Sky Studios Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Galitzine (Cinderella) has been cast opposite Julianne Moore in Sky and AMC’s buzzy period drama Mary & George about powerful royal family favorites Mary Villiers and her son George.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Capaldi, the former Doctor Who star, is to direct a comedy-drama pilot for Sky Studios about a mother who adopts five children.

Sky Studios Names UK Drama Commissioning Boss

Bloods star Jane Horrocks is joining the cast of another Sky original in the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Julianne Moore is set to lead Sky and AMC period-drama series Mary & George, about powerful royal family favourites Mary Villiers and her son George.

International co-productions are all the rage right now, and Europe’s top players are looking to the U.S.

K.J. Yossman London-based longform news and podcasting outlet Tortoise Media has inked an exclusive first-look deal with Tortoise Media. The multi-year deal will see Sky potentially adapting Tortoise’s original podcasts including their investigative podcast “The Slow Newscast” into scripted and factual high-end series and/or features in the U.K., Italy, Germany and more. Tortoise will collaborate with Sky Studios during the development purpose on the Sky Original projects. Among the podcast series Tortoise Media has put out are “Sweet Bobby,” an investigation into one of the world’s most sophisticated catfishes, and “Hoaxed,” a multi-part series about one of Britain’s most   Since 2019, Tortoise Media has produced chart-topping podcast series such as “Sweet Bobby” and “Hoaxed,” their latest multi-part series exploring one of Britain’s most unusual conspiracy theories, in which an affluent London school community was torn apart by allegations of a satanic paedophile ring was in operation.

Gran Torino producer Double Nickel Entertainment is forging a limited TV series about the life of Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law Jo van Gogh-Bonger.

K.J. Yossman Tom Hardy is set to narrate a natural history series for Sky Nature, titled “Predators.” Set to launch in December, the series will follow five apex predators as they fight to survive in some of the world’s most challenging environments: polar bears in Canada, wild dogs in Zimbabwe, puma in Chile, lions in Botswana, brown bears in Russia and cheetahs in Tanzania. It also represents Sky’s first co-production with Netflix. The series was produced by True to Nature and Sky Studios in association with Netflix. It will launch on Sky Nature and Sky’s streaming platform NOW in December. A Netflix release date hasn’t been confirmed.

Tom Hardy To Narrate Sky And Netflix Nature Doc ‘Predators’

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Filming for the fourth season of the Sky Original series “Das Boot” wrapped in Malta last week, and the first look images have been released. NBCUniversal Global Distribution is handling international sales of the series, which is produced by Bavaria Fiction, on behalf of Sky Studios. In Season 4, which is coming to Sky’s premium channel Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW next year, the brutal submarine war in the Mediterranean Sea comes to a head, while intrigues and secrets spread through Berlin. Resistance to the Nazis grows within the Kriegsmarine’s own ranks. After a shared tragedy, the siblings Klaus (Rick Okon) and Hannie Hoffmann (Rosalie Thomass) find their way back to each other. Both fight for their cause. Klaus has returned to the German Reich from Portugal. As a submarine commander he travels to Naples on a secret mission to change the course of the war. Hannie wants to help the many orphans who have become victims of the war and uncovers infamous machinations of the Nazi Reich.

K.J. Yossman Ben Stephenson’s new transatlantic scripted label Poison Pen Studios has tapped Sky Studios exec Preethi Mavahalli as its new creative director. Before joining Sky, Mavahalli was at indie Mammoth Screen, where she as director of drama she developed and executive produced hits including “The Serpent,” “Noughts + Crosses” and “The War of the Worlds.” She has also worked at Film4 and Film London. Poison Pen was launched under the ITV Studios banner by Stephenson, formerly Bad Robot’s head of television, in July. The studio is based between London and L.A. and will focus on high-end premium drama. Mavahalli will work across both locations alongside Stephenson.

Sky Studios In-House Drama Director Preethi Mavahalli has joined Ben Stephenson’s transatlantic ITV Studios-backed indie, which will be called Poison Pen Studios.

BAFTA Launch Filmmaking Campaign With Digital Cinema Media BAFTA and Digital Cinema Media have launched a new campaign titled ‘Behind every BAFTA’ based around a national cinema ad that highlights the diverse range of skills that contribute to the production of award-winning films, games, and television with the aim to inspire the next generation of creative talent. DCM’s creative arm DCM Studio produced the ad, which is narrated by double BAFTA-winner Big Zuu and features rare behind-the-scenes content and clips from films including Skyfall, Get Out and 1917. The ad premieres on Friday, August 19, across the UK and will run for seven weeks, appearing alongside films such as Jordan Peele’s latest NOPE, Olivia Wilde’s Venice-bound Don’t Worry Darling, and the Brad Pitt-starrer Bullet Train.

