‘Roman’s Circuit’s’ Escala Humana Prepping CIA Drama Series ‘Golpe’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Pete Davidson has more than bupkis to say. The “Saturday Night Live” alum and star of Peacock’s “Bupkis” will star in his second Netflix hour-long special, “Turbo Fonzarelli,” which premieres Jan. 9, 2024, on the streamer.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Big-budget disaster series “Estonia,” Canneseries winner “Power Play” and “Painkiller,” the TV drama debut of Göteborg victor Gabriela Pilcher (“Amateur”) feature in the five contenders for next year’s Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize which serves to underscore the robust breadth of current Nordic scripted series. Also in the running is “Prisoner,” a second admired Cannes series main competition contender featuring “The Killing” star Sofie Gråbøl, and “Descendants,” the showrunning debut of famed Icelandic thesp Tinna Hrafnsdóttir.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has picked up psychological crime drama Murder in a Small Town, starring Rossif Sutherland (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), for the 2024-25 season. The network has acquired U.S. rights to the series, based on the “Karl Alberg” books by L.R. Wright,, which hails from head writer Ian Weir (Edgemont), director Milan Cheylov (The Cleaning Lady) and Canada’s Sepia Films in association with Fox Entertainment and Future Shack Entertainment, the company of former USA Network President Jeff Wachtel.

It’s been said a million times already, but it remains true—some of the most interesting stories are being told on TV rather than in films. With the film industry becoming more and more reliant either on franchises and blockbusters or low-budget horror, there’s not a lot of space for the mid-budget adult drama.

Netflix is expanding its romance TV brand from the California Redwoods setting of Virgin River to Texas Hill Country with Ransom Canyon, a new drama series headlined by Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Love, Simon) and Minka Kelly (Euphoria, Friday Night Lights).

Addie Morfoot Contributor Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Beyond Utopia” will kick off the winter season of PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” on Jan. 9. Using hidden camera footage, the 115-minute doc follows the high-stakes journey that a handful of desperate families make in order to defect from North Korea — a country with the most brutal regime on earth, led by a dictator, Kim Jong-un.

It’s been about ten years since filmmaker Jonathan Glazer’s last feature, the chilling and dazzling “Under The Skin,” starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien who begins to learn empathy. His latest, “The Zone Of Interest,” is arguably the opposite, about a family and community of affluent Germans and Nazis, who arguably ignore their sense of empathy, living next door to the most famous concentration camp of all time.

EXCLUSIVE: Brad Ingelsby’s upcoming HBO crime drama series starring Mark Ruffalo has added to its exec producer and director ranks.

Paramount+ has set January 25 for the premiere of Sexy Beast, the drama series prequel to the 2000 cult British gangster movie, starring James McArdle, Emun Elliott, Tamsin Greig, Stephen Moyer and Sarah Greene. The series will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and international territories where available. You can check out some first-look photos below.

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of her breakthrough performance in American Horror Story: Delicate, Kim Kardashian is getting her own scripted series. She is staying in business with AHS co-creator/executive producer Ryan Murphy for the project, described as a high-end, glossy and sexy adult procedural, Deadline has learned. It has landed at Hulu, home of hit reality series The Kardashians, with a big series commitment, I hear. This marks the first series for Murphy under his new deal at Disney, with 20th Television, part of Disney TV Studios, producing.

EXCLUSIVE: A contemporary scripted drama series inspired by the life of country music sensation Walker Hayes is headed to the small screen. The production arm of Untitled Entertainment has acquired Hayes’ life rights for the project, with Hayes set to executive produce alongside Untitled.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Colombian sales and distribution company Doc:Co is venturing into the global sales arena with its first international pick up, Chilean-Colombian co-production “Otra Piel.” The debut feature documentary of Patricia Correa, “Otra Piel” is co-produced by Colombia’s Romeo, 235 Digital and Sonata Films alongside Chile’s Cine Matiz, founded by producer Gabriela Sandoval who co-runs another, more established label, Storyboard Media. The doc revolves around Miguel, who at 38, is not just a taxidermist but also an accomplished hunter.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, have dominated the nominations at this year’s Goya Film Awards.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, Spain’s Isabel Coixet and Chile’s Bernardita Ojeda, director of “Petit,” feature among the first recipients of funding from Ibermedia Next, a pioneering attempting to fund development on pioneering new IPs which yoke large artistic ambition and cutting edge tech. García Bernal and Luna’s Mexico-based label La Corriente del Golfo co-produces one of the 14 winning submissions, “El Origen De La Experiencia,” which offers a VR immersive experience of Mexican mysticism and trance culture.

Callum McLennan Animation! has announced the winners of its 2024 Mentorship Program designed specifically for Latin American female animation directors. No one country was singled out, as projects from five countries took the honors. “The global convergence of creativity in this year’s selection truly signifies the universal language of animated storytelling,” said Animation! manager Silvina Cornillón.

Tom Sandoval went into Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test wanting to get punished for cheating on his ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix with their Vanderpump Rules co-star Rachel Leviss. But did he end up getting more punishment than he hoped for on the show?

Ventana Sur has added this year a big spread from Chile’s TV agency Consejo National de Televisión, which could be a reaction to global platforms pulling out of Chile. In terms of original titles there’s good word on Colombia’s Laura Otálora (“Impermanence”) and Argentina’s Carlos Lascano (“Lina”).

James Norton (Happy Valley) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) are set to star in the new CBS Studios period drama series King and Conqueror from creator Michael Robert Johnson (Sherlock Holmes). The series is based on the 11th-century figures Harold of Wessex (Norton) and William of Normandy (Coster-Waldau) and is set to begin production in 2024.

BBC Unveils Xmas Slate Including ‘Peaky Blinders‘ Dance Performance & Rebecca Ferguson Doc

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details about the Season 2 finale of Fox‘s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.