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Life imitated art in the most beautiful of ways when, in 1970, the characters of Julie Olson and Doug Williams met on “Days of Our Lives,” and their real-life counterparts, Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes fell in love and lived happily ever after, in a marriage that last 50 years, until his death earlier this year. Now, “Days” and Seaforth Hayes will be paying tribute to the man who once sang to both Julie and Susan that they are “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

“Being without Bill is quite a change,” Seaforth Hayes tells Variety. “I really appreciate what the producers have done to honor him — to allow me to give pretty much the same eulogy [on the show for Doug] that I gave [Bill] at our church. I certainly didn’t expect that. He deserved to be lifted up, and I was so, so pleased that [his death] wasn’t just passed over as something that happened off stage.

An adaptation of Edith Wharton novel The Custom Of The Country by Mary Queen Of Scots director Josie Rourke is among 16 new projects backed by the Düsseldorf-based regional film fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw (Fms).

€600,000 in production funding was allocated by Fms to Rourke’s planned adaptation of Wharton’s 1913 novel.

The tragicomedy of manners about a Midwestern girl attempting to ascend in New York society is currently structured as a German-uk co-production between Cologne-based Mo Co-Production, a single purpose company set up by augenschein Filmproduktion, with Charles Finch’s Rabbit Foot Films.

Finch was recently a co-producer of the...

Nach dem Gewinn des Bunte New Faces Award hat Anna Roller mit dem Dreh ihrer nächsten Regiearbeit begonnen. „Allegro Pastell“ ist eine Adaption des Bestsellers von Leif Randt und wird von Walker + Worm Film produziert.

Drehstart für „Allegro Pastell“: (hinten) Felix Pflieger (DoP), Anna Roller (Regie), Tobias Walker (Produzent), Leif Randt (Autor), Philipp Worm (Produzent); vorne: die Hauptdarsteller Sylvaine Faligant und Jannis Niewöhner (Credit: Nikolaus Brade / Dcm)

Im Interview mit Spot anlässlich ihres Gewinns des Bunte New Faces Award für „Dead Girls Dancing“ hatte Anna Roller bereits angekündigt, sich nur wenige Wochen vor Beginn des Drehs ihrer neuen Regiearbeit zu befinden, einer Adaption des Zeitgeist-Bestsellers „Allegro Pastell“ von Leif Randt, der nun auch das Drehbuch geschrieben hat. Am 28. Mai war es nun so weit, da fiel die erste Klappe zu der Produktion von Walker + Worm Film, die mit Jannis Niewöhner („Hagen“), Sylvaine Faligant („Oh Boy“), Martina Gedeck („Helgoland 513...

Adapted from Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Netflix’s limited series “All the Light We Cannot See” sets two unlikely kindred spirits on a collision course as World War II begins in France when Germany occupied the country. Shawn Levy directed all four episodes of Steven Knight’s scripts.

Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and Werner Pfennig (Louis Hoffman) share curiosity and empathy, which translates across their opposing countries and positions in the war. Werner’s skill for fixing and translating radios leads him to a high position in the Nazi effort to decode secret broadcasts that their targets might send. Marie-Laure herself becomes a broadcaster after her father moves her to her uncle’s home in a small, seaside French town.

Here are the cast and characters of “All the Light We Cannot See”:

Aria Mia Loberti in “All the Light We Cannot See” (Netflix)

Marie-Laure LeBlanc...

The bestselling book “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince” is getting the big-screen treatment. Crazy Legs Features has inked a deal to turn the New York Times bestseller from the late musician’s first wife – Mayte Garcia – into a feature biopic.

The book, released in early 2017, offers a look at the influential rock star through his and Garcia’s relationship. She met Prince in 1990 at the age of 16 when he was 32. Following a four-year courtship, during which time Prince became the then-17-year-old’s legal guardian, they married in 1996. Tragically, their son, born Oct. 16, 1996, died six days later from Pfeiffer syndrome type 2. She later told People Magazine that it [understandably] doomed their marriage, which ended in 2000.

