‘Morbius’ Director Daniel Espinosa Eyes May Shoot for “Madame Luna” (EXCLUSIVE)

Marta Balaga Danish helmer Lone Scherfig is already developing the second season of “The Shift”, she revealed on Monday during an online Berlinale Series Market talk “From Film to Series.”Set in a maternity ward and starring Sofie Gråbøl and Pål Sverre Hagen, it’s the first series as a showrunner for Scherfig, who in 2019 opened Berlinale with “The Kindness of Strangers” and won a Silver Bear for “Italian for Beginners.”“It’s a tribute to the people who work in the healthcare system under extreme pressure, to the care and the love they show, even despite tough working conditions,” she said. “The Shift” is produced by Creative Alliance, with Beta Film handling the sales.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento International has closed major sales on Ursula Meier’s Berlin contender “The Line,” and “Boy from Heaven” by Tarik Saleh, the Swedish-Egyptian helmer of “The Nile Hilton Incident.” A religious and political thriller, “Boy From Heaven” is set in Cairo, in a Koranic school following the collapse of a grand imam which marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence.The movie is headlined by Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares, who previously starred in “The Nile Hilton Incident.” Saleh’s Stockholm-based outfit Atmo is producing the movie with Memento. Memento International has sold the film to Benelux (Cineart), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Cinobo), Hungary (Vertigo) and Middle East (Falcon). Other territories in negotiation.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentEmmy-winning “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor will be the protagonist of Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher’s next film “La Chimera,” which is set in the world of archeological looting and is currently shooting in and around Southern Tuscany.O’Connor, who in “The Crown” played the young Prince Charles, in “La Chimera” is playing a young British archeologist named Arthur who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s.Also starring in “La Chimera,” which can be loosely translated as “The Unrealizable Dream,” are Isabella Rossellini as a retired opera singer; Brazilian actor Carole Duarte (“The Invisible Life”) who plays another non-Italian woman who intersects with Arthur; Alba Rohrwacher as an international artifacts trafficker; and Vincenzo Nemolato (“Martin Eden”) who plays one of the “tombaroli,” literally grave robbers, as artifacts thieves are known in Italy. “‘La Chimera’ is the story of a young English archaeologist who gets involved in the underground world of the ‘tombaroli,’ the nocturnal raiders of Etruscan tombs,” the director said in a statement.Rohrwacher added that the film “is the final piece of a triptych on territory that I started with ‘The Wonders’ and which poses a central question: what to do with the past?” “Is the past merely a lost world, or does it intimately concern our present?,” Rohrwacher asks.“The Wonders,” which screened in Competition in 2014 at Cannes, winning the Grand Prix, was followed in 2018 by “Happy as Lazzaro” that also launched from the Croisette where it scooped the award for best screenplay.

EXCLUSIVE: Shooting upcoming Netflix pic Against The Ice was no straightforward task, as its stars and director reveal to Deadline in a first interview as a trio.

Christopher Vourlias Germany’s Sola Media has closed a wave of international sales for the animated feature “Finnick,” produced by Riki Group, which will be released by Sony Pictures Russia in Russia and CIS on March 24.The CGI-animated comedy follows the adventures of 13-year-old Christine, who befriends the young prankster Finnick – one of the furry and usually invisible beings known as Finns. The odd couple has to team up as detectives to solve the mysterious events happening in their city.The Stuttgart-based sales agency has inked deals with Eagle Pictures (Italy), Independent Films (Benelux), Koch Films (German/Austria/Switzerland), Vertigo Releasing (U.K.), Tanweer (Greece), Selmer Media (Scandinavia), Myndform (Iceland), Rialto (Australia and New Zealand), and Black Sheep Films (South Africa), and holds exclusive distribution rights in multiple additional territories.

Manori Ravindran International EditorMia Wasikowska will take on the lead role in “Little Joe” director Jessica Hausner’s cult thriller “Club Zero,” Variety can reveal.The Australian actor will portray an unusual schoolteacher in Hausner’s second English-language film, which begins shooting in the U.K. and Austria in July.Wasikowska was most recently seen in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes-premiering film “Bergman Island.”In “Club Zero,” Wasikowska’s teacher takes a job at an elite school and forms a strong bond with five students — a relationship that eventually takes a dangerous turn.Discussing the film at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event last year, Hausner described the film as “a lot about eating,” relating to eating disorders and “eating behaviors.” This will be Hausner’s sixth feature.

Three people were injured in a shooting Saturday morning outside a West Los Angeles restaurant frequented by celebrities following a Justin Bieber concert, authorities say. The shooting occurred just before 3 a.m.

EXCLUSIVE: Tom Welling (Smallville, Lucifer) has signed on to star in Deep Six, an action-thriller from writer-director Scott Windhauser (Death in Texas).

