Top German Execs Talk Biggest Challenges Facing Their Business Today – EFM

EXCLUSIVE: MGM has acquired the rights to remake the acclaimed German film System Crasher. Channing Tatum will star and Free Association will produce along with The Picture Company. Deal comes as MGM and United Artists Releasing today bows Dog, the comedy that Tatum and Reid Carolin co-directed a script by Carolin and Brett Rodriguez.

Selome Hailu To celebrate Black history month, Ava DuVernay’s indie distribution, arts and advocacy collective Array has produced “28 Days of ‘Sankofa,'” an event series where select cinemas, universities and festival locations throughout the U.S. are screening Ethiopian director Haile Gerima’s “Sankofa” for free, one screening for each day of February. In addition, Array created a free learning companion designed to help viewers process the weight of what they’re watching.Gerima is best known as one of the leading members of the L.A.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro initiative dedicated to pics in post is set to look at German films that are in their final stage of production for its upcoming edition.The fest, located in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, in a statement said that the initiative, now in its tenth edition, will celebrate the up-and-coming cinema of a country that has been “crucial to the history” of the fest. Locarno Pro is now looking closer to home after being a springboard for pics from Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Israel, Poland, the Baltic Countries, Portugal, Serbia and Switzerland itself.“German filmmakers and producers and the work they have given us has been at the heart of so many memorable editions of the Locarno Film Festival, the fest said in a statement.

Ben Croll Fueled in no small part by international streamers looking to entrench their market share, production days skyrocketed across the European continent in 2021. But if the last year marked a gold rush for both service providers and content hungry viewers, independent producers have been feeling the squeeze.“It’s not a golden age when it comes to IP retention,” said Katharina Hiersemenzel, senior VP public policy of German mini-major Constantin Film.

Guy Lodge Film CriticThe title is a bit misleading in German writer-director Nicolette Krebitz’s offbeat romantic comedy “AEIOU — A Quick Alphabet of Love.” Despite its promise of deeper meaning attached to all the vowels in the alphabet, it’s ‘A’ on which it fixates: Said aloud and elongated, we are told, the first letter vocalizes a spectrum of feeling ranging from primal need to sharp pain to orgasmic release. Sure enough, all are present in this unpredictable tale of mutual misfit attraction between a juvenile delinquent and the middle-aged actor whose role in his life shifts from mentor to mother to lover.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBesides being a showcase for international films, the Berlinale is a platform for German cinema. There are more than 130 German films and co-productions screening across the festival and the European Film Market.Pre-pandemic, in 2019, 237 German films were produced a year, but only 10 to 20 a year perform well internationally, according to Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes Teutonic movies abroad.

NEW YORK -- Julia Garner admits to feeling “intimidated” when she met Anna Sorokin — who posed as a German heiress in New York society named Anna Delvey — and was later convicted of fraud.Garner portrays Sorokin in the new Shonda Rhimes series for Netflix, “Inventing Anna,” debuting Friday. What surprised Garner at that prison meeting? Sorokin was likable.“I just really wanted to get her energy,” said Garner. “What was coming across — that I didn’t expect — was how bubbly she was, how charming.”Garner walked away with insight into just how Sorokin was able to pull off her schemes.“When I got out of that visit, I was like, ’Wow, that’s why she was so close in getting everything that she wanted.

EXCLUSIVE: George Clooney’s long-awaited adaptation of The Boys in the Boat looks to be gearing up production as sources tell Deadline, Clooney has rounded out his cast with Joel Edgerton, Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Luke Slattery, Thomas Elms, Tom Varey, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Wil Coban and Hadley Robinson joining Callum Turner, who was previously announced. MGM, Spyglass and Smokehouse are partnering on the production with Clooney directing and Mark L. Smith writing the script.

BANGKOK -- Police in Thailand said Thursday they were looking for a suspect in the robbery of German celebrity Cathy Hummels, who reported that her mobile phone was stolen during a nighttime attack on a southern beach.Hummels, 34, is a presenter on German television and the wife of German footballer Mats Hummels, who plays for Dortmund. She traveled to the southern seaside province of Phang-nga last week to film the show Battle of the Reality Stars, which she hosts, according to German media.The Phang-nga Provincial Police issued a statement after she posted about her robbery on Instagram and gave an interview to the the German newspaper Bild.“A couple of days ago something bad happened to me,” she told her Instagram fans.

Green Man has announced the first wave of acts to play its already sold-out 20th anniversary event. Among the headliners appearing at the popular bash in the Brecon Beacons are German electronic music legends Kraftwerk, acclaimed UK singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka, Baltimore pop duo Beach House and eclectic dance-rockers Metronomy.

BERLIN -- Germany's highest court said Thursday that it has dismissed a television comedian's complaint against rulings that prohibited him from repeating parts of a crude poem he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The legal battle goes back to 2016, when comic Jan Boehmermann recited the poem on public television to illustrate something he said wouldn’t be allowed even in democratic Germany. The poem described Erdogan as “stupid, cowardly and uptight” before descending into sexual references.Then Chancellor Angela Merkel granted a Turkish request to allow possible prosecution for insulting a foreign head of state.

Manchester United followed up a shock FA Cup penalty-shootout defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough last weekend with a hugely disappointing Premier League draw away at Burnley on Tuesday night.

EXCLUSIVE: Bernd Schlotterer’s German outfit Palatin Media is launching world sales on Richard Armitage thriller The Man From Rome. Moonstone Entertainment’s Etchie Stroh is serving as a sales consultant.

true-crime TV, which is largely focused on con artists and grifters, no series is more captivating or satisfying to watch than, Shonda Rhimes’ scripted Netflix drama about convicted fraudster Anna Sorokin starring Julia Garner. Known more popularly as Anna Delvey, the German expat was found guilty of grand larceny for defrauding some of New York City’s social elites and financial institutions out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. After journalist Jessica Pressler first ignited a media frenzy around Delvey’s story with the 2018 magazine article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People,” she’s the subject of renewed attention thanks to the star-studded series, which features Katie Lowes, Laverne Cox and more as various people wrapped up in her story. “She was known as this New York grifter,” Lowes told ET, explaining that Delvey “told everyone she was a German heiress worth millions of dollars.” So, here’s what you need to know about Delvey, the “Fake German Heiress,” and the people she scammed. After first arriving from Germany in 2013, Delvey spent several years in New York City hoping to launch an exclusive SoHo House-type art club in various hot spots around the country, with the first being in the Big Apple.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has doubled its budget to €500 million ($571 million) for German-language productions between 2021 and 2023 and has revealed a raft of new projects.On Tuesday, the Netflix German-language team presented a selection of 19 productions, including previously announced projects, at the Content Remote Show. The shows are from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.