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“10 Days of a Curious Man” is a Turkish movie starring Nejat Isler. With Riza Kocaoglu, Kadir Çermik, Ilayda Akdogan, and Senay Gürler. It is directed by Uluç Bayraktar, and written by Damla Serim. Based on the novel by Mehmet Eroglu.

Our friend Sadık, played by the magnetic Nejat İşler, returns—seductive, resilient, and now, an aspiring novelist. You know, it’s a tough profession and quite challenging, so his quest for fresh narratives propels him into a new case, this time entwined with real estate speculation.

Plot Summary

Sadık is a seasoned man who has left behind the vices of drugs and alcohol. In an attempt to rebuild his life, he pens a novel that is dismissed for its lack of suspense. Determined to infuse some excitement into his existence, he starts investigating the disappearance of a woman, an online dancer, which leads him into the murky underworld of real estate speculation in Istanbul.

Is it possible that network television is so back? That's the immediate reaction to hearing CBS bought a new workplace comedy pilot starring Tim Meadows. Per Deadline, the sitcom is called Dmv, and Meadows "will play former high school English teacher Gregg, the examiner who likes to get through the driving tests,...

A new adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novels, “Maigret”, is heading to Masterpiece Mystery on PBS, with production underway in Budapest. The series will feature a contemporary take on the iconic Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, played by Benjamin Wainwright. The show is produced by Playground, with Colin Callender and David Stern serving as executive producers. […]

New ‘Maigret’ Adaptation Heading to Masterpiece Mystery...

Bottoms star/co-writer Rachel Sennott’s next project has officially landed a series order at HBO.

The premium cabler has picked up an untitled comedy — starring, written and executive-produced by Sennott — in which “a codependent friend group reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition, and new relationships have changed them,” per the official synopsis.

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In addition to Sennott (The Idol, Call Your Mother), the...

Colin Callender’s Playground will adapt Georges Simenon’s best-selling detective novels “Maigret” into a television series set to air in the U.S. on PBS under the “Masterpiece” banner.

The adaptation of the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret has started production in Budapest. Callender and David Stern will executive produce for Playground.

Benjamin Wainwright will play Maigret and Stefanie Martini stars as Madame Louise Maigret.

“George Simenon’s creation of Jules Maigret holds a firm place in the pantheon of great literary detectives and we are incredibly grateful to our partners ‘Masterpiece,’ Banijay, Ilp and John Simenon for their trust and support as we endeavor to bring a contemporary Maigret to a new, worldwide audience,” Stern said. “Patrick Harbinson’s brilliantly fresh take on this iconic IP is reflective of Playground’s ambition to expand our growing slate of contemporary returning dramas that speak to a global marketplace.

The first contemporary TV adaptation of Georges Simenon’s beloved Jules Maigret detective novels is coming to PBS Masterpiece. The network announced its new series Maigret, along with the official list of stars, on Tuesday, September 10. The Jules Maigret series is the second best-selling detective series ever, behind only Sherlock Holmes. Based on the beloved books about the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, Maigret will star Belgravia‘s Benjamin Wainwright in the titular role with Stefanie Martini as Jules’ wife, Madame Louise Maigret (above). Read on for all the details on the new detective series, including additional stars. What is PBS’ Maigret about? Patrick Harbinson serves as lead writer and executive producer on behalf of Windhover Films and will direct the first two episodes of the series. Colin Callender and David Stern executive produce for Playground, the Golden Globe and BAFTA award winning production company behind upcoming series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light...

A new iteration of one of the most beloved detectives in fiction is coming to PBS.

The public broadcaster has ordered Maigret, a series based on Georges Simenon’s novels about Jules Maigret, a chief inspector for the Paris police. Production on the series, which stars Benjamin Wainwright as the title character, has begun in Budapest; it will air under PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery! banner.

Simenon published more than 100 novels and short stories about Maigret, selling more books than any other detective series aside from Sherlock Holmes. The new Maigret series, produced by Playground (Wolf Hall, All Creatures Great and Small), is set in the present and will position the character as an unconventional young detective with something to prove, a rising star in the Police Judiciaire who is relentless in his investigations and has both an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and...

The long-gestating TV adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Maigret has landed at PBS Masterpiece, with Belgravia: The Next Chapter’s Benjamin Wainwright and Stefanie Martini (Prime Suspect 1973) playing the eponymous leads.

