News

The Rainmaker has found the actor to fill Matt Damon’s shoes.

Milo Callaghan, who guest-starred on Doctor Who‘s very recent “Dot & Bubble” episode, will play the lead role in USA Network’s upcoming adaptation of the bestselling John Grisham novel, our sister site Variety reports.

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Callaghan will star as recent law school grad Rudy Baylor, who “goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond as well...

Milo Callaghan has been cast as the series lead in “The Rainmaker” at USA Network.

The show was originally picked up at the cabler back in June and is based on the iconic John Grisham novel of the same name. He joins previously announced cast members John Slattery and Madison Iseman in the series.

The official logline for the series states, “Fresh out of law school, Rudy Baylor (Callaghan) goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond (Slattery) as well as his law school girlfriend (Iseman). Rudy, along with his boss and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.”

Callaghan’s past credits include “FBI: International,” “Doctor Who,” and “The Spanish Princess,” as well as the feature “The Strangers: Chapter 1.” He was recently cast in the BBC Three series “Video Nasty” and the Disney+ series “Rivals.”

He is repped by Hamilton Hodell...

Seasoned Danish writer-director Birgitte Stærmose, recently credited for the Netflix show “In From the Cold,” Starz’s “The Spanish Princess” and Göteborg 2023 closing pic “Camino,” debuted her hybrid pic “Afterwar” in the Berlin Film Festival’s Dokument program, after which the film plays at Cph:dox.

Variety has secured in exclusivity the trailer for the helmer’s anti-war pamphlet produced by Magic Hour Films in Denmark (“Burma VJ”) in co-production with Sweden’s Vilda Bomben Film (“Excess Will Save Us”), Finland’s Bufo (“Fallen Leaves”) and Kosovo’s Kabineti.

A meditation on the long-term effects of war, “Afterwar” is the feature-length spinoff of Stærmose’s short film “Out of Love.” The story of a bunch of street kids in Pristina trying to survive in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, snagged multiple awards in 2010, including a Berlinale Generation 14Plus Special Mention.

15 years in the making, “Afterwar” was co-created with four of...

Brit actress Amelia Gething ("Mary & George") poses for the November 2023 issue of "Hello! Fashion", wearing Dior photographed by David Reiss:

Gething first began performing as a comedy artist and content creator on social media in 2016, writing and performing sketches to over 7 million followers across YouTube.

She was approached by the BBC in 2018 and created the female-led comedy sketch show, "The Amelia Gething Complex" with 18 episodes over 2 seasons. 

In 2020, Gething played 'Ursula Pole' in the second installment of the Starz historical drama "The Spanish Princess". 

She was then cast as 'Anne Brontë' in the bio feature "Emily".

In 2023, Gething voiced the player character in the video game "Hogwarts Legacy".

Gething has roles in the Sky Atlantic historical drama "Mary & George" (2023), the Apple TV+ war drama "Masters of the Air" (2023), the Belgian series "The Phoebus Files," and the vampire film "Blood & Ink".

Click the images to enlarge.

“The Gilded Age,” Julian Fellowes’ critically lauded follow-up to “Downton Abbey,” has returned for a second season on HBO. Although “The Gilded Age” slightly alters the formula that made “Downton Abbey” so popular, swapping out turn-of-the-century England for a rapidly developing America in the late 1800s, it takes place just a few decades before its predecessor. Does that just reflect Fellowes’ fascination with a particular period? Or should we take it as a sign from a master of the genre that this is the ideal setting for a period piece TV show?

Inspired by “The Gilded Age” Season 2, we took a look at Ranker’s list of the 101 Best Period Piece TV Shows (24K votes) to see if readers’ favorite period dramas and comedies happen to center around one period in particular. We also examined the fanbases for some of the most popular shows to see if fans tend to...

Netflix’s new techno chiller T.I.M. follows a career-conscious woman called Abi as she moves into a new smart home with her seemingly not-very-trustworthy husband Paul. Even as she tries to make an impact with her new employer, he decides to gift her a “Technologically Integrated Manservant” (T.I.M.) to fuss around the house and help her out while she’s busy at work. T.I.M. might be the creepiest robot version of Alexa possible!

It’s not long before T.I.M. is taking it upon himself to do more than re-up groceries and sweep the floors, becoming obsessed with Abi and having a marked distaste for her formerly wayward husband. Things soon spiral out of control in the spotless smart home while Abi is distracted by the wild demands of her boss. Can T.I.M. be stopped from doing something deadly before it’s too late?...

The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself star Nadia Parkes is leading the BBC’s upcoming drama about the terrifying kidnapping of British model Chloe Ayling.

