Studiocanal Extreme Sports Thriller ‘Spinners’ Captures France’s Drive into African Premium Drama

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent With an International Panorama spangled by gems  – think Spain’s “Apagón,” Sweden’s “Blackwater,” and Canada’s “Disobey” and “Little Bird” – Series Mania also weighs in this year with one, if not the, strongest and most mouthwatering of international competitions in its history.  Including the opening and closing series, Amazon’s “Greek Salad” and Netflix’s “Transatlantic,” nearly all the global streamers have titles in the lineup, from Apple TV+’s “Drops of God” and Paramount+’s “Fleeting Lies.” The lineup also features some A-List international writing talents, such as the U.K.’s Jack Thorne and Israel’s Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen, whose “The Virtues” and “No Man’s Land” rank among the most memorable of recent Series Mania competition titles, and closing the festival, out of competition, “Unorthodox’s” Anna Wenger.”Fleeting Lies” also represents one of the first series from Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo label in Madrid, opening series “Greek Salad” Cedric Klapisch’s first works a TV series creator.

Angelique Jackson After presenting at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield have begun formulating plans to share the screen again, as co-stars in the upcoming film “We Live in Time.” The two Academy Award-nominated actors are in talks to star in the StudioCanal project, which is described as a “funny, deeply moving and immersive love story.” John Crowley, best known for the BAFTA-winning film “Brooklyn,” is on board to direct, from a script by Nick Payne (“The Last Letter from Your Lover,””Wanderlust”). In addition to developing the script, StudioCanal will produce the project with Sunny March. Further plot details are being kept under wraps, but if the deals with Pugh and Garfield close, the intention is to begin production later this year. StudioCanal executives Ron Halpern, EVP global production, and Joe Naftalin, SVP global production, are overseeing the project on behalf of the studio.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Prime Video have set the launch date and pricing for their ‘Warner Pass’ offer in France to March 16. Priced at €9.99 per month, the offer will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video Channels in France, and will boast all of HBO programs, along with 12 channels, including Warner TV, Eurosport, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network and CNN, as well as their associated on-demand services. Subscribers will benefit from a 30-day free trial until April 3. “The launch of Warner Pass exclusively as a Prime Video channel in France is the next step in our journey to become the destination for customers in France to find the best in storytelling, premium entertainment and sports,” said Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video French Country Director.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced a dozen projects from young filmmakers from Saudi, and the wider Arab and African region, selected for its development program, the Red Sea Lodge, in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab and sponsored by the Film AlUla film commission. The Lodge is a 10-month mentorship program that has now opened up to African works along with Saudi and Arab projects. Winners will take home a portion of the total $200,000 pot in prizes that will be awarded during the fest’s 2023 edition in December.  The selected projects from Saudi Arabia are:

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Running March 13-17, the Málaga Festival’s Mafiz-Spanish Screenings Content weigh in this year as one of the biggest dedicated Spanish movie platforms in history, boasting also a strong line in Latin American arthouse projects and productions. 10 Takes as the event kicks off, blessed by early Spring sunshine, in the Andalusian city: XXXL In 2022, super-sized by the Spanish Screenings Content, part of Spain’s €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) AVS Spain Hub, a vibrant Mafiz, the Malaga Film Festival industry area, fair exploded, delivering  a sterling confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a platform age, aided by robust state sector backing. This year, Mafiz looks even larger. At 1,560 delegates and counting as of March 6, Mafiz is tracking to pass 2022’s final attendance figure of around 1,600, Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Festival director told Variety. Participants come from 62 countries, up from 53 last year. “The event’s consolidation is clear,” Vigar added. “It makes us feel that the work we do is useful for the sector,” he adds. 

The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has found his meeting with French premier Emmanuel Macron this weekend totally overshadowed in the British media. On Saturday evening, Sunak’s office released a statement from the PM, saying: 

Queer Eye's Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness are mourning the loss of Tom Jackson, who has died aged 63. The 'Queer Eye' family member, who appeared on the Netflix reboot's first episode in 2018, lost his battle with gland cancer metastatic adenocarcinoma on March 3rd. A post on the show's official Instagram account read: "it’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to a member of our Queer Eye family.

Frank Doelger’s eco-thriller drama The Swarm has made a splash on German TV.

Life just keeps getting better for Tan France. The Queer Eye star exclusively told Us Weekly how welcoming son Ismail, 20 months, strengthened his relationship with husband Rob France.