From Colin Callender’s Wolf Hall producer Playground, the series follows the detective and his wife in Paris. Maigret is a rising star in the Police Judiciaire, relentless in his investigations, with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants. Lead Wainwright played Lord Frederick Trenchard in MGM+ sequel series Belgravia: The Next Chapter, which followed on from Julian Fellowes’ original.

Patrick Harbinson is writing Maigret and the cast includes Blake Harrison, Reda Elazouar, Kerrie Hayes, Shaniqua Okwok and Rob Kazinsky, with Nathalie Armin set to play Prosecutor Mathilde Kernavel.

The Maigret books are the second best-selling detective series of all time behind Sherlock. Playground licensed them from Georges Simenon Limited and unveiled the development three years ago, at which point Red Arrow Studios International – which is no longer attached – was co-producing. Banijay Rights has since boarded and will sell globally.

The previous Maigret TV adaptation aired on ITV for two seasons from 2016, starring Rowan Atkinson.

Playground Joint MD David Stern said: “George Simenon’s creation of Jules Maigret holds a firm place in the pantheon of great literary detectives and we are incredibly grateful to our partners and John Simenon for their trust and support as we endeavor to bring a contemporary Maigret to a new, worldwide audience.”

Harbinson will direct the first two episodes of the Maigret series with Faye Gilbert directing 3 and 4, and David Evans taking 5 and 6. Susanne Simpson serves as the executive producer on behalf of Masterpiece the lead commissioning broadcaster, with John Simenon executive producing on behalf of Georges Simenon Limited. International distribution will be handled by Banijay Rights, the global sales arm of Banijay Entertainment.

Playground has been busy of late. The indie has completed the second in the Wolf Hall franchise, also for Masterpiece and the BBC, and is working on an Inspector Lynley Mysteries adaptation for BritBox International.

Andrew Bendel’s UK production outfit Blue Horizon Productions has joined forces with Marco Belardi’s Italy-based Greenboo Production to coproduce wartime romance The Italian Chapel.

Italian director Francesca Archibugi is working on her own version of the script, based on an original screenplay by John Wrathall.

Set in Orkney, The Italian Chapel is about a clash between the local community and prisoners of war and how romance springs up between a prisoner and an islander. Inspired by a true story, the film was originally developed by Working Title Films and the BFI.

It is one of a number of...

This week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris will kick off with the Tuesday night world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction” – a ripped-from-the-headlines ensemble drama set in the crosshairs of high art and high finance.

Produced by Sbs Productions and sold by Pyramide International, the art-world saga follows – among others – a hotshot auctioneer, his less-than-reliable assistant, and the working class bloke who sets the narrative in motion upon realizing that his erstwhile innocuous wall art bears the signature of Egon Schiele.

Writer-director Pascal Bonitzer originally thought to explore this world of high-verve auctioneers as a series, but keyed into the story’s singular, cinematic potential thanks to the real-life discovery of Schiele masterworks thought lost during World War II.

“I was fascinated by this collision of two worlds,” Bonitzer tells Variety. “On the one hand, these auctioneers need to play a game – they must seduce potential sellers, wresting artifacts from...

Exclusive: The company that holds rights to the literary estates of Langston Hughes and Evelyn Waugh is heading on a West Coast charm offensive and has snapped up the estate of Somerset Maugham.

International Literary Properties (Ilp) launched in 2019 but has so far focused on the UK and East Coast. Over the coming weeks, however, UK and Europe CEO Hilary Strong has numerous meetings in the diary with LA producers as Ilp looks to strike deals for adaptations of books from its 50-author roster across TV, film and in other areas.

“As we continue to buy considerable assets we need to broaden our relationships with the U.S. production community and showrunners,” Strong told Deadline. “We are going out to make sure people understand the message so we can start to develop producer networks in Hollywood akin to what we have on the East Coast and in the UK.”

Hilary...

Hungarian director Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.

“With this award the European Film Academy (Efa) wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” Efa said on Wednesday. “Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.”

Born in Hungary, the auteur started experiments in filmmaking at the age of 16. His feature debut, Family Nest. In 1982, The Prefab People received a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival. Tarr followed that up with Almanac of Fall (1984) and Damnation, which was nominated for the first European Film Awards in 1988.

