Pablo Fendrik Bows Latino Sci-Fi Series ‘The Shelter,’ From Starzplay, Pantaya, Fabula, Fremantle

HBO have shared the first teaser trailer for The Idol – the forthcoming drama series created by “the sick and twisted minds of” The Weekend (aka Abel Tesfaye) and Euphoria helmer Sam Levinson.Tesfaye will star in the series as a self-help guru, club owner and leader of a modern-day cult, who begins dating an up-and-coming pop artist played by Lily-Rose Depp. Little else is known about the story driving The Idol, but according to its trailer, the series will chronicle “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood”.Across just over a minute of footage, viewers are presented with an onslaught of sex, drugs, violence, corruption, choreographed dancing and the declaration that “there’s nothing about [Depp’s as-yet-unnamed character] that’s relatable”.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentContent giant Fremantle is making a big push into feature films as it expands its horizons, says group COO Andrea Scrosati who is also the multi-pronged company’s continental Europe chief.At last year’s Venice fest Fremantle, known for talent shows “X-Factor” and “American Idol” and TV series such as “The Mosquito Coast,” was flying the flag with several pics including Paolo Sorrentino’s prizewinning and Oscar-nommed “The Hand of God.” More recently at Cannes, Fremantle-produced film “The Eight Mountains” scored the jury prize. All of which, Scrosati boasts, is pretty good for just the past nine months.

EXCLUSIVE: Zoë Kravitz has rounded out the cast for her directorial debut Pussy Island, with Christian Slater (Dr. Death), Alia Shawkat (Search Party) and Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise) signing on for roles, along with Adria Arjona (Morbius), Haley Joel Osment (Goliath), Liz Caribel Sierra (God’s Time), Levon Hawke (The Crowded Room), Trew Mullen (Sunny Family Cult), Saul Williams (Akilla’s Escape), Cris Costa and Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet).

EXCLUSIVE: LA’s growing Micheaux Film Festival is to open with Travis Fimmel feature Delia’s Gone and will feature panels with Charlie Hunnam, AMPAS, Macro, Fremantle and Paramount. Scroll down for the lineup in full.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBuenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-TV market, has set dates for its 2022 edition, which promises to be the first full-on reunion of its burgeoning regional industry in three long years.Running Monday, Nov. 28 to Friday, Dec.

Ángela Aguilar has set her sights on success! The Princess of Mexican music has just signed a worldwide deal with performance-rights organization SESAC Latina, as it was announced by Variety.Always taking into consideration her parents advice, Angela has shared her thoughts on her decision to sign the deal, and how her family has influenced her to make the right choices in her professional career and personal life.“The people that I surround myself with are completely talented in what they do and they’re ambitious and creative,” she revealed, “They have so much experience that I lack of because I’m 18. Yes, I’ve been doing this since I was three years old but I’m still young and having mentors, like my parents and being under their record company [Machin Records] is an experience I’m grateful for.”The Mexican singer has achieved unimaginable things for her age, taking the Mariachi genre to the top of the Billboard regional Mexican airplay chart, with her single ‘Ahí Donde Me Ven’ from her album, ‘Mexicana Enamorada.’ The famous family are currently on tour promoting the album, joining her father Pepe Aguilar, her uncle Antonio Aguilar and her brother Leonardo Aguilar.“The experience that I have is just the four or five years of consciousness that I’ve been in this industry,” she said about her success in the music industry, “My family, of course, have told me about this struggle.

Thania Garcia Mariachi singer Angela Aguilar has signed a worldwide deal with performance-rights organization SESAC Latina. The 18-year-old singer comes from a long line of mariachi and Mexican cinema royalty – including her father, the Grammy-award-winning mariachi singer-songwriter Pepe Aguilar; the late film star and master mariachi singer Antonio Aguilar; and her grandmother, the prolific Mexican singer and actress Flor Silvestre.Having made her singing debut in 2012 at the age of nine, the singer has only continued to gain recognition.

Penny Lane is to direct Mrs. America, exploring the changing role of American womanhood through the Mrs. America Beauty Pageant’s half-century history.

Naman Ramachandran Penny Lane (“Listening to Kenny G”) will direct “Mrs. America,” a documentary which will explore the changing role of American womanhood through the Mrs.