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorGlobal Screen has closed a raft of presales for 3D-animated feature film “My Fairy Troublemaker,” and will present new scenes to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market.The film has been sold to U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Australia and New Zealand (Rialto), Spain and Portugal (Big Picture Films), Italy (Koch), Scandinavia (Selmer Media), Poland (Kino Swiat), CIS (Silver Box), Ukraine (UFD), Baltics (Garsu Pasaulio), former Yugoslavia (Karantanija), Bulgaria (Pro Films), Middle East (Gulf Film), South Korea (Big Film), Malaysia (Suraya) and Vietnam (Lightening McQueen).In the film, Violetta, a cheeky fairy, smuggles herself into the human world.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorAltered Innocence has picked up all U.S. rights to Isabelle Stever’s sixth feature film “Grand Jeté” prior to its premiere on Friday in the Panorama section of Berlinale. The film stars Sarah Nevada Grether as Nadja, a woman who has estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Leading Italian sales company The Open Reel has snagged the international sales rights to Pablo Garcia Perez de Lara’s latest doc, “Born to be Born,” ahead of its world premiere at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.Doc revolves around a progressive public school, the Escola Congrés-Indians, in Garcia’s native Barcelona, where preparations for an end-of-year trip of the school’s first graduating class are underway. Children learn at their own pace in the primary school which instills, above all, the values of respect and empathy for other people.“I was struck by the director’s ability to discreetly document the important educational role that the school and its educators play with these young students,” said The Open Reel founder Cosimo Santoro, adding: “They guide them through understanding and dialogue in every phase of their discussions and through any possible conflicts that may arise.” Garcia has trained his camera on children in many of his previous features and shorts.

Teresa Giudice‘s children are growing up before our eyes. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star’s second-youngest daughter, Milania, celebrated her 16th birthday on Saturday, Feb. 5. Milania looked absolutely gorgeous in a sparkly green dress at her party, which Teresa, 49, and her oldest sister Gia, 21, documented on their Instagram Stories. Her sisters Gabriella, 18, and Audriana, 13, were also at the party, as was Teresa’s fiancé, Luis Ruelas.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorWorld sales company Global Screen has released the first-look image of “Recipes for Love and Murder,” which has been chosen for Berlinale Series Market Selects lineup at the European Film Market. Acorn has the rights to the series for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.The 10-part South African and U.K.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Kompromat,” an anticipated spy thriller directed by Jerome Salle (“Zulu,” “L’Odyssée”) with Gilles Lellouche (“The Stronghold”) and Joanna Kulig (“Cold War”), has been sold by SND to distributors in key territories. Inspired by a true story, “Kompromat” stars Lellouche as a French diplomat working Siberia who discovers he is being framed by FBI and has to find his way out of the trap.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentShowrun by “An Education” director Lone Scherfig and anchored by the performance of “The Killing” star Sofie Gråbøl playing opposite “Kon-Tiki” lead Pål Sverre Hagen, “The Shift’s” key talent credentials mark it out immediately as one of potential standout Scandinavian series of 2022.Selection for both Berlinale Series and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, announced Feb. 2, merely confirms that promise.Sales company Beta Film shared a trailer with Variety just before the series’ presentation at the Göteborg Festival’s TV Drama Vision on Feb. 2.In “The Shift,” Gråbøl plays Ella, a head midwife at Denmark’s best maternity ward who secretly yearning for her own.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVice Distribution, the media brand’s commercial arm, has secured a new content partnership with leading Nordic streamer Viaplay. Under the pact, Viaplay will feature 210 hours of Vice programming on its service in the Nordic and Baltic regions, with titles spanning true crime, investigative documentary, entertainment, sport and lifestyle.The partnership with Viaplay — which covers Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — follows a string of similar deals recently signed by Vice Distribution with key platforms such as Pluto TV, Roku, Globo Brazil, and Discovery U.S.

Naman Ramachandran In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.Maria Schrader, an Emmy winner for directing the Netflix series “Unorthodox,” is also a Berlin Silver Bear winning actor for “Aimée & Jaguar” (1999). Her latest feature “I’m Your Man” follows a scientist (Maren Eggert, “Giraffe”) who agrees to live for three weeks with a humanoid robot (Dan Stevens, “Downton Abbey”) designed to make her happy.

Video: Joe Rogan continues to ignore covid science even as he reads it out loud (The Independent)Fight Club trailerDakota Johnson and Chris Martin make an appearance at Sundance Film Festival 2022Video released of police using force and Taser on NBA player Jaxson Hayes during arrestFBI: Brian Laundrie Admitted To Killing Gabby Petito In Notebook'No further danger': German police speaks on Heidelberg university shootingMerrill Lynch executive arrested after racist smoothie shop tiradeGermany: Lone gunman dead after mass shooting at universitySupporters display 'Trump 2024' signs ahead of Florida rallyMusician describes trip on cruise ship diverted to Bahamas to avoid US arrest warrantSophie Turner and Joe Jonas appear to marry in surprise Vegas ceremonyCOVID issues in the cruise industryPrince Harry could return to UK for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum JubileeSupreme Court Judtice Clarence Thomas criticised for conflict of interestVirginia parent threatens school board with armed response over mask mandateOmicron: Are we turning a corner?Officials using cinnamon buns to lure bear that attacked Daytona Beach manYoung reportedly requested his content be removed from Spotify due to its hosting of the Joe Rogan podcast, which has been known to air vaccine-sceptical views. Mitchell said online that she stood “in solidarity” with Young and the medical communities against “irresponsible people” who were spreading lies on the platform and “costing people their lives”.