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It’s a rare type of cinephile who wasn’t introduced to the idea of film as more than just idle entertainment by the ritual of the Academy Awards. And it’s an even rarer type of cinephile who didn’t soon thereafter vehemently reject the Oscars as the ultimate barometer of a film’s artistic worth. Those of us who started off with The Godfather, Schindler’s List, All About Eve, or Casablanca all eventually got around to Out of Africa, Around the World in 80 Days, The Greatest Show on Earth, Cimarron, and Cavalcade.

First loves being first loves, we still find ourselves regressing if for only one night a year, succumbing to the allure of instant canonization even as it comes in the form of repeated slap-in-the-face reminders of Oscar’s bracing wrongness: Gladiator, Braveheart, Chicago, Crash. In that sense, consider this project part cathartic exorcism and part...

[Editor’s Note: This list was originally published in February 2024. It has been updated to add new winners, including “Anora.”]

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences hosted their first annual Academy Awards on May 16, 1929 — a short, 15-minute ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with tickets that cost the equivalent of $90 today — there were two top awards that night (and an honorary trophy for groundbreaking talkie “The Jazz Singer.”) The first was “Best Unique and Artistic Picture,” honoring boldly experimental art films pushing the medium forward: “Sunrise,” F. W. Murnau’s lyrical masterpiece of a romantic drama, received that prize. Then there was “Outstanding Picture,” given to more commercial fare made within the Hollywood system: That award was given out to “Wings,” a very good and extremely popular World War I action romance starring Clara Bow.

When AMPAS mounted a second ceremony a year later, they retroactively decided that Outstanding Picture was the real highest honor they gave out and discontinued Artistic Picture forever. And, as Oscar ceremonies...

There have been several dozen films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, going strong and releasing multiple films almost every year since its beginning in 2008. The McU's overwhelming volume has inspired several conversations by pundits and critics, wherein they ponder the series as one of the longest-running in cinema history. It is, of course, by no means the longest. Indeed, a close study of cinema history will immediately reveal film franchises that handily outstrip it.

One might immediately think of Godzilla, for instance, a film series that has been chugging along pretty steadily since its debut in 1954. To date, there have been 38 feature films (in both Japan and America) in the "Godzilla" franchise. Some deep-cut kiddie-entertainment enthusiasts may be able to recall that there are already 43 animated movies to star Mattel's Barbie, and that's not even counting Greta Gerwig's live-action blockbuster. Those 43 movies were made between 2001 and the present.

In 2009, Disney purchased the film rights to Marvel Studios. In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm. In 2017, Disney purchased the 20th Century Fox library. Thanks to these major buys, Disney now owns some of the most bankable films of all time. When not adjusted for inflation, Disney also owns a controlling stake in nine out of the 10 highest-grossing movies ever, including two "Avatar" movies, "Titanic," three movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a Pixar film, a "Star Wars" film, and a remake of an animated classic.

But every major hit seems to balance itself out with a major loss. Disney also has ownership of some of the biggest box office bombs of all time, as the "high risk, high reward" filmmaking model has proven unsuccessful at least as often as it has worked. Disney also owns major commercial duds like "The Marvels," "John Carter," "The Lone Ranger," "Mars Needs Moms," "Tomorrowland," "Onward," "Strange World,...

Known for his creative flair and business acumen as much as for his talent for throwing the best parties, French entrepreneur and producer Pascal Breton is celebrating a milestone in the 11-year history of his Paris-based Federation Studios. That is the launch of “The Agency,” the anticipated U.S. remake of “Le Bureau des Legendes” starring Michael Fassbender, which Federation executive produced alongside George Clooney and is co-distributing internationally with Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Federation Studios previously sold Eric Rochant’s smash hit spy series “Le Bureau des Legendes” widely, but retained the IP, allowing the outfit to make a lucrative deal with Paramount for the remake and remain in the picture as co-distributor and executive producer.

A disruptor at heart, Breton was vying for a career in academics after getting a PhD in political science with a prophetic thesis about how television has changed the rules of political life.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film in the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery above features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

The worst among 96 Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film on the bottom of the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery below features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

European production and distribution group Federation Studios, which owns more than 30 labels including the UK’s Vertigo Films and Italy’s Fabula Pictures, has formally appointed advisors to explore investment or a sale, according to a report in Screen’s sister title Broadcast.

The Paris-based company has engaged Morgan Stanley to assess its options, with a price tag of around €500m (£417m) believed to have been attached.

Federation employs around 280 staff across Europe and the US, producing and distributing across genres including drama, factual, kids & family, documentaries and film.

Numerous companies have been mooted as potential suitors including All3Media, Peter Chernin...

Commissioners from four of Europe’s top public broadcasters assembled in Madrid on Tuesday for a roundtable discussion about what they’re looking for in potential scripted projects.