One of Tarr’s best-known films is Sátántangó,...

Beloved actor Michael Gambon has passed away at the age of 82, it has been confirmed. Renowned for his performances both on screen and on stage, Gambon died peacefully following an illness. “We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” reads a statement on behalf of his wife Lady Gambon and son Fergus, released via his publicist. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. Michael was 82. We ask that you respect our privacy at this painful time and thank you for your messages of support and love.”

For an entire generation, Gambon was known for playing Albus Dumbledore in many of the :a[Harry Potter films]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/every-harry-potter-movie-ranked/' target='blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'} – taking on the role of the Hogwarts headmaster from 2004’s :a[The Prisoner Of Azkaban]{href='https://www.

Michael Gambon, a protégé of Laurence Olivier and giant of the British stage who portrayed Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, apparently with little effort, in the final six Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 82.

“The Great Gambon,” as Ralph Richardson once called him, died “peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia,” according to a family statement provided Thursday by a publicist.

Among the first group of actors recruited by Olivier for the National Theatre Company in the early 1960s, Gambon, a Dublin native, was nominated 13 times for an Olivier Award, winning in 1986 and ’90 for Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Man of the Moment, respectively, and in 1988 for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

He received another one for his turn as a recently widowed businessman trying to reunite with his former mistress in Skylight,...

The actor doesn’t move much but brings off the Parisian copper’s air of worldly, tolerant bemusement

Maybe it’s a surprise that Gérard Depardieu has not before now taken on the one fictional character of comparable French iconic status to himself: Georges Simenon’s Parisian police commissaire Maigret. Well, it’s now Depardieu’s turn to put on the detective’s trademark overcoat, hat, pipe, and wintry half-smile of detached amusement at human nature and the criminal mind.

This film, directed and co-written by Patrice Leconte, is based on the 1954 novel Maigret and the Dead Girl; it feels like a feature-length Sunday-night TV drama, and at 74 Depardieu is surely a couple of decades older than the usual Maigret. He is also a rather stately and well-nourished figure – when his doctor asks him if he feels tired in the medical checkup scene at the beginning of this film, Maigret...

Exclusive: France tv distribution has launched sales on French director Benoît Jacquot’s upcoming crime thriller Belle starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guillaume Canet.

The work is adapted from the 1951 novel The Death Of Belle by the iconic Belgian writer Georges Simenon who is best known for his novels about Paris detective Maigret.

Canet and Gainsbourg will play a couple leading a peaceful existence in a small provincial town. He is a teacher and she runs an opticians practice.

Their life is turned upside when Belle, a friend’s daughter who is lodging with them, is found dead in her room. The husband becomes the prime suspect as the only one at home at the time.

He finds himself subject to humiliating questioning by the police, ostracized by colleagues and treated with hostility by the local townspeople. In this small town where nothing is a secret the question on everyone’s lips is,...

Highest honors go to this stylish, cinematically refined adaptation of a George Simenon thriller. Michel Blanc becomes a person of interest for a murder investigation mainly because he’s disliked and anti-social; Sandrine Bonnaire is the neighbor that he peeps at nightly, to stir his secret passion. Director Patrice Leconte directs with almost perfect control, turning the show into an emotional workout.

Monsieur Hire

Blu-ray

Cohen Film Collection

1989 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date October 25, 2022 / Available from / 29.95

Starring: Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luc Thuillier, André Wilms, Eric Bérenger, Marielle Berthon, Philippe Dormoy, Marie Gaydu, Michel Morano, Nora Noël.

Cinematography: Denis Lenoir

Production Designer: Ivan Maussion

Costume designer: Elisabeth Tavernier

Film Editor: Joëlle Hache

Original Music: Michael Nyman

Scenario, adaptation and dialogue by Patrice Leconte, Patrick Dewolf from the book Les fiançailles de M. Hire by Georges Simenon

Produced by Philippe Carcassonne, René Cleitman

Directed by Patrice Leconte

We’re fond...

Exclusive: International Literary Properties (Ilp), which holds rights to the estates of the likes of Evelyn Waugh, Maigret author Georges Simenon and Van Der Valk’s Nicolas Freeling, has bolstered its legal team with a triple hire including Disney alum Lisa Logan.

Logan joins as General Counsel for Emea alongside new North America VP, Legal and Business Affairs, Barbara Cohen and Rights Manager Sabina Pekin.