The memoir is titled after the song “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” which Prince wrote about her in 1994. The book chronicles how their relationship began backstage at a concert and developed into...

Cthulhu Dreamt: "Cthulhu Dreamt is a multimedia storytelling experience, taking shape as a tabletop role-playing game, a soundtrack, a novel, and more. You can immerse yourself in the story through music, prose, a connected Arg—and then you can live the story!

The game is accompanied by an original and stream-safe soundtrack written and performed by members of Cthulhu Dreamt including Fable Factory founder Reed Reimer. The soundtrack also includes tracks that were performed by orchestras from Russia and The Czech Republic. The music was written to be an audio story experience, which can be enjoyed with the game or stand-alone, and will include loopable versions.

This game is built on an original D12 system designed by Adam Baffoni and written by Jaron R. M. Johnson, one of the lead designers of Monsters of Murka. It includes:

- a fully playable campaign and the game rules in one book

-...

Munich-based Neuesuper, one of the rising values on Germany’s ebullient new TV scene, is teaming with Ard Degeto to develop “Breitscheidplatz,” a drama-thriller that depicts the build-up to Berlin’s 2016 Christmas market truck attack which left 12 dead.

The series, however, will buck trends, presenting not a matter-of-fact rehashing of the events leading up to the attack, but rather a fictional interpretation of what might have happened, turning on two German policemen working at a time when Europe had suffered a blitz of attacks, attempting to prevent a similar outrage in Germany.

“One of the huge questions poised by the attack is how on earth it could have happened, how did the security forces come to make such mistakes?” said Simon Amberger, one of the producers for Neuesuper.

A six-part series commissioned for Ard Degeto by Carolin Haasis, “Breitscheidplatz” tries to deliver an answer. Picturing the daily work of the...

German indie Augenschein, whose credits include Netflix sci-fi Stowaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt thriller 7500, is launching Augenschein Sales, an in-house worldwide sales and financing arm.

The new operation will be headed by Jonathan Saubach as Head Of Sales. The acquisitions exec joins from Will Smith-owned Telepool.

The new division will focus on combining the financing for the company’s production slate through access to equity, market pre-sales and film funds. Saubach will be in charge of financing, packaging and worldwide sales of the company’s film titles and will also serve as an executive producer on upcoming productions. He will report to Augenschein founders Maximilian Leo and Jonas Katzenstein.

During his ten-year tenure at Telepool the company acquired Ryan Gosling starrer Drive, The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, The Hitman’s Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman, the Has Fallen franchise starring Gerard Butler,...

Akin’s new film is a gangster drama called ‘Rheingold’.

Fatih Akin’s gangster drama Rheingold and Michael Bully Herbig’s media satire 1000 Lines are among the new film projects to receive funding from Hamburg’s Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (Ffhsh) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).

Akin’s gangster biopic is based on the 2015 book Alles oder Nix by the German hip hop rapper and label boss Xatar. It received €700,000 – the largest single amount at last week’s sitting of Hamburg’s committee for high-end films and series with production budgets over €3.5m.

Akin’s bombero international is producing the film which...

Akin’s new film is a gangster drama called ‘Rheingold’.

Fatih Akin’s gangster drama Rheingold and Michael Bully Herbig’s media satire 1000 Lines are among the new film projects to receive funding from Hamburg’s Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (Ffhsh) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).

Akin’s gangster biopic is based on the 2015 book Alles oder Nix by the German hip hop rapper and label boss Xatar. It received €700,000 - the largest single amount at last week’s sitting of Hamburg’s committee for high-end films and series with production budgets over €3.5m.

Akin’s bombero international is producing the film...

The Stars’ programme will focus on navigating a career in an online world.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has unveiled the eight Black Nights Stars, its industry showcase of rising actors from the Baltic Sea region.

In additon to the six actors from the Baltcis, this year, this year it has added two from Russia as part of the festival’s Russia In Focus programme.

The eight actors are:

Aaron Hilmer (Germany)

Credits include: The Last Word, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, The Peppercorns;

Antoni Sałaj (Poland)

Credits include: Legion, The Crown Of The Kings,...