EXCLUSIVE: Sundance Now has joined Sky’s British comedy-drama series The Lovers, bagging itself rights in the U.S. and Canada. The AMC Networks streamer has been expected to board the show for a number of weeks and Deadline can now confirm its participation.

A Sky original film called The Hanging Sun has been given the closing slot at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. The annual film festival promotes international cinema in all its forms and celebrates the best productions.

Venice Critics’ Week Unveils 2022 Selection

British pop icon Lily Allen is making her TV debut, joining Doctor Who star Freema Agyeman in Sky comedy Dreamland from Sharon Horgan’s Merman.

EXCLUSIVE: Star Trek Into Darkness, Black Mirror and Belgravia star Alice Eve has joined the cast of Sky’s upcoming comedy-drama series The Lovers.

Naman Ramachandran Sky original drama series “The Lovers,” starring Johnny Flynn (“Beast”) and Roisin Gallagher (“The Fall”) has commenced production. The six-part series, written by playwright David Ireland (“Cyprus Avenue”) and directed by Justin Martin (“Together”), follows Janet (Gallagher), a foul-mouthed, disaffected Belfast supermarket worker and Seamus (Flynn) a self-centred, political broadcaster with what looks to be a perfect London life and a celebrity girlfriend.

An apocalyptic drama from the makes of Deutschland 83, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and an emotionally-driven series set in Alabama are European giant Sky Deutschland’s latest trio of original dramas.

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.

Nancy Grace’s ‘Bloodline Detectives’ Set For Season Three

K.J. Yossman CBS Studios’ Meghan Lyvers is heading to Sky Studios in a new role as director of original drama for the U.K.

K.J. Yossman NEW HIRESSky Studios Elstree, which will open later this year, has named Leavesden Studios sales VP Noel Tovey as managing director.

Sky Studios’ first ever full in-house production, The Rising, combines the murder of a young woman, Neve, with a whodunnit story that she leads from beyond the grave. Its Executive Producer Julian Stevens said giving her “agency” to propel the story allowed the drama to sensitively combine themes of violence against women and the afterlife.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorFilming has begun in Prague on the Sky Original film “Der Kaiser,” which focuses on the life of German soccer player and manager Franz Beckenbauer.In the movie, Beckenbauer is shown fighting against the rigid structures and outdated rules in soccer, in order to do things his way. He also is shown to conduct his private life as he wishes, outside of the moral contraints and expectations of the time. The movie culminates in the victory of the German national team, which he managed, in the 1990 World Cup.Klaus Steinbacher, whose credits include “Das Boot” and “Oktoberfest 1900,” takes the leading role.

Sky has greenlit a feature about legendary German footballer Franz Beckenbauer, with shooting kicking off in Prague in the past few weeks.

EXCLUSIVE: Billie Piper, star of series such as Doctor Who and Penny Dreadful, has landed her next TV gig.

K.J. Yossman It was a quirk of fate that first set Cécile Frot-Coutaz on the path to becoming CEO of Sky Studios, to which she was appointed last year.“I think we all have [those] moments that have quite an impact on your trajectory,” Frot-Coutaz tells Variety. “You may not really realize it when it happens, but when you look back later on, you can see the thread.”For Frot-Coutaz, who is receiving Variety’s Intl.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProminent Dubai-based satellite pay-TV and streaming service Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) is launching OSN Plus, a new premium streaming service that replaces its streaming app and marks OSN’s full-fledged entry into the MENA region’s increasingly crowded SVOD landscape.The move comes after OSN in January re-upped its long-term exclusive partnership with HBO, and expanded its rapport with NBCU to include more premium content from Peacock and Sky Studios. The company also has new deals for premium shows in place with Endeavor Content and All3Media, supplementing existing partnerships with Paramount, Warner Media, Sony, Discovery, MGM and Lionsgate.However, OSN recently lost the SVOD leverage it had under its exclusive deal with Disney, which will be launching Disney Plus in the region this summer and has rescinded the SVOD aspect of that arrangement.

Sky Studios, the original programming arm of broadcaster Sky in Europe, has bolstered its UK Drama Commissioning team with a pair of hires.

K.J. Yossman Sky Studios has tapped Tilly Coulson and Sam Hoyle to join its U.K.

K.J. Yossman Sky have released first look images for a new Sky Original drama, “Unwanted.”Inspired by the book “Bilal,” an investigative book from journalist Fabrizio Gatti, the eight-part series tells the story of an undercover human rights defender who is helping migrants journey from Africa to Europe as they battle human traffickers and government officials.Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”) created and wrote the series in collaboration with with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero.

Manori Ravindran International EditorSky executive Jane Millichip, a distribution leader and a driving force behind the company’s sustainability drive, is leaving the company after almost 10 years.News of the executive’s departure was revealed to staff in a memo from Sky Studios CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz on Tuesday morning. Millichip, who currently serves as chief content officer for Sky Studios, is leaving the company after nine years.