Swiss Soldiers, Women’s Rights in Kyrgyzstan, Gold Miners in Niger Among Subjects in Upcoming Swiss Documentaries

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Veteran Italian auteur Silvio Soldini (“Bread and Tulips,” “Emma”) is set to direct “The Tasters,” which will reconstruct the true untold story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. The Nazi-era drama — which will mark Soldini’s first foray into German-language cinema — is based on the bestselling book “At the Wolf’s Table,” by Italian author Rosella Pastorino, about a group of women who were recruited by the SS in 1943 to make sure that food to be served to Hitler was not poisoned. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters start to split into two factions: those loyal to Hitler, and those who insist they aren’t Nazis, even as they risk their lives everyday for the Führer.  “At the Wolf’s Table” has been translated in 46 countries.

Randall Emmett is firing back at Hulu’s new documentary, “The Randall Scandal: Love, Loathing and Vanderpump”, claiming it portrays a biased narrative against him.

Randall Emmett is speaking out against an upcoming documentary about the controversies and allegations made against him last year in a  expose.Emmett released a statement to on Tuesday, defending himself against the Hulu project, titled, , while also slamming his ex, Lala Kent.«Almost one year ago the wrote a highly biased and factually inaccurate hit piece on me,» Emmett claimed in his statement, before going on to claim that the journalist who wrote the article «seemed to have a personal vendetta against me, I believe due to her alleged friendship with my ex Lala Kent.»He claims the article featured «fictitious and greatly exaggerated stories» shared by people he claimed were «disgruntled employees who had been dismissed.»Kent was among several women who shared allegations of inappropriate and abusive behavior in the article, published last June. Kent, however, is not a part of the forthcoming documentary, and neither is Emmett.«I declined to participate because it very quickly became apparent to me the film was going to be as biased, if not more so, than the article on which it was based,» he claimed in his statement.

Dungeons & Dragons movie,  is now available to watch at home. The second big-screen adaptation of the hugely popular tabletop roleplaying game follows a bard, a barbarian, a sorcerer, and a druid on an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic that could destroy the world.You can enjoy the world of DnD from the comfort your couch and stream  on Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime Video. is now streaming on on Paramount+.

Anna Nicole Smith's life and career is the subject of a new documentary,, currently streaming on Netflix. The doc shows director Ursula Macfarlane's unflinching look back on the late model and actress. According to Netflix, the film offers a «humanizing examination of the life, death and secrets of Vickie Lynn Hogan -- better known as model and actress Anna Nicole Smith.

After saying that she lost out on a major franchise film because of her low Instagram follower count, it appears Elle Fanning is rebounding just fine. This time, she’s landed one of the most anticipated films of the next year.  LISTEN: ‘The Great’: Elle Fanning & Nicholas Hoult Talk About Returning For Season 3 Of Their Hit Historical Comedy, ‘Nosferatu’ & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]  According to Deadline, Elle Fanning is set to join Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in the cast of “A Complete Unknown.” This is the drama from director James Mangold about Bob Dylan’s early years.

solid reviews and excellent word of mouth, but the $150 million franchise starter barely topped $205 million worldwide in theatrical earnings. The Dungeons and Dragons brand was a prime example of “IP for the sake of IP.” None of its admittedly impressive cast (Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Hugh Grant and Regé-Jean Page) qualified as a butts-in-seats draw.

The Los Angeles Lakers stunned defending champion Golden State Friday night, beating the Warriors 122-101 to win their series in six games. They now head to Denver for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday.

The European Film Academy (EFA) has unveiled 462 film professionals as new members in an announcement timed to coincide with Europe Day on May 9.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has closed a deal for German distribution rights for “Let Me Go” with Alamode Film, ahead of the film’s world premiere as the opening film of Cannes ACID sidebar next week. “Let Me Go” (Laissez-Moi), the debut feature by Swiss director Maxime Rappaz, is set in a remote Swiss mountain village, where Claudine (Jeanne Balibar) lives a life dedicated to taking care of her son. Every Tuesday, however, she has an afternoon to herself and goes to a nearby hotel to meet men passing through. She pursues her desires in a carefully controlled way, so as not to interfere with her life, but when she meets Michael (Thomas Sarbacher) everything changes.

