessions with sex, food, drugs, alcohol, and religion. The eclectic ensemble film, which was conceived by Elkann and her co-writers during the pandemic, features a star studded cast comprising Danny Huston – speaking perfect Italian on screen – as a heroin-addicted Italian-American priest.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Deauville American Film Festival to present “May December,” Todd Haynes spoke to Variety, during a one-on-one interview at the Royal Hotel, about bringing Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore together in a film for the first time, provoking audiences and pushing against American conservatism. Haynes, who is attending Deauville with his producers Christine Vachon and Sophie Mas, also teased his next directorial effort starring Joaquin Phoenix, a “sexually explicit” movie telling a “love story between two men set in the 30s.” Loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who had an affair with her 6th grade student, “May December” has already earned awards buzz since world premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was bought by Netflix. In France, the movie will be released by ARP Selection in January.

Demi Lovato has signed a new management deal after recently parting ways with former manager Scooter Braun.The singer has joined Brandon Creed’s Good World Management, whose roster includes Charli XCX, Mark Ronson, Orville Peck and Troye Sivan, according to Billboard. He also previously managed Bruno Mars.The deal arrives one week ahead of her forthcoming album ‘Revamped’, which will see her reimagine hits from her career as rock songs and feature artists including a revamped version of ‘Sorry Not Sorry (Rock Version)’ with Slash.Two other tracks, ‘Heart Attack (Rock Version)’ and ‘Cool For The Summer (Rock Version)’ have previously been shared from the project.It comes just weeks after reports said Lovato and Ariana Grande parted ways with Braun last month.The news of Lovato ending her working relationship with Braun came from Variety, which reported that, although the reasons for the split are unknown, the separation was “amicable”.A month earlier J Balvin, also left Braun’s management to join Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation.Shortly after, Braun shared a jokey response to reports that a host of his artists were seeking new management, writing: “Breaking news… I’m no longer managing myself.”Other clients of his include Justin Bieber, David Guetta, Black Eyed Peas, Ava Max and Carly Rae Jepsen.Braun first rose to fame in 2008 after helping launch the career of a then-12-year-old Bieber, after seeing him performing on YouTube, and has since gone on to represent him for 15 years.

Charter CEO Chris Winfrey indicated that little progress has been made in the week-long carriage fight with Disney and he said a leaner, ESPN-free TV bundle “could stick” with price-sensitive Spectrum customers.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ukrainian director Anna Buryachkova, awaiting the Venice premiere of her new film “Forever-Forever,” will soon turn to documentary “Will We Feel Again,” she revealed to Variety in Italy. The film will see her reunite with Natalia Libet, producing for 2Brave Productions. “In Ukraine, this is the time when you make documentaries, obviously.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kirill Serebrennikov, the celebrated Russian playwright and director whose last three films competed at Cannes, is set to create and direct a sensual, gothic TV adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera,” Gaston Leroux’s 19th century novel. Serebrennikov’s TV debut, the subversive six-part miniseries will be shot in English and is being produced by Aude Albano at Pathé, in association with Ilya Stewart at Hype Studios.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Chinese director Bi Gan, whose 2018 film “Long Day’s Journey into Night” played at Cannes, will next direct “Resurrection.” The ambitious sci-fi detective movie is to be headlined by Chinese superstar Jackson Yee (“Better Days”) and Taiwanese actor Shu Qi (“The Assassin”) who sits on this year’s Venice jury. Boasting Bi’s edgy aesthetic and narrative style, the film tells the story of a woman whose consciousness falls into the “eternal time zone” during a surgical procedure.

Chuck Parker, national executive director of the Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800, said that “it has become frighteningly apparent” that below-the-line workers are “bearing the brunt” of the ongoing strikes by actors and writers. He is reminding his members that help is available for those struggling to maintain their union health coverage and to make ends meet.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Gap-Financing Market is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year with record-breaking attendance and impressive new figures on the projects that the core component of Venice’s industry side has helped bring to the big screen. All told, over the span of a decade, “We have had 370 films (including immersive) from 70 countries and 80% of them have been completed within six months after the festival,” says Pascal Diot who heads the Venice Production Bridge, as the Lido’s market is known.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Venice Film Festival to pay tribute to Ruggero Deodato, “Drive” and “The Neon Demon” filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn participated in a masterclass and bashed streamers for being “overfunded and rotten with money and cocaine.” The director, who previously infuriated some in the film biz by claiming that “cinema is dead,” said he has somewhat changed his mind and will now fight for cinema to continue on because streamers have “kind of saturated everything” and “devalued content to just a swipe.” Refn, who last directed the series “Copenhagen Cowboy” for Netflix, said “it’s incredibly sad and terrifying because art is essentially the only thing – besides, you know, sex, water and happiness — that makes us exist.” “Even though I projected it was dead a few years ago, it has changed into something we have to fight for,” he added. “Theatrical movies are part of what makes us human and experience creativity.” The director, who lives in Copenhagen with his wife and children, went on to tie streamers to the dangers of artificial intelligence saying that it’s “certainly something affecting our industry.” “AI is not an artist,” Refn proclaimed.