City Rotterdam Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Christine McGuinness is supposedly "not allowed" to upload photos of her three children online anymore. Formally married to Top Gear and Take Me Out presenter Paddy McGuinness, the 35 year old model is now co-parenting their kids Leo, Penelope and Felicity, who are each on the autistic spectrum. On Instagram on Wednesday, having originally posted a snap of herself in some gymwear and sunglasses - defiantly captioning it: "Just minding my own business, wishing others could do the same.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth last month, an orchestral world tour has been announced.Set to kick off in August 2024, the tour will allow fans to “experience all new symphonic arrangements” of the music of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.The show will include “beloved scores” by Nobuo Uematsu and “exciting new contributions” from Mitsuto Suzuki, Masashi Hamauzu, and many other esteemed composers and arrangers. The whole thing will be performed by an orchestra and chorus of over 100 musicians led by renowned conductors Arnie Roth and Eric Roth.“Immerse yourself in the world of one of the most visionary games of all time with this sensational multimedia concert experience,” reads the official Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth tour website.Announcing the FFVII REBIRTH ORCHESTRA WORLD TOUR!Immerse yourself in the world of one of the most visionary games of all time with this sensational multimedia concert experience!Experience all new symphonic arrangements of the music of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH including… pic.twitter.com/SaaIXh8nHk— Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY (@ffdistantworlds) March 8, 2024Select shows will see appearances from the original composers, with Masashi Hamauzu appearing at Los Angeles, Rotterdam, London, Bangkok, Taipei, New York and Paris while Mitsuto Suzuki is set to take part in shows in Chicago, Munich and Rome.Tickets for the tour are being released in waves, with the first leg on sale this Friday, March 15.

Poor Things” director Yorgos Lanthimos will reteam with Element Pictures on a remake of South Korean fantasy comedy “Save the Green Planet,” Variety has learned. Lanthimos — whose latest film, “Poor Things,” is nominated for 11 Oscars and just won five BAFTAs (including best actress for Emma Stone) — is expected to start shooting the movie in the U.K. and New York this summer.

Callum McLennan Outside its Market, of the eleven Spanish films elected for this year’s Berlin Film Festival, five have Catalan involvement, a testament to the significant investment and creative nurturing that occurs there. Below are those five and market highlights: “Cura Sana” (Lucía G. Romero) Produced by ESCAC Films, a Generation 14plus short delving into sisters’ lives shaped by ancestral violence, exploring deep familial bonds and the lasting impact of abuse.

Naman Ramachandran Singapore’s Momo Film Co has unveiled a six-film slate that includes projects from recent prize-winners at Cannes and Locarno. Momo is one of five outfits selected at the 2024 Berlinale Co-Production Market‘s company matching program. Fresh off two wins at Locarno 2023 for Nelson Yeo’s debut feature “Dreaming & Dying,” Momo is continuing its relationship with the Singaporean filmmaker for his sophomore feature “The Drought,” a dark comedy-horror film set in the time of a drought.

EXCLUSIVE: WTFilms has snapped up international sales rights for Dutch directorial duo Steffan Haars and Flip Van Der Kuil’s English-language debut Krazy House following its world premiere at Sundance.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.  

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, taking place between Jan. 25 – Feb.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Six projects have been announced as participating in the inaugural edition of the HKIFF Industry – CAA China Genre Initiative, a project incubator in Hong Kong for Chinese-language genre films. The HCG platform will run March 11-13, 2024, alongside the 22nd Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FilMart), Asia’s largest film and TV rights market. From the six, two winning projects will each receive a cash prize of $20,000 for development funding.

English Teacher have announced their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’ and shared new single ‘Albert Road’.The Leeds four-piece will release their first full-length record on April 12 via Island, and the new track follows previous singles ‘Mastermind Specialism’, ‘Nearly Daffodils’ and ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’.Speaking of the album, vocalist Lily Fontaine said: “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space and it turns out it’s almost identical to Doncaster.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Hailing from the country that gave us such grim social critics as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl (fittingly, the latter serves as a producer here), Vantablack Austrian satire “Veni Vidi Vici” opens with a senseless homicide. It’s a startling scene, no less upsetting than the Scorpio killing that kick-starts “Dirty Harry” — except that in this case, the incident is calibrated as the darkest sort of comedy.

