News

Reflecting on his three decades atop the global box office, superstar Will Smith honed in on a winning formula: When you want to conquer international markets, keeping taciturn is often key.

“As soon as people have to read a subtitle or translate, there’s a little bit of disconnect,” says Smith. “So generally, if you can find non-dialogue ways [to transmit an emotional beat], they translate more globally. In terms of action, in terms of comedy, and in terms of the delivery of emotion, I’m always looking for the non-dialogue way to deliver the most critical parts.”

Smith shared his insights at this year’s Saudi Film Confex, a Riyadh-based trade confab where the Oscar-winning star was guest of honor. And beyond the fact that Smith’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” has recently become Saudi Arabia’s top-grossing film of all time, the actor’s presence in Riyadh held wider auspice.

After decades in the dark,...

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Al Faisal bin Abdulaziz, chairman of the King Faisal Foundation’s Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, emphasised what he believed to be the power of cinema in fostering cultural exchange and showcasing Saudi heritage to the world, in an on-stage conversation of the second edition of the Saudi Film Confex in Riyadh (October 9-12).

Referring to the expression “a picture speaks a thousand words”, he emphasised the role films have played in bridging the gap between diverse civilizations.

He also highlighted the support offered by the Saudi government in helping to produce “strong creative visions,...

Starz has revealed new details about the upcoming Outlander prequel, including the show’s core cast.

Jamie Roy will play Jamie Fraser’s father Brian Fraser in Outlander: Blood of My Blood. Harriet Slater will play his mother, Ellen Mackenzie. The show’s focus has also shifted a bit. While it was originally set to focus on Jamie’s parents, the Outlander prequel will now also explore the story of Claire Fraser’s mother and father. They’ll be played by Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield.

“​​So excited!!! What a cast!!” Outlander star Sam Heughan commented on Instagram after the news was announced.

Meet the ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ cast [L-r]: Harriet Slater, Jamie Roy, Hermione Corfield, Jeremy Irvine | Gerry McCabe/Kristia Knowles/Starz

Scottish actor Jamie Roy will play Jamie Fraser’s father Brian in the Outlander spinoff. He grew up in Glasgow and has previously been seen in Condor’s Nest,...

‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ starts production (Photo Credit: Starz)

Filming has begun on Starz’s Outlander prequel Outlander: Blood of My Blood which dives into the lives of Jamie’s parents, Ellen and Brian, and Claire’s parents, Julia and Henry. The network’s start of production announcement confirmed Harriet Slater (Pennyworth) will star as Ellen and Jamie Roy (Condor’s Nest) is playing Brian. Hermione Corfield (The Road Dance) is on board as Julia and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) stars as Henry.

“We’re thrilled to be telling the stories of these two couples. The origins of their relationships explore universal themes that transcend time periods, and we’re so excited for fans to discover and fall in love with these characters and their love stories the way they have with Claire and Jamie,” said Matthew B. Roberts, showrunner, executive producer, and writer on both series.

Season one will...

The feature will tell the story of a legendary Arabian warrior and celebrated poet.

Simon West, the UK director of Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, is set to film historic drama Antara in Saudi Arabia’s Neom.

Based on a true story, the feature centres on Antara ibn Shaddad, an imprisoned warrior who won his freedom to become a knight and one of the most celebrated poets in Arabian history.

The film is co-produced by Irish writer and producer Alexander Amartei. Celtic Films Entertainment CEO Stuart Sutherland is also a co-producer through his Jeddah-based production company Celtic Arabia.

British director Simon West is set to direct Saudi Arabia-set epic “Antara” that will be shot in Neom, the sprawling production hub in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern corner.

The English-language blockbuster, based on Arab history, is the tale of Antara ibn Shaddad, a slave warrior who was propelled to mythical status in the sixth century after winning his freedom and becoming a beloved knight and a widely celebrated Bedouin poet in the region.

