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Handsome leading man Richard Chamberlain, who came to prominence in the 1960s medical series “Dr. Kildare” and then became king of the miniseries with such ratings blockbusters as “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds,” has died. He was 90.

Chamberlain’s death was confirmed to Variety by publicist Harlan Boll. The actor died Saturday, March 29 in Waimanalo, Hawai’i, of complications following a stroke, according to Boll.

“Our beloved Richard is with the angels now,” Martin Rabbett, Chamberlain’s longtime partner, said in a statement. “He is free and soaring to those loved ones before us. How blessed were we to have known such an amazing and loving soul. Love never dies. And our love is under his wings lifting him to his next great adventure.”

Chamberlain’s All-American matinee idol looks stood in the way of his acting career at times until he proved himself onstage in a highly lauded production...

Bille August-directed TV series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” featuring an international cast led by Sam Claflin (“Peaky Blinders”) is reaping stellar ratings in Italy, scoring on average a whopping 26% primetime share on the country’s state broadcaster Rai.

The first episode of August’s high-end adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic, which the two-time Palme d’Or winning director of “Pelle the Conqueror” and “Smilla’s Sense Of Snow” shot in Paris, Torino, Rome and Malta, drew more than 5 million viewers Monday on Rai’s Rai-1 flagship station, reaching peaks of more than 32% of the country’s total TV audience and marking Rai’s best ratings for a TV series in nearly a year.

Claflin stars as young sailor Edmond Dantes who is falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille before escaping to seek revenge.

Early Life and Beginnings

Born on February 7, 1968, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Diego Olivera stepped into the world of acting at a young age. His career began at 12 with the play Escenas de la Calle (Scenes of the Street) at Teatro San Martín. Under the guidance of theater legends such as Alejandra Boero, Carlos Gandolfo, and Héctor Bidonde, he honed his craft, laying a solid foundation for a flourishing career in the entertainment industry.

Rise to Fame

Diego Olivera first gained widespread recognition as Darío in the Argentine television series Montaña Rusa. This role solidified his status as a beloved teen actor. His versatility as a performer soon led him to take on various roles in musicals, showcasing his singing talent in productions like La Bella y la Bestia (The Beauty and the Beast) and 101 Dálmatas (101 Dalmatians).

International Success

In 2006, while filming La Ley del Amor in Argentina, Olivera...

Lenny Borger, who served as Variety‘s Paris correspondent and film reviewer throughout the 1980s and who championed French cinema for decades as a researcher and subtitle expert for numerous films including Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” died Dec. 23 in Paris. He was 73.

Producer Serge Bromberg reported that he died after a long illness.

Borger was raised in Brooklyn, and moved to Paris in 1977 to work on his doctoral thesis. Abandoning his academic work, he began covering the French film scene for Variety and served as a correspondent and film reviewer from 1978 to 1990.

During that time he also began working on providing the English subtitles for French films, and Bertrand Tavernier gave him his first subtitling job for the 1980 “A Week’s Vacation.”

Film critic and Amazon executive Scott Foundas called Borger “a kind of medium, channeling the linguistic spirit of a given film and making it live anew for English-speaking audiences the world over.

Exclusive: TelevisaUnivision’s streamer, ViX, is setting sail for Europe.

The service will launch in Spain in January 2025, we can reveal, and be available on Atresplayer, Atresmedia’s streaming platform.

ViX will be offered on Atresplayer with no ads, and offer customers in Spain a library of 15,000 hours of content, live sport from several Liga Mx teams in Mexico and an extensive library of Spanish-language telenovelas, comedies and dramas such as La Mujer del Diablo, El Gallo de Oro, El Extraño Retorno de Diana Salazar, Más Allá de Ti and Pacto de Sangre and films including ¿Quieres ser mi Hijo? and Bendita Suegra.

“This partnership with Atresmedia marks a pivotal step in ViX’s expansion strategy, reinforcing our commitment to delivering unparalleled premium content across global Spanish-speaking markets,” said Rafael Urbina, President of Streaming and Digital at TelevisaUnivision. “We are excited to introduce ViX to new audiences in Spain and...

