City Belgrade Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Stefan Ortega told Rodri to shoot low against Red Star Belgrade goalkeeper Omri Glazer after noticing the 27-year-old was more focused on stopping the aerial threat.

EXCLUSIVE: Maxima, the Crown-esque royal drama from Beta Film, has been renewed for a second season in the days leading up to its premiere.

EXCLUSIVE: Lumanity Productions announced that a feature film adaptation deal has been inked with Christine Mangan for her novel The Continental Affair.  

Nick Cave has announced a European solo live tour for this summer – you can find all the details below.The Bad Seeds frontman is due to hit the road in June for a run of headline dates, where he’ll be “performing songs from his extensive catalogue”. Cave will be accompanied on stage by Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood.He’ll begin the forthcoming stint with three shows at the Onassis Stegi venue in Athens, Greece on June 1, 2 and 3 before an appearance at the Belgrade River Fest in Serbia on June 18.Two further performances are scheduled for Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, Finland (June 25) and the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, Iceland (July 1).Tickets go on sale at 10am local time this Friday (April 12) – you’ll be able to buy yours here.

Marta Balaga Beta Film has acquired international distribution rights to Serbian crime thriller “Operation Sabre” (“Sablja”) about the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. The eight-hour series – selected for Canneseries’ Long Form Competition – is created and directed by Goran Stanković and Vladimir Tagić. The duo already collaborated on “Morning Changes Everything” and wrote the new show alongside Dejan Prćić, Maja Pelević and Marjan Alčevs.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent European giant Beta Film, known for ambitious titles such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first-look picture of 1o-part series “Rise of the Raven,” which it hails as “one of the most epic European TV productions of all time.” “Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of Hungarian-born and Canada-based producer Robert Lantos, behind “Sunshine,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises” and “Crimes of the Future.” A highlight at Beta Film’s showcase this Tuesday at the London TV Screenings, “Rise of the Raven” turns on the extraordinary feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who in 1456 won a bloody, brutal Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were often farm labourers armed with just slings and patriotic fervor. Hunyadi largely halted a full Ottoman expansion in Europe for the next 70 years, allowing its Renaissance to lift off in Italy.

Jose Mourinho namedropped Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips when making a point about spending in a subtle dig at his long-standing dugout rival Pep Guardiola.

Pep Guardiola has more than enough scope to shuffle his star-studded pack when Manchester City get down to business against Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League on Wednesday afternoon.

Six years ago, producer Ivana Mikovic was sitting with her production designer friend when the two discussed the lack of studio space in Serbia’s growing film and television sector. It was a year after the government had introduced its 25% – 30% cash rebate and Mikovic, a former BBC news producer, saw a gap in the market for such a studio facility. At the time there were only a handful of stages in the surrounding Belgrade area – including PFI Studios and Take 1 – but they consistently ran at capacity. 

As producers across the globe continue to feel the effects of inflation on their budgets, a growing number of European countries have been seeking to alleviate some of that budget squeeze as they battle it out to entice foreign projects to shoot on their home turf. One front runner in this race is Serbia, which has been quietly establishing itself as a trusted and attractive destination for global producers. 

Manchester City are preparing for their Champions League clash with Young Boys on Wednesday night.

Liza Foreman Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, Prime Video and Telekom Srbija have boarded “Cicatriz,” a high-end action thriller, based on the best-selling Spanish novel of the same name by Juan Gómez-Jurado. It is a first, large-scale co-production between Spain and the Adriatic countries, the partners said. Spanish powerhouse Plano a Plano and Mexico’s Dopamine will produce, in collaboration with Asacha Media Group and Adrenalin.

Manchester City return to Champions League action on Wednesday evening after recording successive domestic defeats for the first time since January.

Bernardo Silva won't be fit to return for Manchester City at Wolves this weekend and the Blues will also be without John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne for the trip to Molineux.

Pep Guardiola has leapt to the defence of striker Erling Haaland, telling anyone who doubts his finishing that they will soon eat their words.

Pep Guardiola is likely to tinker with his Manchester City side when Nottingham Forest visit the Etihad Stadium this weekend.

Oscar Bobb is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Phil Foden at Manchester City.

Manchester City got their Champions League title defence off to a win against Red Star Belgrade but not without hiccup.

Manchester City return to Premier League action this weekend following the international break.

Manchester City have sold out of every ticket they have offered up for all 19 Premier League home games this season.

Pep Guardiola is expected back in the UK on Wednesday to boost Manchester City preparations for their weekend game with West Ham United.