Parkes will portray Ayling in six-parter Kidnapped [working title], which was revealed by Deadline in April, and she is joined by Adrian Edmondson (Rain Dogs, A Spy Among Friends), Nigel Lindsay (The Capture, The Salisbury Poisonings), Olive Gray (Halo, Rose), Eleanor Romandini (The White Lotus, Il Nostro Generale), Julian Swiezewski (The Passing Bells, Krucjata) and Christine Tremarco (The Responder, Casualty). Further casting will be announced in due course.

Based on Ayling’s book, the series follows her abduction in Italy and subsequent bravery and resilience in captivity, followed by a court case that put her kidnappers in jail. Yet despite their convictions, Chloe faced headlines accusing her of faking her own kidnapping, and found herself at the center of a media storm.

Parkes played Annalise O...

Stan Refreshes Lionsgate Output Deal

Australian streamer Stan has refreshed its output deal with Lionsgate. The new agreement means Stan lands the local first-run of shows including the upcoming CIA thriller series Gray, starring Patricia Clarkson, Lydia West and Rupert Everett. Also on the menu are Son of a Critch, Welcome to Flatch and Steven K. Knight’s Spartacus sequel series. Theatrical features include White Bird, Alice and Darling. Stan will remain the Aussie home of the Power franchise, The Serpent Queen, Minx, Bmf, Gaslit and Hightown and also picks up Lionsgate catalog titles such as Mad Men, Weeds, The Spanish Princess, Black Sails, La La Land and Twilight.

Indigenous Canadian Stand-Up Show Readied

Exclusive: Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and the Canada Media Fund are among the backers of a comedy TV series billed as the first all-Canadian and Indigenous stand-up show. They have signed on to develop...

Stan, the Australian streaming service owned by Nine Entertainment, has renewed its content supply partnership with Lionsgate. The multi-year output agreement secures a slate of first-run premium scripted dramas from Starz and Lionsgate and a new slate of theatrical films exclusive to Australian audiences.

The agreement follows Stan’s renewal last year of a deal with Sony Pictures Television.

Headlining the new shows expected to flow from the Lionsgate deal is espionage drama “Gray,” starring Patricia Clarkson (“Six Feet Under”), Nathalie Emmanuel (“Game of Thrones”) and Rupert Everett (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) which is based on an original concept by bestselling novelist David Baldacci.

Other premium dramas coming soon to Stan from Lionsgate and Starz will include: a sequel series based on the groundbreaking hit “Spartacus,” currently in development from creator Steven S. DeKnight; “Welcome to Flatch,” a mockumentary series following a group of young adults in a small American town,...

Not many actors could claim they had played multiple Marvel characters and Star Wars characters in addition to famous historical figures and the villain in one of the biggest Tollywood hits of all time, but Ray Stevenson was one of them. As first reported by Italian news outlets and later confirmed by The Wrap and Variety, the actor died today at the age of 58. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Stevenson began acting in film and TV in the '90s. He would go on to become a bigger name thanks to his roles as Titus Pullo in the HBO series "Rome" and as Dagonet, one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, in Antoine Fuqua's 2004 period action-adventure movie "King Arthur."

As someone with a knack for playing hard-edged fighters and antiheroes, Stevenson was a natural fit to portray the Marvel comic book vigilante Frank Castle in Lexi Alexander's...

Bridgerton’s imperious Queen Charlotte gets her origin story in Netflix’s prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The six-episode drama follows a young Charlotte (India Amarteifio), a German noblewoman who is married off to King George III (Corey Mylchreest). Her arrival in the U.K. sparks the “Great Experiment” – the racial integration of the country’s aristocracy. As characters such as a young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) navigate a new social reality, Charlotte must adjust to life in a strange country while also dealing with her husband’s secret illness.

Queen Charlotte will surely help sate Bridgerton fanatics as they wait for the show’s third season. In the meantime, if you’re craving more royal romance, here are five shows to binge after you’ve watched the Bridgerton prequel.

‘The Great’

A young German woman finds herself at sea in a strange foreign court and married to...

Exclusive: Emmy winner Kit Connor (Heartstopper) has been set to lead feature mystery-horror One Of Us, which will begin filming in Belfast, Northern Ireland later this month.

In the allegorical film, members of a family begin dying one by one at a funeral, while Youngest (Connor) searches for the stranger in their midst.

Callum Woodhouse (The Durrells), Charlotte Hope (The Spanish Princess), Siobhan Fallon-Hogan (Rushed) and Ian Beattie (Game Of Thrones) will also star in the feature, which heralds from the Jung School and Northern Ireland Screen and marks the debut of writer-director Stefan van de Graaff.

Raquel Baldwin is producing, with Robert Machoian co-producing and van de Graff executive-producing. Bianca Cline is rounding out the team as Director of Photography. Cline recently worked on feature Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, which is Oscar nominated for Best Animation.

Connor is best known for Heartstopper, Rocketman and His Dark Materials.

