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British actress Claire Foy was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s brilliant series “The Crown.”

The Netflix drama earned 13 nominations at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Ms. Foy for Best Lead Actress in a drama series. John Lithgow won the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Prime Minister Winston Churchill .

Shooting has finished on Season 2, which will debut later this year.

It was announced last week that the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander has been set: Sony Pictures Entertainment has confirmed that the studio has tapped Claire Foy to portray the heroine in The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

The new installment of Sony Pictures’ Millennium franchise – based on the worldwide literary phenomenon originated by Stieg Larsson and continued by David Lagercrantz – will commence production in January in Berlin and Stockholm, and the...

The coveted role of Lisbeth Salander has been set. Sony Pictures Entertainment has confirmed that the studio has tapped Claire Foy to portray the heroine in The Girl in the Spider's Web. The new installment of Sony Pictures' Millennium franchise, based on the worldwide literary phenomenon originated by Stieg Larsson and continued by David Lagercrantz, will commence production in January in Berlin and Stockholm, and the film will be released on October 19, 2018.

Today's confirmation culminates what has been one of this year's most eagerly anticipated casting announcements. After much speculation about who would be chosen to lead the franchise's next chapter, Foy is now preparing to take it on. The film will team Foy and director Fede Alvarez, who recently took the thriller Don't Breathe to over $150 million worldwide and revived the Evil Dead franchise. Alvarez has been hailed as an inventive and stylish new filmmaker. The Girl in the Spider's Web...

“Game of Thrones'” Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann) aka The Hound, has many talents: babysitting wayward Stark children, being afraid of fire… and singing covers of The Mills Brothers. Kristofer Hivju, who plays wildling Tormund Giantsbane, posted a video to his Instagram account Thursday with the caption “When you’ve had to much trailer time… #behindthescenes #got7.” In the video, which you can watch below, he and McCann sing a rendition of “Yellow Bird,” which was popularized by The Mills Brothers in the early 1960s. Hivju periodically interjects McCann’s singing and guitar-playing with his own… well, you’ll see.

While they only seemed to sort of pal around in the Game Of Thrones episode they were seen in together, it looks like Tormund and The Hound get along swimingly when the cameras aren't rolling! Watch Rory Mccann and Kristofer Hivju sing The Mills Brothers "Yellow Bird," and wish they had their own sitcom below. It's super weird to see The Hound smile isn't it?...

Murder She Said - Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Richard Vine Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice November 15, 2016 - January 13, 2017

Am I looking at an image of a dress on the ground covered with leaves? Is it from a lover’s tryst, or is something more sinister going on, and why would I think that?

On the whole, media and society have turned darker and more aggressive as we’ve moved into the 21st century. Being besieged with nominally factual content has constrained us all to a different type of viewing, more of a true-crime voyeurism than ever -- inundated with reality or its simulacrum on television and computer screens on a daily basis, we wonder how we ended up here. When did we start needing to see unedited live-steamed reality of life’s most horrific moments? The true-crime program America’s Most Wanted premiered...

Are remakes almost always doomed? Ben-Hur star Jack Huston tends to think so. While Disney had a stellar year at the box office, other studios weren't so lucky. And Paramount suffered one of the biggest casualties when its big budget blockbuster Ben-Hur failed to connect with an audience of any kind, going onto be one of last year's biggest financial disasters. It was an outright bomb. And it broke Huston's heart.

Jack Huston is perhaps best known for his role as Richard Harrow on HBO's hit drama Boardwalk Empire, which ended its run in 2014. Ever since, Huston has been hard at work trying to become one of Hollywood's leading men. He took on the lead role in a remake of The Crow, but the studio behind that movie filed for bankruptcy and he soon departed the fledglinging project. He settled on another remake as his big breakout, with the biblical themedBen-Hur,...

Deadline has confirmed that Sony Pictures is in talks with Don't Breathe director Fede Alvarez to direct The Girl in the Spider’s Web, an adaptation of the fourth in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo book series. Sony acquired the novel by David Lagercrantz last year (Dragon Tattoo original author Stieg Larsson died in 2004). The film, with a script by Steven Knight, is planned to start next year, with Scott Rudin, Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon, Eli Bush and Yellow Bird's…...

Kenneth Branagh fell into his love affair with the “Wallander” mysteries by Swedish author Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015) for “the sheer pleasure of the reading,” he told me over the phone. “It was novel by novel. I’m not usually a kind of completist in this regard, but each novel did send me to the next one, and I did read them in order, and I did find myself drawn in, hypnotically. I didn’t feel I’d met anyone quite like this before or this landscape.”