Logan, who will be the primary legal resource in terms of managing IP, is an industry veteran who worked for more than a decade in-house with Disney, Nickelodeon and Discovery Channel before moving to private practice. She is a former Partner and Head of Media/TV at Gately and then Simkins.

Cohen will lead business affairs for North American acquisition activity and Pekin, who will report to Logan, will manage contracts and rights.

Hilary Strong, CEO of Ilp in the UK and Europe, said “the...

Hungarian auteur will also mentor young Egyptian filmmakers at the festival.

Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (November 13-22).

The award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter will also mentor a workshop with young Egyptian filmmakers at the festival and will separately deliver a masterclass at the event.

The festival will also screen 4K restorations of Tarr’s 2000 feature Werckmeister Harmonies and 2011 drama The Turin Horse, considered two of his finest works. This will make Ciff “one of the early platforms to screen Tarr’s newly restored film copies,...

Montreal event to run July 14 to August 3.

Organisers at the 26th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival have announced that the world premiere of K.C. Carthew’s Polaris will open the Montreal festival, set to run from July 14 to August 3.

The eco action fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world is distributed in Canada by Filmoption International and is among the second wave of titles and events announced on Thursday (June 2). They include a spotlight on queer cinema and new work from Neil Labute, Patrice Leconte and Shinichiro Ueda.

Labute’s horror-comedy House Of Darkness gets its international premiere and...

Montreal event to run 14 to August 3.

Organisers at the 26th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival have announced that the world premiere of K.C. Carthew’s Polaris will open the Montreal festival, set to run from July 14 to August 3.

The eco action fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world is distributed in Canada by Filmoption International and is among the second wave of titles and events announced on Thursday (June 2). They include a spotlight on queer cinema and new work from Neil Labute, Patrice Leconte and Shinichiro Ueda.

Labute’s horror-comedy House Of Darkness gets its international premiere and stars Justin Long and Kate Bosworth.

Antonio Campos, creator of the new HBO Max miniseries The Staircase, walks hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante through his favorite films noir.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Afterschool (2008)

The Devil All The Time (2020)

Rashomon (1950) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (1996)

Raw Deal (1948) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

T-Men (1947) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)

House of Bamboo (1955) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Pickup On South Street (1953) – Sam Hamm’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Naked Kiss (1964)

Reign of Terror (1949)

Detour (1945) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Scarlet Street (1945)

The House on 92nd Street (1945) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Barry Lyndon (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Killing (1956) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Kiss of Death (1947) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Kiss of Death...

“Fate’s the one to blame!”

Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol – a new 5-disc set will be available on Blu-ray February 22nd from Arrow Video

Too often overlooked and undervalued, Claude Chabrol was the first of the Cahiers du Cinema critics to release a feature film and would be among the most prolific. The sneaky anarchist of the French New Wave, he embraced genre as a means off lifting the lid on human nature. Nothing is sacred and nothing is certain in the films of Claude Chabrol. Anything can be corrupted, and usually will be.

Arrow Video is proud to present Lies & deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol. Featuring Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), Inspector Lavardin, Madame Bovary, Betty and Torment (L’enfer), this inaugural collection of Claude Chabrol on Blu-ray brings together a wealth of passionate contributors and archival extras to shed fresh light...

“Maigret,” Patrice Leconte’s adaptation of Georges Simenon’s literary masterpiece with Gerard Depardieu, has pre-sold to major territories ahead of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris where the movie is having its market premiere.

Represented in international markets by Snd, “Maigret” was picked up for Italy (Adler), Germany and Austria (Koch), Benelux (Athena), Switzerland (Pathé), Span (Selecta), Poland (Monolith), Cis (Capella), Australia and New Zealand (Palace), Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia (Blitz), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Greece (Spentzos), and Czech Republic and Slovakia (Mediasquad).

“We had terrific response from distributors when we launched the project during last year’s EFM,” said Ramy Nahas, head of international sales at Snd.

“Patrice Leconte has crafted an instant classic and Gerard Depardieu yet again delivers an incredible performance,” said Nahas. The executive said he expected to lock additional deals following the film’s market premiere at the Unifrance event and is already in negotiations for several key territories.

