Independent Entertainment, Producers Behind Harry Styles Film ‘My Policeman,’ on Company Ambitions, Future of Cinema

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s ‘Ticket to Paradise,’ starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, and Warner Bros.’ “Don’t Worry Darling,” with Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine, were in a close tussle at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with the former winning narrowly. “Ticket to Paradise” collected £2.8 million ($3.03 million) to top the box office, edging “Don’t Worry Darling,” which took £2.7 million ($2.99 million) to second place, according to numbers released by Comscore. Disney’s “Avatar” rerelease placed third with £1.2 million. After two weeks atop the box office, Disney’s “See How They Run” dropped to fourth position in its third weekend with £473,222 for a total of £3.6 million.

Netflix’s Tudum global fan event launched its second edition on Saturday, showing off dozens of TV shows and movies coming to the streaming platform. After garnering more than 25 million viewers last year, the 2022 event is promising even more Netflix news. Saturday’s Tudum event will show off these TV series: 1899 • 3 Body Problem • Alice In Borderland • Belascoarán • Berlin • Bridgerton • Class • Dead To Me • El Amor Después Del Amor • El Reino • Elite • Emily In Paris • First Love • Glitch • Guns & Gulaabs • Heartstopper • Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Stone Ocean • Love Is Blind: Brazil • Lupin • Manifest • Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area • Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairtytale • Never Have I Ever • Outer Banks • Physical: 100 • Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story • Rana Naidu • Scoop • Shadow And Bone • Soup • Squid Game • Stranger Things • The Crown • The Fabulous • The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House • The Umbrella Academy • The Watcher • The Witcher • The Witcher: Blood Origin • Triada • Vikings: Valhalla • Wednesday • You

The Rome Film Festival has unveiled its first line-up under the new management team of former Rai executive Paola Malanga as artistic director and Cineteca di Bologna director Gian Luca Farinelli as president, who were both appointed to their roles last March.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Universal Pictures has unveiled the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s anticipated next film “Knock at the Cabin,’ which is based on Paul G. Tremblay’s bestselling 2018 novel “The Cabin at the End of the World.” The movie will release in cinemas on Feb. 3, 2023. While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost. “Knock at the Cabin” stars Dave Bautista (“Dune,” Guardians of the Galaxy franchise), Tony award and Emmy nominee Jonathan Groff (“Hamilton,” “Mindhunter”), Ben Aldridge (“Fleabag”), BAFTA nominee Nikki Amuka-Bird (“Persuasion,” “Old”), newcomer Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn (“Little Women”) and Rupert Grint (Harry Potter franchise).

DEALSFuture has sold his songs catalogue to Influence Media Partners in an eight figure deal covering 612 works, including collaborations with many artists, such as Drake, Juice Wrld and more. “Future is a cultural icon”, says Influence Media’s Rene McLean. “He continues to be a blueprint for impact and success in the music industry and has reinvented music in ways that no one has ever expected”.Live Nation has taken a majority stake in German live company Goodlive, which runs festivals such as Melt, Splash and Superbloom, as well as operating a bookings and services divisions.

EXCLUSIVE: The Icelandic Film and Television Academy has selected Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Beautiful Beings as Iceland’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the 2023 Academy Awards.

As summer draws to a close those of us who have been lucky enough to get away on holiday will be putting down our passports for another year, especially as prices increase the cost of going away is becoming out of reach for many households.

Selome Hailu Universal Television is developing Andy Cohen’s memoir “Most Talkative” into a coming-of-age comedy series for NBC. Blumhouse Television is also attached. “Most Talkative” centers a fictionalized 13-year-old Cohen coming of age in 1980s St Louis. He’s gay, loves the Cardinals, his bar mitzvah tutor is a stoner and his soap opera-fueled imagination makes him both the life of the party and the source of endless drama. The series will follow young Cohen’s journey not fitting into any one box and figuring out how to build his own. Cohen published his memoir in 2012 via Macmillan Publishers’ St. Martin’s Press. He is best known for hosting Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” and executive producing the “Real Housewives” franchise for the network.

Could it be the One Direction Harry Styles is going in is to play none other than James Bond? Chances of the As It Was and Late Night Talking star becoming everyone's favourite secret agent have been priced at 66/1 by William Hill. He joins other longshots such as Thor's Chris Hemsworth and Star Wars' Ewan McGregor to succeed Daniel Craig, who stepped down from the role after last year's No Time To Die. Bizarrely, the chances of Harry landing the 007 role don't seem to have been hampered by his poorly-received acting skills in movies Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival is switching to gender-neutral categories starting from next year’s 2023 edition. The prominent Swiss fest dedicated to global indie cinema is following in the footsteps of the Berlin Film Festival, which in 2021 awarded its first gender neutral acting prize. Unlike Berlin, however, Locarno will hand out two gender-neutral prizes for best performance in both the fest’s main competition and its Cineasti del Presente competition for first and second works. When Berlin did away with awards for the best actor and actress it subbed them with single gender neutral prizes for best leading performance and best supporting performance.