The novels are set in Sweden, in and around the town of Ystad, 35 miles south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Skåne. And that’s where the PBS Mystery series (four seasons, from 2009 through 2016) is also filmed. “It’s vast and flat,” said Branagh. “It has a strong regional dialect. It’s a curious, forgotten, unfashionable pocket of land. Over 60 percent...

Kenneth Branagh fell into his love affair with the “Wallander” mysteries by Swedish author Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015) for “the sheer pleasure of the reading,” he told me over the phone. “It was novel by novel. I’m not usually a kind of completist in this regard, but each novel did send me to the next one, and I did read them in order, and I did find myself drawn in, hypnotically. I didn’t feel I’d met anyone quite like this before or this landscape.”

The novels are set in Sweden, in and around the town of Ystad, 35 miles south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Skåne. And that’s where the PBS Mystery series (four seasons, from 2009 through 2016) is also filmed. “It’s vast and flat,” said Branagh. “It has a strong regional dialect. It’s a curious, forgotten, unfashionable pocket of land. Over 60 percent...

Danish outfit has a busy slate at Cannes, including the fantasy family film based on Lene Kaaberbøl’s best-selling book series.

Danish production outfit Good Company is plotting a $3.5m fantasy family film, Wild Witch, to be directed by Kaspar Munk [pictured] (You & Me Forever) from a script by Bo H. Hansen based on Lene Kaaberbøl’s best-selling book series.

The story follows a 12-year-old girl who realizes she is a wild witch with the ability to communicate with animals. Good co-produces with Sweden’s Yellow Bird and Hungary’s Proton. The project will start shooting from February 2017, partially in Hungary. Backing comes from Nordisk Film, TV2 and the Danish Film Institute.

Good is also developing Iran-born filmmaker Milad Alami’s debut feature The Charmer, a thriller about a mysterious man who climbs the social ladder. It will start shooting in August; Alami was in Directors’ Fortnight in 2014 with short Void.

The slate also...

Shahrbanoo Sadat’s debut feature, set in Afghanistan, will play in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Paris-based sales company Alpha Violet has boarded Shahrbanoo Sadat’s debut feature Wolf And Sheep, which is selected for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Sadat, who lives in Kabul and Denmark, based the story on the isolated village in Central Afghanistan where she grew up.

The plot follows young boys and girls acting as shepherds in rural Afghanistan, where one 11-year-old girl is an outsider. The folktales of the community add touches of magical realism.

The film is a Denmark-France-Sweden-Afghanistan production produced by Copenhagen-based Katja Adomeit of Adomeit Film, who was a co-producer on Force Majeure and also a former Screen International Future Leader.

Co-producers are La Fabrica Nocturna Productions (France), Wolf Pictures (Afghanistan) and Zentropa Sweden.

Sadat previously showed her 2011 short Vice Versa One at Directors’ Fortnight. She developed Wolf And Sheep at Cannes Cinefondation Residency in 2010.

Virginie Devesa of Alpha Violet said [link=tt...

[caption id="attachment_47282" align="aligncenter" width="590"] (C) Casy Crafford/Left Bank Pictures (Television) Limited/Yellow Bird 2015. All rights reserved./caption]

Sweedish sleuth, Inspector Kurt Wallander, returns to PBS Masterpiece Mystery! for the fourth and final season of the Wallander TV show. Below, star Kenneth Branagh talks about the farewell episodes leading up to the Wallander TV series finale.

Along with Branagh, the cast of Wallander includes: Jeany Spark as Linda Wallander, Richard McCabe as Nyberg, Barnaby Kay as Lennart Mattson, and Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Baiba Liepa. The final season of Wallander was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa; Skåne, Sweden; and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Read More…...

Cinephiles across the globe collectively held their breaths last week wondering whether the new Olivier Assayas or Lucretia Martel would make it onto the 2016 Croisette – his did, hers didn’t – as Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux unspooled the Competition, Un Certain Regard, Midnight Screenings, and Outside Competition line-ups. As if the promise of new adventures with Almodóvar, Dolan, and Park Chan-Wook weren’t enough, the recent announcements of the Critics’ Week and Cannes Classics sidebars present a whole host of new gems and old treasures to discover.

Let’s start with Critics’ Week, where a coterie of freshmen and sophomore directors compete for their own Nespresso Grand Prize. That would make this the branded stadium for spring-boarding international talents, such as Iñárritu (Amores Perros), Wong Kar-Wai (As Tears Go By), as well as Andrea Arnold and Jeff Nichols who are contending in the Main Competition this year with American Honey and Loving,...