Naman Ramachandran The 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, concluded on Tuesday with Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas accepting the Satyajit Ray lifetime achievement award for excellence in cinema. Previous winners of the award include Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci, Dilip Kumar, Carlos Saura, Krzysztof Zanussi and Wong Kar-wai. “It’s a tremendous honor to receive this award, a career life achievement.

EXCLUSIVE: Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones, SAS: Rogue Heroes), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders, Happy Valley) and Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones, Sex Education) are to star in a Dutch-Belgian thriller series from Ozark co-creator Mark Williams, Night Train Media and Submarine.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Marvels” narrowly missed the top spot at the mainland China box office on its opening weekend. And its debut was far short of its blockbuster predecessor. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “The Marvels” earning RMB82.7 million or $11.5 million between Friday and Sunday in Chinese cinemas. Of that some $2 million or 17%, was earned in Imax theaters. The film’s debut weekend haul was a fraction below the RMB84.2 million ($11.7 million) earned by Chinese film “Last Suspect” in its second weekend of release.

Kenya has selected Daudi Anguka’s drama Mvera to represent it for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Manchester City goalkeeper Mikki van Sas has completed a transfer to Feyenoord.

Naman Ramachandran Anurag Kashyap, Sunny Leone, Taapsee Pannu, Rahul Bhat, Ranjan Singh, Anup Singh, Don Palathara, and Sami Khan are among the guest list at the 12th edition of BMO International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA), Toronto (Oct. 12-22).

Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer was wrapping up his show Thursday at London’s O2 Arena when he decided to improv.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the line-up for the 21st edition of its Open Doors program, which will focus on filmmakers from underrepresented countries in Latin America and the Caribbean for the second year running.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief French independent producer Haut Les Mains has come on board “A Useful Ghost,” a film project that is both topical and supernatural. The deal was announced on the margins of the Cannes Film Festival and its accompanying rights market. “A Useful Ghost” follows March and Nat, a happily married couple, and their seven-year-old son Dot. Nat dies of respiratory disease caused by air pollution. A saddened March is worried that the same fate will befall his son, who gradually develops similar symptoms. Nat then returns as a ghost haunting the house vacuum cleaner to try and suck up the dust hurting her son. She also longs to be accepted as part of society and intends to prove that by getting rid of the less useful ghosts.

Ethan Shanfeld Childhood friends Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif passed the time in South Florida by throwing parties. Soon, those parties turned into scrappy live music events, which then became well-oiled monthly showcases featuring now A-list artists like Kendrick Lamar. In 2015, the duo organized the inaugural Rolling Loud festival, which filled a vacuum left by floundering rap fest Rock the Bells and, in just eight years, has become the world’s biggest live hip-hop event. This year, Rolling Loud is making big moves — and taking a big bet. The fast-growing rap brand is not only expanding its global reach, with new events in Germany and Southeast Asia, it’s also putting its money behind Travis Scott, who will headline all the 2023 dates that have been announced thus far, including Munich, Rotterdam, Portugal, Thailand — and Los Angeles, taking place this weekend (March 3-5) at the brand new Hollywood Park festival grounds (the L.A. show has not yet sold out but is expected to).

EXCLUSIVE: Zeitgeist Films, in association with Kino Lorber, has acquired all U.S. rights to the animated feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman from The Match Factory.