“Antara,” which was announced during the Venice Film Festival — where there is a strong Saudi industry presence — is co-produced by Irish entrepreneur, writer and producer Alexander Amartei. British producer Stuart Sutherland, CEO of Celtic Films Entertainment, is co-producing through his Celtic Arabia shingle. Sutherland, whose credits include “Killing Eve” and Saudi-set “Born a King,” co-produced recently released action thriller “Kandahar,” starring Gerard Butler, which was also shot in the kingdom.

The budget on “Antara,” which is bound to be substantial,...

Con-Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider director Simon West will shoot his upcoming historic drama Antara in Saudi Arabia in the country’s growing production hub of Neom.

Based on a true story, the film revolves around Antara ibn Shaddad, an imprisoned warrior who was propelled to stardom in the sixth century, both as a knight and a poet.

The film is co-produced by writer and producer Alexander Amartei and producer Stuart Sutherland. Sutherland has experience of working in Saudi Arabia, having been a co-producer on the Gerard Butler-starring action picture Kandahar, which also shot in the country.

The production is scheduled to spend 12 weeks at Neom in northwest Saudi Arabia from early 2024.

The film will tap into Neom’s 40% cash rebate for feature films, TV dramas, reality shows, documentaries and commercials. It will be based at Neom...

Simon West, the director of Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Expendables 2, has set his next movie.

Based on a true story, swords-and-sandals epic Antara will follow Antara ibn Shaddad, a slave in the sixth century who won his freedom and became a knight and one of the most famous poets in ancient Arabia. The film will be set against the backdrop of the Neom region in northwest Saudi Arabia and is co-produced by writer and producer Alexander Amartei. Celtic Arabia’s Stuart Sutherland (Killing Eve, Born A King, The Man Who Fell To Earth), is also a co-producer and recently co-produced Kandahar, starring Gerard Butler, in the Kingdom.

Production in Neom, home to a proposed $500 billion megacity, is scheduled for 12 weeks to commence in early 2024, based at Bajdah Studios and tapping into the region’s 40 percent cash rebate program.

“Bringing the story of Antara ibn Shaddad...

Lola Arabia and Dubai’s Charisma Group are readying Agustí Villaronga’s “Arabian Aroma” and Pau Miró’s “Lost Symphony,” the first two titles in a 12-pic production alliance unveiled during the Berlin. Festival

Both movies are in pre-production, budgeted around 6 million and feature women “who passionately set themselves on a mission,” the partners announced. The films will be in English and Arabic, and are scheduled to roll around fall 2022. They target both international audiences and, as their local market, the Gulf states.

Reteaming Lola Arabia head Andrés Vicente Gómez and the two main creatives behind “Born a King,” a big period drama which scored heavily at Saudi Arabian cinema theaters, “Arabian Aroma” is penned by British scriptwriter Henry Fitzherbert.

It turns on Virginia, a British perfumer in her 70s who has lost her sense of smell. She sets out with her assistant, Basmah, a twentysomething Saudi, on a quest...

Feature comedies “El Cover,” the directorial debut of actor Secun de la Rosa, and Ana Murugarren’s “García y García,” will respectively open and close Spain’s 24th Malaga Film Festival, the country’s biggest event dedicated exclusively to films and TV in Spain and Latin America.

Running June 3-13, the festival focus will fall on its usefulness for the region’s film and TV industries, prioritizing cinema exhibition over social events.

The main competition, a faithful reflection of the most recent cinema produced both in Spain and Latin America, combines highly experienced filmmakers with up-and-coming talents. In total, it will highlight 23 features, 15 Spanish and eight Latin American.

Sold by Latido Films, Benidorm-set musical comedy “El Cover” is produced by Kiko Martínez at Madrid’s Nadie Es Perfecto (“Perfectos desconocidos”) in collaboration with Amazon Prime Video and Gts Entertainment.

Toplining Spanish comedians Pepe Viyuela and José Mota (“Padre no hay...

