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Zdf Latest To ‘Race Across The World’

A six-part series based on Studio Lambert’s Race Across the World is set to air on German pubcaster Zdf in spring 2025. Planning is underway for casting and filming is set for the fall, with All3Media’s German producer, Tower, attached to make the show. Kirstin Benthaus-Gebauer will be the producer with Friederike Haedecke, Johannes Geiger, Thorsten Haas and Daniel Nemetschek the editors. The original BBC show has run to strong ratings in the UK for three seasons and one celebrity series. New seasons of both versions have been commissioned after the the first ep of the celebrity run drew 6.2 million viewers, consolidating the format’s position among the BBC’s top factual programs. The German deal, struck with distributor All3Media International, marks the fifth international version of the show, coming after three seasons on TV2 in Denmark, an upcoming production on MTV Katsomo and MTV3 in Finland,...

Consider this Thelma & Louise meets Jack Ryan.

Amazon, following an intensive bidding war, has landed the action-adventure show starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer with an eight-episode, straight-to-series order.

The untitled show is based on an original idea from Tessa Coates (Feel Good) that was taken out to six of the major streamers, four of which bought the show while in the room and with the others also making offers before Amazon emerged the victor, prompting the pitch to the seventh streamer to be canceled. The series was one of few new original scripted ideas that generated multiple offers in what many Hollywood insiders say has been an unusually quiet marketplace after the writers strike.

Ted Lasso Emmy winner Waddingham and The Help Oscar winner Octavia Spencer will star as best friends Judith and Debbie, respectively, who work to repair their friendship after Debbie learns Judith is a highly trained assassin.

[Editor's Note: This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Hijack, "Final Call" and "3 Degrees."]

For frequent flyers, the most stressful moments in Apple TV+ thriller Hijack come in the premiere's opening minutes, long before the plane is overtaken by terrorists.

As Kingdom Airlines Flight 29 prepares to depart Dubai for London, passengers shuffle to their seats and gather their personal belongings for the seven-hour flight ahead. Almost immediately, familiar tensions emerge. A father (Marcus Garvey) struggles to fit his child's suitcase into the overhead bin, prompting eyerolls from his wife (Rochenda Sandall) and a reprimand from a woman in an adjacent seat (Liz Kingsman). When the woman insists the bin isn't "allocated" for their family alone, the wife matches her hostility, telling her new enemy, "It's not just us and our fruity water. We've got kids."...

Obie Award-winning writer and performer Alex Edelman will bring his solo show Just For Us to Broadway this summer following critically acclaimed engagements Off Broadway and in London, Edinburgh, Boston and other cities.

The Broadway limited engagement – Edelman’s first – will begin previews at the Hudson Theatre on Thursday, June 22, with an opening night set for Monday, June 26. The show will run through Saturday, August 19.

The Broadway run was announced today by producers Jenny Gersten, Rachel Sussman, and Seaview, with Mike Birbiglia. Just For Us will be directed by Adam Brace. The show was originally produced Off Broadway by Birbiglia in association with Mike Lavoie, Carlee Briglia and Joseph Birbiglia.

The show’s synopsis: “In the wake of a string of anti-Semitic rhetoric pointed in his direction online, standup comic Edelman decides to go straight to the source; specifically,...

France TV Distribution has scored a raft of deals across its slate of flagship shows, notably Noé Debré’s political satire “Parliament,” whose second season was picked up by Topic in the U.S.

“Parliament,” produced by Paris-based Cinétévé, was created by Debré, whose screenwriting include Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winning “Dheepan.” The series is set at the European parliament in Strasbourg and follows a young assistant working for a newly elected member, juggling his ethics, job and love life. The 10-episode series features a young cast from across Europe, including Xavier Lacaille, Liz Kingsman and Philippe Duquesne. The daring show shot partly on location in both French and English languages.

Sky Italia, meanwhile, has acquired “The King’s Favorite” starring Isabelle Adjani, as well as season 1 and 2 of the detective series “Criminal Games.”

“The King’s Favorite” is a prestige period series starring Adjani as Diane de Poitiers, King Henri II’s favorite.

Theater owner and producer Ambassador Theatre Group has agreed to an exclusive three-year partnership with J.J. Abrams’ newly formed theater division, Bad Robot Live.

