‘The Swarm’: Frank Doelger’s Berlinale Series Drama Draws Millions To ZDF

Casey Bloys wants Kate Winslet to be venerated in the States.

Rodolphe Belmer has made the case for TF1 Group as “the free entertainment reference for French citizens on TV and in streaming.”

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to the drama On Our Way, the feature directorial debut by Sophie Lane Curtis, toplined by Micheál Richardson, Keith Powers, James Badge Dale and Jordana Brewster. Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Ben-Victor, Ruby Modine and Franco Nero also star. Gravitas will release the film in theaters and on demand on Friday, May 19.

Ben Croll Disney+ will move forward on two new French series, tackling questions of euthanasia with “Lambert v. Lambert,” and intimacy in the social media age with the literary thriller “Les enfants sont rois.” Adapted from a recent page-turner by “Based on a True Story” author Delphine de Vigan, “Les enfants sont rois” (“The Children Are Kings”) follows a reality-TV has-been turned mommy vlogger who fills her social media feeds with daily updates about her two precocious children. When her older daughter disappears and is thought kidnapped, the bereft momfluencer faces a police investigation that calls into question the very existence of child.

Dawn French had fans obsessed after she gave fans a small glimpse of her transformation into Claudia Winkleman for Comic Relief, but on Wednesday a brand new video was released - and you won't believe it.The new video shows the comedian, 65, in situ and strutting around the famous Scottish Castle known to all fans of the much-loved BBC series, The Traitors, as she performs the Strictly host's role on the reality show. Check out the hilarious clip below…WATCH: Dawn French sparks major fan reaction with new video of unbelievable transformationIn one rib-tickling moment of the video, Dawn says: "So join me, Claudia Winkle-tinkle-dewinkle-dinkle-deman for Comic Relief night on Friday 17 March or be an idiot."Fans could not get over Dawn's impersonation of the BBC presenter with one commenting: "Dawn never disappoints...brilliant!" A second added: "Dawn French just perfect as usual ripping off a Goddess the Winkle-Dinkle will from now on be forever known as.

Newly minted Oscar winner Ed Berger, director, co-writer and producer of All Quiet On the Western Front, which was named Best International Film last night, is set to direct and executive produce Helltown, an eight-episode crime thriller in development at Amazon Studios from Mohamad El Masri (Severance), Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey’s Team Downey. Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight) is in discussions to star in and executive produce the project, based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman.

Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton is in talks to write a screenplay with French director Anne Fontaine about iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren’s transatlantic affair.

Dawn French is famous for her exceptional impersonation skills but in her latest photo, shared on Thursday, she upped the ante with an unrecognisable transformation you will not believe.Taking to her Instagram account, the Vicar of Dibley star, 65, donned an a chunky black fringe, knitted grey roll-neck jumper and added lashings of concealer to her lips as she transformed into Strictly Come Dancing host, Claudia Winkleman, who was also captured in the photo giggling away. Dawn sent fans wild with the hilarious updateCaptioning the hilarious moment, the star penned: "Coming soon…#traitors #comicrelief." The image was also reshared by Claudia herself who couldn't get enough of her "hero's" new look.Claudia wrote: "Coming soon…#traitors #comicrelief.

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!

Dawn French debuted the much anticipated return to her signature bob whilst attending the opening of a West End show on Tuesday.The 65 year old comedian, who is best known for starring in Vicar of Dibley, had previously cut her hair short into a pixie cut whilst she was growing out her greys after revealing last year that she’d lost interest in dying her hair at home. Appearing on The One Show in December of last year, Dawn had said: "I just couldn’t be bothered to keep doing it.

The restructures, layoffs, cancelations and a maybe-strike currently impacting the U.S. TV industry rippled through the halls of the Berlinale Series Market this week as senior execs forecasted an international future.

Berlinale Series and one of Disney+’s early big plays in Southern Europe, U.K.-Italian mafia series “The Good Mothers” walked off on Wednesday night with the Berlin Festival’s inaugural Berlinale Series Award.  A large virtue of the series is to come in at the mafia from a novel angle: a real story of women who dare to defy the Italian mob.  The title forms part of the first European slate by new Disney+ international streaming service Star. It tells how bosses at the the Calabrian mob were targeted by a female prosecutor – thanks to the collaboration of three women inside the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime clan. 

The Good Mothers, Disney+’s hard-hitting mafia drama series, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

Christopher Vourlias The crime noir genre gets a distinctly South African twist in the new series “Donkerbos,” which premiered its first episodes this week as part of the Berlinale Series Market Selects lineup at the European Film Market. The show begins when the bodies of six children are found in the forests of a provincial backwater town, and a local detective (Erica Wessels) is called in to investigate the shocking crimes. But as the series unfolds, she’s forced to wrestle with her dark past, her family and a distrustful community to catch the killer before another child is taken. Written and directed by Nico Scheepers, “Donkerbos” is produced by Nagvlug Films and sold globally by MultiChoice, which bowed the show last year on its SVOD platform Showmax.

The White Lotus is almost certainly checking into an Asian hotel for its third season — and it’s been revealed Netflix’s Dahmer star Evan Peters nearly starred in the second run.

EXCLUSIVE: Members of the first ever Berlinale Series Award jury have predicted that TV awards could soon rival film at the world’s major festivals.

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

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Lie With Me,” a romance drama headlined by French stars Guillaume de Tonquebec and Victor Belmondo, has lured a raft of theatrical distributors at the Berlinale’s EFM. Represented in international markets by Be For Films and directed by Olivier Peyon, the movie is based on Philippe Besson’s book “Arrête avec tes mensonges.” The autobiographical novel was originally published in France by Editions Julliard in 2017 and won pair of awards including the Maison de la Presse prize in 2017. After selling several key territories earlier this year, Be For Films has now closed deals for the U.S. (Cinephobia Realising), Germany/Austria (24 Bilder), Brazil (Imovision), Poland (Tongariro), Greece (Cinobo) and Turkey (Bir Films).

Marta Balaga Crime shows look for a new angle, argued Berlinale Series participants on Monday.  There is no shortage of new offerings, from Berlinale Market Selects’ “Two Sides of the Abyss,” Serbia’s “The Fall” or South Africa’s “Donkerbos,” created by Nico Scheepers, to China’s melancholic, decades-spanning “Why Try to Change Me Now,” with Golden Bear winner Yinan Diao attached as executive producer. But while there is still an appetite for traditional detective stories, producers and broadcasters are venturing out of the “damaged, middle-aged white detective slot on a Sunday night,” suggested All3Media International’s Rachel Glaister. They are also thinking about their younger audience.

Ed Meza @edmezavar “Snow,” an Austrian-German co-production and one of 16 titles presented in the Berlinale Series Market Selects showcase, weaves the timely issue of climate change and local folklore into a suspenseful mystery drama set in the picturesque Austrian Alps. Brigitte Hobmeier stars as Lucia, a physician who with her husband and children moves to the village, where she is replacing the local doctor, who is retiring. Things take a troubling turn when her daughter is visited by a strange woman at night. The series presentation at the EFM event brings the title back to Berlin, where it came together in 2020 at the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series event.