Nickelodeon Launches Intergalactic Shorts Program 2.0 (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran A wealth of film and TV titles are available at launch on streamer Studiocanal Presents, which is now available as an Amazon Prime Video channel in the U.K.Some 300 films and series from Studiocanal’s catalogue are available at launch, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” in 4K; Brian Helgeland’s “Legend”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis”; a digitally restored version of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”; Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” zombie horror “Train to Busan” and Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood.”Also available are Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” award-winners “Manchester by the Sea” and “Room,” seminal titles like Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and modern British classics “Submarine” and “Four Lions.” Other recent additions include Sharon Stone classic “Basic Instinct” and John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York.” Studiocanal Presents also offers TV series showcasing the best of Studiocanal and Canal+’s own TV productions, including “Hannibal,” “Spiral” and “All the Way Up,” which broke streaming records upon its launch on Canal+ in France.A variety of new titles will launch on the channel every month, many of which can’t be streamed anywhere else in the U.K. New titles arriving include “Possessions,” “Animal Kingdom” and “The Guard.” After a seven-day free trial the service costs £4.99 ($6) a month.

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Lauritano (Big Gold Brick) today announced the launch of his Brooklyn-based production company, Black Magic, at the same time offering details as to its upcoming slate.

Quentin Dupieux’s wild comedy “Smoking Causes Coughing” rolling off its world premiere at Cannes festival’s Midnight section. Gaumont co-produced the film and is representing it in international markets.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentRising Egyptian star Amir El-Masry (“Limbo”) has been cast as the young Egyptian billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed, the former Harrods owner, in the upcoming fifth season of Netflix’s “The Crown,” Variety can reveal.Netflix confirmed the casting but declined to provide further details.As previously reported by Variety, Salim Daw (“Oslo”) has been cast as the older incarnation of Mohamed al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed, who was romantically linked to Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both died in a car crash in Paris, France on Aug. 31, 1997.Born in Cairo and raised in London, Amir El Masry broke out internationally in 2016 with a small standout role as a hotel chef opposite Tom Hiddleston in Susanne Bier-directed mini-series “The Night Manager.” He more recently garnered critical praise for his role as Syrian asylum-seeker living on a small Scottish island in Ben Sharrock’s drama “Limbo” for which El Masry won a BAFTA Scotland acting award.

Variety watches the shorts in Annecy’s main competition selection and picks 10 of our favorites. We’re not saying these are the best 10 shorts this year, though four won prizes, but we believe each brings something that shouldn’t be missed.“Anxious Body,” (Yoriko Mizushiri, France, Japan)Screening at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Mizushiri’s fourth short and the first project co-produced by Japanese New Deer and France’s Miyu Productions.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticBelgian graphic artist Laurent Durieux has designed some of the most gorgeous movie posters of the past decade, working not for the studios but in custom-published runs just for collectors and fans. You’ve probably seen his work: intricate, finely tooled reimaginings of classic films — “Jaws,” “King Kong” and “Casablanca,” to name a few — produced as limited-edition screenprints by companies such as Mondo, resold on eBay for thousands of dollars.Durieux’s retrofuturist designs have appeared on everything from bottles of Francis Ford Coppola’s wine to the cover of The New Yorker.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBeta Cinema will handle international sales on “The Fox,” a drama about an Austrian soldier and his friendship with a wounded fox cub, set during World War II. Alamode Filmverleih will release the film in German-speaking territories in early 2023.The film is directed by Adrian Goiginger, whose directorial debut “The Best of All Worlds” became a break-out hit after premiering at the Berlinale in 2017, winning more than 100 awards around the world.Beta Cinema will introduce “The Fox” to select international buyers at the German Previews, the annual industry event organized by German Films in Munich from June 20-23.“The Fox” is the true story of Franz Streitberger, Goiginger’s great-grandfather, a motorcycle courier for the Austrian army, which was incorporated into the German Wehrmacht.

Lise Pedersen Six teams of budding animation professionals have pitched their projects at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival as part of a new mentoring program for women from France and Africa launched by Les Femmes s’Animent (LFA), an organization that supports women in animation.The aim of the initiative, entitled “A Woman’s Journey,” is to help women who want to create short animated films but are not part of, nor have access to, the animation industry.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has launched FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) service NatureTime. NatureTime will be available as a free streaming service in markets where the Love Nature brand is already established as a linear service. Content will be windowed in strategic ways to set each brand apart – i.e.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorDark Star Pictures has acquired distribution rights in North America for Australian gay love story “Lonesome,” directed by Craig Boreham. Following its world premiere at the Seattle Intl.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMusic Box Films has acquired North American rights to “Rodeo,” the bold feature debut of Lola Quivoron which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Coup de Cœur du Jury special prize. Produced by Charles Gillibert (“Annette”) at CG Cinema and represented by Les Films du Losange, “Rodeo” stars newcomer Julie Ledrue a Julia, a hot tempered and fiercely independent young woman who infiltrates an underground dirt bike community in France.After a chance meeting at an urban ‘Rodeo,’ Julia finds herself drawn into a clandestine and volatile clique and striving to prove herself to the ultra-masculine group, but is she is faced with a series of escalating demands that will make or break her place in the community.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentBack in Japan after his Korean-language drama “Broker” won two prizes at this year’s Cannes festival, Kore-eda Hirokazu appeared as a press event in Tokyo on Tuesday to announce the launch of a group of industry professionals who aim for structural reform of the Japanese film industry.The group calls itself the “Association for the Establishment of a Japanese Version of CNC.” The reference is to France’s government-backed oversight body, the Centre National du Cinema et de l’Image Animee. Kore-eda noted the low incomes and long working hours of freelance filmmakers and emphasized the need for reform.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMediawan Kids and Family’s Method Animation, the prestige animation label behind “The Little Prince,” is set to reboot “Le Manège Enchanté” (“The Magic Roundabout”), the iconic 1960’s French stop-motion animation series.The new show, whose first season will comprise 52 episodes of 11 minutes each, will be aimed at a pre-school audiences. Founded by Aton Soumache, Method Animation has a stellar track record with reboots of cult franchises, from “Robin Hood” to “The Little Prince,” as well as with original IP’s such as “Miraculous” (produced with ZAG).

