Loco Films Scoops Global Rights to Psychedelic Annecy Competition Player ‘Rock Bottom’ (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Synchronicity Films is adapting Hanif Kureishi’s The Body as a series with the novelist and screenwriter on board as an exec producer and Emmy-nominated director Paul McGuigan attached. There are scripts from crime writer Robert Murphy and the producers will relocate the action from the UK to the U.S. for the series.

Peaky Blinders star Sam Claflin has been spotted filming scenes in the city centre for an upcoming drama for Amazon Prime.

Alex Ritman CAA has signed Cash Carraway, the Irish-English writer, director and exec producer best known for creating the HBO series “Rain Dogs.” Carraway’s first TV production, “Rain Dogs” — a bleak British dramedy about an unconventional relationship between a working-class single mother, her young daughter and a privileged gay man — was met with critical acclaim when it aired in March 2023. The eight-part series starred Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo and Fleur Tashjian, and later earned a Gotham Award nomination for best breakthrough series, while Carraway was named a BAFTA Breakthrough.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed further deals for Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,”following the North American deal with Strand Releasing and the first international sales previously announced by Variety.The film has been acquired by Nour Films in France, One From the Heart in Greece, Mezipatra in Czech Republic and Slovakia, HBO Europe in Eastern Europe, Beta Film in Bulgaria and Falcon in Indonesia, in addition to the already announced deals with Vedette in the Benelux, Karma in Spain, Trigon in Switzerland and Lev in Israel.Films Boutique is in negotiations with potential buyers in the U.K., Latin America, Germany and Japan.Additionally, New Voice Film Productions Ltd. secured distribution deals with Golden Scene for Hong Kong and Macau and Flash Forward Entertainment in Taiwan.“All Shall Be Well” is written and directed by Yeung and was produced by Yeung’s frequent collaborator Michael J.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a big one in the European M&A world. Beta Film has taken a stake in Number 9 TV, a new small screen subsidiary of Carol and Living producer Number 9 Films.

EXCLUSIVE:  In advance of next week’s Sheffield DocFest, London and New York-based banner Together Films is launching a new Impact Distribution Campaign Fund & Accelerator dubbed Climate Action Together. The fund is designed to amplify powerful films addressing the climate crisis. 

A new diversity progress report reveals that LGBTQ+ representation increased in film during 2023 but fell in series TV, as did shows with Black actors.

Jamie Lang Pyramide Films will handle sales of the stop-motion animated feature film “Olivia and The Invisible Earthquake,” Variety has learned. Based on Maite Carranza’s children’s novel “The Movie Of Life,” — which has sold more than 24,000 copies in Spain — the film focuses on 12-year-old Olivia. She sees her life collapse when her family is evicted from their home.

Marta Balaga Ricard Claus and Karsten Kiilerich’s kids and family animated feature “Panda Bear in Africa” is continuing its long journey and heading to France (Le Pacte), Switzerland (Praesens) and the Benelux territories (WW Entertainment) after a raft of sales by the film’s sales agent Cinema Management Group. In early fall, it will also release in the Middle East (Front Row Entertainment), Poland (Kino Świat), Portugal (Films4You) and Turkey (Filmarti).

Jamie Lang Beverly Hills-based Cinema Management Group has closed a first round of distribution deals for the animated kids and family feature “Buffalo Kids,” screening in this year’s Annecy Presents section at the prestigious French festival. Adapted from the short film “Cuerdas” (“Strings”), “Buffalo Kids” is a frontier tale about two recently orphaned Irish siblings. The duo emigrate to America, landing in the urban wilderness of New York City, where their uncle Niall was meant to pick them up.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Madrid-based Begin Again Films has nabbed Santiago Maza’s Mexican documentary “State of Silence,” produced by Diego Luna and La Corriente del Golfo, the shingle he runs with Gael García Bernal. The sales agency and distributor, which acquired international rights with the exception of North America and Latin America, has also unveiled the film’s first trailer.

Jamie Lang Celebrated Spanish filmmaker María Trénor’s debut feature “Rock Bottom” will premiere in the main competition at this year’s Annecy Festival, and she has given Variety exclusive access to the film’s first trailer. Produced by leading Catalan producer Alba Sotorra, the film is inspired by the life and music of U.K. artist Robert Wyatt.

EXCLUSIVE: Just a few months into its time on Netflix, the Millie Bobby Brown-led fantasy pic Damsel has entered into the streamer’s list of Most Popular Top 10 Films (English) at #8, with 137.2M views after 87 days.

Simon Cowell is embarking on a new kind of talent search.

Annika Pham Leading Barcelona-based production outfit Oberon Media (“Wild Flowers, “Holy Mother”) has confirmed co-financiers on “The Turtles” (“Los Tortuga”), the anticipated sophomore feature by the multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”). Besides sales agent Film Factory Entertainment and Spanish distributor A Contracorriente Films who came on board at an early stage, the round of co-financiers includespublic broadcasters RTVE for Spain, TVC (Televisió de Catalunya) for Catalonia and Andalusia’s Canal Sur, as well as Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator Movistar Plus+.

EXCLUSIVE: Abbi Jacobson, co-creator and star of Broad City and A League of Their Own, has found her next project.

Naman Ramachandran Siddharth Roy Kapur‘s Roy Kapur Films (RKF), in collaboration with Trickitainment Media, is set to produce a biopic on Sukumar Sen, India’s first Chief Election Commissioner. RKF’s latest project follows the success of SonyLIV series “Rocket Boys,” a fictionalized version of the story of Dr. Homi J.

EXCLUSIVE: Growing specialty distributor 3388 Films has acquired rights to Vietnamese smash Face Off 7: One Wish, and has set the weekend of June 14 to launch in numerous markets, including the U.S., Canada and the UK.

Kelly Rowland stole many red carpet headlines from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with a visible confrontation with a female security officer as she made her way up the famous steps and into the Palais.

Renée Zellweger has been giving London a Hollywood glow while filming the hotly anticipated new instalment of the Bridget Jones series. Looking like the character fans know and love, the 55-year-old Oscar-winning actress was seen merrily waving at thrilled fans as she roamed about Hackney around 8pm on Wednesday, May 22.