Hosted by the Iberseries & Platino Industria forum and emceed by María Valenzuela, the panel included speakers Morad Koufane, France Télévisions’ director of international and young adult series; José Pastor, director of cinema and fiction at Rtve in Spain; Michele Zatta, commissioning editor in charge of international co-productions for Italy’s Rai; and Laura Mae Harding, commissioning editor for international co-productions at Zdf in Germany.

In addition to sharing what excites them about pitches, the panel also discussed the importance of international co-productions, the differences in their audiences, appealing to younger viewers and why public broadcasters are number one on the list of favored production partners.

Here are five key takeaways from the enlightening conversation.

Co-Pro Plan A and Plan B

The day...

Award shows like the Emmys are, essentially, marketing campaigns. Instead of trying to sell viewers on a show, the targets are the respective academy's voters. Since no company can market like Amazon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power might get some overdue justice for genre fare at these award shows.

The nominations for the Emmys are a few months away. If the Writers Guild of America strike continues until then, everyone will have bigger problems for their consideration. If the awards season gets to go off uninterrupted, then it's possible that The Rings of Power could end up nominated in categories genre fare rarely breaks into. Though the budget for the series may lean towards ridiculous, much of it ended up on the screen. The Rings of Power is a lock for any technical awards related to special effects, makeup, hair and set dressing. Yet, like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King...

The Amazing Race, at its absolute core, is all about competition. With a relatively simple format of Around the World in Eighty Days meets reality television, the show has been a staple of competition programming since it first premiered. Over the course of 30+ seasons, audiences are continually drawn back to see the dynamics that the teams will have with themselves and with other two-person teams.

Related: The 6 Biggest Controversies On The Amazing Race

The most fun of The Amazing Race dynamics comes when the competing teams develop rivalries. While there is a ticking clock in terms of the challenges, the real drama of the series comes when the teams don't like each other. Some of the rivalries are truly so iconic that audiences still talk about them and who was in the wrong or the right in each instance.

David Tennant stars in a new trailer for Masterpiece PBS series Around the World in 80 Days. The clip teases the epic story, based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne, and showcases Tennant’s Phileas Fogg alongside his companion Abigail Fix, played by Leonie Benesch.

The eight-episode series, which also stars Ibrahim Koma, premieres Sunday, January 2nd, 2022. The story centers on an adventurer named Fogg who places a £20,000 wager against the members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in only eighty days.

This is something for estranged Evil fans to cheer about. Just don’t let the monks hear you.

At the apparent request of series creators Robert and Michelle King, Paramount+ has made one of Season 2’s streaming-only episodes available for free.

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“This is in response to people who miss the show, but hated that it cost money to watch on Paramount Plus,...

Is it even Mipcom if The Grand is closed and a legion of bamboo planters is blocking off access to a vacant Grand Palais basement? As the global TV market convened in Cannes after two pandemic-stricken years, it was initially hard to say. But despite an understated affair with fewer U.S. delegates and hardly any presence from Asia, Australia and Latin America those who did attend got valuable face-time with key business contacts and a renewed sense of an industry quietly coming back to life.

Here are the 10 top talking points from Cannes:

Squid Game on Top

Few dared to travel to Mipcom without having seen at least a couple of episodes of Netflix’s smash hit from Korea, “Squid Game.” The show was name-dropped in virtually all content sessions, with breathless executives applauding its imagination and investment from the SVOD. Ironically, while Korea normally has a robust presence in Cannes,...

A host of heavyweight European execs have debated the difficulty of competing with US streamers on big budgets, while criticising these players for failing to nurture local talent and buying up studio space.

Many of the panellists involved in today’s Getting Your Projects Financed session at the Mia Rome Market are involved with the European Alliance, which aims to co-produce programming such as the upcoming Around The World In 80 Days adaptation between European networks France Televisions, Italy’s Rai and Germany’s Zdf.

Manuel Alduy, France Televisions Head of Cinema and International Development, cited the complexities of co-producing with streamers who “want to discuss almost everything, from your position in the room to editorial to rights to IP.”

“Finding blockbusters like Around The World In 80 Days is therefore so important,” he added.

And deep-pocketed streamers like Amazon and Netflix are keener to take local rights than ever, according...

Winner Takes All. Maybe the biggest trend at this year’s Mipcom, judged by titles on show and announcements – think Rtl/Beta’s “Sisi,” the Alliance’s “Around the World in 80 Days” or Vis’ just-announced “Bosé” – was the move into big high-end event series based on big big IP.

The Hollywood studios have been doing this for years of course. Now, when it comes to bringing blockbusters onto the open market, it’s largely the turn of the the world’s big independents. Brazil’s Globo, Latin America’s biggest media company, is no exception. On Oct. 20, in a milestone move, it will bow the first 10 episodes of “Hidden Truths II,” its biggest 2021 scripted play.

It’s the second season of a jewel in Globo’s modern crown. Airing from 11 p.m. on TV Globo, the group’s main free-to-air channel, from June to September 2015, “Hidden Truths” hit massive...