Snd is set to host market premieres for Patrice Leconte’s period detective film “Maigret,” as well as high concept comedies “Employee of the Month” and “The Bodins” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, a showcase of French content hosted this week in Paris.

“Maigret,” based on Georges Simenon’s literary masterpiece, will star Gérard Depardieu (“Cyrano de Bergerac”) as detective Maigret, who investigates the death of a young girl in 1953. During his inquiry, Maigret crosses paths with Betty, a young offender who reminds him of the dead girl. The movie will be released by Snd on April 6.

“We’ve pre-sold ‘Maigret’ across 90% of Europe, it’s really a highlight on our slate due to the strength of the franchise, director and cast – Gerard Depardieu is outstanding in this role,” said Ramy Nahas, head of international sales at Snd.

“Employee of the Month” will be directed by French comedian Jerome...

Ivan de Wiel, private banker from Geneva, Switzerland, arrives in Buenos Aires with his wife Inès. A military coup has plunged the country into turmoil. De Wiel is in Argentina to take over the business left behind by his banking partner René Keys (Alain Gegenschatz), who had disappeared without a trace in Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas.

1977 in A Book of Common Prayer Joan Didion writes: “The day Luis was shot Elena flew to exile in Geneva, a theatrical gesture but unnecessary, since even before her plane left the runway the coup was over and Little Victor had assumed temporary control of the government.” The characters inhabiting Didion’s invented Central American nation Boca Grande could...

Andreas Fontana’s haunting Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau: “The cinematography was done by Gabriel Sandru and we were talking a lot about that.”

Andreas Fontana’s Azor, co-written with Mariano Llinas, shot by Gabriel Sandru with costumes by Simona Martínez, stars Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphanie Cléau.

Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”

In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian, the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.

Boredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money...

Colin Callender’s Playground and Red Arrow Studios International are joining forces to co-develop a premium English-language returning drama series based on Georges Simenon’s classic Inspector Maigret novels. Georges Simenon Limited (Gsl) will act as co-production partner.

Playground’s option deal with Gsl extends to all 75 novels and 28 short stories based on the Jules Maigret character who solves murders using his understanding of human motives and emotional makeup. Above all, he is a cop. From the back alleys of Paris to the glamorous beaches of the South of France and beyond, Maigret’s reputation is so highly regarded that officers come to shadow him and observe his uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing. But, it is only his devotion to his craft and his love for his wife, Madame Maigret, that satisfy him.

The Inspector Maigret books, along with Simenon’s extensive body of work,...

Georges Simenon Limited (Gsl) has signed a licence and co-production arrangement with Colin Callender’s Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning Playground (“Howards End”) to co-develop with Red Arrow Studios International a new English-language returning Inspector Maigret drama series.

The series will be based on Georges Simenon’s iconic series of novels about the ingenious French detective Jules Maigret.

Playground’s option deal with Gsl extends to all 75 novels and 28 short stories based on the Jules Maigret character. The Maigret books have sold over 600 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 50 languages.

Maigret has been portrayed by a host of popular actors over the years in series and films, including Richard Harris (pictured), Rowan Atkinson, Michael Gambon and Jean Gabin.

The adaptation will be executive produced by Colin Callender, David Stern and Scott Huff for Playground, Tim Gerhartz and Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia for Red Arrow Studios International and John Simenon...

International Literary Properties, the New York- and London-based rights management outfit, has expanded the role of its UK CEO Hilary Strong to include Europe. In her new remit as CEO of UK and Europe, the former Agatha Christie Ltd CEO will be responsible for the company’s UK and European acquisition program. She will also have global responsibility for Ilp’s TV and film exploitation of the estates in its portfolio.

Ilp was formed in late-2019 to acquire rights in literary estates from authors and their heirs and to exploit those rights through all media platforms including TV, film and theater. The New York-headquartered business is led by literary veteran Scott Hoffman as Global CEO and Ted Green as Executive Chairman. Strong works alongside Anthology Group founder, Bob Benton in the UK and Europe.

Last year, Strong brokered an eight figure multi-estates deal that included such writers as Georges Simenon,...

