Studiocanal Brings Bambu’s ‘The Vow’ onto the Mipcom Market, Driving Deeper into Daily Dramas (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate just landed a solid thriller for its slate. In competition with other distributors, the company has acquired U.S., Canada and India distribution rights to Retribution, an action thriller from Studiocanal and The Picture Company that stars Liam Neeson. The Nimród Antal-directed film is a remake of the Spanish movie El Desconocido, which received eight Goya Award noms when it was released in Spain in 2015.

Bonobo has shared his latest single ‘Defender’ – you can listen to the new track below.The song follows on from the musician, producer and DJ’s surprise single ‘ATK’, which arrived last month and was, according to Simon Green, “aimed more at the dancefloor”.Released via the artist’s label OUTLIER (in partnership with Ninja Tune), both ‘Defender’ and ‘ATK’ are set to be physically released on hand-stamped and numbered white label vinyl (limited to 1500 units) later this month – you can pre-order your copy here.Listen to Bonobo’s song ‘Defender’ in the below visualiser.Bonobo will perform at Printworks in London on November 19, marking his final UK live date of 2022.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International TV market Mipcom came back with gusto this year, but it’s not back to the level reached at its pre-pandemic peak. A total of 10,896 delegates attended this year, which is down from the peak year of 2019, when more than 13,500 delegates came to the Cannes event. MipJunior, which ran over the weekend, had 1,311 delegates this year. In 2019, there were 1,500. There were 3,100 buyers this year, compared with more than 4,700 in 2019. The largest numbers of buyers this year came from the U.S. (442), followed by the U.K. (301), France (251), Germany (242) and Spain (140). In 2019, it was U.S. (461), U.K. (450), France (423), Germany (359) and Russia (207).

Anna Marie de la Fuente The upcoming animated TV series “Lil’ Heroes” from Exile Content Studio is one step closer to being made. The studio has tapped Emmy Award-winning writer, author Kevin Shinick, best known for his stints as writer, producer and voice-actor on Adult Swim’s irreverent “Robot Chicken” and his best-selling YA novel, “Star Wars: Force Collector.” Shinick joins NBA star Carmelo Anthony who serves as an executive producer and voice actor on the upcoming series. Asani Swann, Anthony’s producing partner and co-founder of Creative 7, also executive produces. Launched in January this year, the “Lil’ Heroes” franchise started off as an NFT collection created by Spanish contemporary artist Edgar Plans, in partnership with Exile Content Studio, the film, television, audio, and digital production house founded by Isaac Lee and now a part of Candle Media.

Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season one has had a “halo effect” on the streamer’s other tentpoles such as The Boys and Wheel of Time, according to Studios boss Jennifer Salke.

Emiliano De Pablos Madrid-based Zeta Studios, the producer behind worldwide hit series “Élite,” HBO Max’s “García!,” Movistar Plus’ “Reyes de la noche” and Prime Video’s “Días Mejores,” has teamed with double San Sebastián Golden Shell winner director Isaki Lacuesta for TV drama project “El hijo del chófer” (“The Chauffeur’s Son”). Lacuesta will direct and write the series alongside writer-director Isa Campo, and “Días mejores” creator and “Fariña” scribe Cristóbal Garrido. The project is currently in a development and looking for financing.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Global Screen has sold “Munich ’72,” an Israeli documentary series about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, has sold to Poland’s Canal+, Italian broadcaster La 7, Spain’s Filmin and Slovenia’s RTV. The co-producers, Sipur (formerly Tadmor Entertainment) and Israel’s Channel 8, also announced the executive producing team behind the documentary: Russ McCarroll, Michael Schmidt, Emilio Schenker and Gideon Tadmor for SIPUR; Telepool’s Jan Frouman, Julia Weber and Ulrike Schroder; and HOT Channel 8’s Dari Shay, Rinat Klein and Dorit Hessel. “We saw strong sales momentum for ‘Munich ’72’ heading into Mipcom, and are in advanced negotiations with a number of other buyers that we will be meeting with in Cannes,” Weber, Global Screen’s head of international sales and acquisitions, said. “We expect those deals to be announced very soon.”

Emiliano De Pablos In a further step towards its consolidation as a global player of not only fiction but non-scripted entertainment content, international production powerhouse The Mediapro Studio has reached an exclusive deal with Belgium’s Be-Entertainment to produce its formats for Spain and Latin America. The pact also sees The Mediapro Studio developing non-fiction formats for VTM, a Flanders’ leading TV channel with more than 30 years of broadcasting. Like Be-Entertainment, VTM is owned by Belgian giant DPG Media.  TMS will become “the only production company that can exclusively adapt the distributor’s formats for Spain and Latin America,” the European super indie company noted in a press release Monday morning.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES  —  Paramount+ has revealed a premiere date – Nov. 3 – as well as trailer and key art for “Bosé,” a biopic of the famed Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé which is shaping up as one of Spain’s biggest and most anticipated series of 2022.  Shared in exclusivity with Variety, the trailer, like the version glimpsed at Iberseries in one of that market’s biggest sneak peeks, captures Bosé’s art – a mix between David Bowie glam and sexual ambiguity and softer Italian melody.  It also drive into what looks like the emotional heart and narrative structure of the story, showing Miguel Bosé (played by Iván Sánchez and José Pastor), in a present-day timeline during the promotion of his multi-platinum album “Papito,” as he debates becoming a father. 

