Rome MIA Market Announces Panoply of Projects Comprising Animation, TV Series, Docs, and Film

A European TV project will soon be on the same quality level as American but for half the cost, predicted Mediawan, Sony and Universal International Studios (UIS) execs today.

Ben Croll Home to the Taylor Sheridan stable and to the “Star Trek” franchise, Paramount+ is looking for “populist” dramas that hold a wider sway and can span several seasons, said Paramount TV president Nicole Clemens at her keynote at MIA Market in Rome on Tuesday. “We’re not looking for shows that just play to New York and Los Angeles,” Clemens explained. “That doesn’t mean they’re not edgy, that doesn’t mean [they can’t be] dark.

Dreaming Whilst Black brought a new, diverse audience to the BBC in droves, according to the buzzy comedy’s EP Dhanny Joshi, who was speaking on a panel of diverse creatives at MIA Market.

With a budget less than 20 times that of The Boys and “barely” any marketing, Amazon Prime Video‘s Invincible has succeeded through word of mouth and attracting new viewers to the genre, according to its EP Marge Dean.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s MIA Market, dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, documentaries and more, kicked off Monday in the Eternal City’s 17th century Palazzo Barberini. There were some 2,300 registered industry execs on day one – roughly 300 of which are buyers – more than 120 selected projects on display, and plenty of panels.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent With the writers’ strike over, a new studio brand and new management in part of international, Paramount Global execs are attending Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria, Rome’s MIA market and Mipcom as they talk up their competitive assets and priorities to the international market. In one move, five months after it the launch of Paramount Television International Studios in May, Paramount Global’s Darío Turovelzky delivered a keynote on Thursday at Iberseries & Platino Industria.

Blade Runner is the latest big-budget product to announce changes to its shooting schedule this year, with the TV series no longer set to be filmed in Northern Ireland.

Veteran kids’ and family entertainment executive Jenna Boyd has joined Disney Branded Television as SVP of Development. Reporting to Charlie Andrews, EVP, Live Action and Unscripted, the former Netflix and Nickelodeon exec will oversee the scripted series development team.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s upcoming MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub. Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the MIA acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s Storyboard Media is making its first foray into series production by joining forces with Chilean actor-producer Pablo Díaz del Rio of Rios Estudio and Argentina’s Juan Pablo Gugliota of MagmaCine to co-produce a historical fiction series, “Habitación 205” (“Box 205”). The deal with MagmaCine was closed during the Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria on Oct.

As Italy has ramped up its efforts in the last year to lure in international productions, so too has Rome’s MIA Market been making big strides in attracting global companies and executives to its annual five-day industry confab. The innovative Italian event, which has fast become a top destination in the TV market calendar, is returning for its ninth edition on October 9-13, 2023 and this year looks set to be bigger than ever with top execs from Paramount, Imagine, Banijay and Skybound Entertainment all set to attend. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Coccinelle Film Sales has acquired world rights to German director Veit Helmer’s poetic love story “Gondola,” which will world premiere at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Helmer is well known on the international festival circuit for funny, fable-like films with little or no dialogue such as “Tuvalu”; the Azerbaijan-set “Absurdistan,” which went to Sundance in 2008; and “The Bra,” that launched from Tokyo in 2018.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Coccinelle Film Sales has acquired world rights to German director Veit Helmer’s poetic love story “Gondola,” which will world premiere at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Helmer is well known on the international festival circuit for funny, fable-like films with little or no dialogue such as “Tuvalu”; the Azerbaijan-set “Absurdistan,” which went to Sundance in 2008; and “The Bra,” that launched from Tokyo in 2018.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival’s Cinemed industry section has teamed up with Beirut-based cultural nonprofit Aflamuna on a new initiative, under which 10 film and doc projects from a wide range of Arab countries will soon be unveiled to prospective partners. The new program, called Cinemed and Aflamuna Professional Encounters, features 10 Arab works in development that reflect a slew of themes relevant to the region, including political turbulence, societal changes, female empowerment and climate change concerns.

Wes Anderson‘s latest Roald Dahl adaptation is set to arrive on Netflix this week.The acclaimed director’s retelling of the 1977 story The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is his latest adaptation of one of Dahl’s stories, having previously helmed Fantastic Mr. Fox, which earned Oscar nominations for Animated Feature and Original Score in 2010.Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade all star in the short film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival at the beginning of this month.Per the official synopsis, the 39-minute film tells the story of a rich man who, after learning about a guru who can see without using his eyes, attempts to use the skill to cheat at gambling.Find all the details of when it when be available to watch below.The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar will be available to watch on the streaming platform on September 27 at 8am BST in the UK, which is 12am PT/3am ET in the US.Netflix released a trailer earlier this month.

Bottoms – which stars Rachel Sennott (who also co-wrote the film) and Ayo Edebiri of The Bear – premiered at South by Southwest festival in March, which was followed by a US cinema release in August.The film is the second feature from Shiva Baby writer-director Emma Seligman, which starred Sennott as a bisexual Jewish woman who runs into a sugar daddy while at a shiva with her parents.Bottoms follows two lesbian friends and outcasts who start a fight club in an attempt to lose their virginity to the cheerleaders they have crushes on.However, despite the critical success of Bottoms – scoring 93 and 90 per cent in critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively – there appears to be no UK theatrical release date at present.“Can we at least get a uk release date for bottoms i’m tireddd,” one X/Twitter user lamented. “Still no UK release date for Bottoms and I swear I’m gonna start rioting,” another said.“Frantically googling ‘bottoms uk release date’ every other date,” a third wrote.

When the domestic violence allegations against Justin Roiland were made public earlier this year, Adult Swim was quick to announce that he would no longer be involved with the series he co-created, “Rick and Morty.” This was a huge announcement, as Roiland was the man behind the iconic voices of the title characters. What would the series do without Roiland? Well, the quick answer was that “Rick and Morty” was going to move on without Roiland and under the sole guidance of co-creator Dan Harmon.

Anna Marie de la Fuente “Monster,” Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan Described by Variety critic Peter Debruge as a “convoluted portrait of a pre-teen in turmoil,” Kore-eda ‘s Palme d’Or best script and Queer Palm winner stars Sakura Andō as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing odd changes in her son’s demeanor. Written by Yuji Sakamoto, it’s scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. “Peafowl,” Byun Sungbin, South Korea Myung, a transgender, is estranged from her family because of who she is.

EXCLUSIVE: Michel Gondry’s Partizan and RTG Features have tapped Christopher Makoto Yogi (I Was a Simple Man) to direct Merv and the Miracles, a feature-length doc that explores the legendary college basketball game between Chaminade and number-one ranked Virginia in 1982.

Johnny Marr has announced a new compilation album ‘Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr’ and shared new single ‘Somewhere’.The former Smiths guitarist will release the new collection on November 3 via BMG, which will spotlight “the breadth of musicality across the first ten years” of Marr’s solo career, according to a press release – you can pre-order/pre-save the album here.The record will also include two brand new tracks produced by Marr along with co-producer James Doviak – ‘The Answer’ and ‘Somewhere’. Listen to the latter below.The musician wrote ‘Somewhere’ while on tour with The Killers and Blondie in 2022.