Stars: Eva Green, Mark Strong, Billie Gadsdon, Chai Fonacier | Written by Garret Shanley | Directed by Lorcan Finnegan

Christine is a successful fashion designer. She lives with her marketing consultant husband Felix and their daughter Roberta in a huge house in the middle of Dublin. As Nocebo opens they’re out in front of that house with their expensive cars deciding who’s going to pick Roberta up from her private school. Life, as they say, has been good to her.

However, that’s about to change. At the showing of her latest designs, she steps away to take a call and a mangy-looking dog appears from nowhere to shower her with ticks before vanishing just as suddenly. Apparently as a result of a bite from one of those ticks she contracts a mysterious disease that leaves her sick, weak and suffering from memory lapses. Several months into her illness, Diana...

Exclusive: British drama house New Pictures has expanded its management team.

The Catherine the Great and Des maker has appointed Lisa Selway as Chief Operating Officer. Emily Russell is upped to Director of Production and Executive Producer and Wendy Pearce becomes Chief Financial Officer.

Selway has worked in the industry for 15 years, working on behalf of film and TV producers, financiers, distributors, talent, and global streamers and was most recently an independent business affairs specialist at Grey Seal Media.

She’ll will work next to New Pictures co-founders Willow Grylls and Elaine Pyke, along with Russell and Pearce, to grow the company and build out its scripted operation.

Russell, who has been with the company since 2020 after joining from Mammoth Screen, has been tasked with overseeing all production. Her credits include BBC and Netflix drama The Serpent and ITV’s Endeavour.

Pearce rises from Finance Director to Chief Financial Officer...

African streaming service Showmax has inked a two-series slate deal with Tshedza Pictures, the South African production company behind the International Emmy-nominated telenovela “The River,” the company announced Tuesday at the start of the Joburg Film Festival.

“Adulting,” Tshedza’s first Showmax Original, is an eight-part drama series set in the parallel universes of four varsity friends. Their strong bond has held them together even as their journeys in life have taken them in very different directions — a bond the show’s creators describe as “the bromance of the decade.”

Tshedza’s second Showmax Original, “Outlaws,” is a cross-cultural love story that plays out in the dangerous world of cattle-theft syndicates in the lawless land on the border between Lesotho and South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal region.

“Adulting” is set to premiere in the first half of 2023, while the 40-episode epic drama series “Outlaws” is expected to be delivered in the second half of the year.

Experience the windswept Yorkshire moors at home when Emily arrives on DVD from 12th December. Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with Emily, from her own original screenplay, with Emma Mackey starring as Emily Brontë, and to celebrate its release we have three copies of the DVD to giveaway.

Emily tells the imagined life of one of the world’s most famous authors, Emily Brontë. The film stars Emma Mackey as Emily, a rebel and misfit, as she finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights. Emily explores the relationships that inspired her – her raw, passionate sisterhood with Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling – “The Musketeers”) and Anne (Amelia Gething – “The Spanish Princess”); her first aching, forbidden love for Weightman and her care for her maverick brother whom she idolises.

Watch the official trailer Here

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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Emily Is Available...

It’s official, Millie Gibson is the new Doctor Who companion who’ll be travelling through space and time with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in Series 14. The 18-year-old actor is best known for playing the role of series regular Kelly Neelan in ITV soap Coronation Street, and if you want to feel old, was born just one year before the sci-fi show returned to television in 2005. She’ll be playing a character called Ruby Sunday.

The announcement was made live on the BBC’s Children in Need charity fundraising show, after a host of comedy skits and real-life stories, and the ever-brilliant Mel Giedroyc performing a bespoke dance to the Doctor Who theme music (the lyrics are “zonga zonga” now. It’s official.)

As a young soap actor Gibson follows in the footsteps of Jenna Coleman, who got her start in Emmerdale before becoming Clara Oswald and kick-starting a solid dramatic career.

Stars: Eva Green, Mark Strong, Billie Gadsdon, Chai Fonacier | Written by Garret Shanley | Directed by Lorcan Finnegan

Christine is a successful fashion designer. She lives with her marketing consultant husband Felix and their daughter Roberta in a huge house in the middle of Dublin. As Nocebo opens they’re out in front of that house with their expensive cars deciding who’s going to pick Roberta up from her private school. Life, as they say, has been good to her.

However, that’s about to change. At the showing of her latest designs, she steps away to take a call and a mangy-looking dog appears from nowhere to shower her with ticks before vanishing just as suddenly. Apparently as a result of a bite from one of those ticks she contracts a mysterious disease that leaves her sick, weak and suffering from memory lapses. Several months into her illness, Diana...

Post-production has been completed and a sneak peek trailer has been released for Groucho Arts’ London-set crime thriller “Tales of Babylon.”

The film stars Clive Russell (“Game of Thrones”), Billie Gadsdon (“Cruella”), Aaron Cobham (“The Spanish Princess”), Paul Cassidy (“Outlander”), Maria Crittell (“Doctors”) and Ray Calleja (“Mr. Selfridge”). It is directed by Pelayo De Lario, whose “Jack” was awarded on the festival circuit in 2021.