In one of its biggest premium plays to date in an already strong line in Spanish-language series, ViacomCBS International Studios (Vis) has greenlit “Bosé,” a new Paramount Plus original recounting the life story of international actor, Latin Grammy and Billboard winning recording artist Miguel Bosé.

Produced in collaboration with Shine Iberia, part of Banijay Iberia, Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock, the series will go into production in early 2022 in Spain.

Developed in co-operation with Bosé, the six-episode series will portray the extraordinary life of Bosé, son of two icons of cosmopolitan Spain under dictator Francisco Franco: Luis Miguel Dominguín, one of Spain’s most famous bullfighters, and Lucía Bosé, star of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Story of a Love Affair” and Juan Antonio Bardem’s “Death of a Cyclist.”

Bosé grew up among family friendships which shaped European culture in the 195os and beyond. His first battle, however, was to...

Sky Original’s fifth and final season of “Gomorrah,” Rtl Group and Beta Film’s German-language “Sisi,” and Canal Plus’ hip-hop themed “All The Way Up” will — rather fittingly — join the David Tennant-led, Slim Film+Televison/Federation co-produced “Around the World in 80 Days” for an internationally accented edition of Canneseries, which plays from Oct. 8-13.

Running concurrent to Mipcom before returning to its traditional April berth in 2022, this year’s fourth edition will spotlight nine countries in its ten series long-form competition, though with a limited U.S. presence.

Alongside those four aforementioned series, all playing out of competition, this year’s most high-profile competition premieres include the Gaumont-produced, Amazon Prime broadcast Cold War thriller “Totems,” a Franco-Spanish-Czech co-production that stars Niels Schneider, Lambert Wilson and Ana Girardot, and “Limbo… Until It’s Over,” the latest series from Argentine hit-makers Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn (“Officila Competition...

David Tennant bid farewell to his Tardis way back in 2010, but that doesn't mean he still can't travel in style! His upcoming miniseries sees the British star sizing down his travel plans to just one single planet in a brisk 80 days. It seems pretty do-able for someone who once explored the galaxy, but in the first trailer for "Around The World in 80 Days," Tennant is really struggling.

Check out the first trailer for "Around The World in 80 Days" below.

A hot air balloon can't quite achieve the same heights as a...

The post Around the World in 80 Days Trailer: David Tennant Travels Neither Time Nor Space in a Hot Air Balloon appeared first on /Film.

The Legends of Tomorrow are now the Legends of… 1925? In a new promo for Season 7, the team is grounded in the past following the unexpected destruction of their time-ship by another, mysterious Waverider in the Season 6 finale.

“If we stay here, it could get really bad,” Ava warns as the group goes about saving history while getting quite familiar with 1920s fashion. But can the Legends find a way out of their current predicament? “We’re just a bunch of weirdos with truly random superpowers,” Zari notes.

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Exclusive: Forced to halt production after just three weeks of shooting in South Africa when the Covid pandemic struck back in March 2020, and picking up again in Romania seven months later, Around The World In 80 Days is due to have its world premiere at Canneseries on October 10.

Star David Tennant, who plays English gentleman-turned-adventurer Phileas Fogg, is expected on the Riviera to unveil the first two episodes of this mega-adaptation of the Jules Verne classic. An airdate has yet to be set, but is likely around the holidays via such outlets as France Télévisions, PBS/Masterpiece, the BBC, Rai and Zdf. Check out the first-look teaser above.

Joining Tennant in the eight-part adventure are French actor Ibrahim Koma (Oss 177) as Fogg’s irrepressible valet, Passepartout, and Leonie Benesch (The Crown) as determined journalist, Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue.

A Slim Film + Television and Federation co-production for the European Alliance, the series boasts a new spin on Fogg.

Life On Mars creator and 80 Days head writer, Ashley Pharoah says, “We wanted Fogg yes to be a preposterously upper middle class over-educated Englishman, but I wanted to give him a sort of childlike sense of wonder because he’s never traveled, he’s never left London or his club. As soon as I hit on that, I thought it’s a love letter to the world, if that isn’t a bit pretentious. He goes to Paris and India and Hong Kong and Yemen and he’s so excited to see a camel, the different colors and cultures. It felt like resetting our relationship with traveling and seeing the world like that.”

In terms of scoring Tennant for the lead, former Kudos boss Simon Crawford Collins, who runs Slim Film + Television, says, “We wanted somebody who could believably do the action adventure, could play the stiff-upper-lip Englishman, but at the same time you never fall out of love with him and you really want to get under the veneer of that and go, ‘Wow, this is actually a complex man.’ David manages that so brilliantly.”

Pharoah, who is also an executive producer, hints at more Fogg adventures to come. “We are in the early stages of wondering — if this goes well — if we could do it again. Taking those three characters and doing a different adventure with them.” Hopefully not under the same conditions, however, which Pharoah recalls as “a really hard shoot.”