As part of the partnership, Atg, which has theaters on the West End and Broadway, will have opportunities to help bring to stage and partner on theater productions from Bad Robot Live, a division of Abram’s Bad Robot Productions, as well as give Bad Robot Live the opportunity to work on those projects with Atg’s producing arm. Elizabeth Rothman, formerly of the non-profit theater Manhattan Theatre Club, will head Bad Robot Live.

The first joint project will be Liz Kingsman’s solo show, One Woman Show, which recently played The Ambassadors Theatre in London and received a 2023 Olivier Award Nomination for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. Atg Productions, Bad Robot Live and co-producer Wessex Grove will bring the show to the U.

Ambassador Theatre Group has announced an exclusive three-year partnership with the newly formed Bad Robot Live, the theatre division of J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot Productions. As creative collaborators and co-producers, Atg will help bring to the stage Abrams’s “unique producorial vision.”

The joint development arrangement will provide Atg, a prominent player on both Broadway and London’s West End, with partnership opportunities on Bad Robot Live’s current and future theatre projects, and give Bad Robot Live the opportunity to collaborate on those projects with Atg Productions, one of the world’s leading producers of theatrical events including recent productions of Cabaret, Cyrano, Plaza Suite, David Byrne’s American Utopia, (and the previewing Broadway versions of A Doll’s House and Parade).

The first joint project under the new Atg and Bad Robot Live agreement is Liz Kingsman’s critically acclaimed solo show, One Woman Show, which recently enjoyed...

Exclusive: French film actress Judith Godrèche is making her debut as a TV director debut with an A24-backed comedy series inspired by her life.

A24 is co-producing Icon of French Cinema with Franco-German channel Arte and Cpb Films on the English- and French-language project, which stars and is inspired by arthouse icon Godrèche’s life and career. Production is set to begin later this year.

Godrèche will play her fictional alter ego, and will be joined by Liz Kingsman (Borderline, Parlement), Angela Molina (Etreintes Brisées), her daughter Tess Barthélémy (Under the Eiffel Tower), Laurent Stocker (Jeux d’influence, Caprice), Thomas Scimeca (Azuro, Notre Dame), Loïc Corbery (Dom Juan, Pas son genre) and Jean-Christophe Folly (Triangle of Sadness), with the special participation of Carole Bouquet.

Icon of French Cinema will follow Judith as she returns to Paris after exile from Hollywood, intent of making a comeback with a new movie.

Rose Matafeo’s critically acclaimed rom-com series “Starstruck” has been renewed for Season 3, HBO Max and co-producer BBC Three announced.

Matafeo stars in the series as Jessie, an aimless millennial New Zealander living in East London who has a chance encounter with Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel), an A-list actor, on New Year’s Eve. The show follows them as they navigate their attraction to each other, which is complicated by Tom’s career, Jessie’s quirky group of friends and their mutual inability to communicate properly. Season 2 of the show ended with the two temporarily breaking up, but after her friends help her realize her tendency to run from relationships when they get serious, Jessie apologizes to Tom and the two reunite.

Aside from Matafeo and Patel, Emma Sidi plays Kate, Jessie’s flatmate and best friend. Recurring cast members include Al Roberts, Jon Pointing, Joe Barnes, Sindhu Vee, Nic Sampson,...

Newly launched streaming site Topic on Thursday unveiled premiere dates for a pair of new original series and said it has set a third, the scripted psychological horror anthology Soul City, to bow in 2020.

It also set the debut of the previously announced Rough Draft with Reza Aslan for today.

Soul City is created by directing duo Coodie and Chike (ESPN 30 for 30’s Benji), who produce with Jess Jacobs and Audrey Rosenberg of Invisible Pictures (Bull). It exposes the multicultural world of a select American city and its black population through the lens of psychological horror stories. New Orleans will be the debut city.

The eight-episode Rough Draft, a version of Aslan’s Ovation interview series, will feature sit-downs with writers including Melissa Rosenberg, Steven Canals (Pose), Ramy Youssef (Ramy) and activist-rapper Vic Mensa.

The new slate also includes What’s Your Ailment?!, an eight-episode...