Denmark Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Addie Morfoot Contributor Don’t expect to see Roger Stone at the CPH:DOX premiere of “A Storm Foretold.” In the documentary, directed by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen, Stone’s efforts to aid former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election are captured. “(Roger) has threatened us with a $25 million lawsuit, and he’s called me fat,” says Guldbrandsen. “Right now, we are communicating through our lawyers.” “A Storm Foretold” along with “Praying for Armageddon” and “Victim/Suspect” are three films screening at CPH:DOX that explore America’s political, legal and cultural underbelly.

Motherland, a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales closed a raft of sales at a vibrant market during the Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX. “Subject,” directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, got picked up by Sweden’s SVT, Denmark’s DR, Norway’s NRK, Norway’s VGTV, The Netherlands’ VPRO, Israel’s Yes Doc, and Madman for Australia and New Zealand. Dogwoof released the film early this month in the U.K. “Subject” is an examination of the relationship between nonfiction filmmakers and their subjects. It raises important ethical questions during a golden of age for documentaries, when docs are screened by millions of viewers. The film re-visits protagonists of some of the most viewed documentaries of today – “The Staircase,” “The Square,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Wolfpack” and “Capturing the Friedmans.”

Tiera Skovbye is making her Hallmark Channel debut this weekend!

Addie Morfoot Contributor Three projects pitched at CPH:FORUM – the industry program of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen-based documentary festival – have been awarded cash prizes. They are Robin Petré’s “Only on Earth,” Iryna Tsilyk’s “Red Zone” and Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska.” The filmmakers were awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital on Thursday. Petré’s “Only on Earth” garnered the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth €20,000 for best pitch. The docu, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen, and Malene Flindt Pedersen, depicts a journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.

Neon has unveiled a raft of cast additions for Joshua Oppenheimer’s musical The End as principal photography begins in Ireland.

Eurovision 2023 Semi-Final running orders have been revealed – check it out below.The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will take place at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool from May 9-13, with Mae Muller set to represent the UK with ‘I Wrote A Song’.The UK city was announced to stage the contest on behalf of Ukraine, after organisers deemed the country unable to host the event due to the ongoing war with Russia.You can find all the songs that are entered for this year’s competition here.This week, Eurovision shared the running order for the Semi-Final shows, which take place on Tuesday, May 9 and Thursday, May 11.Norway will kick off proceedings for the first Semi-Final, closed out 15 acts later with a performance by Finland. The second event is set to be opened by Denmark, with Australia hitting the stage last.We got #Eurovision2023 Semi-Final running orders ✨➡️ https://t.co/V1tz85qvRD pic.twitter.com/hSjYqudp6j— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) March 22, 2023The Big Five participants – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom, which make the biggest financial contributions to the contest – along with Ukraine, automatically qualify for the Grand Final.Check out the full schedule below.First Semi-Final Eurovision 20231. Norway2. Malta3. Serbia4. Latvia5. Portugal6. Ireland7. Croatia8. Switzerland9. Israel10. Moldova11. Sweden12. Azerbaijan13. Czechia14. Netherlands15. FinlandSecond Semi-Final Eurovision 20231. Denmark2. Armenia3. Romania4. Estonia5. Belgium6. Cyprus7. Iceland8. Greece9. Poland10. Slovenia11. Georgia12. San Marino13. Austria14. Albania15. Lithuania16. AustraliaMeanwhile, Eurovision final 2023 tickets sold out in just 36 minutes.Tickets for all nine shows including the live Grand Final went on sale

Jessica Kiang In recent years, self-proclaimed Trump svengali Roger Stone has often been compared to DC Comics character the Penguin. Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s “A Storm Foretold,” a wild-ride doc that grants all-areas access to Stone over a three-year period starting with his 2019 indictment and subsequent pardon, suggests this is not strictly fair. For one thing, as the film begins, Stone is smoking the chunkiest cigar you have ever seen, rather than the more canonically acceptable cigarette holder wielded by the cartoon villain. For another, while Stone has more enemies that you can shake a fat stogie at, no single superherohas yet emerged to save Gotham/the United States of America from his brand of preening, gloating arrogance. If he is the Penguin, where the hell is Batman? 

Naman Ramachandran New history documentary series “Queens That Changed the World,” that shines a light on some of the world’s most powerful female rulers, has scored a raft of worldwide sales. Channel 4 has acquired the series for the U.K. The series is produced by Woodcut Media who brokered the deal with Channel 4, and is distributed worldwide by Abacus Media Rights who have already pre-sold it to streaming service BBC Select (U.S. and Canada) and broadcasters SBS (Australia), AMC Networks International (Spain and Portugal), Viasat World (CEE, Scandinavia, Baltics, CIS), NRK (Norway), DR (Denmark), SVT (Sweden), Czech TV (Czech Republic) and HOT8 (Israel).