The Locarno film festival will shift to gender-neutral acting categories with its 76th edition set to run August 2-12, 2023.

Harry Styles‘ new film My Policeman, following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and they are decidedly mixed.The Amazon Prime Video movie follows a policeman named Tom (Styles) who enters a love triangle with museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) and wife, schoolteacher Marion (Emma Corrin), in 1950s England. My Policeman also follows the three in the 1990s, played by Linus Roache, Rupert Everett and Gina McKee.In a positive review, Deadline praised Styles’ performance, saying that “between Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, Styles is quickly proving to be the real deal as an actor, and he is very convincing here as a man lost in deception with his wife.” The review added that while it is a “handsome-looking production”, it “doesn’t quite reach its full potential”.“All six actors give singular performances (perhaps to the detriment of character consistency), but My Policeman is finely made, craft-wise,” TheWrap said.“For relative acting newcomer Styles, the guileless and appealing young Tom is an ideal role, his sweet and vacant beauty offering a blank slate onto which Marion and Patrick can project whatever they want,” it adds.

“The Fabelmans” made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, and a new trailer offers a glimpse of the latest film from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg.

Trinidad Barleycorn Founded more than 25 years ago by Manuel Catteau, independent French producer and distributor ZED has become over the years a major player in the documentary field. At TV market Unifrance Rendez-vous in Biarritz, ZED revealed to Variety the acquisition of three ambitious history documentary projects, which are available for presales. “Ukraine 1933: Seeds of Hunger,” a documentary by Guillaume Ribot, produced by Les Films Du Poisson for France Télévisions, recalls the tragedy experienced by Ukrainians between 1931 and 1933: the Holodomor, the great famine organized by Stalin to punish those who refused the collectivization of the countryside and communist ideology, resulted in the deaths of more than 4 million of them.

Super has taken North American rights to Colm Bairéad’s award-winning drama The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin), which was recently announced as Ireland’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards and selected for the 2022 European Film Awards.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will close out the 2022 AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday. “The Fabelmans,” which has been touted as Spielberg’s most personal film to date, stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch in a story inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood. The film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. The ensemble cast for “The Fabelmans” includes Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett and Keeley Karsten, with music by John Williams. Janusz Kaminski serves as cinematographer, and the film is edited by Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar. Production design is helmed by Rick Carter, and the costume design is overseen by Mark Bridges.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will make its U.S. premiere at AFI Fest 2022 — closing out the festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 6. The latest film from the AFI Life Achievement Award recipient is set to make its world premiere this month at the Toronto Film Festival, arriving in theaters beginning November 11.

Wolf Alice have spoken about supporting Harry Styles on his recent European tour dates.The band opened for the pop star at shows in Paris, Stockholm and Berlin this summer as he toured his third album, ‘Harry’s House‘. In July the indie rock quartet’s final show saw lead singer and guitarist Ellie Rowsell join Styles on stage for a duet of her band’s 2021 single ‘No Hard Feelings’.“That duet was great.

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Toronto selection “Salt Lake,” Kasia Rosłaniec’s exploration of late-life desire and emancipation. In the film, 64-year-old Helena announces her intention to pursue sexual experiences with other men – much to the shock of her husband of 40 years. The cast includes Katarzyna Butowtt, Krzysztof Stelmaszyk, Adam Ferency, Dorota Kolak, Dagmara Krasowska, Judyta Paradzińska and Jacek Poniedziałek. The film will screen at Toronto as part of Industry Selects – 10 titles chosen by festival programmers for their sales potential. It is produced by Warsaw-based Mañana in co-production with Common Ground Pictures from Gothenburg, Sweden, the partners behind “United States of Love,” which won a Silver Bear at Berlin in 2016. The project was presented at the Berlinale coproduction market 2020, received a Creative Europe – MEDIA development grant and Polish Film Institute production support. “Salt Lake” will be released in Poland in spring 2023.

Anna Tatarska Arian Vazirdaftari, whose debut feature “Without Her” (“Bi roya”) was picked up by Berlin-based sales company Picture Tree Intl. and is screening as part of Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Extra section, is no stranger to international festivals. He was a part of Berlinale Talent Campus and his short films screened in Busan, Brussels and Cannes among many others. “I started as a self-taught filmmaker and only landed in film school many years later,” Vazirdaftari says. “My international experiences really helped. I got to know a more professional atmosphere globally, learned about what’s going on in film festivals, how films are selected and distributed.