Following the unveiling of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival line-up, the Critics’ Week sidebar has now revealed their slate. As usual, there are a lot of discoveries to be had, with six of main selection being first features and four sophomore effort. Notably, Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher) will screen his new short From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer while Chloë Sevigny will premiere her new film Kitty. Check out the full line-up, along with the trailer for the Un Certain Regard title Apprentice.

Feature Films In Competition

ALBÜM Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Turkey)

Diamond Island Davy Chou (Cambodia/France)

Raw (Grave) Julia Ducournau (France)

Mimosas Oliver Laxe (Spain)

One Week And A Day (Shavua Ve Yom) Asaph Polonsky (Israel)

Tramontane Vatche Boulghourjian (Lebanon)

A Yellow Bird K. Rajagopal (Singapore)

Special Screenings

Opening Film

In Bed With Victoria (Victoria) Justine Triet (France)

Closing Films

Smile (Bonne Figure) Sandrine Kiberlain (France)

En...

The lineup for the 2016 Cannes Critics' Week has been announced.Opening FilmIn Bed with Victoria (Justine Triet): Victoria Spick, a criminal lawyer in a total sentimental void, meets at a wedding her friend Vincent and Sam, a former drug dealer she got out business. The next day, Vincent is accused of attempted murder by his girlfriend. The victim's dog is the only witness. Reluctantly, Victoria accepts to defend Vincent, while she hires Sam as an au pair. This is just the beginning of troubled times for Victoria.CompetitionAlbüm (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu): A couple in their late 30’s sets out to prepare a fake photo album of a pseudo pregnancy period in order to prove their biological tie to the baby they’re planning adopt.Diamond Island (Davy Chou): Bora, an 18-year-old, leaves his village to work on the construction sites of Diamond Island, a project for an...

Justine Triet’s In Bed With Victoria to open Critics’ Week; Chloë Sevigny’s Kitty one of three closing films. Scroll down for full list

Cannes Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features, has unveiled the line-up for its 55th edition (May 12-20), following the announcement of the festival’s Official Selection last week.

The parallel section will open with Justine Triet’s comedy-drama In Bed With Victoria, which centres on a beautiful Parisian criminal lawyer in her late 30s who is a self-centred workaholic and sex addict, played by Virginie Efira.

It marks the second feature from French filmmaker Triet, whose Cesar-nominated Age of Panic opened in the Acid section in 2013, and is handled by Indie Sales with French distribution by Le Pacte.

In total, 1,100 features were submitted for consideration.

The seven features chosen to play in competition represent a mix of titles from Turkey, France and Spain to Cambodia, Israel, Lebanon...

La Semaine de la Critique, the oldest parallel competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival known to most as Critics' Week, has announced the lineup for its 55th edition running from May 12 through 20. Valérie Donzelli heads up this year's jury, whose other members are Alice Winocour, Nadav Lapid, David Robert Mitchell and Santiago Mitre. Among the features in the Competition are Vatche Boulghourjian's Tramontane, Davy Chou's Diamond Island, Julia Ducourneau's Raw (Grave), Oliver Laxe's Mimosas, Mehmet Can Mertoğlu's Albüm, Asaph Polonsky's One Week and a Day, and K. Rajagopal's A Yellow Bird. And this year's edition will close with an intriguing trio: Laetitia Casta's En Moi, Sandrine Kiberlain's Smile and Chloë Sevigny's Kitty. » - David Hudson...

La Semaine de la Critique, the oldest parallel competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival known to most as Critics' Week, has announced the lineup for its 55th edition running from May 12 through 20. Valérie Donzelli heads up this year's jury, whose other members are Alice Winocour, Nadav Lapid, David Robert Mitchell and Santiago Mitre. Among the features in the Competition are Vatche Boulghourjian's Tramontane, Davy Chou's Diamond Island, Julia Ducourneau's Raw (Grave), Oliver Laxe's Mimosas, Mehmet Can Mertoğlu's Albüm, Asaph Polonsky's One Week and a Day, and K. Rajagopal's A Yellow Bird. And this year's edition will close with an intriguing trio: Laetitia Casta's En Moi, Sandrine Kiberlain's Smile and Chloë Sevigny's Kitty. » - David Hudson...

Following one casting switch and one addition, Charlie McDowell‘s The Discovery is preparing to set forth. The One I Love helmer’s second feature was originally set to star Rooney Mara and Nicholas Hoult, but a recent report tells us the latter’s departed for Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan; stepping into his place is Jason Segel, while Robert Redford‘s been cast in a key role. [THR]

As we learned last fall, the project, scripted by McDowell and Justin Lader, tracks a love story set one year after science has proven the afterlife’s existence. While millions commit suicide, “believing that [it] is like pushing a reset button,” the man (Segal) whose father (Redford) discovered the afterlife meets and falls in love with a woman (Mara) “whose life is tinged by a tragic past.”