Henry Cavill began acting while he was still in school, appearing in a production of "Grease" in between trips to the rugby field. The young performer must have taken to the stage; he began seeking a film acting career as soon as he graduated. Cavill landed his first professional role in 2001 in a film called "Laguna." He was only 18. The following year was busy for the young man, as he appeared in a TV movie adaptation of "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," an episode of the British crime drama "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries," and in the somewhat high-profile studio version of "The Count of Monte Cristo." The Alexandre Dumas adaptation also starred Jim Caviezel, Luis Guzman, and Guy Pearce, and it was put out by Spyglass Entertainment, so the 19-year-old Cavill was suddenly in front of millions.

Cavil paid his dues for a few more years (appearing in the eighth "Hellraiser" movie...

Though best known as Superman in Man of Steel and Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s hit series The Witcher, Henry Cavill’s career should have taken off when he appeared in 2002’s The Count of Monte Cristo. Based on the classic 1844 novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, the story has been adapted myriad times across film and TV in many different styles. The 2002 version, starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and Cavill, is one of the best. It received a commendable 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $75 at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo).

The period drama from the 2000s follows protagonist Edmond Dantès (Caviezel), a man framed for treason by a group of conspirators and sent to prison. After a daring escape and years of planning, he returns home as a wealthy count, eager to seek vengeance on the ones who wronged him, including his closest friend,...

Jacques Audiard’s musical thriller “Emilia Pérez,” Coralie Fargeat’s body horror “The Substance” and Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s epic adventure “The Count of Monte Cristo” have more in common than the fact that they’re directed by French filmmakers.

Despite being set in Mexico and Los Angeles, respectively, “Emilia Pérez” and “The Substance” both shot entirely in France, for the most part in studios in Paris.

France has been able to attract, host and retain a wide range of local and international productions, primarily thanks to its locations and crews, even if its tax incentives aren’t as competitive as in other popular filming destinations in Europe, such as London and Prague.

At a panel discussion at the American French Film Festival in Los Angeles, “The Count of Monte Cristo” producer Dimitri Rassam; Jay Roewe, SVP of production planning and incentives at HBO Max and Wbd; L.

The American French Film Festival has long been considered the premiere U.S. event for launching French film and television content to American audiences and while last year’s edition was forced to cancel due to Hollywood’s dual strikes, this year the L.A.-based event is back and gearing up for what it expects to be one of its best editions yet.

The six-day festival, which kicks off its 28th edition on October 29 at the DGA Theater Complex, is bookended by two of the year’s buzziest French titles with Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical-crime film Emilia Pérez set for opening night while Pathé’s French box office hit The Count of Monte Cristo set to close the event on November 3.

Both films, say festival organizers, are reflective of the kinds of projects that Tafff wants to unveil to Hollywood audiences: Audiard’s Cannes-winning title Emilia Pérez is...

For many years now, Guillermo del Toro has been trying to create an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s classic 1936 novella, At the Mountains of Madness. The possibility of his project has caught the attention of many, and for good reason. The story that the book follows is interesting in several ways, being a magnificent meeting point for horror and the lost abyss of the universe.

Guillermo del Toro | Credits: CBS News

Bringing an Oscar-winning director into the equation only adds to the film’s appeal, with the styles and storytelling methods that del Toro has come to be known for. There were also several big names said to be a part of the project. This was 15 years ago, and not much has been heard about the film.

That was, until now, as the director has just given the biggest sign of hope to those who have been looking forward to the film for decades.

After missing out on sending “Anatomy of a Fall” as its official entry, the stakes are high for France’s revamped Oscar committee to avoid missing out on another opportunity to give the country its first Oscar win for best international feature in over three decades. But don’t expect the French to make the obvious choice.

On paper, Jacques Audiard’s exhilarating redemption thriller “Emilia Perez,” which won two major awards at the Cannes Film Festival along and earned rave reviews, is a shoo-in. Audiard is a revered French auteur who won a Palme d’Or with “Dheepan,” was previously nominated for a foreign-language Oscar with “A Prophet” and is well known internationally. “Emilia Perez,” which stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a fearsome drug lord who embraces his true self as a woman, struck a chord at Cannes where it earned one of this year’s longest standing ovations.

While Hollywood has been exploiting comic books and YA novels as intellectual property for a long time, French cinema has only recently begun to feed its wealth of 19th century novels into the content machine, churning big-budget epics out of classic books in the public domain.

Last year, a two-part version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers hit local screens, raking in $45 million off a combined $80 million budget for both films. Directed by Martin Bourboulon and featuring a who’s who of Gallic stars, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Romain Duris and Louis Garrel, the Musketeers movies were marked by nonstop action and relentless storytelling tailor-made for the streaming age.