An adaptation of the book by Georges Simenon, Patrice Leconte’s new film starring Gérard Depardieu and currently being shot has arrived in the French vendor’s well-stocked line-up. The international sales division of Snd is setting a course for the 71st Berlinale's European Film Market (online 1-5 March), armed with a watertight line-up of 10 titles, which now includes a particularly interesting new work which began filming on 8 February: Maigret and The Mysterious Dead Girl by Patrice Leconte, an adaptation of the detective novel of the same name by the prolific Belgian writer Georges Simenon. This will be the 30th feature film to come courtesy of the seasoned and eclectic director, who was well-received...

With 2017’s “This Is Our Land,” director Lucas Belvaux examined the ways in which far right movements attract, recruit and reformat new converts, curdling contemporary anxieties for acrid political goals. With his follow-up, “Home Front,” the Franco-Belgian auteur explores the roots of those prejudices. The film, which was part of Cannes’ selection last year, is screening this week at UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris (Jan. 13-15).

Adapted by Belvaux from Laurent Mauvignier 2009 novel “The Wound,” the film follows two working-class cousins as they fulfil their colonial military duties in 1960s Algeria and as they nurse their scars and traumas in Burgundy of 2003. While the more cerebral Rabut has tried to forge ahead, his cousin Bernard remains a livewire, looking for any provocation to snap back into violence. Local draw Catherine Frot rounds out the cast.

Synecdoche and Artemis Productions are producing. The Party Film Sales in partnership...

Serre-moi fort

Mathieu Amalric should be ready to reveal his eighth feature with Serre-moi fort, a working title which means: hold me tight. Produced by Yael Fogiel and Laetitia Gonzalez, with support from the Cnc, this stars Vicky Krieps and Arieh Worthalter (Girl). Amalric’s Public Affairs premiered in the 2003 Directors’ Fortnight lineup at Cannes, where he returned to compete in 2010 with On Tour, winning the Fipresci Prize and Best Director. His 2014 Georges Simenon adaptation The Blue Room went to Un Certain Regard, as did 2017’s Barbara, which won the Poetry of Cinema Award in the sidebar and took home nine Cesar awards, winning two, including Best Actress for Jeanne Balibar.…...

The Covid-19 crisis has devastated cinema attendance. Several major cinema chains have closed around the world. In the face of adversity, this year’s 12th edition of the Lumière Festival in France’s Lyon, which runs Oct. 10-18, aims to fly the flag of cinema even more forcefully than ever, through its on site mix of career tributes, restored classics, world premieres of new films and a classic film market.

Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (“My Journey through French Cinema”) has played a key role in organizing this year’s line-up, including the tribute to the classic French screenwriter Michel Audiard, who would have turned 100 this year, the award of the Lumière Award to Belgian directing duo, the Dardenne brothers, tributes to Oliver Stone and Viggo Mortensen, and a career tribute to French actress Sabine Azéma, who starred in two films by Tavernier. The Festival also pays homage to American...

If adultery was as drab and zestless a business as it’s made to look in “Lovers,” nobody would engage in it — in which case Nicole Garcia’s languid, boilerplate-stylish romantic melodrama would gain at least a measure of the novelty it so sorely lacks. Unspooling in competition at the Venice Film Festival, this French three-hander offers an old-fashioned blend of desire, betrayal, criminal activity and young, naked, attractively entwined bodies. So why is it so plodding and unsexy, and why do the lovers of the title generate nary a matchstick spark between them? A marginal effort for all involved, “Lovers” sees actor-turned-director Garcia failing to regain form after 2016’s turgid Marion Cotillard vehicle “From the Land of the Moon,” and while the star trio of Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel will generate some interest on home turf, few distributors abroad will be seduced.

That Garcia and regular...

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***The mid-fifties were, it seems, a time for Georges Simenon adaptations. Of course, Hollywood had to make his glum procedurals a good deal more optimistic: generally, in his policiers, the only thing staving off total tragedy is the "successful" conclusion of the case. He's too concerned with human frailty and too little interested in law and order for this to ever seem triumphal.A Life in the Balance, directed by Harry Horner (Red Planet Mars), transfers the action of Simenon's just-published Sept petites croix dans un carne to Mexico,...

A few weeks after it acquired rights to 12 notable author estates, London/New York management outfit International Literary Properties has set a first-look deal with BBC Studios. Under the pact, both BBC Studios Production and its portfolio of independent producers will have the opportunity to explore the intellectual property owned and managed by Ilp for screen adaptation.