Michaela Zee editorNetflix has released the official trailer for Mike Flanagan’s new horror series “The Midnight Club.”Based on novel of the same name by Christopher Pike, the 10-episode horror series follows a group of terminally ill patients in Rotterdam Home who gather at midnight to share scary stories. The group makes a pact to contact the others from beyond the grave should one of them perish.The series stars Adia, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Aya Furukawa, Annarah Shephard, William Chris Sumpter and Sauriyan Sapkota, with Heather Langenkamp as the enigmatic doctor presiding over Rotterdam Home.The series is created by Flanagan and “The Haunting of Bly Manor” writer Leah Fong. Flanagan executive produces for Intrepid Pictures along with Trevor Macy and Adam Fasullo, Intrepid Pictures’ vice president of television. Fong also serves as an executive producer with Julia Bicknell and “The Midnight Club” author, Pike. Elan Gale, James Flanagan and Chinaka Hodge write on the series, with Flanagan set to direct the first two episodes.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Laura Baumeister’s feature debut “Daughter of Rage” ahead of its world premiere at Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals. Baumeister previously directed the shorts “Isabel im Winter” which played at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2014 and “Ombligo De Agua” which screened in Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand in 2018.

Marta Balaga Waiting for the premiere of his first feature “Once Upon a Time in the Andes,” presented at Chile’s Sanfic Industria, Peruvian helmer Rómulo Sulca Ricra is already developing his next project. Under the working title “Ayahuanco,” it will focus on a man who, after living in Europe, comes back to Peru.“He left because of the political situation in the country – his mother was forcefully sterilized as part of former president Alberto Fujimori’s 1990s birth control policy.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Yoodlee Films is expanding its Malayalam-language slate with “Kaapa,” starring Prithviraj Sukumaran (“Driving License”), one of the top stars of the industry.Directed by veteran Shaji Kailas (“August 15”), the film, billed as an action thriller, also stars Asif Ali (“Kuttavum Shikshayum”), Aparna Balamurali, who recently won India’s national film award for best actress for “Soorarai Pottru,” and Anna Ben (“Helen”).“Kaapa,” which has started principal photography, is co-produced by Jinu V. Abraham and Dolwin Kuriakose for Theatre of Dreams and the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) Writers Union, the first ever film backed by FEFKA.

EXCLUSIVE: Mubi has acquired world rights to Martine Syms’ feature The African Desperate, which is due to open theatrically in New York on September 16, with a wider rollout to follow.

Glastonbury Festival next month, according to the band.The electro-folk band were selected to represent their country in 2020, but competed in 2021 instead after the previous competition was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. They placed fifth at the event in Rotterdam with their song ‘SHUM’.Posting on Facebook last week (May 13), Go-A self-confirmed themselves for a slot at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. “Friends, we have extraordinary news!” They wrote.

Eurovision weekend is finally upon us – and (for the first time in a fair few years!) it seems as though the UK actually have an entry worth getting excited about. TikTok star Sam Ryder will be representing in the annual Song Contest, which is taking place in Turin, Italy, on Saturday and he's currently one of the favourites to win. It's hoped Sam will be able to turn around our fortunes after the unfortunate turn of events 12 months ago, when James Newman scored the dreaded 'nil points' for his track Embers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCharlotte Gainsbourg-starring “The Passengers of the Night” and Ralph Fiennes- and Jessica Chastain-starring “The Forgiven” are among the first batch of movies revealed by the Sydney Film Festival. The festival is planning an in-person event running 8-19 June, 2022.Australian-produced titles include dance film “Keep Stepping”; “Sissy,” which mixes social media and horror; music title “Six Festivals”; and intimate portrait “The Plains,” which had its premiere in Rotterdam earlier this year.The 22-film advanced lineup also leans heavily on other festival favorites.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight,” an engrossing family drama starring “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps. Co-produced and sold by Gaumont, the movie world premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.Adapted from Claudine Galea’s stage play, “Hold Me Tight” follows Clarisse (Krieps), a mother who has abandoned her family for mysterious reasons and is coping with great emotional upheaval.

TikTok star Sam Ryder has been announced as the UK’s entry for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAcclaimed Japanese animated film “Poupelle of Chimney Town” will release in North American home entertainment markets from May.The rights in the U.S. and Canada are controlled by Eleven Arts which has appointed Shout! Factory to handle distribution.

JUST IN: Novak Djokovic comment made by Dubai chief as tennis event returns to full capacityLinkMurray returned to action this week at the ATP Rotterdam in the Netherlands, with his run coming to an end at the round of 32 stage against Canadian rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime on Thursday. While in Rotterdam the former world No.