“Tales of Babylon” follows two siblings looking to escape their abusive mobster grandfather, who join forces with a pair of hitmen with a knack for the theatrical in their search for a new life. It was shot around the London Docklands, Brixton, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Hoxton.

De Lario said: “We are thrilled to finally have finished ‘Tales of Babylon,’ it is a project that all of us have poured our hearts into, spending many sleepless nights trying to make it the amazing movie that it is.

Georgie Henley, who played Lucy Pevensie in “The Chronicles of Narnia” film trilogy, revealed on Tuesday that when she was in college, a rare bacterial infection nearly led to the amputation of her right arm. After a series of “grueling” surgeries and grafts, doctors were able to save it, but she was left with scarring that she concealed from the public for nearly 10 years.

The actress, who is now 27, shared a photo to Twitter of herself showing off the scars on her arm, along with the caption, “finally free.”

In the accompanying screenshots, she wrote, “When I was eighteen years old and in my sixth year of university, I contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a rare and punishing infection that nearly claimed my life and wrought havoc throughout my body. In order to prevent the amputation on my left hand and arm, I received grueling, invasive surgery, and later extensive reconstructive surgery...

Today we present interviews with the director and leading actors of Emily, the new film which tells the imagined life of one of the world’s most famous authors, Emily Brontë. It stars Emma Mackey as Emily, a rebel and misfit, as she finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights.

We loved the film, a lot – read our review here.

The story explores the relationships that inspired her – her raw, passionate sisterhood with Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling – “The Musketeers”) and Anne (Amelia Gething – “The Spanish Princess”); her first aching, forbidden love for Weightman and her care for her maverick brother whom she idolises.

The film also stars Adrian Dunbar (“Line of Duty”) and Gemma Jones.

Fae Clerey interviews, the film is out now.

Emily Interviews

The post Emily Interviews – Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen & Frances O’Connor on their acclaimed biopic appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Protest

Oscar and Venice-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and fellow filmmakers Georgia Oakley (“Blue Jean”), Roberto Minervini (“What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”) and Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) were among those who protested against the imprisonment of Iranian filmmakers and other incarcerated artists around the world, and to demonstrate support for the tenacious women of Iran who are challenging for their freedom at the BFI London Film Festival on Monday.

They joined festival director Tricia Tuttle, producer Madeleine Molyneaux (“Gospel Hill”); actors Aurélia Petit (“Saint Omer”) and Taki Mumladze (“A Room of My Own”); actor and writer Mariam Khundadze (“To Batumi and every single memory”); writer Morgan M. Page (“Framing Agnes”); industry leaders Tabitha Jackson, Clare Binns and Jason Wood; and other festival delegates in a moment of solidarity and reflection.

They stood together holding the names of imprisoned Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Al-Ahmad and Jafar Panahi,...

Click here to read the full article.

Game of Thrones and The Nun actress Charlotte Hope is set to appear as Micki Pistorius, South Africa’s first-ever serial-killer profiler, in Catch Me a Killer, a new true crime series from Germany’s Night Train Media and South Africa’s M-Net/Showmax.

Hope, who played Myranda in Game of Thrones and headlined Starz’s The Spanish Princess as Catherine of Aragon, will star in Catch Me a Killer, which is adapted from Pistorius’ memoir. Set in the mid-90s, the series traces Pistorius’ quest, as a newly-qualified forensic psychologist, to track down South Africa’s most feared killers at a time when the country was gripped by an epidemic of rising crime and mass murder.

“It is always a challenge and a privilege to recreate a real life character and Micki is no exception,” Hope said in a statement. “Micki herself...

AMC Networks’ streaming platform Sundance Now is expanding its 2023 slate with orders for two new series, dark comedy Totally Completely Fine and fantasy mystery series Sanctuary, based on V.V. James novel. They join the recently announced upcoming series Clean Sweep, The Lovers, SisterS, Black Snow, and Far North, all for premiere in 2023.

Inspired by true events, six-part dark comedy Totally Completely Fine, a Sundance Now Original series, stars Thomasin McKenzie (JoJo Rabbit) and explores the complexities of grief, the power of friendship, and the ways our sadness can unite us. Per the logline, the series follows 20-something Vivian Cunningham (McKenzie), whose life is a mess. Last week she accidentally burnt down her brother’s vegan food truck with a bacon-flavored vape and this week she’s inherited her grandfather’s coastal clifftop shack and is tasked with helping people who come too close to the edge.

Series also stars Devon Terrell (Rap Sh!

AMC Networks’ Sundance Now has commissioned “Totally, Completely Fine” and “Sanctuary” as two new titles joining the streaming platform’s 2023 slate of original projects.