Norway’s Casper Ruud and Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti helped groom puppies while volunteering during the Miami Open Unites campaign on Monday (March 20) in Miami, Fla.

Selome Hailu Eddie Redmayne has been cast in “The Day of the Jackal,” Peacock and Sky’s upcoming reimagining of Frederick Forsyth’s novel and Universal’s film of the same name. He will also executive produce the thriller series. Redmayne will play the Jackal, who is hired by the OAS, a French dissident organization, to kill then-president of France Charles de Gaulle. Redmayne recently starred opposite Jessica Chastain in Netflix’s “The Good Nurse.” He is also known for playing Stephen Hawking in James Marsh’s 2014 biopic “The Theory of Everything,” which earned him the Oscar for best actor. Redmayne’s other prominent credits include “The Trial of The Chicago Seven,” “The Danish Girl,” “Les Miserables” and the “Fantastic Beasts” films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent DR Sales has boarded “Behind Every Man,” an off-beat restaurant drama from Julie Rudbæk and Jesper Zuschlag, the actors-turned-screenwriters duo whose credits include “Love You For Now” (“29”). Produced by Drive Studios for the Danish broadcaster DR Drama, “Behind Every Man” takes place at a high-end restaurant in Copenhagen and explores power struggles in that hectic work environment. The show’s creators, Rudbæk and Zuschlag, will also take on the lead roles as Michael and Nadia. The cast is completed by prominent Nordic talent, including Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (“Ride Upon The Storm,” “The Killing”) and Camilla Lau (“Those Who Kill,” “Ride Upon The Storm”).

The Miami Open tennis tournament kicks off this week and Denmark’s Holger Rune and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas were just two of the ATP stars who volunteered during the Miami Open Unites campaign on Monday (March 20) in Miami, Fla.

Prince Joachim of Denmark has his sights set on America. On Friday, the palace announced that the second son of Queen Margrethe and his wife, Princess Marie, are moving to Washington, D.C., this summer.The 53-year-old will start a new job at the Danish Embassy under the Ministry of Defense on Sept. 1.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Mobile 101, a Nokia Story,” a series about the dramatic rise and fall of the Finnish phone company, has been acquired by Disney+ and Walter Presents in multiple territories. The series was produced by Finland’s Rabbit Films and is represented in international markets by the outfit. The six-part series, which sheds light on how a small Finnish company specializing in rubber boots became the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer at the turn of the 21st century, has been picked by Disney+ Italy, Netherlands and Belgium. Walter Presents, meanwhile, bought it for the UK & Ireland. RUV Iceland has also acquired season one of the series.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Series Mania has always been about discovery: Of drama series as an art form, in its early days from launch in 2009; then of key players on a burgeoning international premium TV scene. Series Mania’s International Panorama now catches a new wave of creatives transitioning from film to scripted TV – Israel’s Yaron Shani with “Innermost,” Spain’s Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo with episodes of “Apagón”; and highlights notable emerging auteurs: Denmark’s Kasper Møller Rask, Canada’s Alexis Durand-Brault, Spain’s Fran Araujo, Pakistan’s Assim Abassi and Germany’s Jakob and Jonas Weydemann.  But for having already bowed at national festivals, some of the 12 titles below could well have been in the running for a Competition berth. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Xavier Henry-Rashid’s London-based sales agency Film Republic has closed deals for multiple territories on “F*cking Bornholm,” a tart comedy of social discomfort. The film had its international premiere in the main competition section of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label award. In his review, Variety’s Guy Lodge commented that Polish writer-director Anna Kazejak‘s “precise, piquant film deserves wider festival exposure and discerning distributor interest.” It has now been acquired by Iceland’s Bio Paradis, Arsenal for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lithuania’s Garsas, Slovenia’s RTV, Israel’s Yes and Sweden’s Lucky Dogs. The international trailer has its debut below.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Viaplay’s newly launched U.S. streaming service has unveiled the trailer for its anticipated original crime series “Cell 8” which will premiere exclusively in North America on the platform on April 13. The 6-episode series shot in both Swedish and English, and revolves around the justice system and death penalty. “Cell 8” tells the story of a man presumed dead who is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland. Detectives Mariana Hermansson (Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (Leonard Terfelt) who proceed to the arrest are thrown into a mysterious and increasingly dark series of events. The case soon reveals a personal connection not only to Hermansson herself, but to a Death Row prisoner in the U.S. and a grieving parent consumed by the quest for revenge.