It was also expensive, as pandemic-related issues added about £4M in costs, Crawford Collins tells Deadline. “The first lockdown was a killer, but once we got going again we felt very blessed.” Production in South Africa was originally stopped in March 2020 and picked up again in November in Romania. “In an ideal world we would have carried on filming in South Africa where our sets were, but South Africa was coming out slowly so we did the big shift to Romania,” adds the executive producer. This year, production was able to move back to South Africa and the result is “very vibrant and cinematic.”

Around The World In 80 Days counts co-production partners Masterpiece in the U.S., Peu Communications in South Africa, and Belgium’s Be-films and Rtbf. Daro Film associate produces. Seven West Media has also backed the production and will broadcast in Australia. The series has further been acquired by the BBC in the UK and Rts in Switzerland.

While there are myriad partners on the series, Crawford Collins says development and production were “very straightforward.” France Télévisions “came back saying, ‘We love this and really want to make it and we don’t want to be the secondary broadcaster.’ They wanted to be lead, so immediately put in a sizable amount of money. It was a wonderful building block and they then brought the Alliance partners on board.”

The entire process (apart from the shutdown), “was incredibly stress free… We never had any big disagreements… The specter of Europudding still sort of lives heavily in our minds and we all know those days. But I think the trouble with that is when you have a project originated just to secure financing then it really shows through. The difference is that we had a clear vision of what we wanted to say, but just knew we needed a lot of people to help fund it.”

Also starring as series regulars in 80 Days are Jason Watkins (Des) and Peter Sullivan (Poldark). Guest actors include Lindsay Duncan (A Discovery Of Witches), Dolly Wells (Dracula), Richard Wilson (Merlin), Faical Elkihel (The Spy), Anthony Flanagan (The Terror), Gary Beadle (Patrick Melrose) and Giovanni Scifoni (Doc – Nelle Tue Mani).

Around The World In 80 Days is adapted by a team of writers led by Pharoah and Caleb Ranson (Child Of Mine). Steve Barron (The Durrells) directs with Brian Kelly (Downton Abbey) and the late Charles Beeson (The Mentalist).

Federation Entertainment handles distribution rights. Exec producers are Crawford Collins for Slim, Lionel Uzan and Pascal Breton for Federation, Winnie Serite for Peu and Susanne Simpson for Masterpiece.

Conecta Fiction and Virtual Screenings 2021 brought together European public broadcasters for an online presentation on Tuesday that attempted to capture the alliances and challenges of the European public broadcasters, among Europe’s biggest and most active TV companies.

“We are aware that the past and the future is based on partnership,” said Maria Pia Ammirati, head of Rai Fiction in Italy. “We know that to make the best use of our resources and work within a European vision we must share the aspirations and also the problems of the European community.”

With the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney Plus spending big money on high-end drama series, European pubcasters have turned to a co-publishing model to compete. Launched in 2018 by France Televisions, Germany Zdf and Italy’s Rai, The Alliance allows the production investment burden to be spread across broadcasters who then control windows for the content in their home territory.

The first three editions of Conecta Fiction were a delight: an intimate, boutique Latin America-Europe co-production and networking event for drama series in which top executives from either side of the Atlantic spent quality time together, as they put through a revolution in content creation.

Last year’s 4th Conecta Fiction on-site event was decimated by Covid-19. This year, as attendance builds once more, the meet is making a virtue out of necessity, taking a new direction. This and six other takes on Conecta Fiction as it turns five.

Europe Calling

Over its first three editions, Conecta Fiction carved out a reputation for its influx of top Latin American TV execs, producers and showrunners, suddenly accessible in person in exquisite locations, latterly Pamplona in Navarre. For its fifth outing, the event has turned to Europe. This is partly for logistical reasons, says Conecta Fiction director Géraldine Gonard. Most Latin Americans majorly cannot travel to Pamplona.

Exclusive: Former Doctor Who star David Tennant is set to headline Hide, a drama series in development at Peacock. Tennant is attached to star and executive produce alongside his wife, actor Georgia Tennant. The project is written/executive produced by WGA Award-nominated showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Agent Carter) and directed/executive produced by Emmy-, BAFTA- and DGA-nominated director Julie Anne Robinson.

In Hide, a Jekyll & Hyde tale by way of a conspiracy thriller, a disgraced journalist (David Tennant) stumbles upon a story that could resurrect his career. But he quickly learns he’s seen something he shouldn’t have, and is now the target of unknown adversaries who will do anything to silence him. On the run as people around him go missing or die, a serious accident has an extraordinary side effect, and he realizes there are monsters in the world – and he may be one of them.

Entertainment One executives Polly Williams and Arielle Gottlieb have departed the company to set up the U.K. office of European production studio Federation Entertainment.

The outfit will be based in London with Williams as managing director and Gottlieb as creative director. They will also be partners in the operation.

Their remit will be to work with top drama creatives — particularly female creatives — making high-end content for a global audience.