Key members of the team that shepherded hit biopic “Born a King,” about Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, talked about the experience of “witnessing the birth of a film industry” in Saudi, as Spanish director Agustí Villaronga put it, during a Cannes Virtual Market panel. They also announced that they will be making a sequel.

“Born a King” is a Spain-u.K. co-production between Andrés Vicente Gómez’ Latido Films and London-based Celtic Films run by producer Stuart Sutherland (“Killing Eve”) who described the experience of shooting the roughly $21 million feature – which went into production prior to December 2017 when Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year ban on cinemas – as “really the beginning of an evolution.”

“We are getting in there on the ground level, and we are helping formulate how films are done,” Sutherland said “And learning a lot from them as well,” he added.

Since then, Sutherland recently went back to...

Participating in this year’s Marché du Film Speed Meetings for Spanish projects, La Claqueta’s highly-anticipated project “Tobacco Barns” has picked up a new co-producer in Belén Sánchez, one of Variety’s Catalan producers on the rise for 2020 as announced earlier this week, and a top independent sales agency in Spain’s Latido Films.

Sánchez comes to the production from Un Capricho Producciones, a company which has proven itself among the best at backing female filmmakers, including Lucia Alemany’s 2019 breakout San Sebastian hit “La Inocencia.”

Several films from Latido’s Spanish industry-leading catalog are hosting market screenings at this year’s Marché du Film, including Morena Films’ “Tales of the Lockdown,” featured in a Cinema from Spain pitching platform held at the Marché du Film on Wednesday, Agustí Villaronga’s “Born a King,” starring Ed Skrein and Hermione Corfield, “La Noche Mágica,” “The Sea Beyond,” “My Heart Goes Boom,...

The latest film by Majorcan helmer Agustí Villaronga, the first to be shot in Saudi Arabia in the last few decades, is a historical tale co-produced with the UK and Spain. At the Marché du Film of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, which is being held online this week, the Spanish-uk-Saudi Arabian co-production Born a King seems to be piquing a great deal of interest. This historical reconstruction was shot by Agustí Villaronga in Saudi Arabia, a country that had previously been closed off to cinema for 50 years. The movie tells the story of how 13-year-old Faisal travels to London on a diplomatic mission, after World War I, coming face to face with key figures from that time. Its international sales are being handled by Madrid-based sales agent Latido Films, headed up by Antonio Saura, one of the biggest companies when it comes to circulating Spanish and Spanish-language cinema...

Saudi company Al Maha Al Arab on board as financier.

Andrés Vicente Gómez, the veteran Spanish Oscar-winning producer of Belle Epoque whose historical epic Born A King is screening in the Marche du Film online, is busy working on upcoming projects.

Lolafilms head Gómez is looking to finish production on Champions, a Saudi remake of the 2018 Spanish hit Campeones, after it was shut down in Jeddah on March 17 due to the pandemic with several days of shooting left to go.

Saudi company Al Maha Al Arab, which is run by Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, son to the late King Faisal,...

Produced by Al Maha Al Arabi and Lolafilms, the Saudi Arabian remake of Javier Fesser’s “Campeones” (“Champions”), a Spanish blockbuster and Spain’s International Oscar submission, has been acquired by theatrical distributor Vox, VOD service Shahid VIP and international sales company Latido Films.

Following the success of “Born a King,” the Saudi “Champions” will be released theatrically across the Middle East in December by Vox, then stream six months later on Shahid VIP, the leading Arabic SVOD platform in the Mena region, part of the Mbc Group, which has acquired both “Champions” and “Born a King” and invested substantially in both pictures.

If it were to click for the production partners, Champions could signal the kernel of ever more ambitious projects. The remake’s $4.5 million budget was produced by Al Maha Al Arabi, the production company of Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, son of the late King Faisal...

