Mauritania Showbiz Latest News and Updates

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime Lionsgate Film Distribution Head David Spitz is exiting, Deadline has learned, with former STX distribution vet Kevin Grayson getting named President of Domestic Distribution of the studio’s motion picture group.

Ten projects have been selected for the second edition of Seriesmakers, Series Mania’s development lab for feature film directors sidestepping into series production. 

Guy Lodge Film Critic Tea can be an energizer or a sedative. “Black Tea,” the first film in a decade from veteran Mauritanian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako, sips exclusively from the latter end of the shelf, passing through chamomile-type calm into outright soporific territory.

Christopher Vourlias A lonely widower wrestling with the loss of his wife finds himself in the thralls of a mental health crisis, setting the stage for a moving tale of grief and acceptance in Mamadou Dia’s “Demba,” which premieres Feb. 17 in the Encounters section at the Berlin Film Festival. “Demba” follows its titular protagonist, an archivist in a provincial Senegalese town being nudged toward an early retirement after nearly 30 years in the civil service.

The Grand Tour is sending Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May off to another exotic location for the Amazon Prime Video show's latest episode, with the trio flying to foreign office red zone Mauritania. The three former Top Gear stars follow in the tracks of the Paris-Dakar rally in cheap modified sports cars, encountering minefields, ravines and rivers in the West African nation. Despite facing a number of dangerous challenges during filming, Richard, 54, has admitted that it was the lack of cool beers that got him down the most.

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed why it’s the end of the road for The Grand Tour.

James May has left the car door open to a reunion with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond after they park their Prime Video series The Grand Tour for a final time.

Ellise Shafer Amazon Prime Video’s automotive series “The Grand Tour” is not moving forward at the streamer — at least with its current hosts, former “Top Gear” trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Sources tell Variety that Clarkson, May and Hammond have just returned from filming the show’s final special in Zimbabwe, which will launch at a later date next year and conclude the fifth season. A special set in Mauritania will launch before that, in February.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, the beloved trio from The Grand Tour, have reportedly filmed their final special for the show.This comes just days after it was announced that Top Gear, their former BBC show, is also being put on hold.The streaming site Amazon Prime Video, which has been home to The Grand Tour since 2016, is expected to bring in new hosts if the show returns.The current presenters are said to be content with this decision. An insider shared: "It's a surprising decision and everyone realises it very much marks the end of an era for the three presenters." "The Grand Tour is one of Prime Video's most watched shows and Jeremy, James and Richard have a devoted following.

Daisy Edgar-Jones, ??p?? Dìrísù and Himesh Patel today joined forces along with other industry experts to decide the next BAFTA EE Rising Star award nominees. The annual award which, in the past has gone to the likes of James McAvoy, Eva Green, Juno Temple, Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell, Will Poulter, John Boyega, Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Micheal Ward, Bukky Bakray, and Lashana Lynch, will be dished out with the other film BAFTAs early next year.Emma Mackey was awarded the honour earlier this year.Now in its nineteenth year, it stands as the only EE BAFTA Film Awards category to be voted for by the British public, reinforcing EE’s commitment to become the UK’s most personal, customer-focused brand by providing the nation with an opportunity to have their voice heard.

EXCLUSIVE: Plan B Entertainment has set a joint venture with Oscar-winning documentarian and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, known for movies including Touching The Void, One Day In September, Whitney, The Last King Of Scotland and State Of Play. 

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” an epic look at the French emperor and military leader’s rise to power, is one of the final potential awards hopefuls awaiting its first reactions from critics and pundits. As awards season approaches, Variety has learned exclusively which Oscar categories the film will be submitted for. Most notably, Vanessa Kirby will vie for best supporting actress.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first teaser trailer for anticipated Toronto Film Festival world premiere The End We Start From, starring Emmy and BAFTA winner Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) as a woman trying to get home with her baby amid an environmental disaster.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Studiocanal has boarded “A Prophet,” a new television adaptation of Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed 2009 film. The eight-episode limited series started filming on July 3, with “Django” director Enrico Maria Artale and a diverse new cast led by Mamadou Sidibé. The French-language series brings back the award-winning team behind the original film, including creators and writers Abdel Raouf Dafri (“Mesrine,” “Braquo”) and Nicolas Peufaillit (“The Returned”), as well as producer Marco Cherqui (“Savages”), in agreement with “A Prophet” producers Why Not Productions and Page 114. The show, which is filming in Marseille and Puglia, Italy, is produced by Cherqui and Sebastien Janin, former Apple exec and co-founder of Media Musketeers, and co-produced by UGC, Orange Studio and Savon Noir, with the participation of OCS. The key crew includes “Gomorra” cinematographer Ferran Paredes Rubio. Veteran Italian producer Fabio Conversi (“Youth”) is exec producing the series.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount’s Republic Pictures label has acquired North American rights to dystopian drama-thriller The End We Start From, starring BAFTA and Emmy winner Jodie Comer (Killing Eve).

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International MUBI has acquired all rights for Kevin Macdonald’s John Galliano documentary from Newen Connect. The film “High & Low — John Galliano” has sold to MUBI for North America, U.K. and Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latin America, Benelux, Turkey and India. The streamer and distributor will reveal its theatrical release plans and streaming dates in the near future. Macdonald’s credits include the Oscar-winning “One Day in September,” “Touching the Void,” “The Last King of Scotland,” “Whitney” and, most recently, “The Mauritanian.” Widely recognized as one of the most influential and successful fashion designers of our time, Galliano dressed the most beautiful and famous women in the world for almost 15 years at Givenchy and Dior. He reinvented the fashion industry by transforming his runway shows into immersive fantasies and helped turn high-fashion from an elitist niche into a multi-billion-dollar global business.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald is among the marquee names set to participate in Sheffield DocFest’s Industry Program, according to an announcement today from the U.K.’s leading documentary festival.

