IFC Films Buys Stylish French Thriller ‘The Origin of Evil’ With ‘Call My Agent!’ Star Laure Calamy (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pathé and Chapter 2, a Mediawan company, are set to reteam with “Three Musketeers” director Martin Bourboulon on a riveting thriller set in the backdrop of the fall of Kabul and the takeover by the Taliban. The film is an adaptation of “13 days, 13 Nights, in the Hell of Kabul,” a sprawling real-life account of the events written by commander Mohamed Bida and published by Denoël last month. Bourboulon, who recently completed shooting “The Three Musketeers,” a big-budget two-part saga based on Alexandre Dumas’ masterpiece, will be filming the movie in French and English with an immersive and ultra-realistic style.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On the outskirts of Paris, in a vast, industrial-looking studio in Bry-sur-Marne, the clocks have turned back to the 1770s. Opulent decor — gilded furniture, flower-adorned curtains and marble everywhere — fills the soundstage. The atmosphere is studious on the set of “Marie-Antoinette,” a lavish French-produced costume drama created, co-written and executive produced by Deborah Davis. She’s delivering a feminist take on an infamous historical figure, best-known for apocryphally advising the starving masses to eat cake. We all know how that ended. On screen, Marie-Antoinette hasn’t been treated better than she was at the guillotine, where she’s often depicted as a villain or a frivolous airhead.

Kurt Sutter has got the green light for his outlaw western series The Abandons.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Netflix has given a series order to the Western action drama “The Abandons,” which hails from Kurt Sutter. The show was first reported to be in development at the streaming giant back in November 2021. Netflix has given the show a 10 episode order. The show’s official logline states: “As a group of diverse, outlier families pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, tries to force them out. These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law. The Abandons will explore that fine line between survival and law, the consequences of violence, and the corrosive power of secrets, as this family fights to keep their land.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Cecilia Miniucchi’s “Life Upside Down” which stars Emmy-award winning actor Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”), Radha Mitchell (“Pitch Black) and Danny Huston (“21 Grams”). The movie world premiered at Venice in the Giornate degli Autori sidebar. IFC Films will release the film in select theaters and VOD on Jan. 27 and will stream exclusively on AMC+ in April 2023. “‘Life Upside Down’ is a romantic comedy following three couples, connected by friendship, love and work, who are each stuck in their respective homes in Los Angeles during the beginning of lockdown. Finally forced to face their spouses, friends, lovers, and eventually themselves head on, their lives turn slowly but surely upside-down.

EXCLUSIVE: In what is turning into one of the more hotter projects in town, Skydance’s The Gorge starring Miles Teller, looks to have found its distributor and Teller’s co-star. Sources tell Deadline, Apple Original Films have come on to the pic with SAG Award-winner Anya Taylor-Joy set to star alongside Miles Teller in the genre-bending love story. Scott Derrickson is on board to direct with Zach Dean penning the script, which he sold on spec to Skydance last year. In addition to starring, Teller will serve as executive producer on the film.

Missing your local Blockbuster? Netflix may have the cure with their new series, appropriately titled “Blockbuster.” The project centers around the last location of this once prolific company. While fictional, its basic premise has roots in reality as a lone Oregon store remains open.  Randall Park stars as the ambitious movie lover committed to keeping his Blockbuster dream alive.

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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pulsar Content and XYZ Films have dropped the trailer for “Tropic,” Edouard Salier sci-fi drama which world premiered at Fantastic Fest and will next play in competition at Sitges on Oct. 9. Penned by Salier and Mauricio Carrasco, the film follows Lázaro and Tristán, two twin brothers and best friends who are training together for the Astronaut Academy entrance tests. One day, Tristán is contaminated with some mysterious residue which makes him monstrous physically and weakened mentally. This disaster forces Lázaro to let go of how he remembers his brother and learn to love him as he is now, in a world where there is no room for monsters.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “Kompromat,” an action thriller film directed by Jerome Salle (“The Largo Winch” ), starring Gilles Lellouche (“The Stronghold”) and Joanna Kulig (“Cold War”). SND, the commercial arm of M6, is representing the film in international markets. Loosely based on a true story, “Kompromat” stars Lellouche as a French diplomat working in Siberia who is arrested overnight by the Russian authorities. Accused of sexually abusing his own daughter and imprisoned, he realizes he is a victim of a Kompromat. Someone is working with the FSB (Federal Security Service) to frame him. His only way out is to escape.

