Studiocanal Boards French Disaster Thriller ‘The Blaze,’ Unveils First Still (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winning film “Triangle of Sadness” has been sold by Coproduction Office to major distributors around the world. “Triangle of Sadness,” which was acquired by Neon for North America at the Cannes Film Festival, just had its North American premiere at Toronto and is playing at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Coproduction Office has now sold the movie worldwide to major distributors. Recent deals have been closed with Stay Golden (China), Edko (Hong Kong), Impact (India), Gaga (Japan), Green Narae (South Korea), Catchplay (Taiwan), TBA Studios (Philippines), Sun (Latin America), Frontrow (Middle East), Forefont (South Africa) and Les Films 26 (French-speaking Africa). 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Paris-based La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma, producer of Chema García Ibarra’s 2021 Locarno winner “Sacred Spirit,” has boarded Gabriel Azorin’s “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” marking another financing milestone for his buzzy, poetic and time blending Spanish project.  A Locarno Match Me! hit. “Thebes” has been put through both San Sebastián’s Ikusmira Berriak and Madrid’s ECAM Incubator, rapidly consolidating as Spain’s foremost development labs which each attract about 270 applications a year.   La Fabrica Nocturna, whose credits also take in “The Heiresses,” joins Madrid’s Dvein Films, A Coruña’s Filmika Galaika (“They Carry Death”) and Lisbon’s Primeira Idade (“The Metamorphosis of Birds”) as a producer partner on “Thebes,” which won a RTP Award, consisting of the pre-buy of rights from the Portuguese public broadcaster, at late 2020’s Seville European Film Festival.  

Camila Cabello is wasting no time getting in the game on her first season of  -- but Blake Shelton has wife Gwen Stefani in his corner!Season 22 of the NBC singing competition kicks off on Monday, but fans got a look at the first four-chair turn of the season in a sneak peek clip on Friday, which shows Nashville singer Morgan Myles wowing all four coaches with her soulful rendition of Leonard Cohen's classic ballad, «Hallelujah.»Camila makes her move straight away, blocking returning coach Gwen, who turns right after her. Blake and John Legend follow, but Blake starts «feeling himself» when he finds out Morgan is a Nashville girl — who's even opened for him in the past!«It was exquisite, one of the best Blind Auditions I've seen in a long time,» John praises.«I'm a storyteller too,» Camila says, shooting her shot.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Antonin Baudry, who made his feature debut with Netflix’s submarine thriller “The Wolf’s Call,” is set to adapt Homer’s epic war tales of “The Iliad and The Odyssey” into a science fiction series titled “Ulysse.” Pathé has recently boarded the series project which is being co-developed by Axelle Boucai (The Mad’s Women Ball”) and Alain Goldman (“La Vie en Rose,” “The Mad’s Women Ball”) at Paris-based Ness Films. “Antonin Baudry is writing the adaptation and had the idea of transposing these mythological tales in space and in the future,” said Boucai, who cited “Dune” as inspiration.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+, France’s leading pay TV group, has signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony to ramp up its programming of U.S. movies. Under the pact, Canal+ now has access to the studios’ new films six months after their releases. Sony’s “Spiderman : No Way Home” is currently being broadcast on Canal+’s linear pay TV channels, along with its transactional VOD platform, My Canal. The news was half-revealed by Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group’s chair and CEO, during the company’s upbeat press conference on Sept. 14, which was held at their posh headquarters in Paris. Saada, who recently joined the management board of Vivendi, Canal Plus Group’s parent company, said the outfit already boasts partnerships with Fox, Disney and Warner, as well as Paramount.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios, has acquired English language adaptation rights to TF1’s hit detective show “HIP (High Intellectual Potential).” The U.S. adaptation is currently in development, and a showrunner, writing team and cast will be announced at a later stage. The original series, created by Alice Chegaray-Breugnot, Stéphane Carrié and Nicolas Jean, and starring Audrey Fleurot (“Intouchables”) and Mehdi Nebbou (“Serial (Bad) Weddings”), has been one of the most successful French-language shows on French TV in the last 10 years. Produced by Mediawan-owned Septembre Productions, and Itinéraire Productions, a UGC company, the series has been sold to more than 105 territories and has garnered more than 175 million views globally to date. A Czech and Slovakian version have already been filmed for Nova and Markiza respectively and are expected to launch soon.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Loco Films has boarded international sales rights to actor-turned-helmer Dinara Droukarova’s feature debut “Woman at Sea” which will world premiere in the New Directors section at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Produced by Marianne Slot and Carine LeBlanc at Paris-based Slot Machine (“Melancholia”), “Woman at Sea” stars Droukarova as Lili, who has left everything behind to travel to the end of the earth to fulfil her dream of fishing in the northern seas, in Iceland. She convinces Ian, a fishing boat skipper, to give her a chance and embarks on the Rebel. She is the only woman in the crew but she will win everybody’s respect thanks to her determination and courage. “We are proud of this first film, shot on the harsh northern seas about a young woman seeking the fresh air of freedom. A beautiful and free film and the birth of a new director,” said Laurent Danielou, founder and president of Loco Films.