BBC Studios Makes Pair Of European Hires

Liza Foreman Cineflix Rights has presold Helium’s ten-part Australian crime drama “Last King of The Cross” to Sky.  Starring Tim Roth, the series will air exclusively in all Sky territories in Italy, the UK, Ireland and Germany, the company has announced.  Inspired by John Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography, which follows his rise from a poverty-stricken immigrant to Australia’s nightclub kingpin, “Last King of The Cross” tells the story of two brothers who lose each other in their ascent to power. Set in Sydney’s Kings Cross in the 1980s and 1990s, the cast includes Lincoln Younes (“Grand Hotel,” “Tangle”), Claude Jabbour (“Eden,” “Stateless”), and Callan Mulvey (“300: Rise of an Empire”). Cineflix Rights is the exclusive international distribution partner.   

Emiliano De Pablos Globoplay, the streaming platform of Latin American TV giant Globo, has picked up Brazilian rights to police noir thriller series “Motel Valkirias,” a Spain-Portugal co-production handled by Onza Distribution.  Created by Ghaleb Jaber Martínez, writer-producer of Netflix’s Galician TV drama hit “O Sabor das Margaridas,” the series is directed by Álex Sampaio (Schibare”) and Jorge Quiroga (“Atras das Nuvens”). In post-production, the eight episode 50-minute “Motel Valkirias” is set in a cross-border motel between Galicia and Portugal, following three women with financial and personal problems who get in serious danger after joining forces to get their hands on some valuable merchandise from a guest in the motel.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ has struck a deal for hit BBC drama The A Word and spin-off Ralph & Katie with Keshet International.

Liza Foreman CANNES – REinvent International Sales has sold the refugee drama ‘Lost’ to AMC Networks for Spain and Portugal. The Scandi production-distribtion shingle is presenting the title to buyers at this week’s Mipcom TV market in Cannes. Created by Ulf Ryberg (“Headhunters,” “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”), the drama thriller tells the story of a truck driver smuggling a group of Syrian refugees into Sweden in his truck. An upsetting phone call from his soon to be ex-wife, leaves the refugees struggling for air, when his mind wanders off them.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Limonero Films, an independent boutique distributor of factual programming and documentaries, is launching a selection of documentaries and factual entertainment series at the Mipcom TV market. The titles are “Women Behind the Wheel,” produced by Dartmouth Films in the U.K., the wildlife titles “Wild Icons of Iberia” and “Heroines of the Savannah,” both by Azor Productions in Spain, “The Baby Makers,” from Mediacorp in Singapore, and “Shepherds of the Earth,” by Guerrilla Films in Finland. In “Women Behind the Wheel,” two 22 year-olds drive 3,500 miles along the Pamir highway to meet the women of Central Asia coping with the changes in their society since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ed Meza @edmezavar The Lumière Festival’s International Classic Film Market (MIFC) in Lyon, France, is celebrating its 10th edition this year with a wide-ranging program focusing on bolstering classic film distribution, the prospects of new commercial territories, film education and a focus on Spain’s heritage film sector. The MIFC, which runs Oct. 18-21, kicks off with a keynote by Gian Luca Farinelli, director of Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna film archive. Market organizers praise Farinelli for “allowing classic films to be found, restored, reviewed and, most often, put back on the market firstly through the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, exhibition and distribution activities within the foundation, while maintaining strong links with cinemathques from around the world.”

Ed Meza @edmezavar A restored version of Iván Zulueta’s ground-breaking 1979 film “Arrebato” (“Rapture”) is screening at the Lumière Festival’s International Classic Film Market (MIFC) in Lyon, France, thanks to Los Angeles distributor Altered Innocence and Madrid’s Mercury Films. The cult film, considered a milestone in Spanish cinema from the post-Franco years, is seen as metaphor for how directors can be consumed by filmmaking. It centers on José, a frustrated low-budget horror movie director trying to complete a film while struggling with drug addiction. When he receives a package from past acquaintance Pedro — a Super-8 film reel and audiotape – José soon finds himself sucked back into the eccentric young man’s vampiric orbit.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s MIA, a market dedicated to international TV series, feature films, animation and documentaries, wrapped its eighth edition on Saturday on a positive note boasting a 20% rise in attendance compared with 2021, having attracted more than 2,400 registered industry execs from 60 countries, more than half of which from Italy. However, the pandemic was still limiting travel last year, which makes comparisons difficult. The mood was undoubtedly upbeat in the halls and terraces of central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini – which besides being Italy’s national ancient art gallery is also the market’s main hub – and in the adjacent state-of-the-art Cinema Barberini movie theater during five days of curated dealmaking and dozens of panels and project pitching sessions involving 70 TV, film, doc and animation projects.

Elliott Wright and his wife Sadie have definitely got something to smile about after announcing the happy news that they are set to welcome an addition to their family. It seemed that they’ve continued channelling that energy when the pair posed at the former TOWIE star’s restaurant, Olivia's La Cala in Malaga, Spain with grins on their faces. In the pictures, Sadie, 30, looked incredible as she showed off her pregnancy glow in a figure hugging olive mini dress that hugged her bump.

K.J. Yossman Emmy Award nominated journalist and anchor Anelise Borges has signed with CAA, Variety can exclusively reveal. Borges, who speaks four languages fluently including French, Spanish and Portuguese, has reported from more than 30 countries, covering war, migration, dictatorships and Europe’s identity crises. She boasts over a decade of experience in the field. She has worked at Euronews, TRT and France 24 covering topics including the war in Syria, the European refugee crisis and the Greek economic bailout. While based in Istanbul, she covered the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, breaking stories and reporting from the field.