Written, created and executive produced by Gretel Vella, “Totally, Completely Fine” explores the complexities of grief, the power of friendship, and the ways our sadness can unite us. Inspired by true events,the six-part dark comedy follows 20-something Vivian Cunningham (Thomasin McKenzie), whose life is a mess but nevertheless winds up tasked with helping people who come too close to the edge as she endures her own comedic catastrophes like accidentally burning down her brother’s vegan food truck with a bacon-flavored vape.

Devon Terrell (“Rap Sh!t”), Brandon McLelland (“The Other Guy”), Rowan Witt (“Book of Mormon” – Original Australian Cast), Contessa Treffone (“Doctor Doctor”), James Sweeny (“Total Control”), Max Crean (“Mystic”) and Brigid Zengeni (“The Good Liar”) join the JoJo Rabbit star among the cast.

Groucho Arts’ crime thriller film “Tales of Babylon” has wrapped principal photography and is currently in post-production.

The film stars Clive Russell (“Game of Thrones”), Billie Gadsdon (“Cruella”), Aaron Cobham (“The Spanish Princess”), Paul Cassidy (“Outlander”), Maria Crittell (“Doctors”) and Ray Calleja (“Mr. Selfridge”). It is directed by Pelayo De Lario, whose “Jack” was awarded on the festival circuit in 2021.

“Tales of Babylon” follows two siblings looking to escape their abusive mobster grandfather, who join forces with a pair of hitmen with a knack for the theatrical in their search for a new life. It was shot around the London Docklands, Brixton, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Hoxton.

De Lario said: “‘Tales of Babylon’ is a compilation of stories from the points of view of different criminals in London, modern day Babylon. I wrote ‘Tales of Babylon’ as a type of love letter to this city, a story compiling all the stories...

All hail Elizabeth-the-teen, pre-queen. Just in time for the Jubilee of her namesake Elizabeth II, England’s longest reigning monarch, Starz and creator Anya Reiss (“EastEnders”) gaze back to another, lesser-known micro-slice of Tudor history in “Becoming Elizabeth.” The series asks: what was happening to the wicked smart, red-haired “virgin” queen-to-be in the tumultuous months following the death of her father, Henry VIII, in 1547 — and over a decade after Pops beheaded her unpopular mother Anne Boleyn?

The word orphan doesn’t quite describe the politically fraught and emotionally unstable situation in which the vulnerable 14-year-old (Alicia von Rittberg) finds herself. Of Henry’s three legitimate children, the third in line for the royal scepter enters a game of thrones in earnest with her Anglican younger half-brother Edward (Oliver Zetterstrom) and Catholic older half-sister “Bloody” Mary (Romola Garai).

Meanwhile, Henry’s widowed sixth wife, Catherine Parr (Jessica Raine) maneuvers to take...

Scandinavia is bringing talent old and new to the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes Docs sidebar this year, with a showcase of five feature length films-in-the-making pitched as part of the Scandinavian Showcase on Saturday.

“Children of the Lowest Heaven”

From Denmark, internationally acclaimed writer-director Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen, who has been working on mini-series for HBO, Starz and Netflix for the past five years, presented “Children of the Lowest Heaven” (“Ønskeliv”), a hybrid doc set in Kosovo.

Inspired by her short “Out of Love” (2009), about a group of children living in poverty in post-war Pristina, it picks up where she left off with the characters, who are now young adults, still fighting to survive in one of Europe’s poorest nations.

It’s about the long-term effects of war, and what it means to live a life in poverty. Poverty is not a moment but a lifelong state of being:...

Julian Sands and Charlotte Hope star in the dark retelling of a classic tale.

Millennium Media has closed a raft of key sales on Erlingur Thoroddsen’s The Piper, a dark retelling of the Pied Piper legend starring Julian Sands and Charlotte Hope.

The story of a young composer who is given the opportunity of a lifetime has gone to Metropolitan (France), Telepool (Germany), Studiocanal (Australia/New Zealand), Eagle Films (Middle East), Dfw (Benelux) and Vertice.

Rights have also closed with JoynContents (South Korea), Forum Film (Eastern Europe), Movie Cloud (Taiwan), Suraya (Malaysia), Pt Amero (Indonesia), Viva (Philippines), Empire Entertainment...

Bleecker Street has bought the U.S. rights for writer-director Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut, “Emily,” which tells the story of author Emily Brontë’s real-life romance in the lead up to her seminal novel, “Wuthering Heights.”

Bleecker Street is planning a 2023 theatrical release Stateside, while Warner Bros. will open the film wide in U.K. cinemas.

Promotional materials for the project describe “Emily” as imagining “the transformative, exhilarating and uplifting journey to womanhood of one of the world’s most famous, enigmatic and passionate writers.”