Endgame and Protagonist Pictures are financing The Discovery, which will roll cameras this month.

The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum is looking to bring his breakthrough feature, Headhunters, to the U.S. The Norwegian helmer has teamed with the film’s producer Yellow Bird (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) to develop an English-language version of the 2011 Norwegian comic thriller. It hasn’t been determined whether the remake will be for the big or small screen, with both a feature and TV series being considered. Search is currently underway for a writer. Tyldum…...

The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum is looking to bring his breakthrough feature, Headhunters, to the U.S. The Norwegian helmer has teamed with the film’s producer Yellow Bird (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) to develop an English-language version of the 2011 Norwegian comic thriller. It hasn’t been determined whether the remake will be for the big or small screen, with both a feature and TV series being considered. Search is currently underway for a writer. Tyldum…...

I happily went to the Lower East Side to visit with Priska Juschka and see her new collaboration / business, Lichtundfire. The opening exhibition is entitled Visceral Velocity or the Emotional Speed of Things and runs from November 4th through December 20th, 2015.

Lichtundfire has all the earmarks of a new business settling in, but not Priska herself. A seasoned art dealer and curator within the primary and secondary market for over twenty years, Juschka has, with a new team, envisioned something different. The exhibition currently on view is a mix of known artists and new works she found compelling and wanted to present. At the preview, there was a steady stream of people and groups coming in and out wishing her well and saying hello ,which adds to the happy impression of a new environment.

I was particularly interested in a new artist she was working with, Jonathan Peyser, who is...

Fans have waited a long time to hear when and if a sequel to 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is going to actually happen. Today, Sony Pictures has provided an answer. Though it's probably not what American fans of the Stieg Larsson novel series have been waiting to hear. The studio is going to completely reboot the Lisbeth&#160Salander franchise. And they plan on skipping the second two novels in the series. Not only that, no one involved with the original American adaptation is returning.

Steven Knight, whose Burnt bombed at the box office this past October, is in talks to pen the sequel script for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rooney Mara will not return to reprise her role as Lisbeth&#160Salander, with Ex Machina and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. star Alicia Vikander possibly being eyed for the role. The character earned Rooney Mara her first...

Benelux distributor Lumiere has been on an acqusition drive, ramping up its release slate for next year.

One major Lumiere pre-buy is Nicole Garcia’s post-war drama From the Land of the Moon (Mal De Pierres), starring Marion Cotillard, which it acquired from French producers Les Productions du Trésor.

Another is Terrence Malick’s mind-bending, long-gestating documentary about the “birth and death of the known universe”, Voyage Of Time, sold by Wild Bunch.

The company has also taken Cristian Mungiu’s latest feature, Family Photos, also sold by Wild Bunch.

Lumiere recently swooped to pre-buy News From Planet Mars, the new family drama by French director Dominik Moll, which stars noted Flemish actress Veerle Baetens. Sales are handled by Memento Films International.

Speaking in Venice, company CEO Jan de Clercq confirmed that Lumiere has acquired the new, as-yet-untitled film from Hirokazu Kore-eda. The company has released several Kore-eda titles in the past.

Meanwhile, the company...

It doesn’t look like Sony Pictures is done with the Dragon Tattoo series. David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was freakin’ amazing, and fans have been hoping to see the studio adapt the other two books in the trilogy as well. According to some more leaked emails, it looks like they are planning on it. The last bit of news we heard regarding the sequel came from Fincher, who said,

"I think because it [Sony] already has spent millions of dollars on the rights and the script so it will result in something. The script that we now have a huge potential, I can reveal as much as it is extremely different from the book."

Not only are they going to make the next two installments of the franchise, but they are also prepared to buy the rights to the fourth book coming out. This...

The Ilo Ilo director’s company will produce one or two films per year.

Singaporean director Anthony Chen, who won last year’s Cannes Camera d’Or with his debut feature Ilo Ilo, is launching a film company called Giraffe Pictures today in Singapore. Chen is partnering with Ilo Ilo associate producer Huang Wenhong on the boutique outfit which aims to develop emerging talent in Singapore and the region.

The company plans to start by producing one to two films a year, with Chen serving as executive producer on all its projects.

Based in London, Chen is developing UK projects of his own and so Huang will be heading up Giraffe Pictures in Singapore. The company will also produce Chen’s Asian projects.