The UK government has made the same move as the U.S. by banning TikTok on ministers and civil servants’ phones.

Ben Croll Cartoon Movie, the European animation sector’s flagship co-production and pitch forum, closed out its 25th edition besting pre-pandemic attendance numbers, welcoming just below 900 industry participant and noting a 40% increase in buyers. Overall, 58 feature projects were presented (and 16 countries encompassed), and — in a testament to France’s robust animation ecosystem — Gallic outfits had a hand in nearly half of them. The forum also reflected the enduring strength of the family market, with 59% of all projects aimed at that demographic. Here are four takeaways from this year’s session, which ran from March 7 – 9 in Bordeaux.

Ben Croll Urban Sales and KMBO have boarded the 2D family film “The Hermit and the Bear,” with the Paris-based exporter handling international sales for the animated title as Gallic distributor KMBO covers the domestic release. This joint distributor/sales agent deal marks a dual show of faith for a development title that recently pitched to substantial buyer interest at the Cartoon Movie pitch and co-production forum in Bordeaux — where KMBO was voted distributor of the year. Adapted from a 1990s tome, the film follows the long apprenticeship between a lonely bear and an irascible hermit. Beginning as an awkward pupil and a rusty teacher, the pair’s bond soon develops into an unusual and life-affirming fellowship. The duo then set off into the forest, singing the benefits of friendship to all the woodland critters.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In 2015, Danish filmmaker Lin Alluna invited Aaju Peter out for a cup of coffee. Alluna didn’t know Peter but was “immediately captivated” by the Greenlandic Inuit lawyer and activist. “I was honored that she took time to meet with me, and those first hours I spent with Aaju were life-changing,” says Alluna. “She revealed hidden truths about myself and the history of my country that I knew I had to find a way to share.” So, in 2017, Alluna began filming Peter as she fought to defend the human rights of Indigenous peoples of the Arctic and also bring her colonizers in both Canada and Denmark to justice. The result is “Twice Colonized,” a documentary about Peter’s fight for justice, her efforts to establish an Indigenous forum at the European Union and mend her own personal wounds.

‘My King Charles’ Doc Picked Up Around The World

Three Pines” has been by canceled by Prime Video after just one season. The streamer confirmed to Variety that it has opted not to bring the Alfred Molina-starring show back for another run following an eight-episode first season that wrapped on Dec. 23. “We are proud of the work done on the series and the opportunity to work with great partners,” a representative for Prime told Variety via email. “Three Pines” was produced by Sony Pictures Television-owned Left Bank Pictures and aired exclusively on Prime Video in Canada, U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Greenland. The series is based on Canadian author Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series of novels, which take place in and around a remote, fictional Quebec village called Three Pines.

Sony Pictures has slated “Dumb Money” for theatrical release on October 20, 2023. The film, directed by Craig Gillespie, tells the true story of a Wall Street short squeeze that momentarily turned GameStop stock into the hottest investment in town.

Sony announced on Friday that they will release the starry Craig Gillespie film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 on October 20.

Naman Ramachandran Birmingham Rep will co-produce “Sinatra The Musical,” the first official musical based on the life and career of Frank Sinatra, with Michele Anthony, Bruce Resnikoff and Scott Landis for Universal Music Group Theatrical, and Tina Sinatra and Charles Pignone on behalf of Frank Sinatra Enterprises.  The team behind the musical includes two-time Tony-winning writer Joe DiPietro (“What’s New Pussycat?”) and Olivier-winning and three-time Tony-winning director and choreographer, Kathleen Marshall (“Anything Goes”). The musical begins on New Year’s Eve, 1942, where a skinny 27-year-old Italian American singer is about to step onto the stage of New York’s Paramount Theatre and give a performance that will change music history. As Frank Sinatra’s career suddenly skyrockets, he struggles with balancing the love of his wife, Nancy, against the demands and temptations of being the most popular singer in America. But when he begins an affair with movie goddess Ava Gardner, his records stop selling and the press turns against him, sending his career into a tailspin. Driven by his devotion to his family, Sinatra stages the greatest comeback in showbiz history.

