IATSE Remains “Hopeful” About Finalizing Basic Agreement Before Teamsters Take Up Baton, Wages Still A Sticking Point

EXCLUSIVE: Synchronicity Films is adapting Hanif Kureishi’s The Body as a series with the novelist and screenwriter on board as an exec producer and Emmy-nominated director Paul McGuigan attached. There are scripts from crime writer Robert Murphy and the producers will relocate the action from the UK to the U.S. for the series.

Three Edinburgh Easyjet passengers, who require special assistance, were left stranded in their wheelchairs on the tarmac as their flight - and luggage - took off without them.

There is still so much that we are learning about the Twilight movies, even though it’s been years since the last one premiered in theaters.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Brazil’s Ventre Studio is readying a powerful slate of scripted series mining the rapidly growing Portugal-Brazil co-production axis, which Ventre itself has helped forge with “Godless John,” produced by Ventre Studio and Canal Brasil as well as Coral Europa and TVI in Portugal. First up in titles is dramedic mini-series “Coligay,” directed by Oscar-nominated Paulo Machline (“A Soccer Story”) and Rafael Gomes, helmer of LGBTQ romantic drama “45 Days Away From You.” Canal Brasil has boarded “Coligay” licensing Brazilian first window TV rights.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kitano Takeshi, one of the biggest names in contemporary Japanese cinema, is directing an untitled movie for Amazon MGM Studios. Other details of the movie, such as cast and synopsis were also scant. Amazon said only that it, “will produce globally acclaimed Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s feature film.

Naman Ramachandran Far from the bright lights of Bollywood, the indomitable Indian documentary filmmaking industry has been making waves globally. The recent past has several examples of India‘s international success.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Dubai-based sales company Mad World has taken global rights to feminist drama “The Wound,” which marks the directorial debut of Morocco’s Seloua El Gouni, who has experience as a production manager on Hollywood titles such as “A Hologram for the King” and “Men in Black: International.” “The Wound” (“La Plaie”) stars rising Arab talent Oumaïma Barid, who gained global notice in Sofia Alaoui’s 2023 Sundance title “Animalia.” Barid plays a young woman named Leila who is trying to pursue her passions and ambitions while contending with Morocco’s societal constraints and becomes pregnant in an extramarital love affair. The promising drama’s Moroccan A-list cast also comprises rising star Brice Bexter (“Redemption Day,” “Seneca”); Amal Ayouch (“Eye on Juliet”); Mansour Badri (“Ghosts of Beirut”); Soraya Azzabi (“Billie’s Magic World”); Abdelhak Saleh (“Hounds”); and Sami Fekkak (“Testament: Story of Moses”).

Annika Pham Invited by the new ECAM Forum co-production market in Madrid to inspire up-and-coming filmmakers and creators, veteran U.S. indie producer and former Amazon Studios film executive Ted Hope is delivering a masterclass, The Transformative Moment is Now. Double Down on the Glorious Disaster That Makes Us Human.

Gareth Southgate has admitted that he is likely to leave his post as England manager if he fails to lead his side to European Championship glory in Germany this summer.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer IATSE is hoping to wrap up bargaining a new contract with the studios by June 27, after adding an extra week of talks to the schedule. The union announced Monday that it will restart negotiations on both the Basic Agreement and the Area Standards Agreement on June 24, allotting four more days to close both deals. “We look forward to concluding our bargaining with the AMPTP and reaching an agreement that our members will be proud to ratify,” Matt Loeb, the international president, said in a statement.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Teamsters Local 399 played a pivotal role in last year’s strikes, as truck drivers honored writers’ picket lines and helped shut down production. At the same time, the union’s new leader, Lindsay Dougherty, became a star, brandishing her tattoos and launching obscenities at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. On Monday, it will Dougherty’s turn to sit across the table from the AMPTP.

Annika Pham Toronto-based Syndicado Film Sales has picked up international rights to “Petroleo,” the fiction debut of doc Spanish filmmaker Álvaro F. Pulpeiro, lauded worldwide for his sensory and lyrical filmmaking, most recently displayed in the CPH:DOX-selected “So Foul a Sky.” The Galician-born filmmaker said the project was significantly influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s unfinished book “Petrolio,” will draw inspiration “from Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger” (1975), the visual intensity of “Apocalypse Now” (1979) and the digital noir of “Miami Vice” (2006).” “Petroleo” will compete for the €30,000 ($32,700) Filmin Award for best title in the Film to Come section at the inaugural ECAM Forum co-production market, unspooling June 10-15 in Madrid.

EXCLUSIVE: The movie Donald Trump doesn’t want people to see is going global.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Midas Man,” an upcoming drama about Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who helped turn the Beatles into the biggest thing in pop culture, has sold North American distribution rights to Briarcliff Entertainment. The company will distribute the movie in collaboration with Studio POW and American Entertainment Investors. It stars Jacob Fortune-Lloyd of “The Queen’s Gambit” as Epstein.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The president of IATSE told members Saturday that he is hopeful that a deal will be reached “soon” with the studios on a new agreement for 23 local unions around the country. The union has been bargaining for the last three months on two contracts — the Basic Agreement and the Area Standards Agreement — that together cover about 70,000 crew workers nationwide. The last two weeks of talks have been focused on the Area Standards Agreement, which covers about 20,000 workers in 23 locals, including major production centers like Georgia and New Mexico.

Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers), Josette Simon (Anatomy of a Scandal), Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon) and Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie) have joined the cast of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, with nine signing on to reprise roles from previous installments of the beloved rom-com franchise.

Jack Dunn “Wedding Crashers” star Isla Fisher, Nico Parker (“How To Train Your Dragon”), Josette Simon (“Anatomy of a Scandal”) and Leila Farzad (“Black Mirror: Joan is Awful”) have joined the cast of “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” which premieres on Valentine’s Day next year in theaters internationally and on Peacock in the U.S. Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent return to play Bridget’s mom and dad. Sarah Solemani, Sally Phillips, Shirley Henderson and James Callis will return to reprise their roles as Bridget’s friends.

EXCLUSIVE: Out of the Cannes market, Sony Pictures Classics has bought North American rights and a raft of international territories on Walter Salles‘ anticipated first narrative feature in more than a decade: I’m Still Here.

House Hunters is one of the longest-running shows on HGTV.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch said she learned about the “power of cinema to carry messages, liberate speech and accomplish a duty of remembrance” from her parents, who are Holocaust survivors. Speaking at the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, the Munich-born Knobloch said her parents took her to the movie theater several times a week.