Both films were written by the duo of Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who previously helmed a series of hit comedies (Daddy or Mommy, Divorce French Style, What’s in a Name?) with a fast-paced Hollywood edge to them.

“Goyo” is an Argentine film written and directed by Marcos Canevale. It stars Nicolás Furtado, Nancy Dupláa and Soledad Villamil.

“Goyo”, an Argentine film available for streaming on Netflix, is a touching romantic story that arrives straight at your heart. The movie is characterized by a well-crafted script, proficient direction, and most notably, two central characters who make an indelible impression on viewers. Its simplicity and the bare honesty of characters are the movie’s standout features, making it a refreshingly straightforward portrayal of Asperger’s syndrome.

Meet the Characters

The movie’s plot revolves around Goyo, a young man with Asperger’s syndrome, who works as a guide in a museum in Argentina’s capital. His co-worker, Eva, is a few years older security guard who leads a complex life, dealing with a violent husband and two teenage kids. Goyo, an avid art lover, particularly fond of painting, invites Eva into his life,...

Spain’s fast-growing Secuoya Studios has re-teamed with Cuban-North American actor-producer William Levy (“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”) for the action romantic comedy film “Bajo un volcán,” directed by Hugo Martín Cuervo.

The film will premiere exclusively on TelevisaUnivision streaming service ViX as part of a three-way deal unveiled at May’s Upfronts, which also sees the development of TV series “Arcadia,” a thriller starring Levy.

Shooting entirely on the Canary Island of Tenerife, “Bajo un volcán” marks a further step into the Levy-Secuoya alliance, which kicked off in 2022 with the production of ViX’s TV drama “Montecristo.”

This time, the two companies have engaged in a collaboration with Álamo Producciones Audiovisuales, the outfit led by prolific Spanish producer Eduardo Campoy, executive producer alongside Secuoya’s David Martínez and Wle’s William Levy and Jeff Goldberg.

Levy, who earned global success with Netflix’s remake of the Rcn telenovela “Cafe con aroma de mujer,...

French producer Dimitri Rassam is enjoying a high-profile Cannes Film Festival as producer of Competition title Limonov: The Ballad and The Count Of Monte Cristo, which scored a rousing 12-minute ovation at its Out of Competition debut.

“It’s my first film in Competition, it has been a tremendous ride,” says Rassam, who is a producer on Limonov under his Paris-based Chapter 2 banner, alongside Italy’s Lorenzo Gangarossa and Mario Gianani as well as director Kirill Serebrennikov’s long-time collaborator Ilya Stewart.

Rassam is no stranger to the Cannes red carpet having regularly accompanied his actress mother Carole Bouquet in his early 20s, before mounting the festival’s famed steps in his own right as the producer of The Little Prince and co-producer of L’Immensità.

Cinema is also in his blood on his paternal side through late producer father Jean-Pierre Rassam, and uncle Paul Rassam, the long-time friend and collaborator...

Exclusive: Pathé and Chapter 2 have announced the start of shoot in Morocco today for Martin Bourboulon’s Afghanistan evacuation drama In The Hell Of Kabul: 13 Days, 13 Nights and unveiled new cast additions.

Rising French actress Lyna Khoudri (French Dispatch) and Danish Bafta-winning Borgen star Sidse Babett Knudsen have joined the cast, which is led by Roschdy Zem, and also features respected theatre actor Christophe Montenez of The Comédie Française.

Set against the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan of U.S. troops in August, 2021 as the Taliban march on Kabul, the film recounts the true story of French Commander Mohamed Bida, who oversaw security at the French embassy, the last Western mission to remain open.

Trapped, Commander Bida decides to negotiate with the Taliban to organise a last-chance convoy with the help of Eva, a young French-Afghan translator. There is a race against time to lead the evacuees to...

"Will you do good or will hate fill your heart?" Pathe in France has revealed the main official trailer for The Count of Monte-Cristo, which is premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival next week. It's yet another new Alexandre Dumas adaptation, written & directed by the two writers who made The Three Musketeers movies recently, though this time they're also directing. A new take on the famous novel by Dumas, about a man who gets revenge after being unfairly imprisoned. It has been adapted many times before, most notably in 2002 with Jim Caviezel & Guy Pearce; in 1975 with Richard Chamberlain & Trevor Howard; and the original classic in 1934 with Robert Donat & Elissa Landi. There's also another new Italian-French TV series version of Monte Cristo in the works. Starring Pierre Niney as Edmond, Anaïs Demoustier as Mercédès, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, with Laurent Lafitte, & Julien De Saint Jean. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d'If,...