BAFTA nominee Emma Mackey leads a cast of young British talent, including Fionn Whitehead, Oliver Jackson-Cohen (“The Invisible Man”), Alexandra Dowling (“The Musketeers”) and Amelia Gething (“The Spanish Princess”) as well as BAFTA nominee Gemma Jones (“Ammonite”) and Adrian Dunbar (“Line of Duty”).

The acquisition was negotiated by Bleecker Street’s head of acquisitions, Kent Sanderson, with Avy Eschenasy on behalf of Bleecker Street alongside Embankment,...

Brazilian streaming giant Globoplay is partnering with Lionsgate-backed streaming service Starzplay for a merged offering in Brazil.

As of Thursday, Globoplay subscribers and non-subscribers will be able to purchase a Starzplay subscription that combines both services for R35.80 (approximately 7 per month). The agreement unlocks access to the entire Starzplay catalogue within Globoplay.

Existing Globoplay subscribers can upgrade, and new subscribers can also sign up to the combo. Subscribers to combos with Globoplay, Globoplay plus live channels or even those who have contracted the products through a different web channel can also add Starzplay.

Starzplay’s current slate includes Watergate scandal drama “Gaslit,” starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, as well as the four series from the “Power” universe, from executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Other titles include “Shining Vale,” starring Courteney Cox, “Señorita 89,” “The Spanish Princess,” and premieres of the upcoming new series “Becoming Elizabeth,” and “El Refugio.

“Outlander,” “The Luminaries,” “The White Princess,” “The Spanish Princess,” “The White Queen,” “Centennial,” no one seems to love their period dramas more than Starz. They already have a “Dangerous Liaisons” series in the works, but coming before that will be the upcoming Tudor drama “Becoming Elizabeth,” exploring the fascinating, untold story of the early life of England’s most iconic Queen.

Continue reading ‘Becoming Elizabeth’ Trailer: Alicia von Rittberg & Romola Garai Lead A New Starz Tudor Period Drama at The Playlist.

“Bosé,” the highly anticipated Paramount Plus Original, has wrapped production. The announcement comes as Paramount Plus has also confirmed the remainder of the internationally recognised cast of the six-part series, a biopic of Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé.

Two behind-the-scenes images, shared in exclusivity with Variety, also hint at the production ambitions of the series, one of the biggest Spanish-language series to date at Paramount Plus, which turns on one of the most resonant figures in recent times in Spain. Resonant for his hits, which span a remarkably long six-decade career, and for his life story, which charts Spain’s emergence from more oppressive times to hard-won freedoms in democracy.

Produced by Vis, a division of Paramount, in collaboration with Shine Iberia, part of Banijay Iberia, Pepe Baston’s Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock, “Bosé” will premiere exclusively on the Paramount Plus International streaming service in the coming months, Paramount Plus also confirmed Tuesday.

Exclusive: Paramount+’s international drama commissioning spree continues and Deadline can reveal New Pictures/Viacom International Studios (Vis) thriller The Blue, with filming set to commence in Thailand later this year.

The Blue comes fresh off the back of announcements for UK shows Flatshare, Kenneth Branagh’s A Gentleman in Moscow and the Sexy Beast remake, along with dramas from Germany and South Korea, as the Paramount streamer doubles down on international scripted shows and gears up for multiple European launches later this year.

Penned by White House Farm’s Kris Mrksa and directed by The Serpent’s Hans Herbots, The Blue stars Abigail Lawrie (Tin Star) and Rhianne Barreto (The Outlaws) as Lana and Kitty, two best friends on the run from the UK police. Together they find refuge on a romantic yacht called The Blue, crewed by a group of enigmatic, beautiful people who sail through South East...

Former Starz head of communications Lauren Townsend has been named SVP of Communications for Fox Corporation. Townsend, who will be based in Los Angeles, will start Jan. 3, reporting to Fox Corp. Chief Communications Officer Brian Nick.

Townsend, a respected veteran TV PR executive, is currently a consultant at Hulu, handling communications. Before that, she spent two and a half years as EVP, Communications at Starz.

During her tenure, Townsend shaped the Lionsgate-owned communications strategy as it evolved from a U.S. premium cable network into a global premium streaming platform in 50 countries. She spearheaded global PR campaigns for Starz Original series as well as high-profile exclusive acquisition titles on the platform and crafted messaging to establish the Starzplay brand and drive subscribers in the international territories.

During her time at Starz, Townsend oversaw the execution of publicity campaigns for the highly rated final two seasons of the network’s No.

Exclusive: Harriet Walter, Avi Nash and Chinaza Uche will round out the cast of Wool, Apple’s world-building drama series based on the New York Times bestselling trilogy of dystopian novels by Hugh Howey.

They’ll appear alongside previously announced cast members Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Common, Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo.

Written by Graham Yost and directed by Academy Award nominee Morten Tyldum, Wool is a set in a ruined and toxic future where a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.

