Jeremy Irons on Playing Abbé Faria in Bille August’s Prestige Limited Series ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ for Mediawan’s Palomar (EXCLUSIVE)

DC‘s 2019 film Joker is to be screened at London’s Royal Festival Hall with a live orchestra playing composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s award-winning score.The show dubbed ‘Joker – LiveIn Concert’, will be staged at the venue on Wednesday, February 7 in 2024.It follows on from the previous concert series held in the UK in 2021.Pre-sale tickets go on sale this Wednesday (December 20) at 10am GMT before they go on general sale the following day (December 21) and can be purchased here.Reviewing the film starring Joaquin Phoenix previously, NME awarded it four stars and said it was a “melancholic psychodrama punctuated by splashes of shocking violence”.It added:”Todd Phillips isn’t clowning around. This is edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Next Step, a program organized by Cannes Critics’ Week whose recent alumni include Molly Manning Walker (“How to Have Sex”), has unveiled the participants of its milestone 10th edition. Spearheaded by Thomas Rosso, a producer turned artistic director, the workshop selects emerging directors who have had their short films play at Cannes’ parallel section, Critics’ Week, and helps to develop their feature debuts.

At 24, Edouard Philipponnat has already worked with powerhouse director Ridley Scott twice and his latest project Napoleon has him going toe to toe with the likes of Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Arcs Film Festival, the European equivalent to the Sundance Film Festival, has unveiled the list of projects which will be presented during its competitive Work-in-Progress showcase. Curated by Tribeca and Les Arcs’ artistic director Frederic Boyer and Lison Hervé, the selection will present a broad range of movies in post-production seeking a sales agent, festival slots and international distribution.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Summer With Carmen,” Zacharias Mavroeidis’ queer comedy, has been acquired in major territories since world premiering at the Venice Film Festival. The movie, which is represented by Be For Films and had its North American premiere at AFI, recently won three prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. It will be released next year by Cinobo in Greece, Epicentre in France and Xenix Filmdistribution in Switzerland.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Former French President François Hollande is part of the voice cast for “Silex & the City – The Movie,” a big-screen spinoff of the popular short-format animated series set in the Stone Age. “Silex & the City” is adapted from the comic book series by the same name created by French cartoonist Jul, which has sold over a million copies.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ridley Scott‘s “Napoleon” is a movie that French people love to hate. But despite harsh criticism in France, the historical epic smashed the box office and grossed over $9.76 million from 1.15 million tickets sold in its first two weeks in theaters.

EXCLUSIVE: After working with Noah Hawley on the fifth season of his Emmy-winning drama Fargo, which just debuted last week, David Rysdahl has solidified his place in his FX family with a series regular role in his Alien prequel series, Deadline can exclusively reveal.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In one of the biggest co-production deals unveiled at Content London, Mediawan‘s label Atlantique Productions has joined forces with Participant to make an ambitious limited espionage thriller series based on the Pegasus spyware scandal. Amit Cohen (“False Flag,” “Bad Boy”) and Ron Leshem (“Euphoria,” “No Man’s Land”) are on board as creators and showrunners for the mini-series which will adapted from the bestseller “Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy.” The book charts the sprawling international investigation conducted in 2020 and 2021 which revealed how governments used Pegasus spyware technology to spy on politicians, activists and business executives.

