U.K. Writers Told They Can Work on Pre-Existing Streamer Projects But Can’t Secure New Work During WGA Strike

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere. Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics. Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama, who seems content with his simple life. Outside of his everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for books and, in particular, for music. Over the course of the film, a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.

Ferne McCann has revealed that she felt the need to 'perform' while starring in The Only Way Is Essex, living up to a confrontational character to gain airtime.The reality star, 32, who rose to fame on the ITVBe series back in 2013, was prompted to join the show after seeing the success that at-the-time close friends Billie Shepherd and Sam Faiers were having.Talking exclusively with OK! this week, the soon to be mother-of-two admitted to becoming trapped in a caricature of herself as she battled to secure a leading role and explosive storylines. “I’d seen how much Sam and Billie were loving it and the success they’d had,” said the TV personality.

Sunday night at the 76th Cannes Film Festival was all about the world premiere of the Jude Law and Alicia Vikander Henry VIII period pic Firebrand, which received a royal response from the crowd in the Grand Theatre Lumiere with an eight and a half minute standing ovation.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International In Britain, schoolchildren learning about Tudor history are taught a handy rhyme to remember the order of King Henry VIII’s six wives: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.” Hollywood has for decades been transfixed by the “beheaded” and “died” bits — essentially, the stories about women suffering — but what moviegoers are rarely reminded of is the wife who outlived Henry. In Karim Aïnouz’s hotly anticipated “Firebrand,” it’s the notorious Tudor king’s final companion, Katherine Parr, who finally takes center stage. “What’s mostly been dramatized are the wives who didn’t make it,” says Swedish star Alicia Vikander, who plays the surviving queen opposite Jude Law’s ailing monarch. “[When I read the script] I immediately thought, ‘Huh, isn’t it interesting that most people know more about the other wives.’ It’s almost like people are drawn to quite grim stories.”

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International British writer Martin Amis, the author of the book “The Zone of Interest,” has died at 73. News of his death comes just one day after the big-screen adaptation of his 2014 novel premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews. The New York Times reports that Amis died of esophageal cancer, as confirmed by his wife, the writer Isabel Fonseca. Amis published 15 novels over the course of his career, a number of which were adapted. Jonathan Glazer’s treatment of Amis’ chilling Nazi drama “The Zone of Interest” is one of the buzziest premieres to come out of Cannes so far. The film follows the family of a high-ranking SS officer that lives next door to Auschwitz concentration camp. In a review that labelled “Zone of Interest” as “chilling and profound,” Variety critic Owen Gleiberman said the film “holds human darkness up to the light and examines it as if under a microscope.”

A year and a half after the fatal shooting of its cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the Alec Baldwin Western “Rust” is back on the market at the Cannes Film Festival, shopping for international buyers.

EXCLUSIVE: Shia LaBeouf has joined action thriller Mace, directed by Jon Amiel from a script by David Chisholm. Trevor Jackson (Grown-ish, Superfly) will co-star. Myriad Pictures is shopping the project to buyers here in Cannes this week. 

Sophia Scorziello editor The ATX TV Festival has made changes to their program amid the ongoing writers strike, including the addition of the WGA on Strike! panel of leading television writers. The conversation will address the key issues that writers are fighting for as they share why the strike matters to Hollywood and entertainment unions at large. The panel will host Zoanne Clack (WGA West), Greg Iwinski (WGA East, negotiating committee), Damon Lindelof (WGA West) and Julie Plec (WGA West) and will be moderated by Beau Willimon (WGA East). The festival has cancelled select programs, including “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the “Andor” conversation with Tony Gilroy, “Tiny Beautiful Things” conversation with Liz Tigelaar and Cheryl Strayed and the “Dawson’s Creek” 25th Anniversary Screening & Conversation.

The yearly ATX Television Festival will adjust its schedule to accommodate conversations about the ongoing writers strike, some of which will replace previously announced panels. The Austin-based event runs from June 1 – 4.

EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles-based Lion Heart Distribution has acquired North American rights to Allan Piper’s horror-comedy eVil Sublet co-starring All In The Family star Sally Struthers and Jennifer Leigh Houston.

