X Filme Creative Pool Set to Adapt Germany’s Smash Podcast ‘Zeit Crime’ into Series for Paramount+ (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV fest, and German film-TV powerhouse Beta Group has revealed the 10 projects in the first edition of Seriesmakers, unveiling what must be one of the most talent-packed project lineups at any festival, film or TV, in 2023, A mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut, Series Mania features in development drama series from “Compartment No 6’s” Juho Kuosmanen, ‘Bang Gang’s’ Eva Husson and “Birds of a Passage’s” Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego. Also in the mix is “Amigas,” the first TV project of Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”), one of Brazil’s foremost young movie directors, “The Invisible Ink,” teaming Cannes best first feature winner César Díaz (“Our Mothers”)and New Uruguay Cinema founding father Fernando Epstein; and Indian arthouse filmmaker Pushpendra Singh, who scored with Berlin Encounters’ title “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.”

Variety is still celebrating the winners who have graced our covers, spoke on our podcasts and participated in Actors on Actors this season. Revisit our best coverage and interviews with the big winners below. Variety covers: Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), best actor: Brendan Fraser’s Triumphant Comeback: How Playing a 600-Pound Gay Man in ‘The Whale’ Resurrected His Career Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), best actress: Women Do It Better: Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh on Creating Iconic Characters From Roles Written for Men

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has spoken out after Gary Lineker was dropped from his role on Match of the Day. The row broke out earlier this week after the former England striker took to social media to hit out at Government plans to stop small boats making the journey to Britain.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mk2 films has enlisted leading distributors around the world for “Reality,” Tina Satter’s feature debut starring Sydney Sweeney, on the heels of its buzzy world premiere at the Berlinale. The movie, which bowed in the Panorama section, stars Sweeney (“White Lotus,” “Euphoria”) as Reality Winner, a 25 year-old whistleblower who spent five years in prison during the Trump administration. A former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator, Winner was convicted for leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film is based on Satter’s 2019 stage play “Is This a Room” and contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording. “Reality” captures the tense and surreal 90 minutes of FBI’s interrogation with Winner at her home in 2017.

Swiss distributor and producer Ascot Elite has sold German rights to its comedy remake The Neighbours From Upstairs (Die Nachbarn Von Oben) to Wild Bunch, which will release the film from June 1, 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria soccer legend Augustine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha is getting animated.

New research has predicted that 2023 will be the final year American consumer’s spend on TV and film rises before hitting a steady decline over the coming years.

Deadline. "At the same time, what has been at the heart of the show are the two characters Din Djarin and Grogu."He added, "It's a big galaxy, and we have many characters in it — many characters are fighting for their screen time.

Executive producers Dave Filoni and Rick Famuyiwa have spoken out about the future of Gina Carano‘s character, Cara Dune, on The Mandalorian as the Star Wars spinoff returns with season 3. In an interview with Deadline, the two acknowledged that the character still very much exists in the larger universe but that the series is focused on two characters: Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu.

Dave Filoni and Rick Famuyiwa have spoken out about the future of Gina Carano's character, Cara Dune, on as the spinoff returns with season 3. In an interview with , the two acknowledged that the character still very much exists in the larger universe but that the series is focused on two characters: Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu. «Cara was a big part and continues as a character to be part of the world,» Famuyiwa said of the character, who was first introduced in season 1 and returned in season 2 before Carano was let go from the show. Filoni also added that «it's a big galaxy, and we have many characters in it — many characters are fighting for their screen time.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights for German director Christian Petzold’s new film Afire, following its award-winning world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After securing major distribution deals at the EFM, Luc Besson’s next film “Dogman” starring Caleb Landry Jones, is now eyeing a launch in the festival circuit this fall, Variety has learned. The movie’s French release, initially planned for April 19, has been pushed to the fall to allow distributors to prepare a coordinated global release after a launch at an A-category festival. It would mark the first Besson-directed movie to open at a festival in decades. His wild space opera movie “The Fifth Element” was the opening night movie of the 50th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. Besson’s first film since his 2019 actioner “Anna,” “Dogman” is rumored to mark a return to form for the French director. Based on the trailer which we saw before the Berlinale, the film will be closer to some of his early work, notably “Subway,” “Nikita” and “The Professional” which were character-driven movies with a darker edge.

Manchester City will reportedly have to pay a British transfer record to sign Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund in the summer transfer window.

The Velvet Underground‘s ‘Loaded’ has been announced.‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition)’ is a new vinyl box set that includes nearly all of the music from its expansive 2015 CD reissue but comes with nine LPs boasting stereo, mono and “full-length” mixes of the original album.Demos, studio outtakes and live recordings also feature in the box set and several tracks will be available on vinyl for the first time.The £250 box set is available to pre-order here exclusively via Dig! ahead of its March 24 release. It’s limited to just 1,970 copies.‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition)’comes in a deluxe, foil-wrapped slipcase containing the vinyl, a poster of the album’s cover art, and an illustrated booklet with liner notes by Lenny Kaye that appeared in ‘Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition’.In addition to the nine LPs, the set also comes with four 7″s that reproduce the official singles and B-sides released from ‘Loaded’.The songs ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘Who Loves The Sun’ both come in the generic record sleeves used at the time by Cotillion, the band’s label.

Queen of the Universe returns for a second season on Paramount+ with Graham Norton as host. The show is set to premiere on the streamer starting March 31 in the U.S. and Canada with the U.K., Latin America, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Australia seeing it on April 1.

EXCLUSIVE: In a seven-figure deal finalised over the last week, Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films has beaten out competitors for UK rights to Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which A24 is releasing in the U.S. on April 21.

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.

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).

Liza Foreman German production outfit MMC Studios (“Amelie”) is backing romanic drama “Dear Eszter,” from writer/director Alex Balassa. Bastian Griese and Lucas Hamacher will produce the film for MMC Studios in Cologne, alongside Balassa. The film’s co-producers include Peter Seres (“World War Z”) at Hungary’s Punk Films, as well as Ondrej Beranek (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) from the Czech Republic’s Blindspot Capital.  Two of Chile’s foremost TV producers, Maria Elena Wood (“Locas Mujeres”) and Patricio Pereira from Maria Wood Producciones (MEW), serve as executive producers. 

Actor John Malkovich is in Berlin to debut his latest pic Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, and during a press conference Monday, he spoke to reporters about his relationship with his co-star, Julian Sands, who has been missing since January.