Marc Antoine d’Halluin in December was appointed CEO of leading Middle Eastern free-to-air satellite network Mbc Group, which also operates the region’s top SVOD service. Its recently rebranded and reconceived Shahid VIP platform since January has seen its subscriber growth skyrocket. A combination of the coronavirus pandemic, Ramadan, and Mbc’s stepped-up efforts to produce high-end Arabic originals prompted a quantum leap that in May saw Mbc enter the pantheon of top 10 media companies worldwide in terms of video view metrics, according to U.S company Tubular Labs that tracks cross-platform Internet video viewing and engagement.

In his first interview since taking the Mbc reins, D’Halluin – who began his career at Sony Pictures Entertainment but has plenty of experience in the Middle East – spoke to Variety exclusively about his main challenges and goals and why Hollywood shows do not play a big part of the plan. Edited excerpts from the conversation.

Framing world premieres of “Maragall i la Lluna” and “Wishlist,” plus new movies from Justin Kurzel, Marjane Satrapi, Matteo Garrone and Caroline Link, Barcelona’s Bcn Film Fest aims to become one of the first festivals in Europe to stage a live on-site edition, running June 25 to July 2.

The dates and ambition were re-confirmed Tuesday when Bcn Film Fest, one of the biggest film events in the Catalan capital, announced its lineup.

“One of the most beautiful things about watching films is to do so in a theater as a shared social and cultural experience. To be able to discuss films immediately with people after seeing them. Bcn Film Fest aims to maintain that this year,” said festival artistic director Conxita Casanovas.

While pushing the pleasures of a live event, from the quality of projection and sound to cinema viewing as a social and cultural community event and driver of local economic economy,...

They are happy to trash movies from the comfort of their typewriters, but what happens when critics put their money where their mouth is?

It was at the London premiere of Shakespeare in Love in 1999 that Henry Fitzherbert decided to seize his chance and make the leap from film reviewer of the Sunday Express to Hollywood screenwriter. Buttonholing the movie’s producer, Harvey Weinstein, he pitched him an adaptation he had written of Stephen Benatar’s amnesia thriller Recovery. “He told me to get it to his hotel suite by 6am and he’d read it on the plane home,” Fitzherbert recalls. “Then I got a call from his New York office saying he loved it and I thought: ‘I’m going to be an overnight success!’ I was summoned to a meeting with his senior exec in London, given ‘notes’, which I worked on for months – and never heard from any of them again.

In today’s film news roundup, a Denzel Washington-Rami Malek thriller gets a release date, “Escape Room 2” gets moved, Paramount sets a double feature, “So Cold the River” wraps and the Sonoma Film Festival unveils its lineup.

Release Dates

Warner Bros. has set the Denzel Washington-Rami Malek police thriller “The Little Things” for a Jan. 29, 2021, release.

John Lee Hancock is directing from his own script in which Washington portrays a burnt-out deputy sheriff from the Bakersfield area who teams with Malek’s crack Lasd detective in pursuit of a serial killer. Washington’s nose for the titular “little things” proves accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules place’s Malek’s character in a dilemma.

Jared Leto and Natalie Morales also star. Hancock and Mark Johnson are producing “The Little Things” and Mike Drake is executive producing.

Warner Bros. had the date reserved with an untitled...

Sales for the Argentinian box-office hit spice up a busy Efm for the Madrid-based sales outfit .

Madrid-based sales outfit Latido Films has scored several key territory deals on Argentinian box office hit The Heist Of The Century (El robo del siglo) after market screenings at this year’s Efm.

The based on a true story comedy about a botched bank robbery has gone to France (Eurozoom), Spain (Syldavia), Greece (Rosebud), Switzerland (Trigon) and Australia (Palace). There are also offers on the table from Russia, Italy and China.

Released in Argentina this January, The Heist Of The Century is directed by...

Buenos Aires — The last few years have caught Ventana Sur – Cannes Festival and Market’s biggest initiative outside France – taking place as the industry debated radical change. This year saw the Latin American industries in a state of transformation themselves, wracked by headwinds – Jair Bolsonaro’s government in Brazil – or looking to take advantage of negative scenarios, such as the Argentine peso plunge against the dollar.