Australia, which he’s reconfigured into a serialised television series.Titled Faraway Downs, after the cattle station that the film centres around, the six-part series will contain additional footage that was shot for the film but not used. It will feature an alternate ending – Luhrmann had previously said that three possible conclusions were shot for the film – along with an updated soundtrack.Though a release date for Faraway Downs has not yet been announced, a winter premiere has been earmarked.

Sky has put a darkly comic drama about a foul-mouthed supermarket worker in Belfast into production. Roisin Gallagher (The Fall, The Dry) and Johnny Flynn (Beast, Emma) take the leading roles in The Lovers, which is from Doctor Foster and Pure producer Drama Republic.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentGangland warfare and a Romeo and Juliet romance with a twist are the main elements of Sky Studios’ first Italian in-house production ‘Blocco 181,’ which is set against the backdrop of a gritty multi-ethnic Milan that has never appeared on screen before.The eight-episode show – which launches this week on Sky in the U.K. after making a splash in Italy – is lead-directed by London-based Italian director Giuseppe Capotondi, best known for art-heist thriller “The Burnt Orange Heresy” starring Mick Jagger as a shady art collector.“It’s a dark fable combining crime, romance, sex, and coming-of-age elements,” said Capotondi who besides directing the series, also co-penned the “Blocco 181” screenplay.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentNetflix and ‘Spencer’ director Pablo Larraín have gone into production on “El Conde,” a black comedy picturing bloody Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire.Larraín will share screenwriting credits with Guillermo Calderón, Chile’s foremost playwright and Larraín’s writing partner on “Neruda” and Berlin Grand Jury Prize winner “The Club,” the movie which persuaded Natalie Portman to play the lead in the Larraín-directed “Jackie.”“El Conde” is produced by Juan de Dios Larraín at Fabula, the Larraín brothers’ Chile-based film-TV production house whose credits include “Spencer” and “Jackie,” all Larrain’s Chilean movies, and Sebastian Lelio’s 2018 Academy Award winning “A Fantastic Woman.” Moving from fest-winning straight-arrow arthouse fare such as “Tony Manero” to movies with a wider audience appeal from 2012 Cannes Directors Fortnight winner “No,” starring Gael García Bernal and then into English-language titles from “Jackie,” Pablo Larrain has established himself in the vanguard of Latin American cinema.Whatever the setting, his movies combine an acute sense of character and big ideas, on power dyanamics, the fate of women in traditional worlds, the lure and hell of fame and also the multiple hostages left to fortune by Augusto Pinochet’s far right and bloody dictatorship.In a review of “Jackie” Variety’s Guy Lodge hailed Larraín as “the most daring and prodigious political filmmaker of his generation,”“El Conde” looks to drive deeper into some of the themes, mixing character analysis, drama and comedy and a trenchant analysis of the makings of the modern world – not only in Chile but in global terms.The historical black comedy revolves around Augusto

Anna Marie de la Fuente The Walt Disney Company and Starz have teamed up to offer a streaming subscription bundle, including Star Plus, Disney Plus and Starzplay, in Latin America.The latest development comes as competition continues to heat up in the region and more deep-pocketed players, led by streaming giants Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple Plus, seek to further boost their subscriptions.The bundle, offered in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru on Disney Plus and Star Plus websites, will offer subscriptions to all three streaming services with one price in the local currency. Subscribers will need to download each platform’s app onto their compatible devices to access their programming.

EXCLUSIVE: Demascus, the AMC sci-fi comedy drama series, has found a director.

EXCLUSIVE: Jacob Vargas (Mr. Iglesias) is set for a heavily recurring role in National Treasure, Disney Branded Television’s TV series for Disney+ produced by ABC Signature.

EXCLUSIVE: We’ll be seeing more of Nathaniel Hardin in the second season of All American: Homecoming. Rhoyle Ivy King, who heavily recurred as the character in Season 1, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming season.

UPDATE: More details have emerged from the accident that claimed the lives of two actors and injured six crew members in Mexico while filming Netflix series The Chosen One.

Wilson Chapman editorFunny Or Die owner Henry R. Muñoz III will donate $1 million dollars to establish a theater at the Smithsonian’s future National Museum of the American Latino.Muñoz, who is a health care entrepreneur, announced the news with his husband Kyle Ferari-Munoz on Wednesday.