Giraffe Picture’s first project will be Distance, an omnibus feature collaboration with China’s Guangxi Film Group. Up-and-coming filmmakers Sivaroj Kongsakul (from Thailand), Tan Shijie (Singapore), and Xin Yukun (China) will direct. Taiwanese...

Elizabeth: Trawling around today's Chelsea galleries recently made David and I mindful of the days when we would wander the streets of Soho looking at art in some pretty great galleries. After the sun set, there were no Comme des Garçons or Cookshop to light the way home, but thin bedraggled men filling dumpsters with compacted shredded rags from the remaining sweatshops that dotted the area south of Houston Street. Frankly most of what was below Houston in the late 1970s and 80s was pretty creepy, outside of a few old standbys. Still, if you were there for the art, music or dancing, its edginess was exciting and romantic. It was also affordable to take a cab out of there -- if you could find one.

David: Yeah, today’s Chelsea is fast becoming the Epcot center for flashy haut bourgeois boutiques, signature architectural confections designed to blot out the light and in time,...

Three acclaimed foreign-born filmmakers are headed to the small screen for several ambitious TV series.

"The Deep" and "Contraband" filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur, currently shooting the high-profile "Everest," will direct and produce the ten-part crime drama series "Trapped" for Rvk Studios.

Sigurjon Kjartansson and Clive Bradley are penning the series about the investigation of an unidentified corpse found at the bottom of a fjord after an International ferry arrives in a small town. When a blizzard strikes, the only road in and out become impassable.

Next up, Oscar-winning "The Great Beauty" director Paolo Sorrentino is set to write and direct his first TV series "The Young Pope" for Sky Italia and Wildside. Sorrentino will helm all eight episodes and co-write them with Stefano Rulli and Umberto Contarello.

The story revolves around the figure of a fictional pontiff: the first Italian-American pope in history. The story is set in modern times and unfolds between the Vatican City,...

Yellow Bird, the Swedish group behind the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has begun shooting on its new high-concept series Occupied, based on an original idea by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo (Headhunters). Set in a near future, Occupied imagines a world where Russia annexes Norway to control the country's oil reserves. The occupation ignites an underground movement to drive the Russians out. Story: Canal Plus Gives Series Order to Brit Crime Drama 'Spotless' Karianne Lund is head writer on the series, which stars Henrik Mestad (Lillyhammer) and Ane Dahl Torp (Dead Snow). Erik Skoldbjaerg (Insomnia) and Charlotte

read more...

In its first year, Cannes’ Cinéfondation’s Atelier invited projects from relative filmmaker unknowns such as Gerardo Naranjo (I’m Gonna Explode), Lisandro Alonso (Liverpool) and Aida Begic (Snow). Celebrating year number 10, this year’s group of fifteen that will benefit from Croisette meetings and future coin include the likes of Quebecer Guy Édoin (Marécages), Cannes Critics’ Week winner for Aquí y allá in filmmaker Antonio Méndez Esparza, and 2011 Camera d’Or winner Pablo Giorgelli (pictured above) who broke out with Las Acacias (review).

Invisible (Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina)

Territoria (Nora Martirosyan, Armenia)

Tabija (Igor Drljača, Bosnia)

Saudade (Antonio Méndez Esparza, Brazil)

Ville-Marie (Guy Édoin, Canada)

In the Shade of the Trees (Matías Rojas Valencia, Chile)

Ce sentiment de l’été (Mikhaël Hers, France)

Aliyushka (Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Kazakhstan)

The Darkness (Daniel Castro Zimbrón, Mexico)

White Sun (Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal)

To All Naked Men (Bassam Chekhes, Netherlands/Syria)

Oil on Water (Newton I. Aduaka,...

The tenth edition of the co-production showcase at the Cannes Film Festival includes new projects from Brazil’s Antonio Méndez Esparza and Mexico’s Daniel Castro Zimbrón.

The Cinéfondation’s Atelier hosts its tenth edition this year and will invite 15 directors and their projects to the Cannes Film Festival.

Together with their producers, they will be given the opportunity to meet potential partners in a bid to finish their projects and start the making their films.

From May 16-22, L’Atelier will arrange meetings with the directors for film industry professionals interested in investing in their projects.

The Project Book and the meeting request forms will be available online at the beginning of April at www.cinefondation.com.

The project line-up includes Saudade, Brazilian director Antonio Méndez Esparza’s follow up to Aqui y Alla, which won Cannes’ Critics Week in 2012. The new film, set in Spain, focusses on immigration through a mother-son story.

Argentina’s [link...

The tenth edition of the co-production showcase at the Cannes Film Festival includes new projects from Brazil’s Antonio Méndez Esparza and Mexico’s Daniel Castro Zimbrón.

