Lungyin Lim’s Giant Swordfish Thriller ‘Malice’ Boarded by Lonely Production (EXCLUSIVE)

above. The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Aug.

EXCLUSIVE: Next Productions, a subsidiary of sales agency The Exchange, has boarded production, financing and sales of concentration camp survival and escape drama Untold, with Oscar-winning director Aaron Schneider attached to direct.

The deadline for submissions for the International Film Oscar is less than two months away. While some nations’ selections have been announced (South Korea selecting “Decision to Leave“) or are obvious (“Close” for Belgium), others are very up in the air.

Chris Cornwell, who has written on A Discovery of Witches and Strike Back, has created and written a heist  drama A Theft of Lies (working title) for Germany’s ZDF Studios and British indie Three Tables Productions.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Faroese-born emerging director Andrias Høgenni, winner of a Canal+ award at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021 with his short film “Illi illa meint,” just got married this summer. His project “Anything for Her,” introduced at this year’s Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, is precisely about a wedding, and much more. Family conflicts, especially with step-parents involved, and the uniquely chaotic nature of a Faroese wedding set in a tightly-knit community of 52,000 souls. Spearheaded by Danish production partners Johannes Rothaus Nørregaard of Studiocanal-backed SAM Productions (“Borgen”) and Rikke Tambo Andersen of Tambo Film (“The Penultimate”), the project has secured co-production partners from France and the Faroe Islands, Variety has learned.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Danish international sales and aggregation outfit LevelK has boarded the thought-provoking drama “Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures” by award-winning Portuguese director Marco Martins, which world premieres in main competition at next month’s San Sebastian Film Festival.  Hailed by Variety as “a powerful study of intense grief,” Martin’s debut feature, “Alice,” won the Prix Regards Jeune at Cannes in 2005. The story unravels three months before Brexit, as hundreds of migrants descend on the UK village of Great Yarmouth seeking work in the region’s turkey processing plants. Once there, Tânia greets them with matronly authority, taking charge as innkeeper, accountant, and fixer. As she’s forced to deceive them, her conscience grows heavy and she dreams of a brighter, seemingly unattainable, future transforming derelict hotels into modern retreats for elderly tourists.

Will Tizard Contributor Following outrage from Czech and international producers, the Czech Republic is bringing back its film production incentives – but at a reduced rate that’s being called a stop-gap measure until a new law can fully restore them. Czech President Milos Zeman has signed a new act to keep the incentives at 20% of rebate on cash spent – lagging behind the 30% rate now in play in Hungary and Poland and also trailing Slovakia and Germany, who each offer 25%. The new law also caps the fund available for rebates at about $6 million per project, a limit that the head of the Czech Film Commission, Pavlina Zipkova, says “is going against the pure sense of production incentives, which is to attract inward investment.”

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe international trailer has been debuted for Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears,” which has its world premiere on Sept. 9 in competition at Venice Film Festival, before moving to Toronto Film Festival and New York Film Festival. Celluloid Dreams, which is handling world sales, has revealed territory deals with several distributors.

Stephan Schäfer is exiting his post at German media giant RTL Deutschland after less than a year, amid a management restructure that follows the takeover of publishing company Gruner + Jahr.

EXCLUSIVE: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it her below.

Carson Burton “Dr. Seuss Baking Challenge” will be hosted by actress and producer Tamera Mowry-Housley, Amazon announced as they greenlit the show. Pastry chef Clarice Lam and cake designer/pastry chef Joshua John Russell are also joining the series as judges.“Dr.

Naman Ramachandran During his eclectic career so far British actor Shubham Saraf has played a variety of roles.Saraf, who studied at the U.K.’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and France’s École Philippe Gaulier, played an aristocrat in newly independent India in Mira Nair’s BBC/Netflix series “A Suitable Boy”; a policeman in Netflix procedural “Criminal: U.K.” and a PR advisor in Jed Mercurio’s BBC series “Bodyguard.”The actor stars opposite Charlie Hunnam and Alexander Siddig in the upcoming Apple TV+ adaptation of Gregory David Roberts’ bestseller “Shantaram,” which tells the story of a heroin addict and convicted bank robber who, in the 1980s, flees Australia to India, where he reinvents himself as a doctor and a gangster in the slums of Bombay. Saraf’s role is under wraps at the moment but he describes the process as an “intense life-altering experience.” Once cast, in the middle of COVID-19, Saraf’s life was “upended at short notice” and he shot in Thailand and Australia for six months after spending two weeks in quarantine in each country.

Zsuzsi Bánkuti Appointed Head Of Locarno’s Open Doors

Naman Ramachandran The Indian government has approved an audiovisual co-production treaty with Australia, designed to promote joint production of films between the two countries.While details are currently scarce, producer contributions from the two countries can vary from 20% to 80% of the final total cost of the jointly produced work.“Australia has emerged as a preferred destination for shooting of Indian films. India is fast emerging as a major content hub for filmmakers looking for new projects.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is, quite literally, the poster girl for supermodel skin. Known for her seriously glowy complexion, it felt only right when the former Victoria's Secret Angel announced the launch of her beauty brand, Rose Inc, around this time last year.

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.

Lukas Nathrath’s One Last Evening Wins Locarno Pro’s First Look Prize

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“The Batman” actor Andy Serkis is set to showrun and direct “Madame!,” an epic period series about the life of Marie Tussaud, the visionary French artist known for her wax sculptures and the world-famous museum Madame Tussauds.Newen Connect, the distribution arm of TF1 Group-owned Newen Studios, has signed a deal with Imaginarium Productions, the company founded by Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish, to co-develop and distribute the series which Serkis created. Cavendish will produce alongside Marie Guillaumond at Felicita Films.The compelling series will shed light on this ruthless yet pioneering business woman who built her business, starting in 18th century Paris, during the age of enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, before travelling to England.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentOne year after she dazzled at the Cannes Festival, winning its Golden Eye for best documentary for “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” Payal Kapadia’s fiction debut “All We Imagine as Light,” has attracted the most potent production partner support of any project introduced at this year’s Locarno Match Me!“Night’s” producers. Petit Chaos’ Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff  in France and Ranabir Das (also DP and editor on “Night”) at India’s Another Birth will produce “Light.”Also on board, confirmed early July, is Oliver Pere at Arte France Cinéma.  Further co-producers take in Zico Maitra and Aastha Singh (Chalk & Cheese, India), Frank Hoeve (Baldr, Netherlands), Gilles Chanial (Les Films Fauves, Luxembourg and, in the latest addition to partners, Denise Lee and Roberto Minervini (Pulpa Films, Italy).

Marta Balaga Paris-based Tomsa Films will co-produce Andrei Epure’s first feature “Don’t Let Me Die.” The company, created in 2018, is also behind Laura Samani’s acclaimed Cannes Critics’ Week premiere “Small Body” and documentary “Zaho Zay.”“Don’t Let Me Die” follows the consequences of a woman’s death in front of her apartment building. Her neighbor, Maria, is interrogated by the police and eventually takes charge of the funeral.