Before jumping ship, Williams was head of scripted at eOne where she developed “Run” and “Red Rose,” while Gottlieb was VP of scripted, where she worked on “Dublin Murders” and “The Sister.”

Federation Entertainment, whose hits include “The Bureau” and “In Treatment,” now boasts production companies in territories including France, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Rome and Berlin. The company’s upcoming slate includes the ambitious “Around the World in 80 Days,” co-produced with Slim Film + Television.

“The U.K.

Exclusive: Pascal Breton and Lionel Uzan’s Federation Entertainment, the production company behind Canal Plus’ cult spy series The Bureau, is extending its reach to the UK. The prolific indie player is partnering with former eOne Head of Scripted Polly Williams and former eOne VP of Scripted Arielle Gottlieb to launch a new London-based production outfit. The company has yet to be named.

Williams, who will join as Managing Director, and Gottlieb, who will join as Creative Director, will focus on working with premium drama creators to create ambitious English-language content for a global audience. The duo will also aim to bring more female-led content to the Federation slate.

The new venture currently has a slate of high-profile projects currently in development, which are expected to be announced shortly. The company will develop, produce and invest in drama for TV and film and says it will offer flexibility for creators...

The production shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic last spring would have been reason enough to sound the alarm in Romania. But bigger trouble is brewing over the country’s rebate scheme, which has been imperiled by a bureaucratic logjam currently dragging into its second year.

After a bureaucratic reshuffle following a change in government in 2019, the cashback program has ground to a halt. According to the Romanian Alliance of Film Producers, the government owes €35 million ($42.4 million) to international productions that have lensed in the country since the rebate launched in 2018.

Of the two dozen foreign projects to shoot during that period, the only one to cash in on the rebate was Sony Pictures Television’s series “Alex Rider,” according to Iuliana Tarnovetchi, of Alien Film, which serviced the shoot.

“The fact that we don’t have a [functioning] cash rebate is not putting us in any [competitive] situation,” she says. “There...

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we’ll shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we take a deep dive into Federation Entertainment, the production-sales studio behind Canal Plus’ hit series The Bureau and Netflix Italian hit Baby. Founder Pascal Breton and CEO Lionel Uzan give us the lowdown on the company’s ambitions and why now is the perfect time to be in the game of creating pan-European content.

When French producer Pascal Breton launched Federation Entertainment in 2014, the veteran television executive had a hunch that the international production and distribution landscape was on the precipice of great change. The year before, he stepped down as CEO of Marathon Entertainment after 23 years, because the old model “was no longer exciting for producers.” Federation, he vowed, would anticipate market changes and respond accordingly with...

Among the detective dramas and high-stakes thrillers due to arrive on British television in the next year or so, there are a clutch of sci-fi, supernatural and horror shows also coming our way. April saw the release of Sky One original Intergalactic – the story of a wrongly imprisoned galactic pilot who breaks out of space jail with a gang of other high-security female prisoners – and Netflix has ordered fantasy novel adaptations Half Bad, Cuckoo Song, Lockwood & Co. and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – respectively, tales of witches, supernatural pacts, ghost-hunters, and a woman who jumps between bodies in her quest to solve a murder mystery. Coming to terrestrial TV, there’s Life After Life and The Three, stories about living multiple versions of the same life, and the miraculous child survivors of a mysterious plane crash.

On top of that, there’s plenty of true crime, thrillers, a new...

London-based financier Anton has boarded “No Place Like Kill,” an action-packed crime thriller from Mat Newman with Sam Riley and Charles Dance attached to star. The film will be presented to international buyers by Anton at the Virtual Cannes Film Market later this month.

Set to start shooting at the end of the year in the U.K., “No Place Like Kill” will mark the directorial debut of Newman, a well-established editor who has worked with Nicolas Winding Refn on “Drive” and “Only God Forgives,” as well as Stefano Sollima’s “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and “Without Remorse.”

Sunrise Films’ Rupert Preston and Moonage Pictures’ Matthew Read are producing. Charles Collier is an executive producer alongside Riley, Nigel Williams and Dance.

Newman co-wrote the script with his brother, Ben Newman. Set in Northern England, “No Place like Kill” follows a revenge-seeking mercenary and a police informant who are forced...

Review

A BBC review set up to establish the facts around the decision to appoint Martin Bashir as religious affairs correspondent in September 2016 has found that the tainted journalist was not re-hired to cover up the controversy around his infamous Princess Diana interview on the “Panorama” program.

The review was conducted by former BBC nations and regions director Ken MacQuarrie.

“Although there were some shortcomings in the process by which he was re-employed, I am satisfied that that he was ultimately appointed because his knowledge and experience were considered to be the best match to the requirements for the role at that time,” MacQuarrie said. “I have found no evidence that Martin Bashir was re-hired to contain and/or cover up the events surrounding the 1995 ‘Panorama’ program. In my view, that theory is entirely unfounded.”

In May, an independent investigation into the interview found that the public broadcaster “fell short...