Nordic Networks Team For ITV Studios Drama Deal

Helena Christensen's gorgeous sister, Anita, was placed front and center on Wednesday when she was celebrated by her famous sibling. The Danish star - who isn't the only celebrity in her family - took to Instagram to wish Anita a happy birthday and shared several photos and a heartfelt message. Helena wrote: "I promised my sister Anita I wouldn’t post anything about her birthday today so here I am waiting till it’s past midnight in Denmark, where we spent the most beautiful day together celebrating her big day."WATCH: Helena Christensen divides fans with icy cold plunge Helena, 54, continued: "I couldn’t have asked for a lovelier, funnier, more hilarious, gorgeous sister in life."From our early childhood building giant lego cities together for days on end (and sometimes nights when our parents thought we were asleep) to every summer where we drive off on another epic adventure together with my niece on our yearly road trip.SEE: Helena Christensen displays tattooed bikini body in striped swimsuitDISCOVER: Helena Christensen looks sublime in makeup-free unfiltered selfie"My sister’s always singing, laughing and spreading so much joy."A post shared by Helena (@helenachristensen)Helena wished Anita a happy birthday with a heartfelt message She concluded: "Thank you mom and dad for giving me the beautiful gift of my wonderful sister. Happy birthday to you @anitasonne73 and happy international women’s day."She posted a number of throwback images of them as children, playing with lego.

Meghan Markle made headlines with the news she was marrying Prince Harry when she was starring in hit series Suits, but she isn't the only celebrity to be romantically linked to royals.Stars including Olivia Wilde, Sophie Winkleman and Poppy Delevingne have all been reported to have relationships with royals, with a number of them even tying the knot!WATCH: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their wedding dateKeep scrolling to find out which A-listers have been romantically linked to the royal family… Meghan Markle was the star of the American TV series Suits before going on to meet and marry her now-husband, Prince Harry. The star first met her royal beau on a blind date in 2016 and they opted to keep their relationship very private for a few months before going public a few months later.

A drug which suppresses appetite will soon be available through the NHS.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Denmark has finally started addressing the lack of diversity in local movies and TV series. From afar, the country is the epitome of liberalism and home to provocative filmmakers like Lars von Trier and a new wave of directors with foreign origins, such as Ali Abassi (“Holy Spider”) and Milad Alami (“The Charmer”). But up close, the Nordic country has been sliding to the far right and enacting Europe’s harshest anti-immigration laws, pushing the local film community to react. The alarm was recently rung by A Bigger Picture, a female-led advocacy group spearheaded by Laura Allen Müller (“Borgen”), Sandra Yi Sencindiver (“The Wheel of Time”), Malaika B. Mosendane (“Chosen”), Siir Tilif (“Fatal Crossing”) and Dorcas Joanna Hansen (“Elvira”).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Autlook Filmsales has sold “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” which won the directing award for Anna Hints in the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance, to more than 20 territories in North America, Europe and Australia. Deals are confirmed with Neue Visionen in Germany, Trigon in Switzerland, Against Gravity in Poland, Fidalgo in Norway, Ost For Paradise in Denmark, Vedetta in Benelux, Filmtrade in Greece and Cyprus, FilmIn in Spain, Alambique in Portugal, Filmladen in Austria, Pasaka Films in Lithuania, Artcam in Czech Rep. and Slovak Rep., Best Film in Latvia, Mozinet in Hungary, and Madman in Australia and New Zealand. The rights in U.S. have been picked up by Greenwich Entertainment and in Canada by Sherry Media Group. The theatrical release in Estonia is by ACME Film.

Weyes Blood has shared details of a 2023 UK and Europe tour – find out how to buy tickets below.The artist (real name Natalie Mering) recently wrapped a number sold-out shows across the UK and Europe in support of her latest album, ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow‘, and will return later this year for a fresh run.Mering kicks things off at Glastonbury Festival in June before heading to Lille’s Aeronef venue on
 June 27. After other festival appearances including Rock Werchter in Belgium, the soloist will play dates in Portugal and Spain in July.November sees the LA musician play Pitchfork Music Festival Paris (November 8) and its London edition (13), taking in shows in Europe in the earlier part of the month.

Jamie Lee Curtis is spilling the deets on her SAG Awards kiss with Michelle Yeoh. Curtis took home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” during the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards last Sunday. Before taking the stage to the delight of the audience, Curtis grabbed her co-star and planted a big kiss on her.

Jamie Lee Curtis is spilling the deets on her SAG Awards kiss with Michelle Yeoh. Curtis took home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her role in during the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards last Sunday. Before taking the stage to the delight of the audience, Curtis grabbed her co-star and planted a big kiss on her.ET's Will Marfuggi spoke to the  actress at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards Saturday where she said she had «no idea» she kissed Yeoh in what has now become a viral awards season moment.«I didn't know I actually kissed Michelle until they showed me,» Curtis revealed. «I'm telling you, the word shocked — you people, you must think we all think we're gonna win things.