Walter will play Martha Walker, a veteran engineer who works in Mechanical, with Nash as Lukas Kyle, an It worker who rises to prominence after meeting independent...

As it expands its global footprint, Lionsgate-backed streaming service Starzplay has snapped up exclusive rights to hit series “Outlander” in the U.K., Variety can reveal.

The deal marks the first time the long-running Starz show, which will debut season 6 in early 2022, will be streamed on its home platform outside the U.S.

“Outlander,” which shot in Scotland earlier this year, is one of the highest profile titles on Amazon Prime Video in the U.K., which picked up rights to the show from Sony Pictures Television in 2015. This latest deal, however, saw Starz outbid competitors for the series from Sony.

Fans can still, theoretically, continue watching “Outlander” on Amazon, but they’d need to buy separately into Starzplay via Amazon Channels, rather than getting it directly as an Amazon Prime Video original.

The Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe-fronted historical drama — which is produced by Tall Ship Productions,...

Apple TV+ shared a new trailer for the upcoming second season of “The Morning Show” on Monday, and the stakes are higher than ever.

“You’re just so caught up in ruling over your rotten little fiefdom. The rest of the world, they’ve moved to the cloud, and it is gorgeous up there,” Billy Crudup’s character proclaims, somewhat melodramatically, to Uba network executives in the trailer. “This is a battle for the soul of the universe!”

Clearly, Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley’s (Reese Witherspoon) decision to expose the network’s culture of misogyny and abuse on air is going over about as well as one might have hoped.

Season 2 of “The Morning Show” is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, Sept. 17, with new episodes rolling out weekly through Nov. 19.

In addition to Crudup, Aniston and Witherspoon, returning cast members include Steve Carell, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell,...

Producers of Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show" have filed a $44 million lawsuit against the show's insurance company for refusing to pay for coverage of losses due to the second season's Covid-related production delays, according to documents filed in California federal court on Friday.

"The Morning Show" executive producer Michael Ellenberg filed the lawsuit against the Apple drama's insurance company, Chubb National Insurance, on behalf of his banner Media Res, the production company behind the Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-led series.

The "Morning Show" production company said it had secured $125 million in cast coverage from Chubb, plus more for imminent peril to their shooting location. The company said Chubb is now refusing to pay the coverage it owes the production company -- which, according to the lawsuit, is $44 million -- over the production delays it faced in Season 2 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the lawsuit, Chubb has...

ReFrame, the gender equity coalition founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, and IMDbPro, announced the 117 TV and streaming shows that earned the ReFrame Stamp for the years 2020 to 2021. Among the honorees are FX’s Pose, Netflix’s Bridgerton, HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and Disney+’s WandaVision.

The stamp is intended as a mark of distinction for projects that have demonstrated success in gender-balanced film and TV productions that hire female-identifying people in four out of eight critical areas of production: writer, director, producer, lead, co-lead, speaking parts, department heads, and crew. Additional points are awarded to content that features women of color in key positions.

“The significant increase in Stamped TV content tells us that we are beginning to see the impact of years of advocacy for more equitable hiring in Hollywood,” said Andria Wilson Mirza, Director, ReFrame. “These Stamped shows not only entertained, inspired, and united...

“You’re trying to punish me. Surely the Southern Hemisphere is bad enough.”

So says Edie Henley (Harriet Walter) to her daughter Kate (Frances O’Connor) in the early scenes of the drama “The End.” This dark comedy created by Samantha Strauss comes to Showtime after a 2020 run in Australia; its first episode shows us how and why Edie, a widow, has been brought to Australia from her native England. She has only recently attempted suicide, and her new proximity to her daughter — as well as that daughter’s work in palliative medicine and adamant opposition to assisted suicide — would seem to provide grist for good drama.

The result is a bit mixed, though Walter (a recent standout on TV projects from “The Spanish Princess” to “Succession”) and O’Connor (credits including “The Missing) do good work. For a show intended to contemplate the end of life, the desire to expedite it,...

Broadcasting

Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.

Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.

“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...

Exclusive: Following his scene-stealing role in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Ruairi O’Connor has signed with ICM Partners for representation in all areas. The film has performed well at the global box office, grossing over $160M+ worldwide since its release a month ago, if with its day-and-date bow on HBO Max. It is the third film in the James Wan produced Conjuring series – and the eighth overall.

He recently wrapped filming Season 2 of Apple’s The Morning Show as a series regular alongside Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell, and he can also be seen in The Spanish Princess for Starz and in Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit opposite Elle Fanning. .

Television credits include Netflix series Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, BBC’S My Mother and Other Strangers, and he can be seen in series one and two of Delicious for Sky alongside Dawn French,...

Exclusive: The Spanish Princess and Game of Thrones actress Charlotte Hope will star with Julian Sands (The Killing Fields) in feature horror The Piper, which is now underway at Millennium Media’s Nu Boyana Studios in Bulgaria.

