Olympic Gold Medalist Chloe Kim Signs With Buchwald (EXCLUSIVE)

Holly Jones Coinciding with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has provided Variety with an exclusive peek at the trailer for Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s (“Jesus”) thriller, “Blanquita.” Based on the young witness at the center of the Spinak case, a scandal involving Chilean pedophilia and prostitution networks that rocked the country, the film grapples with morality and the struggle towards justice for those without means. In the film, Blanca (Laura López) leads investigators, and the public, on a baffling journey as she plants herself at the center of a trial against powerful politicians.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Adding to its slate of auteurs from all over the world, Raphael Berdugo’s Cité Films has boarded “The Fire Doll,” from Chilean director-to-track Niles Atallah (“Rey”) and “Left Over,” from San Sebastian Gold Shell winning Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu (“Pandora’s Box”). Produced by Catalina Vergara at Chile’s Globo Rojo Films, “The Fire Doll” (“La muñeca de fuego”) is one of the 14 projects to be pitched at this month’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of the Spanish festival’s centerpiece industry events. Atallah, whose second film, “Rey,” won a Rotterdam Special Jury Prize in 2017, turns in “The Fire Doll” to the transformation process experienced by a 9-year-old girl, Aurora, who loses part of her memory and goes to her the countryside to spend Easter wither father, an alcoholic in remission.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter WWE superstar Bianca Belair has signed with WME for representation in all areas, Variety has learned exclusively. With the signing, the powerhouse Hollywood agency will work to build her business across podcasting, acting, marketing, and more. Belair was originally a track and field standout at the University of Tennessee, where she earned All-SEC and All-American Honors. She first signed with WWE in 2016, joining the sports entertainment giant’s developmental brand, NXT. During her time there, she challenged for the NXT Women’s Championship on multiple occasions and went on a winning streak that lasted just over a year.

EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Szohr, who stars in Seth MacFarlane’s Hulu drama , has signed with Buchwald. She was previously with ICM.

Manori Ravindran International Editor “The Last Days of the Space Age” creator David Chidlow has signed with CAA for representation. The writer-director works across shows in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. Most recently, he is the writer, creator and showrunner behind Disney+’s eight-part series, “The Last Days of the Space Age.” Set in 1979 Western Australia, the series is billed as a comedy drama that centers on three families whose relationships are put to the test while major social and political events — such as the Miss Universe pageant and the U.S. Space Station Skylab crashing just outside the suburb — throw everything into disarray.

Addie Morfoot ContributorThe 18th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 15, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Telluride and the Toronto film festivals.

Marta Balaga Waiting for the premiere of his first feature “Once Upon a Time in the Andes,” presented at Chile’s Sanfic Industria, Peruvian helmer Rómulo Sulca Ricra is already developing his next project. Under the working title “Ayahuanco,” it will focus on a man who, after living in Europe, comes back to Peru.“He left because of the political situation in the country – his mother was forcefully sterilized as part of former president Alberto Fujimori’s 1990s birth control policy.

Anna Marie de la Fuente It’s been a banner year for Chile’s audiovisual industry. According to statistics compiled by promotional org CinemaChile, the country’s cinema amassed 45 international awards during the first half of 2022.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterShowrunner, playwright, and performer Rick Cleveland has signed with APA for representation, Variety has learned exclusively. Cleveland will continue to be represented by Rain as well as attorney Ken Richman at Hansen Jacobson TellerCleveland is a six-time Emmy nominee, winning the award for best writing for a drama series alongside Aaron Sorkin for the first season episode of “The West Wing” titled “In Excelsis Deo.” Cleveland was then nominated three times as part of the producing time on the hit HBO series “Six Feet Under” and again as part of the producing teams behind the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” and the Netflix series “House of Cards.”Cleveland has also worked on a number of other critically-acclaimed shows.

Ellia Green, Australian Olympic gold medalist and former rugby union player, came out as transgender on Tuesday. Green, the first Olympian to come out as a transgender man, represented Australia in the women’s rugby sevens, winning Gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Green came out in a heartfelt speech at the opening of the Bingham Cup’s international summit on ending transphobia and homophobia in sports. Bingham Cup also known as the Gay Rugby World Cup, is the world’s largest amateur rugby union tournament, and is named after Mark Bingham, a hero of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Camila José Donoso (“Naomi Campbel”) is gearing up to shoot her fourth pic, “Antitropical,” with Roberto Doveris’ Niña Niño Films producing. The docu-fiction hybrid will be filmed much like a documentary over various months, starting late October, that will stretch into the next year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years.

Holly Jones In a deal negotiated by Leslie Cohen, senior vice president of acquisitions for HBO Max, the streaming platform has joined WarnerMedia OneFifty to acquire the poignant Vee Bravo documentary, “Primera,” a gripping look into the Chilean protests that proved a turning point in the fight against Pinochet-era induced economic strife.Immersive and raw, the film taps into the global collective’s urge toward positive change, following the heartbeat of this pivotal moment as local activists and citizens strive to upend a stagnant system and rewrite their constitution.“How can we trust the definition of freedom in a constitution that was written at a time when the entire labor force was kept through violence?” Bravo related. “The past is important, it informs how we move in the present.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t watched the series finale of “Better Call Saul,” Season 6 Episode 13, “Saul Gone.”In the end, Jimmy McGill unbroke bad. Just when it looked like Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) had finessed his way into a sweet plea agreement — just seven years at the most country club-like of correctional facilities (low-security FCI Butner Low, which even has a golfing program!) — he reversed course and confessed all, in Monday night’s series finale of AMC’s “Better Call Saul.”It was a finale rife with references to regret, time machines and how there’s “no shame in going back and changing your path,” as Chuck McGill (played by Michael McKean, who returns in a flashback) tells his younger brother.

SPOILER ALERT: This post reveals major details about the series finale of Better Call Saul and some key moments of Breaking Bad.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s Better Call Saul series finale 

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMarc Guggenheim has signed with CAA for representation, Variety has learned exclusively.Guggenheim continues to be represented by attorney Wendy Kirk at Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole LLP as well as by manager Cliff Roberts at Syndicate Entertainment.Guggenheim is perhaps best known for his work in The CW’s so-called Arrowverse — its collection of shows based on DC Comics characters. He co-created the first of those shows, “Arrow,” along with Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In one of the first deals struck at Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria, local indie producers Matias de Bourguignon and Equeco have boarded the Venezuelan drama “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” (“Mutaré como animal del monte”), the feature debut of rising Venezuelan talent Hector Silva.Lead produced by Berlin-based Venezuelan producer Rodolfo Cova whose credits include Venice Golden Lion winner “From Afar” and Michel Franco’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “Las Hijas de Abril,” “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” is among the 28 titles in the Sanfic Industria Santiago Lab which supports Ibero-American projects in development.De Bourguignon and Equeco join international co-producers Pomme Hurlante Films (France), Artrupe Films (Brazil) and Abismo Cine (Ecuador) who were also drawn to the feature debut of Silva whose award-winning short films have played in prominent film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Tribeca. “Hector’s shorts deeply moved me.