But Ventana Sur is weathering these storms. Expanding from its film base into growth areas for the film industry – genre, animation, and now drama series and social media via a bolstered conference focus under co-director Ralph Haiek – Ventana Sur has evolved into an invaluable fixture in a round-the-year sales and co-production movie business, accelerating trading and expanding companies’ contact bases. Here are 12 Takeaways from a robust 2019 edition:

1.The Double Model

The rise of global platforms played out throughout Ventana Sur, in sales and announced strategic moves,...

Buenos Aires — Bringing onto the market what looks like by far the biggest new movie at Ventana Sur, Latido Films has acquired international sales rights to Agustí Villaronga’s “Born a King,” starring Ed Skrein, fresh off his star-turn in “Midway.”

Latido Films’ director Antonio Saura and Juan Torres, intl. sales head, will introduce “Born a King” – also starring Hermione Cornfield (“Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”) and marking a return to production after an eight-year hiatus of Andrés Vicente Gómez – to select buyers at Ventana Sur, the Cannes-Incaa Latin American market which kicks off Monday in Buenos Aires.

A U.K.-Spanish co-production between London’s Celtic Films, and Spain’s Arena Audiovisual that yokes the craft of both countries’ top tech pool, “Born a King” is budgeted at a declared €19 million ($21 million).

That shows in the heavy VFX work recreating a bustling yet gray 1919 London and a spectacular battle scene at the film’s get-go,...

Madrid — Four years in the making, Agustí Villaronga’s “Born a King,” starring Ed Skrein (“Deadpool”) and Hermione Cornfield (“Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”) and produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez, has caught box office fire in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Released wide on Sept. 26, the true events-based historical drama – framing the coming of age of Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, against the background of a diplomatic mission he led to London in 1919 at the tender age of 13 – has earned an exceptional first-four-day $972, 962 in UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, according to figures from its distributor, Dubai’s-based Vox Film Distribution.

The lion’s share of that was made in UAE, where it grossed $547,725.

However execrating for an independent film, the results are not totally surprising. “Born a King” is a Spain-u.K. production, whose producers, director and crew pack huge experience: Gómez, producer of Fernando Trueba’s...

Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Que nadie duerma,” Fernando Franco’s “La consagración de la primavera” and Agustí Villaronga’s “3.000 obstáculos” figure among the seven projects to be pitched at Paris’ Small Is Biutiful forum.

The closing event for the alternative Spanish film festival Dífferent 12!, Small Is Biutiful takes place June 26, bringing together French distributors and sales executives around a selection of Spanish feature projects seeking partners.

Backed by the Cannes Film Market, Different! is organised by Espagnolas en Paris and the Ile-de-France Film Commission.

Past projects presented at Small Is Biutiful take in Oliver Laxe’s “Mimosas,” which won Cannes 2016 Critics’ Week; Carlos Vermut’s “Magical Girl,” San Sebastián’s top Golden Shell Award in 2014, and Arantxa Echevarría’s “Carmen & Lola,” winner of breakout director and supporting actress nods at February’s Goya Awards, as well as a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight contender.

“Que nadie duerma” is produced by Pedro Hernández...

Barcelona – Agustina Macri’s feature debut “Soledad” (Solitude) won Best Feature award at the 3rd Barcelona Film Festival, which ran April 22-30.

Produced by Italy’s 39Films and Argentina’s Cinema 7 Films, and inspired by true events, the film follows titular Soledad Rosas who moved to Italy in 1997 to a squatters community. There she met a militant anarchist with whom she had a brief and intense love affair. A year later the couple was arrested and accused of terroristic acts meant to halt the construction of a railway.

The screenplay was penned by Paolo Logli and Macri –the daughter of Argentine president Mauricio Macri. “Soledad” world-premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival and will be released in Argentina and Italy through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Company Italia respectively.

The Acec Critic’s Award went to another debut, this time from actress-turned-director Laura Jou. Produced by longtime...