Exclusive: Libertine Pictures (Nz) and Slim Film + Television (UK)’s family action adventure series Mystic, has been recommissioned for two more seasons by Cbbc (UK) and Tvnz (Nz).

British actor Macey Chipping (Holby City) returns in the lead role of Issie Brown and is joined once again by New Zealanders Antonia Robinson, Max Crean, Jacqueline Joe (Top of the Lake), Josh Tan (Mulan) and Harriet Walton.

Production on the two new series, each comprising 8 x 30” episodes, is due to commence on May 31 in New Zealand.

In the new seasons, Issie and her gang of horse-mad friends will not only have to tackle all the usual trials and tribulations of being a teenager but will also have to battle against new and unexpected threats to their beloved stables and local environment. In season two, their lives will be thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a charismatic stranger and an...

Hollywood has always adapted to world changes, and Oscar campaigning this year has effectively adjusted to Covid. But one part of the awards season is missed more than the others: seeing a contender on the big screen.

Studios have delayed several big-scale films, including “Dune” and “West Side Story,” until later in 2021. So “small” movies are dominating the season, but even they are feeling the effects.

The sound design of “Minari” and “Sound of Metal,” the cinematography of “Nomadland” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” the production design of “One Night in Miami” and “The Father,” to name just a few, are admirable on the small-screen, but the nuances would be even more effective in a theater.

Academy members with younger children may have watched “Soul” or “Wolfwalkers” or “Onward” already many, many times on Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus. “Judas and the Black Messiah” can be streamed on HBO Max,...

In a powerful alliance, Paris-based premium kids content producer Cottonwood Media, German public broadcaster Zdf and its co-pro and distribution arm Zdf Enterprises, HBO Max and Brazil’s Globo are teaming to produce “Theodosia,” a big new live action kids adventure series targeting family audiences.

No budget is given for the 26-part half hour series. Its combination, however, of elements which make for high-end entertainment – period costume, action and foreseeable heavy Vxf – suggest this is another big play by two of Europe’s champions of ambitious live-action kids shows.

One is Cottonwood Media, the kids and family production company at Paris and L.A -based Federation Entertainment whose credits include Studiocanal’s Cannes 2019 pre-sales movie hit “Around the World in 80 Days,” to be screened at Berlin.

The other, Zdf and Zdfe, has a storied recent history in live action kids shows. “Theodosia” will “continue our successful Zdf live action productions such as ‘H2O,...

The Academy has released a list of 366 feature films in contention for the upcoming 93rd Oscars. The number of eligible movies is up from the 344 submitted in 2019, although it’s not an AMPAS record. This is the highest total since the 1970 awards, which had 374 eligible entries.

All the expected awards contenders are among the “reminder list of productions eligible for the 93rd Academy Awards,” which include Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” Paul Greengrass’ “News of the World,” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” Pete Docter and Kemp Powers’ “Soul,” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Some of the more unconventional contenders are also on the list, including Robert Downey Jr.’s family pic “Dolittle,” the horror film “The Empty Man” from David Pryor,...

For a brief moment in mid-June, the producers of “Leonardo,” the upcoming big-budget series with Aidan Turner (“Poldark”) as the famed inventor, considered shooting the U.K. as renaissance Milan.

Luca Bernabei, CEO of the show’s producer Lux Vide, says the radical option was weighed partly because of spiraling Covid-19 rates and restrictions in Italy, and partly due to Turner’s co-star Freddie Highmore being only available for two weeks before jetting off to Canada to shoot “The Good Doctor.” But Covid was causing a similarly drastic shutdown in the U.K., meaning that in the end, Bernabei and Lux Vide head of production Daniele Passani made the decision to fly Highmore over to Italy and to build the dusty streets of Milan on the company’s backlot outside Rome.

While not every European production entity had the luxury of building their own sets to help solve Covid-19 production problems,...

After a partial lifting of travel restrictions in early October, South Africa is now fully open for business, with international film and TV productions resuming in time for the Southern Hemisphere’s busy summer season.

The new measures allow entry for all foreign travelers who can provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of departure, a decision that was welcomed by members of the country’s thriving production services sector. Domestic production was allowed to resume as early as May, giving the industry a chance to prepare the necessary health and safety measures once international shoots were allowed to return.

“Starting production has given us a great opportunity to test, refine and adapt our Covid-19 protocols, and so far so good,” says Genevieve Hofmeyr, of Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, which has serviced more than 100 international series and feature films, including Warner Bros.’ “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Disney’s...

‘Holey Moley.’

The Seven Network is counting on new and returning franchises and three new Australian dramas to maintain ratings momentum next year.

Unveiling its 2021 schedule today, Seven trumpeted The Voice, Holey Moley, Ultimate Tag, Big Brother, Farmer Wants a Wife, Australia’s Got Talent and the renewal of Sas Australia.