Mo Abudu, the CEO of EbonyLife Media, has stepped into the writing and directing spaces, having completed two short films – Iyawo Mi and Her Perfect Life – the former of which will screen at the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner this month. Both projects have also been selected for the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival in August. 

The recently launched Toonz Feature Film and China’s Golden Valley Films have struck a co-production and co-financing deal for six animated pictures over the course of the next three years.

The Women’s World Cup faces a potential TV blackout for this summer’s tournament in the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France after FIFA president Gianni Infantino threatened to withhold rights over what he said where insufficient bids. Infantino, speaking Tuesday at at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, said it was the soccer governing body’s “moral and legal obligation not to undersell” the tournament, set for July 20 until August 20 in Australia and New Zealand.“Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup into the ‘Big 5’ European countries,” Infantino said, drawing a line in the sand despite FIFA’s media rights agreements with 156 other nations and territories.Prize money will notably increase for this year’s tournament by 300% to $150 million from 2019, which was won by the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry has signed with CAA for representation.

Netflix has set June 9 for the Season 2 premiere of Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources. An impressive list of guest stars will join the show for its upcoming final season including Florence Pugh, Miley Cyrus, Eugene Levy, Sam Richardson, Niecy Nash-Betts, Jason Mantzoukas, and Isabella Rossellini.

Monica Barbaro has flown in the skies with Tom Cruise‘s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Now she’ll sing alongside Timothée Chalamet‘s Bob Dylan.

McKinley Franklin editor Frank Agrama, founder and chairman of Harmony Gold, died on Tuesday. He was 93. Agrama’s career as an entertainment pioneer saw him founding several production companies including the Film Association of Rome and then Harmony Gold, which launched television series such as “Shaka Zulu” and “Robotech.” He was born on Jan. 1, 1930, and became a child actor in Egypt with his own TV series. While his father was the Surgeon General of Egypt, Agrama initially followed in his father’s footsteps by acquiring a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Cairo. By the time he was 23 years old, Agrama was a medical doctor. 

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Legendary Entertainment has won the movie rights to Grady Hendrix’s runaway bestseller “How to Sell a Haunted House.” The studio behind “Dune” took the acclaimed novel over several bids. The book received critical acclaim and an instant following thanks to its dynamic storytelling — pulling off genuine fright with its evil puppet antagonist, and a deeply emotional story about the horrors of family. New Zealand-based Māori filmmaker James Ashcroft is attached to direct the project. Ashcroft made his mark in the indie genre space with the bleak “Coming Home in the Dark,” which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was later acquired by Netflix. Hendrix will adapt his own novel for the screen.

Trinidad Barleycorn Documentary “Dreamers” has been acquired by Swiss sales agency Lightdox. The film has its international premiere on April 23 at the 54th Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, where it competes in the Burning Lights section. The film centers on Carlos, who arrived in Chicago from Mexico in 1993, at the age of 9, with his parents and three brothers. For 30 years, he has never been able to leave the city where he went to school and now works, coaches a soccer team, and pays his taxes, because he is still undocumented. He leads a discreet life, trying never to make a mistake, out of fear of being deported. “Even though I think of myself as an American, and consider America my country, I could get deported anytime because my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own,” he says in the film.

Lise Pedersen “Knit’s Island,” the sophomore feature by French trio Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, competing in the Burning Lights sidebar at Swiss international doc fest Visions du Reél, has been picked up by Vienna-based film sales company Square Eyes. It is entirely shot in the online post-apocalyptic world of DayZ, a multiplayer survival video game set in the fictional post-Soviet Republic of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has turned most of the population into violent zombies. Under the guise of avatars, the three-member film crew entered this world and made contact with its players. Their goal was to show how the gaming world can be a place where players become part of a strong community, they tell Variety.