‘Million Dollar Island’ Arab Remake; ITV Plans License Renewal; Nemorin Names CCO — Global Briefs

Benedict Cumberbatch & Claire Foy To Lead Channel 4’s ‘Mog’s Christmas’ Adaptation

Ben Whishaw Unveils First Project Since BAFTA TV Win

Lambert Wilson Named President Of Locarno Jury

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia is flying the flag at the Cannes Film Festival where the kingdom’s Cultural Development Fund officially unveiled two separate film sector funds worth a total of $180 million aimed at fostering the local film industry and attracting international industry players. At a breakfast event titled “A Billion Dollar Opportunity” Mohammed Bin Dayel, who is CEO of the Cultural Development Fund, and the fund’s chief strategy and business development officer Najla AlNomair announced an investment program with a budget of $80 million “that will target film and media production, distribution and infrastructure,” said Bin Dayel. He separately announced Saudi’s first film investment fund worth $100 million.

Rose Ayling-Ellis To Lead ITV Drama ‘Code Of Silence’

London TV Screenings Unveils 2024 Dates

And that future coronation will be way more modern than Charles's, which Prince William himself helped plan. William, and his wife, Kate Middleton, want to make the next coronation more relevant to modern Britain, per the report. King Charles III's Coronation respected royal tradition with an elaborate ceremony at Westminster Abbey and an “homage of the people,” a controversial element in which the people are invited to swear their allegiance to the new king.

Brock Media Pushes Into Podcasts

The Blue Caftan by Moroccan director and Cannes 2023 Jury member Maryam Touzani has topped the nominations in the seventh edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Prime Video To Remake South Korea’s ‘EXchange’ In Japan

‘Doctor Who’ Unveils Jonathan Groff First Look

ITV’s digital business is starting to build. The UK network’s revenue from the segment was up £24M ($30.2M) to £106M in the first quarter of 2022 on a year-on-year comparison, a 49% uptick.

William Earl Variety will present four conversations centered on global incentives and filming at Cannes Film Festival at the American Pavilion on Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Panelists from Spain, Hungary, Poland and Film Alula will participate in conversations moderated by Variety reporters John Hopewell, Leo Barraclough and Nick Vivarelli. The panels will highlight each of the region’s facilities, incentives, and filming community. Guests of the conversations will include producers, sales agents, distributors and creatives looking to learn about the different filming opportunities in these regions. Juan Manuel Guimeráns from the General Secretary Spain Film Commission will speak on the Spain Location panel. Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Madants producer; Kamila Morgisz, head of film production and film project development at the Polish Film Institute; and Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the executive board at Constantin Film will discuss production in Poland. Csaba Káel, film commissioner and chairman of the National Film Institute and Ildiko Kemeny, CEO/producer of Pioneer Stillking Films will speak about filming in Hungary. Charlene Deleon-Jones, executive director, Alula, will speak on Saudi Arabia production opportunities.

‘Gomorrah’ Writers To Adapt David Szalay Novel ‘Turbulence’

Prime Video Lines Up ‘One For All’ Series On Belgian Soccer Players

Haters gonna hate. Nick Cannon is done being the butt of everyone’s jokes while raising 11 children — and fathering 12 — with six different women.

Goodbye Weeknd, hello Abel.

Wheelhouse UK Wins First Commission With Channel 5’s ‘Puzzling’

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix on Thursday dropped its Saudi Arabian psychological thriller “The Matchmaker,” which centers on a married IT worker who becomes infatuated with a beautiful intern at his office and ventures into ground that breaks several types of local boundaries. In the film, which is directed by Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan — whose 2019 directorial debut “Last Visit” depicted Saudi’s patriarchal culture — the protagonist (Hussam Alharthy) winds up following the intern (Nour Alkhadra) to an eerie desert resort where a matchmaker (Reem Alhabib) promises men she will pair them with their perfect bride. The basic premise behind “The Matchmaker,” which is produced by disruptive Saudi shingle Telfaz 11, was to make a genre movie that played on the practice of “misyar,” a no-strings attached marriage often done secretly in Saudi society. Under the rules of “misyar” the wife waives conventional marriage rights such as cohabitation and financial support. The practice has been legal in the conservative Muslim kingdom for decades.

Prime Video Picks Up Karl Lagerfeld Doc