Anna Marsh Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

K.J. Yossman Studiocanal has tapped former Netflix exec M-K Kennedy as its new head of TV.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Studiocanal, the European powerhouse behind “Paddington,” has created a genre label dedicated to the development, production and distribution of horror, thriller, sci fi and action films and TV series. The company has hired Jed Benedict, a well-known executive who previously worked for the U.K. distribution banner Elysian Film Group, to run the new label.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France-based multinational Studiocanal has launched Cultivator Films to facilitate local co-productions in Australia and will kick off with book-to-film adaptation “Kangaroo.” “Kangaroo” is scripted by Harry Cripps (“The Dry,” “Penguin Bloom”) and directed by Kate Woods (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Good Lord Bird,” “Looking for Alibrandi”). Eastern Arrernte emerging director Samantha Laughton is set as a director’s attachment. Slated to start production in Alice Springs in the first half of 2024, “Kangaroo” is a Northern Territory-inspired story based on Chris Barnes, aka ‘Brolga,’ who is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. Cultivator Films Australia is led by Studiocanal’s Australia and New Zealand CEO Elizabeth Trotman.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights in North America and China to mystery-comedy Wicked Little Letters from Studiocanal, for a 2024 theatrical release.

Paddington in Peru will hit U.S. cinemas on Jan. 17, 2025 MLK Weekend, but will debut in the UK about two months prior on Nov. 8, 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has snapped up U.S., Canada and key international for Studiocanal and Heyday Films’ threequel Paddington in Peru.

MipTV and Mipcom, Cannes two TV trade fairs, announcing final figures of 5,560 participants, including 5,510 on-site delegates.  That said, attendance was sizeably down on pre-pandemic levels – 9,500 attendees in 2019 – with major European drama sales companies literally counting the cost of attendance and exhibition space versus Mip-driven sales. In a fast-evolving TV landscape, the future and identity of MipTV still remains uncertain. 10 takeaways from this year’s edition:

MipTV 2023 is coming to an end, with many international execs and stars having jetted in for the 60th edition of the sales confab and Canneseries events. Despite large portions the Croisette being dug up as construction work went on before the Cannes Film Festival next month, there was a positive feel. That will please organizer RX France, which has faced down of ongoing talk of the event’s reduced status in the post-Covid 19 era. Footfall was notably lighter than pre-pandemic, but a less frenetic pace isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Read on for our key takeaways.

“It feels like the TV bubble has burst,” Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh said today.

Studiocanal is gearing up to shoot “How To Stop Time,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and with D.C. Moore (“Mary & George”) and Tomas Alfredson (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) on board as key creative talent. Production on the title by Studiocanal and SunnyMarch will be announced by CEO Anna Marsh on Monday at her keynote at Cannes’ MipTV trade fair.  In it, she also looks set to confirm that Studiocanal has acquired an equity stake in London-based Strong Film & Television, co-founded in late 2020 by “Broadchurch” director James Strong and Matt Tombs, a former executive at the BBC and Paramount.

EXCLUSIVE: Make that a triple marmalade sandwich. Long-awaited movie threequel Paddington In Peru is on course to start production on July 24, we can reveal.

Studiocanal has boarded development on part English-language thriller Smiling Hacker which is currently being written by Audrey Diwan.

French director Cédric Jimenez’s thriller November has drawn one million spectators in France in its first two weeks on release, bucking the trend of the country’s recent lackluster box office, co-producer and distributor Studiocanal has announced.

Long-serving Studiocanal exec, Anna Marsh, has been appointed Deputy CEO of Canal+ Group. Marsh joined the company’s production, distribution and international sales subsidiary, Studiocanal, in 2008 where she held such titles as Head of International Sales and Managing Director of Studiocanal UK, before being appointed CEO of Studiocanal in 2019. 

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal and Working Title have unveiled the official trailer for Shekhar Kapur’s keenly anticipated cross-cultural British romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The film will have its world premiere as a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10. It follows documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), for whom swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr. Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films Kaz’s journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

Fabrice de la Patellière, the long-time head of fiction at French pay-TV giant Canal+, is partnering with Canal+ Group subsidiary Studiocanal to create his own production company 2e Bureau.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStudiocanal has acquired a majority stake in Dutch FilmWorks, a leading film production and distribution company operating in Benelux.Launched in 1998, Dutch FilmWorks produces and distributes 25 films each year, and has built up a library of over 900 Dutch and international films, including the popular family franchise “The Claus Family.” The acquisition of Dutch FilmWorks is part of Studiocanal’s aim to consolidate its pipeline of premium European content with international potential.Owned by Vivendi-backed Canal+ Group, Studiocanal already operates in all four major European markets — France, U.K., Germany and Spain — as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The banner also produces more than 200 hours of TV series each year at an international level, either in-house with Studiocanal Original, or through its network of European production labels, including Germany’s Tandem Productions, the U.K.’s RED Production Company, the U.K.’s Urban Myth Films and SunnyMarch TV, Spain’s Bambu Producciones or Scandinavia’s SAM Productions.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe 61st Monte-Carlo Television Festival opened Friday with a phalanx of stars and TV industry execs walking the blue carpet for the event, attended by Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife Princess Charlene. The opening screening was the world premiere of thriller “Last Light,” produced by MGM Intl.

Covid Puts Paid To Shanghai Fest At Eleventh Hour

The Queen’s appearance during a Paddington Bear sketch on Saturday night came a complete “surprise” to the Royal Family, who admitted they had no idea it was due to take place. The short skit kicked off the televised BBC’s Platinum Party at the Palace, and saw the monarch playing We Will Rock You on the spoons alongside childhood favourite Paddington Bear.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off their Oscar nominations for drama The Lost Daughter, Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) and Chernobyl star Jessie Buckley are set to reunite on comedy Wicked Little Letters, which will be a hot project at the Cannes market.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorOlivier Bibas is to join the French pay TV giant Canal Plus as head of its fiction label Création Originale. As such, Bibas will be responsible for Canal Plus’ French drama and international co-productions.

Canal+ Group, the French film and TV major owned by Vivendi, has named Olivier Bibas as Head of Canal+ Creation Originale.

Naman Ramachandran “Paddington 3” is among a host of slate titles revealed by Studiocanal at an event in Cannes on Tuesday.Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh said that principal photography on the keenly anticipated project would commence in the second quarter of 2022. The film reunites Studiocanal with Heyday Films, as previously reported by Variety.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterStudiocanal has promoted Anne Cherel from Head of International Sales to EVP Global Sales & Distribution. She will oversee the company’s international sales of TV and features and report into CEO Anna Marsh.

French media giant Studiocanal has taken full control of German production company Tandem Productions, buying out the remaining shares in the Munich-based group behind such TV productions as the Emmy-nominated miniseries Pillars of the Earth and the upcoming period crime drama Shadowplay, starring Taylor Kitsch.

By Elsa Keslassy

Alex Hamilton, the former president of international and managing director of Entertainment One U.K., has been appointed CEO of Studiocanal U.K. He will be joining the company on April 22 and will report to the group CEO Anna Marsh.

Anna Marsh, the newly appointed CEO of leading European film and TV group Studiocanal, comes off as self-contained and mild-mannered, but her bullish track record at the company and relationships with big-name producers such as David Heyman (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and Andrew Rona (“Non-Stop”) suggests she has an iron fist in that velvet glove.