Katherine Brodsky Last year, at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Telefilm Canada had launched a campaign to invite audiences to return to cinemas. They called it “Feel Again” and had partnered with distributors, cinemas, festivals, broadcasters, Air Canada — and even filmmaker Director X — to help drive audiences to re-discover Canadian films. “We really spent last summer doing different audience-focused partnerships,” says Francesca Accinelli, VP, promotion, communications and international relations at Telefilm Canada and interim CEO for the past 10 months. “As always, we try and connect with audiences where they are versus creating a whole new audience.” That meant that if they were going to Tim Hortons, part of their strategy was to reach them there.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International At Sunday night’s BAFTA TV Awards in London, the most popular couple in the room won’t actually be British. Given the U.K. reception to Australian series “Colin From Accounts” — which was acquired by the BBC in one of its smartest deals in years — that honor will likely go to Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall, the real-life partners who created and star in the half-hour rom-com. The couple will be presenting a BAFTA during the ceremony, and afterwards, they’re available for selfies. “If we land in the U.K. and people recognize us on the street, that’ll be massive, because it’s never happened to me,” says Dyer. “I’ve lived in L.A. for five years, and I’m on a network television show, and not a single person has gone, ‘Are you from “American Auto?”’ Not one. So I’m pumped. I want to take some pictures with some people.”

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Adam MacDonald’s survival thriller “Out Come the Wolves.” The feral feature, which will be shot on location in Dundas, Ontario throughout May, follows the story of a woman who takes her fiancé to a secluded cabin to meet her best male friend, before things take a dark turn during a hunting trip. The film is represented for international by Altitude Film Sales, who will be discussing the film with buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. MacDonald’s credits include “Backcountry”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Pyewacket”, which also debuted at TIFF. He also directed the third and fourth seasons of “Slasher” and the upcoming season five for AMC’s Shudder. Most recently, he completed directing the first virtual reality horror movie experience for Meta entitled “Be Mine.”

McKinley Franklin editor Joel McHale showed his support for the Writers Guild of America in a very Joel McHale way: With a series of bad jokes. At City Year Los Angeles’s 12th annual Spring Break: Destination Education event this Saturday, McHale opened up the night series of events by addressing the looming “elephant” in the room at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City. Following an introduction from Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, McHale addressed the ongoing writer’s strike in his opening speech. Vinciquerra did not address the strike at the event. 

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.” The writer-director reflected comments heard on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York after talks cratered between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union began to strike Tuesday. Apatow explained that he sees the strike as a calculated business move by Hollywood’s largest employers.

reverse what they say is a trend toward exploiting writers to the point that “a gig economy” now exists in Hollywood. They also cite vast paychecks earned by studio bosses at the same time compensation for creatives has declined considerably.In a statement Thursday, The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers pushed back, saying in part that the WGA’s demands are “incompatible with the creative nature of our industry.”Thankfully, we had immediate support from the captain on that shift and then from @TheJudalina And then from a WGA lawyer. I think that's all I can say about it for now… But yeah, it was an interesting day.

continuing on for the time being. As Whoopi explained on Tuesday, “We did the show anyway, because we want to keep everybody employed, and we want to do our best, and we support our writers ’cause we know what they’re going through.”She noted at the top of that show that the lack of writers, for them, means that “you’re gonna hear how it would be when it’s not, you know, slicked up.” In each episode since, she has begun each show by reminding viewers that those writers are still on strike, so she and her co-hosts are essentially improvising the entire show.Such was the case on Thursday, as Whoopi noted that they’ll likely remind audiences that the writers strike is happening at the start of each episode for as long as the strike continues.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. writers haven’t kept quiet in their support of the Writers Guild of America strike, with many making enthusiastic shows of solidarity on social media. But behind the scenes, several writers have told Variety under the condition of anonymity that they’re frustrated about a grey area in strike rules that have left them in limbo. These projects tend to be set up with the U.K. branches of “struck” companies like Disney or Netflix, but aren’t covered by WGA terms. As these multi-national businesses have grown their local productions in recent years, many British writers who are also WGA members fall into this camp, and are being pressured to walk away.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given access to the teaser (below) for “Murals,” an immersive 3D documentary that has its world premiere on May 18 at Cannes Next, a sidebar to the Marché du Film in Cannes. The experience, which is created in Unreal Engine and displayed on LED screens, centers on murals by Banksy, created following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The project was initiated by Artem Ivanenko, a 3D artist from Irpin, Ukraine, which was one of the first towns to be hit during the Russian invasion. Later, when the Russians withdrew, Ivanenko returned to Irpin to record the devastating destruction using 3D scanning.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International As strike action is set to get underway in Los Angeles and New York, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has officially instructed its members to halt work on projects within the jurisdiction of the Writers’ Guild of America. A statement released by the WGGB on Tuesday afternoon local time reads as follows: “We understand that these are difficult times and that many writers are in need of work but we are advising our members not to work on projects in the jurisdiction of the WGA for the duration of the strike following a motion of solidarity passed by our lay governing body, our Executive Council and in line with our affiliation agreement with the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds, of which we are a member.”