Exclusive: UTA has signed UK actor Sam Adewunmi for representation in all areas. Adewunmi was most recently seen as the lead in Shola Amoo’s The Last Tree, which has its debut at Sundance.

Adewunmi stars as Femi, a British boy of Nigerian heritage who, after a happy childhood in rural Lincolnshire, moves to inner London to live with his mom. Struggling with the unfamiliar culture and values of his new environment, teenage Femi has to figure out which path to adulthood he wants to take, and what it means to be a young black man in London.

Up next, Adewunmi is set to appear in the upcoming Agustí Villaronga-directed drama Born A King, opposite Ed Skrein and Laurence Fox. Other credits include UK film The Hatton Garden Job, with Matthew Good and Stephen Moyer, the ITV series Prime Suspect: 1973, BBC’s Doctor Who, and Sky’s Lucky Man.

Ed Skrein is joining Roland Emmerich’s World War II pic “Midway,” sources tell Variety.

He joins an ensemble that includes Woody Harrelson, Mandy Moore, Luke Evans, and Patrick Wilson.

Based on the true story of the Battle of Midway, a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II, the film chronicles the exploits of the soldiers and aviators involved in the battle. Producers are Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment, Harald Kloser, and Mark Gordon.

Details behind Skrein’s role are currently unknown.

Starlight Entertainment Group and Providence Entertainment Limited are financing the film. U.S. and China theatrical distribution is set with Lionsgate through its Summit Entertainment label stateside and Bona Film Group in Greater China. Production begins next month.

Wes Tooke wrote the script.

Skrein, who broke out as Ryan Reynolds’ nemesis in the first “Deadpool,” is also known for his role as Daario Naharis in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.

Saudi Arabia may be the biggest star at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The Arab kingdom, which is hosting three panels at the film gathering ranging from theatrical distribution to digital content, has taken up a sprawling space at the Marché du Film, and is handing out ornate booklets to festivalgoers that tout its wealth, burgeoning population of consumers and exotic filming locations. It’s part of a global coming out party for Saudi Arabia, a culturally conservative and oil-rich nation, that just lifted a three-decade ban on cinemagoing.

“You’re starting with a clean slate,” said Hamid Hashemi, CEO of iPic, a luxury theater chain that’s building theaters in Saudi Arabia, at CinemaCon last month. “There’s a market of 33 million people… It’s a sophisticated, affluent audience. They’re well-educated and all speak fluent English. They travel to Dubai and all over the place just to watch a movie.

Saudi Arabia’s dive into the world of entertainment continues apace.

Ten days after “Black Panther” ended the country’s 35-year cinema ban, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday inaugurated construction of the new Qiddiya entertainment complex outside the capital, Riyadh, on a site described as being two-and-a-half times the size of Disney World. The complex will offer everything from theme parks to car-racing.

And on Monday, what’s being touted as the country’s first full-service production facility, Nebras Films, announced that it is now up and running, and hoping to attract international productions.

The Qiddiya ground-breaking ceremony on Saturday, attended by about 300 dignitaries from around the world included a recitation from the Quran, a live orchestra, fireworks, and an opening address from Qiddiya CEO Michael Reininger, who called it a watershed moment, according to a press statement.

“In creating Qiddiya, we are building a brighter future,...

In news that sees British actor, Ed Skrein typecast further, it appears that the-once Deadpool villain has entered final talks to join Disney’s Maleficent sequel.

As yet, details as to his character are unknown but both Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning are set to return. Norwegian film director Joachim Ronning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) will direct the follow up to the Fantasy drama.

Also in news – Jason Clarke enters talks to star in Pet Semetary remake

As with the lack of Skrein’s character details, no clear plot for the sequel has been revealed either. The original was based on the story fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. As a beautiful young woman of pure heart, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has an idyllic life in a forest kingdom. When an invading army threatens the land, Maleficent rises up to become its fiercest protector. However, a terrible...