EXCLUSIVE: Timothy Olyphant is reuniting with Noah Hawley and FX, signing on for a major role in the upcoming Alien series. Olyphant, who recurred on Season 4 of Hawley’s FX anthology series Fargo, is set to star opposite Sydney Chandler in Hawley‘s prequel to the Alien franchise, sources tell Deadline.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Frenchie Shore,” the local adaptation of the popular American reality show “Jersey Shore,” rivaled Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” as November’s most polarizing entertainment topic in France. Since launching on Paramount+ and MTV France on Nov. 11, the reality show has inundated social media, especially TikTok where users have been posting sexually explicit, yet blurred, clips from the show illegally.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Less than three months after being tapped CEO of Banijay France, Alexia Laroche-Joubert, a well-known industry figure, has enlisted Authentic Media, a leading French premium scripted banner that will join the “Peaky Blinders” production-distribution powerhouse. The acquisition of Authentic Media, who produced hit French adaptations of series such as “Rita” and “This is Us,” will further bolster Banijay France’s portfolio of scripted labels.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After being convincingly portrayed by Marion Cotillard in the 2007 film “La Vie en Rose,” legendary French singer Edith Piaf will come to life in an animated biopic “Edith” that looks to break new ground by using AI to recreate her voice and image. When Warner Music, which is producing the feature-length movie with Paris-based company Seriously Happy, broke news of the project last week, it stirred an avalanche of reactions — many of them skeptical — across social media. To clear up some concerns and shed light on the decisions behind the creative endeavor, Variety spoke to Julie Veille, who came up with the original idea, and Gilles Marliac who are co-producing through their banner Seriously Happy and co-wrote the script.

Joaquin Phoenix‘s new epic movie Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott, is now playing in theaters and you might be wondering if there’s a post-credits scene.

Ridley Scott has fired back at French film critics after they published a series of negative reviews of his new biopic, Napoleon.Despite receiving generally positive reviews by UK critics, several high-profile French publications have been less kind, with French GQ saying it was “deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny”, while Le Figaro likened it to “Barbie and Ken under the Empire”.In an interview with the BBC, Scott retorted: “The French don’t even like themselves”.“The audience that I showed it to in Paris, they loved it.”Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon Bonaparte in the film, which hits UK cinemas on Wednesday (November 22). It follows the French leader’s rise to power and his relationship with Empress Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). Other cast members include Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles and Rupert Everett.It is not the first time that Scott has made headlines during the promotion for Napoleon.

Ridley Scott is a man who has earned the right to be a bit… brash with his comments. This is a right given to someone who has created multiple iconic films over the course of his career, literally inspiring generations of filmmakers with works like “Alien” and “Blade Runner.” So, when critics start taking him to task because of “Napoleon,” he clearly couldn’t care less.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ridley Scott is shrugging off the negative reviews coming out of France for his new historical epic “Napoleon,” which stars Joaquin Phoenix as the infamous French emperor and Vanessa Kirby as his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Reviews are all over the place for the biographical drama.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Oscar winner Jeremy Irons has joined the cast of Palme d’Or-winning director Bille August‘s prestige limited series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which also stars Sam Claflin. A sprawling adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel, the English-language series is produced by Mediawan’s banner Palomar, the leading Italian company behind “Inspector Montalbano” and “The Name of the Rose,” in collaboration with another Mediawan label, France’s DEMD Productions.

Ridley Scott has been typically dismissive of critics taking issue with his forthcoming movie Napoleon, particularly French ones.

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon marches into cinematic battle with the bluster and confidence that comes with a reported $200-million budget and Sir Ridley’s decades-deep track record of well-mounted action epics.All that money and prestige is visible onscreen in the film’s far-flung locations, hundreds of extras, delectable period costumes and decor, and, as advertised, several massively-scaled scenes of battle, on land and sea, circa 1789 to 1815.Legions of infantry and cavalry clash on various rolling hills of Europe, shot in icy, desaturated blues and grays by Dariusz Wolski, Scott’s cinematographer on his last nine films (though not his next one, Gladiator 2, being lensed by Gladiator d.p. John Mathieson).Against vast fields of green or snow-covered grasses, and CGI-enhanced masses of combatants, soldiers’ coats flash a red that’s many shades brighter than the blood that flows and bursts violently across the screen.The filmmakers spare no visual detail in depicting the bodily devastation of hand-to-hand armed combat — death by bayonet, point-blank gunfire, horse hooves, or long-range artillery.Death here is bloody, disgusting, and woefully unnecessary, but it’s also the main currency of war, and this movie revels in the loud, explosive spectacle of war far more enthusiastically than it casts its feebly critical eye at the men who clamor for it.Above all else, the film renders tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, portrayed by Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix as a shrewd but coarse, fearless, petulant, glowering egomaniac who rises to imperial power fighting and winning wars.