Formed in November 2019, Ilp was set up to acquire rights in literary estates from authors and their heirs and to exploit those rights through all media platforms including TV, film and theater. The BBC Studios deal is the first major production partnership announced by Ilp.

Ilp currently holds the rights for authors including Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey and Michael Innes as well as 20% of Evelyn Waugh’s estate.

Chaired in the UK by CEO Hilary Strong (formerly...

International Literary Properties, the newly former London- and New York-based company that this month acquired the estates of 12 late authors, has signed a first-look deal with BBC Studios, marking its first major production partnership. 

Under the deal, announced Tuesday, BBC Studios Production, the production arm of BBC Studios, and its portfolio of independent producers can explore the intellectual property owned and managed by Ilp. 

Set up last year, the company holds the rights for authors including Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey and ...

Launched in November, London/New York book rights outfit International Literary Properties has acquired 12 literary estates from the UK’s Peters, Fraser + Dunlop. The eight figure deal sees Ilp acquire the rights formerly held by the agency for the estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn Waugh.

Ilp was set up to acquire the rights in literary estates from those who have inherited them, or from living authors, and will work to exploit those rights through all media platforms including TV, film and theater. Many of the estates acquired under the current deal include the detective, spy and crime genres. Simenon is best known as the creator of French Detective Jules Maigret, for example. Bolt, however, was a playwright who also penned the scripts for Lawrence Of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Man For All Seasons.

Recently formed rights business International Literary Properties (Ilp) has acquired the literary estates of 12 writers, including Evelyn Waugh and Georges Simenon, from U.K. agency Peters, Fraser + Dunlop.

The eight-figure multi-estates deal sees London and New York-based Ilp acquire the rights for the literary estates of writers Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn Waugh.

Their works spans books including Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited,” Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels, and Wheatley’s thrillers such as “The Devil Rides Out,” and Creasey’s “The Battle for Inspector West.”

Bolt, meanwhile, wrote the screenplays for “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago,” and “A Man for All Seasons,” “Ryan’s Daughter” and “The Mission.”

Peters, Fraser + Dunlop will continue to act as literary agent for the twelve estates.

Ilp launched last year to acquire the rights and manage IP from literary estates,...

The literary estates of 12 late authors have been acquired by the newly formed London- and New York-based company International Literary Properties, with the hope that the properties can be adapted for film and TV.

The eight-figure deal was made with one of the longest-established literary and talent agencies in the U.K. — Peters, Fraser + Dunlop — and sees Ilp acquire the rights formerly held by the agency for the literary estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn ...

The literary estates of 12 late authors have been acquired by the newly formed London- and New York-based company International Literary Properties, with the hope that the properties can be adapted for film and TV.

The eight-figure deal was made with one of the longest-established literary and talent agencies in the U.K. — Peters, Fraser + Dunlop — and sees Ilp acquire the rights formerly held by the agency for the literary estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn ...

While Akira Kurosawa did not always have the highest opinion of his 1949 effort “Stray Angel”, as he thought it was “too technical”, there is no doubt that his first collaboration with screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima has its rightful place among the great films made by the director (he would also change his opinion on the film later on in his life). Loosely based on an unpublished novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon, it can be seen as a precursor for his later detective dramas such as “High and Low”. As with many of his features of that time, “Stray Dog” is also a portrayal of post-war Japan, of the deep wounds left by the war and the structure of its society which is revealed to a police officer after the loss of his gun.

After some practice on the shooting range with his colleagues, rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro...

A double bill of films by Pietro Marcello is showing April and May, 2020 on Mubi in the United States.The first shot of the first feature by documentarian maverick Pietro Marcello’s is a quote from Belgian novelist Georges Simenon. “I crossed the line three times. The first illegally, with the help of a smuggler. And somehow, legally at least once. Surely I’m one of the very few who returned willingly to the starting point.” The quote appears in Simenon’s 1958 Le passage de la ligne, and introduces Crossing the Line (2007), a portrait of Italy seen through its railroads and told by the passengers crossing the peninsula overnight. But with all its endless meanderings through landscapes and genres, dotted with travelers caught in a constant state of flux, the words also read as some prescient label for what Marcello’s cinema would turn out to be.Last summer, as...

