Scots woman conned in crypto scam urges other victims to join lawsuit as story to be turned into Hollywood film

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Former Berlanti Prods. exec Ryan Lindenberg, who played a hand in the creation of hits such as The CW’s “All American,” Netflix’s “You” and NBC’s “Blindspot,” has joined 5X Media as a scripted partner/producer.

Emiliano De Pablos The Portuguese TV fiction sector is experiencing growth as it garners international visibility through co-productions and alliances with streamers and foreign broadcasters. With a small domestic market – some 10 million inhabitants – Portuguese TV production is making a virtue of necessity. The region possesses a diversity of TV fiction offerings, ranging from commercial telenovelas to an increasing number of premium TV dramas, and is rapidly opening up to international partnerships.

International documentary filmmakers and industry reps are gathering at Sheffield DocFest in the U.K. at a moment of political tumult in Europe. British voters head to the polls for a general election on July 4; in France, President Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called snap legislative elections after a French ultranationalist party surged in voting for the European Parliament. Germany’s far-right AfD party also scored substantial gains in that European Parliament vote. Overall, the center held — more or less.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a big one in the European M&A world. Beta Film has taken a stake in Number 9 TV, a new small screen subsidiary of Carol and Living producer Number 9 Films.

BET Media Group’s FYC House was packed as it celebrated its impressive roster of shows submitted for Emmy consideration produced by BET and BET+. At the center of the evening, the legacy media company featured artists and creatives from some of its hit series on three-panel conversations: “The Women of BET,” “How We Made It,” and “Diarra from Detroit.” In a sold-out room of industry attendees, including members of the Television Academy, the talent shared stories about their journeys of working in the industry while facing rejection and collaborating and overcoming challenges with other creatives.

Jennifer Lopez is “desperate” to save her relationship with Ben Affleck — mostly because she doesn’t want to go through another divorce!

EXCLUSIVE: The UK-based VFX and animation company Jellyfish Pictures has launched a new VFX production outpost in Toronto. 

A rape victim whose attacker had his conviction quashed has backed a call by Scotland’s top prosecutor to overturn a historic legal rule.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Madrid-based Begin Again Films has nabbed Santiago Maza’s Mexican documentary “State of Silence,” produced by Diego Luna and La Corriente del Golfo, the shingle he runs with Gael García Bernal. The sales agency and distributor, which acquired international rights with the exception of North America and Latin America, has also unveiled the film’s first trailer.

EXCLUSIVE: Heyday Television has acquired adaptation rights to Gillian McAllister’s novel Just Another Missing Person.

The first Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF) ended this weekend in London with Amjad Al Rasheed’s debut feature Inshallah A Boy taking the best feature gong while veteran documentarian Asif Kapadia picked up the festival’s honorary Trailblazer Award. 

EXCLUSIVE: Non-fiction agency Indox, launched by former Dogwoof exec Luke Brawley, has boarded Visions du Reel competition title Mother Vera and will use the pic to launch a new boutique service focused on representing non-fiction and progressive media works in the UK and Ireland. 

A former footballer who conned his victims out of more than £30,000 in a cryptocurrency scam has narrowly avoided jail. Louis Myers, 26, promised his investors that they would make profits as part of the ‘get rich quick scheme’.

Naman Ramachandran Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi” and Arati Kadav’s “Mrs” will open and close this year’s New York Indian Film Festival. Punjabi and English-language “Dear Jassi,” a tale of star-crossed lovers based on a true story, arrives in New York after a glittering festival run that began in 2023, at Toronto, where it won the Platform Prize.

EXCLUSIVE: Growing specialty distributor 3388 Films has acquired rights to Vietnamese smash Face Off 7: One Wish, and has set the weekend of June 14 to launch in numerous markets, including the U.S., Canada and the UK.

The rebranded Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), now led by industry vet Paul Ridd, today announced that it will host a pre-festival preview screening of Chris Nash’s arthouse slasher In A Violent Nature. 

A former HSBC bank in Hyde will be transformed into flats now planning permission has been granted. The Market Place site, opposite the town hall, will see its upper floors turned into flats.

A man has been convicted of raping a teen girl in a ­classroom at lunch break while he was still a schoolboy.

A 31-year-old mum-of-two injured a woman by repeatedly stamping on her head in a vicious catfight.

A callous finance worker who claimed her dying boss gave her permission to take company cash has been convicted of stealing £75,000.