The Grand Tour fans have been given a look into its upcoming series as Amazon Prime Video confirmed the new show's release date.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor MAD Solutions has acquired the distribution rights to “Concrete Valley” for multiple territories. The film focuses on a Syrian family living in Toronto. The film, from Canadian-French filmmaker Antoine Bourges, premiered at Toronto Film Festival, before travelling to Berlinale, and it just screened at Jeonju. The deal covers the following territories: UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, South of Sudan and Comoro Island. The writers are Bourges and Teyama Alkamli. The producer is Shehrezade Mian at Markhor Pictures.

Veteran Lionsgate film distribution chief David Spitz is exiting the company and will be replaced by former STX Distribution veteran Kevin Grayson, Adam Fogelson, Vice Chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group announced on Friday.  Grayson was previously the President of Distribution at STX Entertainment.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has put Bandidos, a thriller series about an underwater heist, into production.

Refresh for latest… The 48th edition of France’s César Awards, the country’s equivalent to the Oscars or the UK’s BAFTA, is unfolding at Paris’s historic Olympia concert hall this evening.

EXCLUSIVE: Viveik Kalra, star of Gurinder Chadha’s Sundance 2019 musical Blinded By The Light, has been set to co-star with Indian superstar Samantha Ruth Prabhu in cross-cultural rom-com Chennai Story.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Tahar Rahim, who earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his starring roles in “A Prophet” and “The Mauritanian,” is set to play Charles Aznavour, the iconic French-Armenian singer, songwriter and actor who sold more than 180 million records around the world. Titled “Monsieur Aznavour,” the biopic will be directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films. Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist. Filming will kick off in the summer for an estimated delivery in 2024, to mark Aznavour’s centenary.

Studiocanal has boarded development on part English-language thriller Smiling Hacker which is currently being written by Audrey Diwan.

Lupin star Omar Sy has hit back at critics of comments he made about differing attitudes to the war in Ukraine and further afield conflicts, saying the attacks against him are simply an example of racism.

The Serpent and The Mauritanian star Tahar Rahim will preside over the 48th edition of France’s Cesar Awards, taking place at Paris’s historic l’Olympia concert venue on February 24.

Paul Mescal‘s breakout role may have been in 2020’s “Normal People,” but 2022 is the year the actor showcases his talents on the big screen. With starring roles in “God’s Creatures,” “Aftersun,” and “Carmen” this year, Mescal’s star is no longer just a rising talent but a bonafide star.

HanWay Films is launching worldwide sales on A Spy By Nature, a thriller starring Paul Mescal (Normal People) at AFM next month. CAA is co-repping domestic rights.

EXCLUSIVE: Christine Holder and Mark Holder are no longer executive producers of the new CBS drama series East New York, from Warner Bros Television.

Tahar Rahim has been seen on the set of Madame Web for the first time and these new photos are definitely interesting!

Naman Ramachandran Benedict Cumberbatch (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”) and Mark Strong (Venice hit “Tár”) have joined Jodie Comer on the cast of “The End We Start From.” BAFTA winning director Mahalia Belo (“Ellen”), has commenced principal photography on the film, which is based on the novel by Megan Hunter and adapted for the screen by Alice Birch (“Normal People,” “Succession”). Also joining the cast are Joel Fry (“Cruella”), Gina McKee (“Line Of Duty”), Katherine Waterston (“Fantastic Beasts”) and Nina Sosanya (“Screw”). In the film, when an environmental crisis sees London submerged by flood waters, a young family is torn apart in the chaos.

EXCLUSIVE: That hot package Deadline first told you about at Cannes, the feature thriller The End We Start From from Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch, is adding Katherine Waterston. She will star opposite BAFTA and Primetime Emmy winner Jodie Comer in the London-set environmental crisis movie about a mother who with her newborn child tries to find a way home amid chaotic floods. Waterston we hear will play the character of ‘O’.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKevin Macdonald’s drama thriller “The Mauritanian” is poised to receive a belated theatrical release in mainland China.The film, which charts the ordeal of a man held without trial at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, will hit Chinese theaters on Aug. 23, 2022. That is more than a year after its theatrical outing in North America and multiple international markets in February 2021.International rights to the picture were handled by STX International.

K.J. Yossman James Norton is no stranger to playing less than salubrious characters thanks to his turns as psychopath Tommy Lee Royce in “Happy Valley” and a Russian mafia boss’s son in “McMafia.” In “Rogue Agent” he once again steps into the skin of a man whose moral compass is, to put it lightly, skewed.

Tatiana Leite at Bubbles Project has unveiled a fulsome production slate which suggests a beginning of tentative film production renaissance in Brazil, driven by renewed state subsidy lines and the promise of regime change at October’s general elections.According to Leite, one of Brazil’s most energetic international co-producers, Bubbles has currently three feature films in post-production and seven in development. The titles in post are:*Horror film “A Herança” (“Birthright”), the feature debut of João Cândido Zacharias, in which Bubble teams as a majority producer with Sony Pictures International Production and Kromaki Filmes.