Paris Fashion Week is in full swing and one thing we’re hoping to see is Belfast stars Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe reuniting at a show!

EXCLUSIVE: StudioCanal has confirmed that it is back in the UK acquisitions game by taking a “significant” stake in a production outfit founded by The Last Kingdom producer Phil Temple.

Jared Leto is stepping out during Paris Fashion Week.

is back with season 2, and this time Gigi Hadid joins Tan France as the co-hosts of the fashion reality competition. Ahead of the new episodes' debut on Netflix, the two sat down with ET's Rachel Smith to share how they bonded over parenthood, their evolving styles and getting through some of the more emotional moments on the show. While Hadid takes over for Alexa Chung, who hosted alongside France in season 1, there's no doubting the chemistry that's seen onscreen with the new pairing. And according to France, the two «definitely» bonded over «baby stuff.»  «Obviously,» adds Hadid, who is the mother of 2-year-old Khai, while France is father to 1-year-old Ismail.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Music Box is unveiling the trailer for “Revoir Paris,” a French drama boasting a Cesar-winning performance by Virginie Efira. The movie, which bowed at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and played at Toronto, will have its New York premiere on June 23 at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Film Center. A meditation on healing, the film tells the story of Mia (Efira), a married translator who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant, and feels haunted by the trauma, yet unable to recollect memories of the tragic attack. Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normalcy, Mia finds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process she forms bonds with fellow survivors, including banker Thomas (Benoît Magimel) and teenager Félicia (Nastya Golubeva). Efira, who just won a Cesar Award for her role in the film, stars opposite Magimel, the Cesar-winning actor of “Pacifiction,” as well as Grégoire Colin (“Both Sides of the Blade”) and Golubeva (“Annette”).

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Celebrated actor Nigel Havers and French journalist Sophie Davant will join Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) and ZDF Studios to celebrate 10 years and a now 10 territory roll-out of antique auction show “Cash or Trash.”  The property is produced by WBITVP and distributed internationally by ZDF Studios. Celebrations will take place as part of WBITVP’s Formats Showcase, held March 2 at BAFTA during this year’s London TV Screenings.  Havers (“Chariots of Fire,” “Finding Alice”) and Davant host the adaptations of “Cash or Trash,” on BBC One (“The Bidding Room”) and French public TV channel France 2 (“Affair Conclue”).

Can life end on our own terms? A family’s journey through end-of-life care is explored in “Everything Went Fine.” The film sees a man ask for help ending his life after a devastating stroke, his appeal pushes a daughter to confront her complicated feelings as well as a bureaucratic nightmare. The project hails from celebrated filmmaker François Ozon; his recent works have become critically-acclaimed favorites, including “Peter von Kant.” “Everything Went Fine” is not the only Ozon project to hit theaters soon — the crime dramedy “Mon Crime” comes to French theaters on March 8.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max Content will deliver a keynote at Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues whose one-day summit looks set to take the pulse on a global content industry as content investment flattens and ask how to build a more responsible industry in the future. Marking an early opportunity to hear from streaming platforms after both Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney have announced multi-billion dollar cuts in content investment, the Lille Dialogues also count on a keynote from James Farrell, head of local originals, Prime Video. Further keynotes will be delivered by top execs at France’s biggest free-to-air service, TF1, as well as its energetic public broadcaster France Télévisions and Europe’s biggest pay TV operator, Sky. Jan Mojto, CEO, Beta Film, can be expected to deliver a wide-angled vision of how stories made in Europe can find a market worldwide.

Patrick Mahomes may have gone to Disneyland after his Super Bowl win but his next stop on his tour is Netflix.

Emiliano De Pablos Buenos Aires-based production outfit Mil Monos is teaming with writer-director Pablo Agüero (“Primera nieve,” “Akelarre”) and writer-creator Nicolás Britos (“Limbo,” “Pibas en orsai”) to develop dystopian coming-of-age thriller series project “Decibel.” Produced by Mil Monos’ Maximiliano Monzón, “Decibel” is currently at pilot script stage, and a shoot start is planned by January 2024, tentatively in Argentina. Written by Britos, the eight-episode, half-hour thriller follows five deaf teenagers born in a mountainous region. When The Hum, a sound that transforms every person who can hear it into a frenzied killer, is unleashed, their deafness makes them immune.

Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern are hitting the red carpet at the premiere of their new movie.