One of Hollywood's most frustrating recent news stories is that Francis Ford Coppola is having trouble finding distribution for his self-funded passion project, "Megalopolis" (via The Hollywood Reporter). In a just world, making "The Godfather" would grant Coppola a lifetime blank check, but that has never been the world we've lived in.

What you may not be aware of is one of Coppola's influences for his magnum opus. Like his friend "Star Wars" director George Lucas, Coppola looked to Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. While Lucas took after Kurosawa's Jidaigeki (historical) films, Coppola looked to one of the director's contemporary-set films: "The Bad Sleep Well."

Released in 1960 and starring his go-to leading man Toshiro Mifune, the movie is one of Kurosawa's (comparatively) more obscure ones. It was especially overshadowed by "High and Low," the masterful kidnapping thriller that Kurosawa and Mifune released in 1963. Both movies are set in the world of...

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. We’ve been out in force in France this week. To read about our travels, plus plenty more, scroll down, and sign up here.

All That Mania

‘So Long, Marianne’ star Alex Wolff (left) with Series Mania boss Laurence Herszberg

Netflix pulls ahead: Anything but doom and gloom this week at the Lille Series Mania confab, which was buzzy as ever, cementing its place as a must-not-miss event in the ever-crowded TV market calendar. Big stars including Patricia Arquette, Jeremy Irons and Michael Chiklis headed to the city in northern France to tout wares and talk shop. Netflix execs were out in full force, pushing hard against the cross-industry contraction narrative by unveiling dozens of shows in the weeks leading up to the market — and unveiling two more, starring Isabelle Adjani and Famke Janssen — at its showcase. At a time when local content is being rowed back,...

Rolling off “The Three Musketeers,” Pathé and Dimitri Rassam’s Chapter 2 (a Mediawan company) have unveiled the teaser and poster for their next period epic, “The Count of Monte-Cristo,” starring Pierre Niney in the title role.

Based on Alexandre Dumas’ literary masterpiece, the film tells the story of a young man, Edmond Dantes, who becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte-Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him. Pathé will give the movie a wide release in French theaters on June 28.

The film is directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who penned the two-part epic “The Three Musketeers.” The pair...

This year, Spain has more titles at the Berlinale’s two TV showcases, Co-Pro Series and Berlinale Market Selects, than any other country in the world— a total of four shows, beating the U.S. with one, and even Germany, which has three.

On top of that, running Feb. 19-20 at the fest’s CinemaxX screening hub, the Spanish showcase at the Berlinale

Market Series highlights three more shows and features a panel, in what may be the big- gest national TV showcase at 2024’s Berlin Festival.

What this bullish presence says about the state of the state of Spanish TV production is an- other matter. Seven key takes:

Second-Phase Boom

Spain’s Berlin bonanza is only natural. Netflix scored its first global TV blockbuster with Spain’s “Money Heist” in 2018, and now the country is now riding a second wave as a strong supplier of the global streamer. In...

“The Count of Monte-Cristo,” the new period epic from the team behind “The Three Musketeers,” is getting ready to hit the market after its five-month shoot wrapped this month.

Producers Dimitri Rassam at Mediawan-owned banner Chapter 2 and Pathé have unveiled a first still of the movie (above), which stars Pierre Niney as the iconic title character.

The film is directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, and is a bigscreen adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ renowned masterpiece revolving around Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who was falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress near Marseille. After many years of captivity, he finally escapes and, under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, plans to take revenge on those who have wrongly accused him.

“’The Count of Monte-Cristo’ is one of the greatest stories ever told,” said Delaporte and de la Patellière,...

Somewhat mysterious and fearless, Oscar-winning British actor Jeremy Irons has played a host of different characters during his decades-long career, from Adrian Veidt in Damon Lindelof’s TV series “Watchmen,” to Rodolfo Gucci in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in “Munich: The Edge of War” and Alfred Pennyworth in the DC Extended Universe films, including the latest “Justice League.” Reteaming with Palme d’Or winning Bille August for the third time, Irons will next play Abbé Faria, a noble and wise character, in the prestige limited series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” starring opposite fellow British actor Sam Claflin as Edmond Dantès. The premum limited series is distributed worldwide by Mediawan Rights, in cooperation with CAA (for North America).