The Cinéfondation’s Atelier hosts its tenth edition this year and will invite 15 directors and their projects to the Cannes Film Festival.

Together with their producers, they will be given the opportunity to meet potential partners in a bid to finish their projects and start the making their films.

From May 16-22, L’Atelier will arrange meetings with the directors for film industry professionals interested in investing in their projects.

The Project Book and the meeting request forms will be available online at the beginning of April at www.cinefondation.com.

The project line-up includes Saudade, Brazilian director Antonio Méndez Esparza’s follow up to Aqui y Alla, which won Cannes’ Critics Week in 2012. The new film, set in Spain, focusses on immigration through a mother-son story.

Argentina’s [link...

The tenth edition of the talent showcase includes new projects from Brazil’s Antonio Méndez Esparza and Mexico’s Daniel Castro Zimbrón.

The Cinéfondation’s Atelier hosts its tenth edition this year and will invite 15 directors and their projects to the Cannes Film Festival.

Together with their producers, they will be given the opportunity to meet potential partners in a bid to finish their projects and start the making their films.

From May 16-22, L’Atelier will arrange meetings with the directors for film industry professionals interested in investing in their projects.

The Project Book and the meeting request forms will be available online at the beginning of April at www.cinefondation.com.

The project line-up includes Saudade, Brazilian director Antonio Méndez Esparza’s follow up to Aqui y Alla, which won Cannes’ Critics Week in 2012. The new film, set in Spain, focusses on immigration through a mother-son story.

Argentina’s Pablo Giorgelli will bring Invisible, his second...

New films from Peter Webber, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Oliver Schmitz, Eran Kolirin.

A total of 39 features have been selected for Berlin’s co-production market (Feb 9-11).

Directors with work in the market include Peter Webber, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Oliver Schmitz, Eran Kolirin, Christos Georgiou, Erik Skjoldbjaerg and Nir Bergman.

All projects have 30% of their financing in place while budgets range from €700,000 to €6.5m.

This year’s Residency participants comprise Emir Baigazin, Alistair Banks Griffin, Bence Fliegauf, Sebastián Lelio, Elina Psykou and José Luis Valle. The participants will present new projects to potential partners at the co-production market.

The Talent Project Market will see ten new producers and directors primed for the international market. Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox featured last year, while Italian filmmaker Fabio Mollo’s Il Sud e Niente plays in this year’s Generation programme.

Five companies have been selected for the Company Matching programme and three more projects have been picked for the...

Elizabeth: This year has dumped a load of food, fine art, and complete confusion all at once; Hanukkah converged with Thanksgiving for the first time in years sending us all to the trough –- now the Miami Fairs and Santa are on the way. As an art shipper, I'm on a cheap holiday in other people's misery, as the Sex Pistols put it. At the VIP opening of Art Basel, Kate Gilmore caved to Miami sexist traditions and low-balled her performance piece by having the women and men, who smashed ruby colored metal cubes with sledgehammers, perform bare-chested! Really, girl?

David: Unlike you, Elizabeth, I don't wanna holiday in the sun; so instead of Miami, I went to the opening of Michael Zansky's show titled, A Vacation on Mars with God, at Stux Gallery, where I met the artist and had a shot of vodka with Stefan Stux, who introduced me to the artist.

Like sugar-induced hyperactive children, David and I went to the only place where grownups ring doorbells to see art: The Upper East Side. Were we tricked? Yes. Were we treated? Yeah, that too.

Our first stop was Michael Werner Gallery, where their new and stunning second floor space houses a Peter Saul exhibition. This was a treat to see in the temple that is the Upper East Side. I have always thought Saul's work a precursor to Pop-influenced artists such as Kenny Scharf as well as walking lockstep with R. Crumb's social irreverence.

"Good grief, Elizabeth," quipped David, "it was a group show, with the coyly crass title Tumescence. And yet, you’re right to remember Saul over the others (Peter Doig, Sigmar Polke, and Michael Williams) as his was the only work that actually gives evidence of a truly turgid imagination. For me, the best piece was the recent Saul painting 'Head',...

Cable network HBO is developing a series based on Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters with Zodiak Media-owned producer Yellow Bird Entertainment.

The Time Warner-backed broadcaster is working with Scandi producer Yellow Bird, which made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films and Wallander, and Mad Men producer Lionsgate, on the adaptation.

Headhunters is based on Nesbø’s novel, which centres on a corporate headhunter who leads a double life as an art theif. It was turned into a film in 2011.