The film, a dark re-imagining of the Pied Piper tale, will chart how a young composer is given the opportunity of a lifetime when she is tasked with finishing her late mentor’s concerto. But she soon discovers that playing the music summons deadly consequences, leading her to uncover the disturbing origins of the melody and the evil force it has awakened: the Pied Piper.

Erlingur Thoroddsen (Rift) is directing from his script and Christopher Young (Hellraiser) will compose the score. Millennium is continuing sales on the movie during the Cannes virtual market.

Producers are Bernard Kira, Les Weldon and on behalf of Millennium Media include Yariv Lerner, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, and Tanner Mobley.

Frances O’Connor is in week two of the edit for her debut feature as writer-director, “Emily,” which brings to life the world of author Emily Brontë in the years leading up to the creation of her seminal novel “Wuthering Heights.” Variety speaks to O’Connor about the film, which has been pre-sold by Embankment Films to multiple major territories.

As an actor O’Connor has had a successful career, appearing in such films as “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and series such as “Madame Bovary” and “The Missing,” with the latter two each earning her a Golden Globe nomination.

About 10 years ago, a love of Emily Brontë led her to start writing a script about the author’s life. “She’s a very inspirational character, but we know so little about her,” she says. “And there are certain issues that I was interested in exploring about being authentic as a woman,...

Alice Englert (“Beautiful Creatures,” “Ratched”) and Nicholas Denton (“Glitch,” “Pillars”) will star as Merteuil and Valmont in Starz’s “Dangerous Liaisons” TV series, the pay TV channel said Thursday, describing the show as “the story of a young woman who negotiates love, sex, class and power to navigate an oppressive, unjust establishment on the brink of collapse.”

Per Starz, “Dangerous Liaisons” is a bold reimagining of the iconic characters from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel and tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.

Englert stars as Camille, a...

Another film in the Conjuring universe is heading your way this summer, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the seventh film in the “Conjuring” Universe, the largest horror franchise in history, which has grossed more than $1.8 billion worldwide. It includes the first two “Conjuring” films, as well as “Annabelle” and “Annabelle: Creation,” “The Nun,” and “Annabelle Comes Home.”

The film opens in theatres and IMAX nationwide on June 4, 2021 and will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release.

The Conjuring movies, and all haunted house/ghost/evil possesion films, lead me back to Eddie Murphy and his take on scary places as fast as possible. Fyi – the video if Nsfw.

“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” reveals a chilling story of terror, murder and unknown evil that shocked even experienced real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Here’s your first look at Emma Mackey – BAFTA-nominated today for Sex Education – in new UK feature Emily, the origin story biopic of Wuthering Heights scribe Emily Bronte.

Production is underway in the UK on the film which marks the writing and directing feature debut of actress Frances O’Connor (The Missing). We first broke news of the movie last summer.

Also starring are Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Haunting of Hill House), Alexandra Dowling (The Musketeers), Amelia Gething (The Spanish Princess), BAFTA nominee Gemma Jones (Ammonite) and Adrian Dunbar (Line Of Duty). Emily Beecham and Joe Alwyn are no longer aboard.

UK sales firm Embankment, which is executive-producing and arranging financing, has pre-sold multiple territories including UK to Warner Bros; France, Germany, and Switzerland to Wild Bunch; and Italy and Spain to Wild Bunch subsidiaries Bim and Vertigo, respectively. Deals have also closed for Portugal (Nos), Benelux (Cineart), Scandinavia...

Flying high after two Academy Awards for “The Father,” which it produced and sold, London-based Embankment has unveiled a first look photo of “Sex Education” star Emma Mackey in “Emily,” as well as robust early pre-sales on the feature, an Emily Brontë origin story.

Mackey was nominated on Wednesday for a BAFTA TV Award for Netflix’s “Sex Education” in the category of female performance in a comedy program.

News of first major territories sold, including much of Europe, comes as “Emily” begins principal photography. The film marks the writer-director feature debut of actor Frances O’Connor, a double Golden Globe nominee for her performances in “Madame Bovary” and “Missing.”

First major territory deals have been struck with significant distributors and also take in one multi-territory deal — both signs of the film’s perceived market potential.

Warner Bros., for instance, has closed the U.K. while Wild Bunch has clinched France,...

Principal photography on Emily, the biopic of famed Wuthering Heights author

Emily Brontë, has begun in the U.K., with a first look of Sex Education star Emma Mackey in the lead role released, alongside new casting additions and a number of key international sales.

Joining Mackey — who picked up her first BAFTA nomination for the Netflix teen comedy earlier on Wednesday — are Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man, The Haunting of Hill House), Alexandra Dowling (The Musketeers), Amelia Gething (The Spanish Princess), as well as BAFTA nominee Gemma Jones (Ammonite, Rocketman) and Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty).

Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) was previously announced as appearing ...