—or rather, it's more like an interpretation of the movie star's life. Based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the film is a that mixes real life and fantasy. Of course, some of the biographical elements in the movie are based on fact—including her relationships with high-profile men like baseball star Joe DiMaggio, playwright Arthur Miller, and a president.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A trio of French films, the melodrama “A Family for 1640 Days,” political thriller “Goliath” and comedy “Adieu Paris,” are set to be released in the U.S. by the New York-based company Distrib Films. Both Fabien Gorgeart’s “A Family for 1640 Days” (“Une vraie famille”) and Edouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” are represented in international markets by Le Pacte. “A Family for 1640 Days,” winner of the top prize at last year’s American French Film Festival, revolves around Simon, a six-year old adopted boy who is about to reunite with his biological father. The movie stars Melanie Thierry (“En therapie”) and Lyes Salem. Distrib Films is planning to release the film in early 2023 and have it play at festivals.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Birds will fly, fish will swim and Emily will be in Paris. Darren Star’s Emmy-nominated escapist romantic comedy “Emily in Paris” will launch its third season on Netflix on Dec. 21. The streamer announced the date and revealed a teaser for the upcoming season on Saturday morning during its Tudum virtual fan event. The new footage shows Emily (Lily Collins) as she finds herself at a crossroads in every aspect of her life, deciding the pathway she will choose regarding her work and love life. Emily will have to figure out exactly where her loyalties lie and what those decisions mean for her future in France, all while continuing to immerse herself in the adventurous lifestyle that wandering through the city of love provides. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Netflix has unveiled first look images of Darren Star’s Emmy-nominated hit show “Emily in Paris” season three. The show’s third and fourth seasons are currently filming in France. Netflix will be unveiling some special news on “Emily in Paris” on Sept. 24 during its virtual Tudum event. The third season brings back producer and star Lily Collins also returns Lily Collins, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Lucien Laviscount, Lucas Bravo, Ashley Park and Camille Razat, among others. Season three follows Emily as she finds herself at a crucial crossroads in every aspect of her life. Faced with two very different paths, Emily will have to decide exactly where her loyalties lie — at work and in her romantic life — and what those decisions mean for her future in France, all while continuing to immerse herself in the adventures and surprising twists and turns that life in Paris provides.  The first images unveiled today suggest Emily will reunite with her British boyfriend, played by Laviscount.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Music Box Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Full Time,” Eric Gravel’s visceral social thriller which is one of the five finalists for France’s official submission to the 95th Academy Awards. Represented in international markets by Be For Films, “Full Time” world premiered at last year’s Venice festival in the Horizons sections and won a pair of awards for Laure Calamy (“Call My Agent!”) and Gravel. The critically acclaimed film went on to made its U.S. debut at New Directors/New Films. Music Box Films will release “Full Time” in cinemas and on home entertainment platforms in 2023.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen will return to the French capital for his 50th movie which he’s described as a “poisonous romantic thriller” with a pair of French stars, Valerie Lemercier (“Aline”) and Niels Schneider (“Love Affair(s))”. The untitled film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps, will start filming next month and will be entirely in French with a budget in the $10-million range. Allen has described the film to be similar to “Match Point,” in that it would be “exciting, dramatic and also very sinister.”  Allen sparked headlines earlier this week after Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia ran a story reporting that the New York-based filmmaker had told them he was planning on retiring. Allen’s representative then issued a statement saying that the director had “no intention of retiring.”

Henry Silva, who starred in Johnny Cool, fought Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate and was one of Sinatra’s fellow thieves in Ocean’s 11, among dozens of screen roles spanning a half-century, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 94.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Antonin Baudry, who made his feature debut with Netflix’s submarine thriller “The Wolf’s Call,” is set to adapt Homer’s epic war tales of “The Iliad and The Odyssey” into a science fiction series titled “Ulysse.” Pathé has recently boarded the series project which is being co-developed by Axelle Boucai (The Mad’s Women Ball”) and Alain Goldman (“La Vie en Rose,” “The Mad’s Women Ball”) at Paris-based Ness Films. “Antonin Baudry is writing the adaptation and had the idea of transposing these mythological tales in space and in the future,” said Boucai, who cited “Dune” as inspiration.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios, has acquired English language adaptation rights to TF1’s hit detective show “HIP (High Intellectual Potential).” The U.S. adaptation is currently in development, and a showrunner, writing team and cast will be announced at a later stage. The original series, created by Alice Chegaray-Breugnot, Stéphane Carrié and Nicolas Jean, and starring Audrey Fleurot (“Intouchables”) and Mehdi Nebbou (“Serial (Bad) Weddings”), has been one of the most successful French-language shows on French TV in the last 10 years. Produced by Mediawan-owned Septembre Productions, and Itinéraire Productions, a UGC company, the series has been sold to more than 105 territories and has garnered more than 175 million views globally to date. A Czech and Slovakian version have already been filmed for Nova and Markiza respectively and are expected to launch soon.