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFortified by top executive appointments, London-based Academy Award winning Passion Pictures is driving powerfully into long-form animation.It has already produced episodes of cult Netflix series “Love, Death & Robots” – “Life Hatch” and “Ice,” which scored three Emmy Awards – as well as Netflix’s “Headspace,” Disney’s “101 Dalmatian Street” and Nickelodeon’s “Lego City Adventures.”Building on that, Passion will unveil two new projects, “Greetings from the Apocalypse” and “Love,” at the MIFA TV Series & Specials Pitches on June 16. Passion is the only company to have two titles in this category which currently packs a lot of the excitement and innovation at the cutting edge of current animation.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKinology (“Annette”) has closed a raft of deals on two highlights from its slate, “Argonuts,” an animated feature produced by TAT Productions, the banner behind “The Jungle Bunch,” and Emmanuel Mouret’s “Diary of a Fleeting Affair” which premiered at Cannes. A Pixar/Dreamworks-style family film, “Argonuts” is a comedy adventure set in a magical yet hostile world of Greek mythology. It follows the journey of Pathie, a young, smart and daring mouse, and her mate Sam who set off to fight the most bizarre and dangerous creatures in Ancient Greece, including Poseidon himself.“Argonuts” reunites “The Jungle Bunch” director, David Alaux, and producer, Jean-François Tosti at TAT Productions.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe Banff World Media Festival revealed the winners of the 2022 Rockie Awards International Program Competition on Monday, with big winners including the “Friends” Reunion, “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “We Are Lady Parts” and more.The event, held in Banff and hosted by comedian Rakhee Morzaria (“Run the Burbs”) featured winners chosen by a panel of 150 international industry professionals. The Rockie Awards International Program Competition presented awards in 28 categories spanning Documentary & Factual, Arts & Entertainment, Children & Youth, Scripted, and Podcast.The competition featured 148 nominations from 45 countries including the UK, United, Canada, Australia, France, China, Germany, Italy and Norway.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMediawan, the fast-rising pan-European production and distribution group behind “The Little Prince,” has launched a new division, Mediawan kids & family, to ramp up its activities dedicated to youth entertainment content and become a global one-stop shop. Unveiled during the Annecy Animation Film Festival, this new division will bring together Mediawan’s topnotch labels, including Aton Soumache’s thriving banner Method Animation, whose track record spans 25 years and comprises worldwide hits such as “Miraculous – Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir” (co-produced with ZAG) and “Robin Hood – Mischief in Sherwood; ON Classics, the banner behind the BAFTA-nominated, Cesar-winning “The Little Prince,” which sold 50 million tickets worldwide.

Big Bang’s T.O.P will soon be launching his very own wine label.Today (June 13), the Big Bang rapper unveiled new product images of his upcoming wine label, T’SPOT. The official brand logo features art by Kyoto-based artist Kohei Nawa, who T.O.P also tagged in his post.“Here it is- T’SPOT.

Ben Croll French studio Miyu Productions and L.A.-based Modern Magic – the event animation outfit recently launched by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” writer-director and producer Rodney Rothman and former MGM co-president of production Adam Rosenberg – will offer an international show of force as they partner on the fantasy feature “The Long Night.”Set for production in 2024, the Y.A.-skewing development project is based on an original idea by Cyril Pedrosa, a Disney trained animator turned award-winning graphic novelist; Pedrosa will also write and direct. “This film has occupied all my thoughts,” says the filmmaker.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCharades (“I Lost My Body”) has boarded “Clara Wants Some Chicken,” an animated feature directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (“The Girl Without Hands”) in the run up to this week’s Annecy Animation Festival.Produced by Dolcevita Films (“A Son”) and Miyu Productions (“Plethore de Nords”), “Clara Wants Some Chicken” will be presented in the work-in-progress section at Annecy.Comedy-laced, the animated feature follows a loving mom, Paulette, who feels guilty after unfairly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. She sets off to make a chicken with peppers, even though she doesn’t know how to cook.But how will she find a chicken on the day of a general strike? The heartwarming mother-daughter tale also touches on overcoming grief through the plot involving the recent death of the young girl’s father.