Markus Breitenecker Joins Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE as COO, Christine Scheffler Departs

Lise Pedersen “The Return of the Projectionist,” which is running in the main competition at Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel, where it will have its world premiere, has been picked up by Paris-based doc specialist Cat&Docs. The feature debut of Orkhan Aghazadeh, it tells the story of Samid, a former projectionist in Azerbaijan’s remote Talysh mountains, who is determined to bring cinema back to life in his village using his old Soviet film projector.

THE TRIP TO Baden-Baden didn’t go as planned. Last summer, Imax CEO Rich Gelfond touched down in the German city for a conference of theater owners, looking to hype the blockbusters that were about to unspool on the company’s football-field-sized screens. But instead of excitement, Gelfond was greeted with outrage.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Add “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper to the list of non-traditional commentators taking part in NBCUniversal’s activities around the 2024 Paris Olympics. Cooper will lead “Watch with Alex Cooper,” a series of interactive watch parties that will stream on NBCU’s Peacock during Olympics activity.

Alex Rider is coming to an end.

Alex Ritman French TV giant Banijay is losing its second C-suite exec in just over a month. The company has confirmed to Variety that COO Peter Langenberg is departing, with his last day set to be March 31. Langenberg will remain with Banijay on a consultancy basis in the ESG (environment, social and governance) space.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran actor and comedian Eddie Griffin has signed with Independent Artist Group across the board, Deadline has learned.

A Succession-style boardroom battle is playing out in Europe.

BBC Buys HBO Max Thriller ‘Spy/Master‘

EXCLUSIVE: Rockmond Dunbar has joined the recurring cast of Peacock‘s upcoming limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, starring and executive produced by Kevin Hart. This marks Dunbar’s first acting job since he was terminated from 9-1-1 in 2021 over not complying with the studio’s Covid vaccine mandate after his requests for a medical and religious exemptions were rejected. The actor subsequently filed a $1M lawsuit against Disney over the firing, with the case now headed to trial.

Annette Bening‘s first major TV series role has won the five-time Oscar nominee the Best Actress prize at this year’s Series Mania.

(Updated with  Laurene Powell Jobs statement) The fight for the future of the Walt Disney Company got very fast and furious this morning.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Call it a daytime double. Steve Harvey, who has become an almost ubiquitous presence on TV through his host duties of both a daytime talk show as well as the long-running game show “Family Feud,” is teaming up with Dr. Phil.

EXCLUSIVE: Bridgerton star Shelley Conn has boarded Beta Film thriller series Wisting‘s third season.

Scripted formats were placed front and center of BBC Studios’ panel at Series Mania, as the Doctor Who seller confirmed it is making up to three more versions of Ghosts and has bought Spain’s Brutal Media.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the broadcaster, has acquired Spanish producer Brutal Media. Founded in 2009, Brutal Media’s credits include the recently announced original miniseries for Netflix, “Asalto Al Banco Central,” “The Academy” (Sony Pictures Television), “Vintage” (3cat), film “Killer Book Club” (Netflix), series “Welcome to Eden” (Netflix) and “The Hockey Girls” (Netflix, 3Cat), documentaries “The End of the Storm” (Sky TV, Liverpool FC) and “Murder by the Coast” (Netflix) and romantic comedy “I Love You Stupid” (Netflix).

Lise Pedersen Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has unveiled the program for its 55th edition, which includes 10 first films out of 15 in the main international competition, cementing its reputation as a springboard for emerging talent. The official selection includes 165 films from 50 countries, with gender parity for the second-year running, and no fewer than 88 world premieres, making VdR the place to be in April on the international non-fiction film calendar.

EXCLUSIVE: Coming off his breakout role in Zone of Interest, Christian Friedel has signed with UTA for representation.

Netflix‘s upcoming arctic comedy finally has a name and has rounded out cast, as it goes into production in snowy Nunavut, Canada.

Netflix‘s upcoming arctic comedy finally has a name and has rounded out cast, as it goes into production in snowy Nunavut, Canada.

Ethan Shanfeld After the release of her latest film “Origin,” director Ava DuVernay was vocal about her disappointment that the movie failed to garner widespread attention or awards buzz. Now, the X/Twitter account for “Origin” is taking aim at the distributor Neon, calling out the company for not inviting the filmmakers to its Oscar party. Quote-tweeting a photo from the party, the account posted one day after the Academy Awards: “Is it odd that the filmmakers of Neon’s current film in theaters weren’t invited to this Neon celebration? Nope.