‘Island City,’ From ‘Lower City’ Director Sergio Machado, Swooped On By Cinema Management Group (EXCLUSIVE)

Emiliano De Pablos Barcelona-based Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to horror-thriller “El Cuco” (“The Cuckoo’s Curse”), the latest film by “The Photographer of Mauthausen” and “Two” producer-director Mar Targarona, set up at top Spanish genre auteur house Rodar y Rodar.Vicente Canales’ Film Factory, one of the biggest sales forces in the Spanish-speaking world, is presenting “The Cuckoo’s Curse” to international buyers with a first promo at this week’s Cannes Film Market.Just finished shooting in Barcelona and Germany’s The Black Forest, “The Cuckoo’s Curse” is a Spain-Germany co-production that teams Rodar y Rodar with Barry Films, a Berlin, L.A. and Zurich-based company led by producers Benito and Wolfgang Mueller (“The Perfect Enemy,” “The Whistleblower”).

Anitta is ready for a hot girl summer with her besties, Camila Cabello and Chlöe Bailey. ET's Cassie DiLaura spoke to the Brazilian singer at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas Sunday, where she dished on her friendship with Cabello and the possibility of a collab from the pair.«I’m always telling her we should do something together,» Anitta said of making music with the «Bam Bam» singer. «I think we are so close as friends, that we never stopped to actually think about it. I'mma send her some stuff and see what happens.

EXCLUSIVE: Ukrainian-Canadian-American filmmaker Vadim Perelman has inked with Artist International Group for management.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorErotic love story “99 Moons,” which will have its world premiere in Cannes’ ACID sidebar, has debuted its trailer (below). Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has acquired the world sales rights to the film, which is directed by Jan Gassmann. The film centers on Bigna, a 28-year-old scientist, and 33-year-old Frank.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed sales on Berlin Panorama title “Concerned Citizen” – Idan Haguel’s satirical feature on privilege and prejudice set in Tel Aviv – for several additional territories.Distribution in the U.K. and Ireland will be handled by Peccadillo Pictures; Arti Film will be distributing the film in Benelux, with a nationwide theatrical release at selected cinemas planned later in the year; Tongariro Releasing has taken the rights for Poland, planning a festival run and theatrical release in arthouse cinemas for summer 2022; and Queer Kino has come on board to handle the film in the Czech Republic, where it will have a national premiere at Mezipatra Queer Film Festival and a theatrical release is planned for early 2023.

Sasha Urban editorBuckle up, because Season 5 of “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” is set to premiere on May 27 and the lineup includes some of this year’s biggest stars, Variety can reveal exclusively.The new season of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ show will feature the groupings of “Shang-Chi” star Simu Liu and “The Matrix Resurrections” actor Jessica Henwick; “The White Lotus” co-stars Murray Bartlett, Alexandra Daddario and Sydney Sweeney; the entire D’Amelio family — Charli, Dixie, Heidi and Marc; “New Girl” star Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott of “Property Brothers” (who met each other on the set of “Carpool Karaoke”); Brazilian superstar Anitta and “Icy” rapper Saweetie; and Britt Baker, Christian Cage, Bryan Danielson, MJF, Will Hobbs, CM Punk and Ruby Soho of All Elite Wrestling. The series is based on the “Carpool Karaoke” segment from “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” which consistently reachers viewer counts in the millions online, with guests including Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello and many others joining James Corden for karaoke and conversation on wheels.The Apple TV+ series doesn’t feature Corden, and instead pairs and groups different celebrities with one another to go for the musical ride of a lifetime — with personal playlists, sing-alongs, visits to their favorite locations and surprises for unwitting passersby.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLeading Japanese indie studio Gaga Corporation is launching suspense thriller “#Manhole” next week at Cannes.Being directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi (“My Man,” “Sketches of Kaitan City”), from a screenplay by Okada Michitaka (“Masquerade Hotel”), the film depicts a promising young man, with everything going for him, who falls to the bottom of a deep manhole on the eve of his wedding. Trapped and imagining all sort of horrors, the prospective bridegroom uses his smartphone to reach out to friends, the police and social media. But his predicament becomes worse.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilms Boutique (“Lunana, a Yak in the Classroom”) has acquired four films set to world premiere at Cannes, including Albert Serra (“The Death of Louis XIV”)’s “Pacifiction” which will compete in the 75th edition’s Official Selection. The Berlin-based international sales banner has also acquired rising Morrocan helmer Maryam Touzani (“Adam”)’s “The Blue Caftan” and Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante Meza’s “Domingo and the Mist” which will both play in Un Certain Regard; as well as Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues (“The Ornithologist”)’s “Will-O’-The-Wisp,” set for Directors’ Fortnight.“Pacifiction” stars Cesar-winning French actor Benoit Magimel (“Peaceful”) as a calculating French government official working in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti.