True Blood exec producer Alexander Woo is adapting the book for TV and is working with former HBO exec and Game of Thrones producer Carolyn Strauss, who will exec produce along with Yellow Bird’s Berna Levin and Marianne Gray.

It’s not clear whether Zodiak Rights, the international sales arm of the UK producer, or Nashville distributor Lionsgate will sell the show globally.

Headhunters is the latest Scandinavian project to be adapted in the Us. Yellow Bird is working...

Exclusive: HBO has put in development Headhunters, an hourlong project based on the best-selling 2008 book by Norwegian crime fiction author Jo Nesbø. Alexander Woo will write the adaptation and will executive produce with HBO-based producer Carolyn Strauss for Swedish production company Yellow Bird Entertainment, which owns the rights to the book, and Lionsgate Television. Headhunters is a dark comic thriller centered on a corporate headhunter who becomes the hunted when his life and marriage are suddenly targeted by an unknown individual. Yellow Bird, which first produced a hit Scandinavian film based on the novel, sold the English-language movie rights to the book to Summit Entertainment in 2011, shortly after the book was published in the U.S. The rights transitioned to Lionsgate following the company’s 2012 acquisition of Summit, with the project morphing into a TV series. Yellow Bird’s Marianne Gray and Berna Levin also executive produce. Another Nesbø novel,...

Exclusive: ABC has put in development a crime thriller from writer Charles Randolph (Love and Other Drugs), Peter Traugott’s Tbd Entertainment and Sweden-based Yellow Bird Entertainment. The project, from Universal TV where Tbd is based, is an adaptation of the best-selling novels by Liza Marklund that also were the basis for the hit Swedish drama series Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter, also produced by Yellow Bird (watch the trailer below). Written by Randolph, the drama centers on a dogged, no-nonsense tabloid reporter searching for the truth while also juggling her bosses and her family. Randolph is executive producing with Tbd’s Traugott and Rachel Kaplan and Yellow Bird’s Jenny Gilbertsson and Berna Levin. This marks the latest sale for Tbd this season for a total of three dramas and six comedies at NBC, Fox and USA. Yellow Bird recently teamed with Chernin Entertainment to develop a series based on another Swedish crime novel,...

Exclusive: Another hot Swedish novel is headed for an U.S. screen adaptation. 20th Century Fox TV has acquired rights to the upcoming thriller De Redan Döda by author Robert Karjel, for studio-based Chernin Entertainment to develop as a drama series with Sweden-based Yellow Bird Entertainment. Titled The Swede, the project centers on a Swedish secret service agent summoned to a remote U.S. military base to interrogate a prisoner thought to be a fellow Swede. He is drawn into the complex investigation led by a female CIA agent, where the evidence takes them from the 2004 Thailand tsunami to a terrorist attack in Topeka, Kansas, and where no one is who they seem to be. De Redan Döda follows in the footsteps of the Millennium trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, which became the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie franchise and Leif G.W. Persson’s Backstrom books, which have...

Zodiak Rights, the international distribution arm of Zodiak Media, has named Caroline Torrance as its new Head of International Scripted. Torrance will run the scripted sales team in Paris and work with in-house and external producers on developing drama and comedy co-productions. She joins from BBC Worldwide where her title was Director of Scripted, Content and Production. Zodiak’s scripted production companies include Wallander producer Yellow Bird, The Inbetweeners producer Bwark and Paris-based Marathon which produces the long-running serial St. Tropez.

One of the reasons that I returned to the East Village so soon was that my previous August art stomp with David Carbone ran longer than expected and we did not get to visit The Sweet Life, a local candy store on Hester Street. So before David and I headed off to see what the art world had to offer, my sweet tooth had to be placated with chocolate cherries and licorice Scotty dogs. What we found after David slapped me out of my diabetic coma was much like the selection at The Sweet Life, extremely surprising and varied.

Speaking of treats, Marlboro Gallery on Broome Street (yeah, you heard me right) has its inaugural show up, entitled Pizza Time, September 8 - October 6, a show dedicated to one of New York’s unofficial edible staples. Beside some great wallpaper works by John Baldessari and a debatable work, "Untitled Circle"by Willem de Kooning,...

This summer, for lack of a better description, has been unusual in that it has been busy for the art world. For those of you who don’t know me in the writing forum: in my other life I own an art shipping company, and we have been busy! As have many of my competitors! Good for everybody.

Also good for the East Village, where I was gallery-hopping with my friend and writer, David Carbone. Yes, in the dog days of summer everyone was open late in the day -- here are some who bear mentioning who have kept the flag up well after 4 Pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Elizabeth Denny and Denny Gallery for her show Works off Canvas, ending on September 8th. One artist who is a true standout in this group is Amanda Valdez, who paints solid liner color theory but within each canvas uses one section...

