Stage 32, Catalyst Studios Launch Social Impact Screenwriting Contest With Option Guarantee (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Waterside Studios and UK-based podcast producer Blanchard House are teaming up.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Paramount+ streaming service will launch in Japan in December as a free-of-charge addition to cable and internet provider J:COM’s platform and to pay-TV service Wowow. Paramount+ originals including “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will be available at the launch of the service and for the first time in Japan. Japan will be the second country in East Asia where the service becomes available, following a launch in South Korea in June last year.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 28 – Oct.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix and leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films (YRF) have set a multi-year creative partnership. The two entities will “collaborate to create films and series to bring defining stories to audiences in India and across the world,” they said in a statement. The partnership will kick off with four-part thriller series “The Railway Men,” a previously-announced tribute to the unsung heroes of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Multimedia Music has closed a deal to acquire the music publishing rights from the film music library of Millennium Media, which includes titles such as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “London Has Fallen,” “Angel Has Fallen,” “Hitman Wife’s Bodyguard,” “Hellboy,” “The Outpost,” “Mechanic: Resurrection,” “Rambo: Last Blood,” “Blackbird,” “Acts of Vengeance” and “The Expendables 4.” The deal follows Multimedia Music’s recent music partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, and its acquisition of STX Entertainment’s music library. The Millennium Media library includes music from leading composers including Brian Tyler, Atli Orvarsson, Mark Isham, Trevor Morris, David Buckley and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor London- and Paris-based Film Constellation has boarded sales on 2D family animated feature “Carmen,” a contemporary adaptation of the opera, to be directed by 2023 Annecy Film Festival winner Sébastien Laudenbach. Variety revealed first details of the project last year exclusively.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Memento Distribution has picked up French distribution rights to Gabor Reisz’s ‘Explanation for Everything’ following its world premiere in Horizons competition at the Venice Film Festival. The deal was closed by Films Boutique.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor MPM Premium has acquired world sales rights to Ali Kalthami’s dark comedic crime thriller “Mandoob,” which will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the Discovery section, one of three Saudi films selected by the event. Set in Riyadh, the film centers on Fahad Algadaani, a mentally fragile man racing against time to pay for his ailing father’s medical treatment.

There's growing concerns for a man who is missing from Glasgow.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety is debuting an exclusive clip from Farah Nabulsi’s thriller “The Teacher,” starring Imogen Poots (“The Father”) and Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit,” “Wajib”). The film will have its world premiere on Saturday at the Toronto Film Festival in the Discovery section.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Film Constellation has sealed a first raft of pre-sales in key territories on French female-led revenge feature “Animale,” directed by Emma Benestan (“Fragile”) and starring César winner Oulaya Amamra (“Divines”). The pre-sales include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom) and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon). Wild Bunch Distribution will release “Animale” in French theaters next year.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ukrainian director Anna Buryachkova, awaiting the Venice premiere of her new film “Forever-Forever,” will soon turn to documentary “Will We Feel Again,” she revealed to Variety in Italy. The film will see her reunite with Natalia Libet, producing for 2Brave Productions. “In Ukraine, this is the time when you make documentaries, obviously.

Ben Croll Montreal-based studio Felix & Paul Studios wants to send VR users to space, embedding users in the heart of the International Space Station with the three-part immersive series “Space Explorers: Blue Marble.” Giving users the opportunity to experience the awe-inspiring Overview Effect – the profound experience of witnessing our planet from a far, and in orbit – “Blue Marble – Orbit 1” is screening as part of the Best of VR showcase at this year’s Venice Immersive. Variety can now exclusively share a first-look at “Orbit 2” and “Orbit 3.” Rounding out the “Space Explorers: Blue Marble” trilogy, both new installments follow NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur as she mans the ISS Cupola Observational Module from inside the International Space Station, opening the shutters to reveal the sun rising over the Earth’s horizon, and offering a whole new perspective on our pale blue dot.

EXCLUSIVE: Sipur, the Israeli studio behind North Road-backed Bad Boy and award-winning doc series The Devil’s Confession, has struck a multi-year deal with local network Reshet13.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vicky Krieps, best performance prize winner in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for “Corsage,” will star as Sophie Toscan du Plantier in six time-Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s “Re-creation,” which is being presented in the Venice Gap-Financing Market. The docu-drama, which centers on the brutal murder in 1996 in Ireland of French film and TV producer Toscan du Plantier, has been co-written and will be co-directed by Sheridan, best known for “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father,” and Merriman.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Stella. A Life.,” which stars Berlinale best actress award-winner Paula Beer, has been sold to France, Scandinavia and Australia. The film will have a market screening at Toronto Film Festival, and will have its world premiere with a Gala Screening at the Zurich Film Festival.

September has officially arrived for Hallmark Channel, and with it comes the Fall Into Love programming event!

Michaela Zee Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson have launched the People’s Fund of Maui to support those impacted by the wildfires. “I have been meeting with people throughout the community that were impacted by the fires over the last few weeks, asking what they most needed and how I could be of service,” said Winfrey in a statement. “The main thing I’ve been hearing is their concern about how to move forward under the immense financial burden.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Almost exactly a year after Amazon’s Prime Video officially set foot in Thailand, the company is this week launching its first locally-made ‘original.’ Produced for the streamer by Liminal Entertainment in conjunction with Malin Films Production, and executive produced by Jef Lim, Marilyn Tan and Malin Pongsapipatt, the show follows six well-known actors to an almost utopian island, where the only thing missing is laughter. The celebrities are tasked with performing improvised skits to lift the locals’ gross happiness index. The series launches on Thursday, delivering the first three of its six episodes.