Manchester City have three main injury concerns to address upon their return from the international break.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “The Hollow” won the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best TV drama series at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Sunday, and also came away with a host of other awards. The in-competition series came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

The Heart of Sarajevo awards for TV series, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s awards strand for TV shows, unraveled this evening, and they were dominated by two shows, the Serbian comedy Mom and Dad Are Playing War 2 (Tata Se Igraju Rata 2) and the Bosnian drama The Hollow (Kotlina).

Naman Ramachandran Michael Boyd, theater director and former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has died of cancer. He was 68. His family said in a statement issued via the RSC: “Theater director Michael Boyd has died from cancer.

Ashnikko has shared a new track from her upcoming debut album ‘WEEDKILLER’ – watch the video for ‘Possession Of A Weapon’ below.The singer will release their first LP on June 2 via Parlophone (pre-order here), and has so far shared the single ‘Worms’ and the album’s title track.On the new song, she discusses the overturning of Roe vs. Wade last summer, singing: “It’s just flesh, I can be grotesque / Move my body like chess.”In a statement, they said: “The human body has become a political chess piece in a game we cannot see.

Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Newcastle United will compete in next season's Champions League.

Tara Karajica On Tuesday, on the eve of the opening of Belgrade’s Beldocs Film Festival, festival director Mara Prohaska Markovic sent her condolences to the families of those killed in two mass shootings in Serbia in recent weeks, including one in Belgrade. After a minute’s silence, Prohaska Markovic presented the films that will screen in the 16th edition of the festival, which runs May 10-17. The festival opens with Mladen Kovačević’s “Another Spring,” about the 1972 smallpox epidemic in Yugoslavia, and will close with a film about Serbian rapper Dalibor Andonov Gru, “Gru Is Here.”

Ashnikko has pushed back the release of the music video for ‘Weedkiller’ by a week out of respect following the school shooting in Belgrade.Earlier today, eight pupils and a security guard were killed in a shooting at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school in the centre of the Serbian capital, with another six pupils and a teacher injured. The shooter, a 13 year old boy named by police as Kosta Kecmanovic, has been arrested along with his parents [via BBC].Ashnikko explained in a tweet that the video release has been delayed because it was filmed in Belgrade.

A teenage boy opened fire in a school in central Belgrade Wednesday, killing eight children and a school guard, police have said. Six more children and a teacher were injured.

Trinidad Barleycorn One of the smallest countries in Europe has the highest number of soldiers per capita. This situation is dissected in “Swiss Citizen Soldiers,” one of the six high-end documentaries that will arrive on the circuit in the coming months, and were pitched at the Swiss Films Previews at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland. SWISS CITIZEN SOLDIERS “Switzerland has 200,000 soldiers, by far the most per capita in Europe, and most of these soldiers are switching between their job and military service. Almost a third of them have their roots in another country”: this is the starting point of “Swiss Citizen Soldiers” (Echte Schweizer), by Luka Popadić, his first documentary feature after several short films.

Gary Neville, Andy Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Michael Carrick are the five Manchester United greats to be nominated for induction into the Premier League Hall of Fame.

Christopher Vourlias Firefly Productions is prepping a new high-end drama that the Belgrade-based outfit is billing as Serbia’s first ever superhero series. “Generation Tesla” is based on the famed Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla, best known for his pioneering work on electricity. In the series Tesla creates an electric frequency at the time of his death that opens a portal to a new dimension, where many of his unfinished projects and ideas are hidden. As the keeper of a vast trove of secrets and knowledge, Tesla must confront the greatest enemy ever known to man, who is looking to steal the secret of this mysterious frequency to rule the world. To fight him, Tesla assembles a team of superheroes, whom he contacts through a video game-obsessed teenager, in order to save the planet.

Christopher Vourlias Croatian-Ukrainian crime drama “The Silence,” whose first season sold wide last year for Munich-based Beta Film, is heading to Kyiv for Season 2, Variety can reveal. The series is based on the critically acclaimed fact-based books by investigative journalist Drago Hedl that examine human and weapons trafficking throughout Eastern Europe. The first season spent 25 days shooting in the Ukrainian capital. Season 2 will return for three days and be directed remotely, due to the security risk, but will shoot several scenes featuring key Ukrainian cast, including star Kseniya Mishina, as well as some establishing shots. Production in Kyiv is due to wrap Feb. 25.

Fast growing, London-based VFX and animation studio group Cinesite said today it’s clinched a $235 million funding package as it continues to expand.

EXCLUSIVE: Joanne Mitchell (The Outing) has signed on to direct the psychological horror Sybil, starring Rebecca Calder (Love Me Do), James Fleet (Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Sacharissa Claxton (Sandman).