Serre moins fort

Actor/director Mathieu Amalric commences work on his eighth feature with Serre moins fort, a working title. The French-German co-production is being produced by Yael Fogiel and Laetitia Gonzalez, with support from the Cnc. Vicky Krieps and Arieh Worthalter are starring. Amalric’s Public Affairs premiered in the 2003 Directors’ Fortnight lineup at Cannes, where he returned to compete in 2010 with On Tour, winning the Fipresci Prize and Best Director. His 2014 Georges Simenon adaptation The Blue Room went to Un Certain Regard, as did 2017’s Barbara, which won the Poetry of Cinema Award in the sidebar and took home nine Cesar awards, winning two, including Best Actress for Jeanne Balibar.…...

Jack Reacher has settled down at Amazon: The streamer has landed the rights to a potential series based on Lee Child’s books, which were previously adapted into a film franchise starring Tom Cruise, our sister site Deadline reports. Scorpion creator Nick Santora will pen the project.

In the Jack Reacher novels, the title character is a former military policeman who now roams the United States taking odd jobs. Cruise starred as Reacher in two films: Jack Reacher, released in 2012, and the sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, released in 2016.

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Cable network Ovation has headed back to Europe for its latest drama – the Rowan Atkinson-fronted Maigret.

The broadcaster, which had success with French drama Versailles and British thriller Riviera, will launch the series, which stars the Mr Bean star as world-renowned fictional French detective Jules Maigret, on August 31 at 7 pm Et.

The series first aired in the U.S. via Svod service BritBox, which still has streaming rights.

Ovation will air both seasons of the series set in 1950s Paris over four weeks. It is produced by Ealing Studios and Maigret Productions and originally aired on ITV.

Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), Lucy Cohu (Becoming Jane), Shaun Dingwall (Dci Banks) and Rufus Wright (EastEnders) also star in the series, which is written by Stewart Harcourt (Love & Marriage).

Exec producers are Barnaby Thompson (St. Trinians) and Ben Latham-Jones (Midsummer Nights Dream) for Ealing Studios, John Simenon for Maigret Productions, and Harcourt.

Out of apparently nowhere, French director Frank Beauvais’s first feature-length work became one of the hottest tickets in the 2019 Berlinale Forum. True: its structure as a cinephile’s dream—a 75-minute-long “supercut” of scenes or frames from 400 films—would always make festival-goers curious. But Beauvais’s work goes beyond the simple editing bay exercise to become a poignant, immensely moving personal diary of six difficult months in the director’s life. Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle (Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream) is, effectively, a warts-and-all exorcism of a period of loneliness and depression in the remote Alsace village the director had moved to, alone in the house he had shared with his partner during seven years, two hours by car away from any sort of urban life. After the relationship ended and Beauvais stayed behind, film became both life preserver and spiritual salvation, and a...

Stars: Viviane Romance, Michel Simon, Paul Bernard, Lita Recio | Written by Julien Duvivier, Charles Spaak | Directed by Julien Duvivier

The setting for this 1946 gem is a small French town, and the fast-moving plot concerns the murder of a local woman, Aurore Noblet. While the police are baffled by the killing, the locals are quick to assume the culprit: Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), a reclusive and friendless man who’s too smart for his own good.

When the beautiful Lili (Vivian Romance) – Aka “Alice” – comes to town, she runs straight into the arms of her lover, Alfred (Paul Bernard). Alfred is, of course, the killer – and now the beneficiary of a purse containing 7,000 francs. However, Hire apparently has proof of Alfred’s guilt, so it is imperative that the scheming couple get him out of the way, and they will do so by blaming him for the murder of Noblet. Helpfully for them,...

For directing skill and sensual sophistication this psychologically intense murder tale equals or betters the most sophisticated American noirs. Julien Duvivier gives us Michel Simon as Monsieur Hire, a strange man loathed by his neighbors. Entranced by the woman he spies through his bedroom window, Hire doesn’t realize that she’s helping to frame him for murder, and then set him out like bait for a vengeful mob. The restored French classic is a beauty in every respect; the extras include a highly educational, must-see discussion of movie subtitling, by Bruce Goldstein.

Panique

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 955

1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 18, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Michel Simon, Viviane Romance, Paul Bernard, Charles Dorat, Lucas Gridoux.

Cinematography: Nicolas Hayer

Film Editor: Marthe Poncin

Special Effects: W. Percy Day

Original Music: Jean Weiner

Written by Julien Duvivier, Charles Spaak from a novel by...