The network also revealed it will revive Fremantle’s Australian Idol, which last screened on Network 10 in 2009. Production on the reboot is due to start mid-year and it will premiere in February 2022.

The dramas are Endemol Shine Banks’ Rfds ; Roadshow Rough Diamond’s Australian Gangster, which finally makes the schedule after a three-year delay due to legal issues; and the second season of Every Cloud Productions’ Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, a co-commission with North American streamer Acorn TV.

Among the new factual entertainment shows, Blink TV’s Australia: Now and Then, will ask celebrities, comedians, musicians,...

6 random things that happened on this day, October 10th, in showbiz history

1956 Giant with its gargantuan running time and trifecta of iconic stars -- Taylor, Dean, Hudson (plus Mineo & McCambridge!) --gets its world premiere in NYC. It will open for Thanksgiving in movie theaters and lead Oscar nomination morning with 10 citations. Sadly it will lose Best Picture to a much lesser movie, Around the World in 80 Days. But these things happen in Oscar annals.

1963 From Russia With Love, the second Bond film, has its world premiere in London and goes on to become an even bigger hit than the franchise launch Dr No.

“Around the World in 80 Days,” the David Tennant-starring adaptation of the beloved classic by Jules Verne, is set to resume shooting in Romania and South Africa, Variety has learned. Production was suspended by the coronavirus pandemic in March.

Production restarts next month in Romania before traveling to South Africa, which last week announced that international flights into the country will resume on Oct. 1 for the first time since March. International film production returned to Romania in June.

Tennant plays explorer Phileas Fogg, who, following an outrageous bet, takes on a challenge to circle the globe in just 80 days. He’s joined on the journey by his valet, Passepartout, played by rising French star Ibrahim Koma, and the aspiring journalist Abigail Fix, played by Leonie Benesch (“The Crown”), who jumps at the chance to tell the extraordinary story.

“Around the World in 80 Days” is a Slim Film + Television and Federation co-production,...

French public broadcaster France Televisions is set to ramp up its roster of edgy premium scripted series aimed at younger audiences with “Carrement craignos,” “La Brigade des cauchemars,” “Bug” and “La meilleure moitié.”

The new shows, which are commissioned by France Televisions and/or by its online platform france.tv, were unveiled during a video presentation at the Fiction Festival in Paris on Wednesday. Running Sept. 16-18, the festival traditionally takes place in La Rochelle and relocated to Paris, at the Folies Bergeres theater, due to the pandemic.

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After ordering the second seasons of Noé Debré’s political satire “Parlement” and Simon Bouisson’s cyber thriller “Stalk,” the online platform of France Televisions boarded “Carrement craignos,” a half-hour comedy directed by actor-turned helmer Jean-Pascal Zadi, whose recent credits include Gaumont’s comedy “Tout Simplement Noir.”

“Carrement craignos” is headlined by a multi-ethic cast of up-and-comers, including Bun Hay Mean, Mathieu Longatte,...

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought moviemaking to a screeching halt all around the world. For Daniel Wu, who works in both Hollywood and Chinese productions, it’s been about watching and waiting to see which side of the Pacific reopens their studios first.

“For me, it actually just feels like what it feels like between jobs,” says Wu. “It’s just been really long.”

Most Americans know Daniel Wu from his groundbreaking AMC series Into the Badlands. Some might recognize him from his more recent roles in Tomb Raider and Geostorm, and a few may even remember him from Jackie Chan’s Around the World in 80 Days or RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists. But Daniel Wu’s filmography is far more extensive than his Hollywood roles. In Asia, he is an A-list actor with over 70 films under his belt. He amassed numerous nominations from Asia’s...

John Preston Teams With BBC For Stonehouse

John Preston, the author of the book behind Golden Globe-winning BBC/AMC series A Very English Scandal, has been commissioned to pen a BBC drama about a British politician who faked his own death. Stonehouse, named after John Stonehouse who staged his death on a Miami beach in 1974, is a three-part series co-produced by UK indies Clearwood Films and Snowed-In Productions, with Banijay Rights handling international distribution. Clearwood founder Ellie Wood (Decline And Fall) and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Mrs Wilson) are executive producing, marking Preston’s second collaboration with Wood after they teamed on The Dig for Netflix, a feature starring Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James and Johnny Flynn. “There has never been a more bizarre true-life story than that of John Stonehouse, who miraculously came back to life a month after his own ‘death.’ I am thrilled to have the chance to...

Restrictions may be slowly easing in the U.K., but drama producers are beginning to feel the full force of the vast domino effect triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Crucial components of the production process, such as casting and scouting, are becoming arduous as productions fish from the same pool of bankable actors and attractive locations — and inevitably get delayed.

ITV Studios label World Productions was dealt a double blow in March when it was forced to hit pause on two marquee BBC titles: returning crime blockbuster “Line of Duty” and nuclear submarine-set thriller “Vigil.” No firm date has yet emerged for the resumption of either show, though “Line of Duty” is believed to be eyeing a late August start.