Manori Ravindran International EditorSpotify’s former head of studios for the U.K. and Ireland, James Cator, has joined Amazon-backed podcast outfit Wondery, Variety can reveal.The executive is believed to be taking on the newly created role of head of commercial for Europe. Based in Berlin, Cator will report into Wondery’s head of international, Declan Moore.The move will support Wondery’s European growth. The company, which was acquired by Amazon in December 2020, has been expanding its international footprint with more original local productions and increased territory localizations for its slate of podcasts.

Christopher Vourlias Progress Film, the historic distributor established in 1950 to handle the release of films produced by communist East Germany’s state-owned film studio, has announced plans to relaunch theatrical distribution and international sales.The company has also acquired Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” which will have its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. Progress is handling world sales as well as distribution in Germany, where it’s planning a theatrical release.Based on WWII archive footage, “The Natural History of Destruction” puts forward the questions: Is it morally acceptable to use civilian populations as a means of war, and is it possible to justify mass destruction for the sake of higher “moral” ideals? Those questions remain as relevant today as they were 80 years ago, becoming ever more urgent amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMenemsha Films has taken distribution rights in North America to Thomas Roth’s drama “Schaechten – A Retribution” in a deal with Berlin-based sales company Picture Tree Intl. PTI has debuted the film’s trailer, and will hold an invitation-only private screening of the film for buyers in Cannes.Neil Friedman, president of Menemsha Films, said: “The film ‘Schaechten’ is a true discovery.

Manchester City are closing in on the signing of Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland with the Blues set to be the side to prise the highly-rated Norwegian away from the Bundesliga.

With the weather warming up in the UK and Covid restrictions lifted, there is more of an appetite to go out more and enjoy the festivities we got up to before the pandemic. Part of that includes going to the cinema.

Naman Ramachandran Endeavor Content‘s U.K.-based content studio The Story Company, which was launched in 2021, has rebranded as The Story Collective and made three senior hires.Former ITV Studios producer Kate Lewis (“Vera”) joins as executive producer and brings with her a slate of projects she has been developing under her Neon Ink banner. Lewis will manage and expand the company’s slate of scripted projects, and provide creative support to their portfolio of invested production companies and writer partnerships.

EXCLUSIVE: TV and film investment fund APX Capital is expanding into Latin America with a co-financing deal with Cenya Productions, the investment group founded by a financier behind films such as The Revenant.

Christopher Vourlias Wolfe Releasing has acquired all North American rights for director Magnus Gertten’s feature documentary “Nelly & Nadine” ahead of its North American premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on April 30. Wolfe Releasing has slated the documentary for a theatrical and streaming release in late 2022.Produced by Ove Rishøj Jensen from Auto Images, “Nelly & Nadine” had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Teddy Jury Award, the highest honor for an LGBTQ+ film.“Nelly & Nadine” is the story of two women who fall in love on Christmas Eve 1944 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore crossed the $200M mark at the international box office this weekend, holding the top overseas position for the third frame in a row. The offshore session added $38.3M in 67 markets for a running total of $213.2M with worldwide at $280.3M.