Tim Allen returns as Scott Calvin a.k.a. Santa Clause in the first trailer for “The Santa Clauses”, Disney+’s upcoming Christmas comedy miniseries based on “The Santa Clause” film series.

Director Justin Simien and Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis stopped by D23 today to tease their upcoming live-action Haunted Mansion film, sharing that it will feature cameos from Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, Hasan Minhaj and more.

is heating up when season 11 begins later this month!NBC's firefighter procedural picks up right where the finale left off when a mysterious SUV pulls up to the cabin newlyweds Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) were honeymooning at, leaving their fates up in the air. Though it appears both Severide and Kidd make it out safely (whew!), the official synopsis for the premiere episode certainly doesn't ease minds, hinting that the couple had to endure hardships as they're met «by a dangerous person from their past.»Whatever went down at the cabin will be revealed in due time, but to tide everyone over until then, ET exclusively premieres a new photo from the explosive season 11 premiere, which sees a uniformed Severide and fellow Firehouse 51 team member Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) reporting to a chaotic scene at a wedding reception gone awry when pyrotechnics accidentally sets the party tent ablaze.“Season 11 blasts off with a relentless pace, starting right where we left Severide and Kidd last season -- and the episode never lets up for the full hour.

The BBC has unveiled its first Diversity & Inclusion Director, with L’Oréal (UK & Ireland) diversity exec Chinny Okolidoh taking on the role.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent   Eight years after delivering his Oscar-nominated film “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako is set to make his anticipated directorial comeback with “The Perfumed Hill.” Gaumont is representing in international markets and will introduce it to buyers at at Toronto. The French studio will also distribute the film in France, while Cohen Media Group will release it in the U.S. Re-teaming Sissako with his “Timbuktu” co-writer Kessen Tall, “The Perfumed Hill” is a romance drama set between China’s tea hills, the Ivory Coast and Cape Verde. It stars Nina Melo (“Girlhood”), Han Chang (“Little Big Women”) and Ke-Xi Wu (“Nina Wu”).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films Pelleas, the Paris-based banner behind Mia Hansen-Love’s “One Fine Morning” (pictured), is set to produce Guillaume Senez (“Our Struggles”)’s next project, as well as the feature debut of Anne-Sophie Bailly whose short “The Midwife” is currently playing at Telluride. The Paris-based banner’s roster of completed roster includes Karim Moussaoui’s “L’Effacement,” and Annie Ernaux’s documentary “Les annes Super-8.” “Mona” revolves around around a woman in her 60’s who raised alone her disabled son and is at a point in her life where she aspires to start caring for herself. But when her son is unexpectedly having a baby, Mona finds herself with another heavy responsibility to bear.