Currently on the sprawling set of “Monte Cristo” in sun-drenched Malta, a cheerful Irons spoke to Variety about the timeliness of “Monte Cristo’s” story,...

Europe’s major players in TV and film attending Mipcom Cannes sensed a wave of opportunity coming at them from across the Atlantic, as Hollywood muddles through a period of strategic uncertainty and steep losses from the transition to streaming platforms.

The extended labor strife in the U.S. this year, with the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA waging historic and concurrent strikes, has Euro producers touting the appeal of lensing on the continent with a strong pool of skilled talent accustomed to working at much lower price points.

Also looming over Mipcom was the intense security protocol deployed around the Palais and headlines of bomb scares in France. The country has been on high alert in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the murder of a high school teacher a few days later. Despite the tense geo-political backdrop, the overall mood of marketgoers seemed livelier than last year,...

Exclusive: The ViX original series Montecristo starring William Levy is set to premiere on April 14, with the release of all 6 episodes to hit the streamer. Watch the first official trailer above.

Based on the literary classic The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, the series tells the story of Alejandro Montecristo (Levy), an enigmatic figure who bursts into the public eye and raises concerns amongst the world’s elite because the origin of his fortune and his past are unknown.

Montecristo is the founder and CEO of a new technology company that has incited the envy and interest of many, among those is Fernando Alvarez Mondego – a businessman connected to the Spanish aristocracy who wants to acquire the Montecristo startup. What Fernando doesn’t know is that Montecristo is someone he knew decades ago and the reason for his emergence is fueled purely by revenge.

“I have always loved...

After partnering on the anticipated saga “The Three Musketeers,” Pathé and Chapter 2 are re-teaming on “The Count of Monte Cristo,” another classic by Alexandre Dumas.

Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the sprawling adventure movie will star Pierre Niney as Monte Cristo, who is considered an iconic figure of French literature.

Dimitri Rassam, president of Chapter 2, a Mediawan company, and Pathé are producing the movie which will start shooting on location in France in July.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière are prolific screenwriters whose recent credits include the two-part epic “The Three Musketeers.” They have directed a raft of popular films, including “What’s in the Name?”

“‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ is one of the greatest stories ever told. A veritable myth mixing several cinematic genres – adventure and thriller is layered on top of an immensely powerful love story,” said Delaporte and de la Patelliere.

Making its U.S. market debut, Spain’s Secouya Studios has unveiled a weighty 2023 slate underscoring its ambitions to consolidate as one of the biggest film-tv producers in the Spanish-speaking world.

Ranging from fiction series, docuseries, feature documentaries and entertainment formats, 2023 projects take in, among unannounced drama series, “Crudo,” the first skein out of the gate from a framework deal between Secuoya Studios and Colombia’s Caracol Television unveiled just before September’s Iberseries.

Also new is “Hola, Mundo,” an eight-episode co-production with Weekend Studio, part owned by Mediwan; and “Efímero,” billed as a romantic drama.

Among fresh docuseries, Carlos Sainz, Spain’s two-time World Rally Champion, narrates “Race In,” an exclusive story about motorsport’s challenges in a contemporary world, such as sustainability, gender equality and social responsibility. “Proximity: Flying Centimeters from Death· turns on a near-death experience suffered by Base jumper Alex Villar;‘Vuelo JK5022: Spanair’s...

ViX+, the fledgling Spanish-language SVOD from TelevisaUnivision, is dipping into literary classics once more with the modern retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ popular revenge tale, “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

The news follows the Jan. 20 bow of ViX+’s Anna Karenina adaptation, “Volver a Caer” with Kate del Castillo. Last year, ViX+ unveiled an adaptation of Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Travesuras de la Niña Mala” (“Bad Girl”).

In an exclusive first look, ViX+ unveils footage of the six-part series, simply titled “Montecristo,” with William Levy (“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”) playing the enigmatic lead.

Produced by Spain’s Secouya Studios, “Montecristo” follows Alejandro Montecristo, a mysterious figure whose past and considerable fortune are unknown. Montecristo is the founder and CEO of a successful new tech company that has sparked the interest and envy of many, including Fernando Alvarez Mondego, a businessman with close ties to the Spanish aristocracy...

The May 3 episode of CBS’ Person of Interest presents a blast from the past for both Jim Caviezel as well as his alter ego — and we have an exclusive first look at the reunion.

Person of Interest Sneak Peek: Reese Gets a Blast from His Dark Past

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In “Many Happy Returns,” the third-to-last hour...