“Vigil” star Suranne Jones had been due to reprise her lead role in BBC/HBO co-pro “Gentleman Jack” in June, once filming had wrapped on “Vigil,” one of several factors...

Mikael Borglund.

Beyond International has acquired the UK arm of Seven West Media’s Seven Studios and Swm’s 51 per cent stake in Los Angeles-based 7Beyond.

Both Seven Studios UK, headed by Damon Pattison, and 7Beyond will be re-branded as Beyond Productions and will report to John Luscombe, Beyond Productions’ general manager and exec VP.

As part of the deal, Beyond gets the international format rights to Pooch Perfect and the UK and Australian versions.

Striving to reduce Swm’s debt of more than $540 million, in February CEO James Warburton appointed investment bank Morgan Stanley to conduct a strategic review of Seven Studios after receiving a number of “partnership inquiries.”

Warburton said on Thursday: “As part of our ongoing transformation, we’ve reassessed our appetite for investment in offshore production interests and have elected to divest Seven Studios UK and our interest in the 7Beyond Jv.

“Our longstanding relationship with...

June’s final batch of home media releases is a pretty meager bunch, as we only have four different titles on the docket for this week. Scream Factory is unleashing Orca: The Killer Whale! on Blu-ray this Tuesday, we also have a pair of titles headed home from Wild Eye Releasing—The Whispering Man and Sadistic Eroticism—and Redcon-1 is being released on both Blu-ray and DVD.

Orca: The Killer Whale!

Man and killer whale clash in a fight to the death! Sleek, intelligent, beautiful ... and hell-bent on revenge. Producer Dino De Laurentiis and director Michael Anderson join forces to present the rousing action-adventure tale of Orca: The Killer Whale. It's the story of one powerful being against another: a strong, determined fisherman versus an equally determined killer whale. When the giant whale's pregnant mate is maimed and killed by Harris, the whale seeks vengeance: smashing boats, attacking a seacoast village,...

In the Action-movie heyday of the 1980s, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan lead the different sides of the world, producing blockbuster after blockbuster in America and Hong Kong respectively. While the prospects of a meet-up between them have been wondered about for years on the silver-screen after “Around the World in 80 Days,” regrettably director Oleg Stepchenko’s first-full-on tale featuring them is a slight misfire and disappointment

In the early 1700s, English traveler Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) receives an order from Peter the Great to map the Russian Far East. Once again, he sets out for a long journey full of incredible adventures that will eventually lead him to China. There, the cartographer will unexpectedly face a lot of breathtaking discoveries, encounter bizarre creatures, meet with Chinese Princesses, and confront deadly martial arts masters, and even the Dragon King. What could be more dangerous than meeting eye-to-eye with Viy,...

One of the world’s leading hubs for international film and television shoots, South Africa had been riding high before the coronavirus pandemic arrived on its shores, interrupting what was shaping up to be a busy year and halting production on shoots including the David Tennant drama “Around the World in 80 Days.”

While local bizzers assess the damage — and offer up assets including artist trailers for the government’s Covid-19 mobile-testing

units — the struggling rand could add to the appeal of what was already one of the world’s best value-for-money destinations.

South Africa offers foreign productions a 25% rebate on all qualifying local spend, rising to 30% if some post-production is done in the country using a black-owned company. The rebate for South African co-productions starts at 35% on all qualifying local spend, with an additional 5% available to productions that meet certain requirements for hiring black department heads and procuring from black-owned service companies.

On top of the many British dramas returning this year, below are the many, many, many new UK TV series we can expect to see arrive in 2020 and beyond. Almost all of them starring David Tennant, by the looks of it – no bad thing.

You’ll find original drama from Russell T. Davies, a new space-set sci-fi from Sky, true crime series, contemporary thrillers and the usual hefty number of literary adaptations and period dramas coming your way. Here’s the same for all the new British comedy on its way in 2020.

We’ll keep this list updated as new commissions, casting news, broadcast details and release dates arrive. Obviously, with Covid-19 halting production on all continuing and new dramas since mid-March, there will now be serious delays, but we’ll keep you posted as news arrives.

All Creatures Great and Small (Tbc) All Creatures Great And Small (Audible)

Filmed...

They always say it is a bit of a bad sign with a project when it keeps getting delayed. Sometimes, a long wait can actually turn in an unexpected classic, other times and (in honesty) more commonly a film is in production that long it begins to lose a sense of what it really is anymore. Unfortunately in the case of Dolittle, a movie based on Hugh Lofting’s beloved character and inspired by his second book “The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle”, it is a case of the latter. As the much-publicised and increasingly baffling production woes, rewrites and inflated budgeting, that supposedly were a constant in making this film, have showed in the final product, which is disappointingly ramshackle in nature.

Mega-star Robert Downey Jr. headlines his first non-mcu lead blockbuster role in years, in a part that seemed perfect, what better way for the animal communicating doctor to be re-introduced to audiences?...