Trinidad Barleycorn At the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Biarritz, Studiocanal revealed further sales on its high-budget sci-fi thriller “Infiniti,” produced by Empreinte Digitale and Federation Entertainment Belgium. The show has already sold to more than 60 territories internationally, including Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Brazil, and has now been acquired by AMC Networks International, SBS (Australia), Now Studio (Hong Kong), TV2 (Norway), NOVA (Greece), Go3 (Baltics), HOT(Israel) and Telus (English speaking Canada). More deals are in the pipeline. “Infiniti” blends a sci-fi crime thriller with political intrigue and a classic love story woven through, that echoes the current global space race. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It took a pandemic and a lockdown for “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn to make a directorial comeback in Denmark, where he had delivered the “Pusher” trilogy early in his career. “Sometimes the strangest things come in mysterious ways, and this is one of those,” Refn says of “Copenhagen Cowboy,” his Netflix original series, slated to world premiere Sept. 9 at the Venice Film Festival. Since “Drive,” Winding Refn has directed the Bangkok-set thriller “Only God Forgives,” with “Drive” star Ryan Gosling; “The Neon Demon,” with Elle Fanning playing an aspiring model in Los Angeles.; and the Amazon Prime Video series “Too Old to Die Young,” starring Miles Teller as a grieving cop in crime-ridden Southern California. He was preparing another project set abroad when the pandemic hit.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After taking a break from his filmmaking career to preside over the French film promotion org Unifrance, Jean-Paul Salomé has made a big comeback with a pair of films with Oscar-nominated French actor Isabelle Huppert. The latest one, “The Sitting Duck,” is world premiering at Venice in the Horizons section. Adapted from Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book “La Syndicaliste,” “The Sitting Duck” tells the true story of Maureen Kearney, the head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse who becomes a whistleblower, denouncing top-secret deals that shook the French nuclear sector. One day, Kearney is found in her home, tied to a chair, the letter “A” carved into her abdomen, and a knife handle inserted into her vagina. Traumatized, she has no memory of the assault. However, after an investigation, the police accused her of staging the attack herself.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Iconoclast, the international production group behind Romain Gavras’ Venice competition film “Athena,” is setting a wide-ranging slate of projects with emerging filmmakers from different audiovisual fields, including Leo Berne from the artists collective Megaforce, and Elias Belkeddar and Said Belktibia from the collective Kourtrajmé. The company is also producing the next projects of Harmony Korine and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, among others. In a rare interview, Nicolas Lhermitte, who co-founded Iconoclast with Mourad Belkeddar, says the company has emerged from the pandemic with a record number of developed projects. “We took the opportunity during the pandemic to develop a lot of projects, and today we have around 30 projects in the pipeline, spanning films and series that are set up at our studios in France, the U.S. and Germany,” says Lhermitte, who adds that Iconoclast aspired to “accompany multi-disciplinary artists to venture from one field to another, films, TV series, branded content, and music videos.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films, which is at Venice with “Love Life” playing in competition, is reteaming with Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel on “The Falling Star,” a darkly comic mystery thriller. The directing duo is rolling off “Lost in Paris,” their international breakout film, which had a buzzy premiere at Telluride in 2016. The film was also a commercial success, grossing nearly $3 million outside of France, with strong performances in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand. “The Falling Star” tells the story of Boris, a former activist who’s been a fugitive for 35 years, and works as a bartender. Boris’ past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan, but they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife, Fiona, a detective on their trail.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Variety can reveal a first look at Maggie Smith and Laura Linney in the new drama “The Miracle Club,” which has wrapped production in Ireland and is now in post. The Dublin-shot film, which also stars Kathy Bates, centers on four Dublin women who come together on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes in France, where they discover the solidarity in their friendship and unveil their own personal miracles. Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, “The Miracle Club” wrapped over the summer at Ardmore Studios in Dublin. The film also features Oscar nominee Stephen Rea (“The Crying Game,” “The Usual Suspects”) and up-and-coming star Agnes O’Casey (“Longbourn,” “Ridley Road”).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent SND has picked up the international distribution rights to “Visions,” Yann Gozlan’s (“Black Box”) psychological thriller starring Diane Kruger (“Inglorious Basterds”) and Mathieu Kassovitz (“The Bureau”).  The French Riviera-set movie, produced by Eagles Team Entertainment, 24 25 Films and SND, just finished shooting in the South of France and Japan. SND handles French distribution and worldwide sales rights. The theatrical release is planned for 2023.  Kruger stars as Estelle, a brilliant airline captain who leads a seemingly perfect life with her husband Guillaume, a renowned doctor. When she accidentally bumps into Ana, a former flame, Estelle falls in love all over again. As their affair gets more intense, Estelle has recurring visions, nightmares and hallucinations, and when Ana disappears mysteriously, she starts losing grip on reality.