Kathryn Calder's first reaction when she was asked to be the subject of a documentary film was panic.

"I was totally terrified to take on this project," the Victoria-based musician admits. "A film. All about me."

Anyone who has seen Calder play live – either solo or with The New Pornographers – will understand: as talented as she is, she often looks as though she might bolt from the stage at any moment in fright.

But Calder has a cause she feels compelled to support, so she decided to put her reservations aside and jump right in.

"A Matter of Time" is the first documentary from Yellow Bird Project (Ybp), an organization that collaborates with musicians to raise awareness and funds for charities, generally through the sale of band-designed t-shirts.

Calder had worked with them in 2006, designing a t-shirt on behalf of the New Pornographers to raise money for the Als Society of BC.

Yellow Bird (the original "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") are embarking on "Occupied," a ten-part political thriller original series based on an idea by Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø ("Headhunters").

Set in the not so distant future, the story has Russia having staged a 'silk-glove' invasion of Norway to officially secure the oil import for the rest of the world. The series then explores what happens to a nation under such an invasion.

Erik Skoldbjaerg ("Insomnia," "Prozac Nation") will direct the first two episodes of this English, Norwegian and Russian language project. Shooting is expected to begin in early 2014 for a 2015 transmission.

Source: Deadline...

Millennium Trilogy producer Yellow Bird is embarking on a 10-part original series based on an idea by bestselling Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø. International drama Occupied is a political thriller set in a not so distant future where Russia has staged a “silk-glove” invasion of Norway to officially secure the oil import for the rest of the world. The series looks at what happens to a nation under such an invasion. Developed by Yellow Bird and Nesbø, Occupied will be co-produced with Zodiak Media’s French drama outfit Gtv for Norway’s Nrk and French/German channel Arte. Erik Skoldbjaerg, writer/director of the original Insomnia and director of Prozac Nation, will helm the first two episodes. Norwegian writer Harald Rosenloew Eeg is also on the the English-, Norwegian- and Russian-language project. Shooting is expected to begin in early 2014 for a 2015 transmission on Nrk, Arte and other Nordic channels to be announced shortly.

Zodiak Rights, the international division of Zodiak Media, has taken Echoes from the Dead to the currently running European Film Market, and we have a look at the film's sales art along with some early details on it.

Based on the bestselling book series by Swedish author Johan Theorin, Echoes from the Dead is a mystery drama directed by Daniel Alfredson (Millennium 2 and 3: The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest). Shot in Cuba and on the fascinating island of Öland in Sweden, the film stars renowned Swedish actress Lena Endre (The Master, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Faithless, Wallander), one of Ingmar Bergman’s favorites. It's produced by the Swedish film and television production company Yellow Bird.

Echoes from the Dead is in post-production with delivery scheduled for autumn 2013.

Synopsis:

On a foggy day Julia's six-year-old son, Jens, goes missing.

Photos of Ryan Gosling in Only God Forgives, Emma Watson in Bling Ring, Saoirse Ronan in The Host, Matt Damon in Promised Land, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Don Jon's Addiction.

Posters for Oz The Great and Powerful, A Field in England, Pain and Gain, G.I. Joe Retaliation and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

"New Blu-ray release dates include 'The Cold Light of Day' on January 29th, 'Cloud Atlas' on February 5th, and both 'Argo' and 'Sinister' on February 19th…" (full details)

"Robert Patrick has signed on as a series regular on the sixth season of HBO's 'True Blood'. Patrick will reprise the role of Alcide’s father which he played in three episodes of the fifth season…" (full details)

"20th Century Fox Film has set a March 6th 2015 release date for Josh Trank's 'Fantastic Four' reboot. Fox has also scheduled 'The Wolverine,...

Author Karin Slaughter's Will Trent crime novel series will come to life on the silver screen via Yellow Bird, the same company behind The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Wallander. Variety reports that the company which is owned by Zodiak Media, plans to produce three TV movies on the series, starting with Triptych. The novels follow Will Trent, a special agent working at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation alongside Faith Mitchell, his partner, and his boss Amanda Wagner. Filming will take place in Atlanta, Georgia.

Author Karin Slaughter's Will Trent crime novel series will come to life on the silver screen via Yellow Bird, the same company behind The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Wallander. Variety reports that the company which is owned by Zodiak Media, plans to produce three TV movies on the series, starting with Triptych. The novels follow Will Trent, a special agent working at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation alongside Faith Mitchell, his partner, and his boss Amanda Wagner. Filming will take place in Atlanta, Georgia.