Sky & Sony Pictures Television Renew European Movie Deal

Jake Kanter International TV EditorComcast-owned Sky has confirmed that Sky Arts, its premium arts channel, is to become a free-to-air network in the UK from September.The channel will launch on Freeview with a mission to bring “more of the arts to more people.” The move comes in an environment in which the BBC is scaling back originals on BBC Four, which has traditionally been at the forefront of the BBC’s arts content.Sky Arts is famous for shows including Portrait Artist Of The Year, fronted

Jake Kanter International TV EditorComcast-backed Sky Studios has revealed that it is collaborating with producers to rework major drama series in the event that the UK heads back into another Covid-induced lockdown.Deadline reported last week that series including Sky/Epix co-production Britannia and A Discovery Of Witches, which is made in partnership with AMC, will be back in production by the end of September.Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey confirmed this during a virtual Broadcasting Press Guild

Jake Kanter International TV EditorThe Great British Bake Off is now two weeks back into production and will likely return to television later this year, according to producer Love Productions’ parent company Sky Studios.The baking competition series, which is shown by Channel 4 in the UK and Netflix in the U.S.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorWildside, the Italian producer behind The Young Pope and The New Pope, is to make a Sky Italia drama about A.S. Roma soccer player and World Cup winner Francesco Totti.The Fremantle-backed outfit will work with Capri Entertainment, The New Life Company and Kwaï to adapt Totti and Paolo Condò’s book Un Capitano for the screen, with Pietro Castellitto (Freaks Out) in the lead role.

Naman Ramachandran Italian soccer icon Francesco Totti will be the subject of a six-part Sky Original series with the working title “Speravo De Mori’ Prima – The Series About Francesco Totti.”Produced by Mario Gianani for Wildside, part of the Fremantle group, with Virginia Valsecchi’s Capri Entertainment, The New Life Company and Kwaï, the series is based on the book “Un Capitano” by Totti and Paolo Condò, published by Rizzoli Libri S.p.A.Principal photography is set to commence in Rome

Oscar-winning Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who created the coyote-howl theme for the iconic Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and often haunting soundtracks for such classic Hollywood gangster movies as “The Untouchables” and the epic “Once Upon A Time In America”, died on Monday. He was 91.

ROME -- Rome’s city council voted on Friday to rename one of its concert halls after Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone, who died last week in the Italian capital. The Music Park Auditorium will now be called the Ennio Morricone Auditorium.

Idris Elba has again teased the idea of turning his cult BBC detective drama “Luther” into a feature, more than a year after Season 5 aired on British television.The actor told a press junket for Season 3 of his Sky comedy “In The Long Run” that there are no “formal plans” for another “Luther” series, according to Sky News.But Elba added: “I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see ‘Luther’ come back as a film.

Comcast-owned Sky and Sony Pictures Television have struck a new long-term content partnership across the U.K. and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.

British star Idris Elba is once again teased the prospect of a feature film version of popular BBC TV series Luther, according to Sky News. “There isn’t a real formal plan for Luther at the moment,” Elba said.

Naman Ramachandran British star Idris Elba has once again teased the prospect of a feature film version of popular BBC TV series “Luther,” according to Sky News.“There isn’t a real formal plan for ‘Luther’ at the moment,” Elba said. “I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see ‘Luther’ come back as a film.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentEuropean pay-TV operator Sky and Sony Pictures Television have agreed a new long-term partnership across the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.The deal includes a multi-year extension across all markets to the exclusive first pay window, and access to Sony’s film library, and extends to all of Sky’s transactional services across its markets.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorIdris Elba has again teased the idea of turning his cult BBC detective drama Luther into a feature, more than a year after Season 5 aired on British television.The actor told a press junket for Season 3 of his Sky comedy In The Long Run that there are no “formal plans” for another Luther series, according to Sky News.But Elba added: “I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see Luther come back as a film.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentEuropean pay TV operator Sky has taken 100% ownership of Love Productions, the producer behind “The Great British Bake Off.” Sky previously owned a 70% stake in the company, founded by Richard McKerrow.Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ chief commercial officer, said: “Love Productions is a world-class production company that has continued to create popular, thought-provoking and award-winning factual and factual entertainment shows since Sky first

Jake Kanter International TV EditorEXCLUSIVE: Comcast’s European broadcaster Sky has taken full control of Love Productions, the producer behind Channel 4 hit The Great British Bake Off.Sky took a 70.41% stake in Love Productions in 2014, and now the pay-TV operator has acquired the remaining 29.59% of shares in the Richard McKerrow-founded outfit, as it continues to build its production empire.Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ chief commercial officer, said: “Love Productions is a world-class

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar winner whose haunting, inventive scores expertly accentuated the simmering, dialogue-free tension of the spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone, has died. He was 91.

ROME — Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who created the coyote-howl theme for the iconic Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and the soundtracks such classic Hollywood gangster movies as “The Untouchables,” has died.