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Helped along by theatricals including Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Paddington in Peru and We Live in Time, revenues in Canal+’s content and distribution division rose by more than 8% per the French major’s first quarterly results since the London Stock Exchange (Lse) listing.

The division, which incorporates Studiocanal and Dailymotion, saw turnover rise 8.2% to €158M ($180M) for the three months ending March 31.

Maxime Saada’s outfit cited the trio of movies that were “highly successful across multiple geographies.” Canal+ added that Dailymotion’s revenue continues to grow at a double-digit rate thanks to “ongoing efforts to expand commercial footprint and programmatic network.”

Studiocanal and Dailymotion’s revenue increased by far more than the overall Canal+ group, which was up 1.5% organically or down 2.5% in terms of reported numbers to around €1.54B overall. The reported numbers included “the closure of some non-profitable wholesale contracts,” according to the results. European...

Apple TV+ has unveiled a first look at ‘Disclaimer,’ and announced that the seven-episode limited series will make its global debut on Friday, October 11, 2024 with the first two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through November 15, 2024.

The series is a gripping psychological thriller in seven chapters, starring Academy Award winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.

Written and directed by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Renée Knight. Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.

Also in news – Taika Waititi in talks to direct Steven Spielberg adaptation ‘James’

Produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Anonymous Content. Cuarón serves as executive producer alongside Esperanto Filmoj’s...

Jodie Whittaker Short Film Fund Raises Value To $50,000

Exclusive: The Empower Fund, an initiative that champions female and non-binary filmmakers, has seen its value rise to £40,000 after post-production house Picture Shop came onboard to support the Empower Fund with in-kind post services up to a value of £15k. Film equipment company Hawk London had already provided access to a camera kit shooting package worth £15,000 on top of a minimum £10,000 for the winning team, who will see former Doctor Who lead Jodie Whittaker attached to their project. Founded by actress Victoria Emslie’s Primetime, a global platform for women and non-binary people working behind the camera, in partnership with Funding Futures, the fun launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and has received almost 100 submissions from around the world. A jury of consisting of Whittaker, another former Doctor Who star, Mandip Gill; Emslie; director Ella Glendining; producer Ameenah Ayub Allen; Curtis Brown...

In Content Warning, you and your friends will brave the depths of the Old World to get spooky footage and get as many views as possible. The aim is to dive into the depths, record the horrors below, and make it out alive to upload your hard-earned footage and appease the masses.

You will start with very little in terms of instructions and equipment, but you will quickly get the hang of the relatively simple instructions and get views without dying (too much). Like in Lethal Company, you will have a few days/dives to get the footage and views needed to hit their quota.

Related How To Film Something Scary In Content Warning It can be hard to understand what it means to film "something scary" in Content Warning at first glance thanks to the creepy nature of the Old World. Use The Proximity Chat Function It Seems Louder...

Atx TV Festival announced new updates to its line-up Wednesday, including screenings of Fargo, Pretty Little Liars and the Season 3 premiere of HBO’s critically acclaimed Industry. All of these are in addition to the previously announced Suits reunion panel that’s set to take place at the annual Austin, Texas event later this spring.

Fargo creator, writer and director Noah Hawley will join for a screening of Season 5, Episode 1 (“The Tragedy of the Commons”), followed by a conversation about the overall season, which stars Juno Temple, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

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Shudder has picked up North America, UK & Ireland and Australia & New Zealand to David Moreau’s continuous shot genre title MadS from French outfit Pulsar Content.

The film shot in five takes over five days. It is set on a summer night and follows a teen who stops to see his dealer, tries a new drug and sets out to party, but ends up picking up an injured woman as the night takes a shocking, surreal turn.

MadS stars newcomers Milton Riche, Laurie Pavy and Lucille Guillaume.

Pulsar Content is at the EFM with Michele Placido’s Eternal Visionary about the life of Luigi Pirandello,...

Miami — Buoyed by a near celebratory inaugural edition last year – the first time many execs attending had seen one another post-Pandemic – the 2nd Content Americas neared its final bend to lift-off on Tuesday, with a bullish attendance and a market still reacting to the Netflix Corrective of 2022 when it began to measure the cost of its dramatic expansion worldwide.

Delegates, as of Monday, were approaching 2,000, nearly 25% up on 2023’s 1,600. That includes 150 exhibition companies and a significant increase on buyers – 950, doubled from last year.

Driving the spike in attendance is a sense of thanks and recognition of a generally happy experience last year.

“Content Americas saved the day, staging and covering the cost of the only Miami market in 2023, did very well last year, and immediately confirmed the date for a 2024 event before anyone else. Also, most experienced executives are part of the Board of Content Americas. I don’t know...

Atresmedia TV’s “Dreams of Freedom,” Rtve’s “Detective Touré” and Mediterráneo’s “Fentanyl: A Deadly Epidemic,” feature in Spain Content Goldmine: In Demand Like Never Before, a showcase of new and upcoming Spanish series unspooling Jan. 23 on the first day of Content Americas.

The title’s no hype. Since “Money Heist” became Netflix’s first true-blue global non-English blockbuster in 2018, Spain has consistently seen its top shows and movies rank high in global streamer charts, or sell worldwide, such as The Mediapro Studio’s “The Head.”

In 2022, in Europe, most fiction titles commissioned by global streamers were produced in Spain (34) and the U.K. (32), according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.

In 2023, film and TV titles from Spain have ranked No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English Top 10 charts for more weeks – 13 – than those from any other country in the world, apart from South Korea. This month, after dropping on Netflix on Jan.

“Love Is Blind” is back.

Just four months after Season 5 of the Kinetic Content series wrapped up on Netflix, the new season will debut on Netflix. Season 6 will be set in Charlotte, North Carolina, as 30 singles attempt to find true love and choose to get engaged before ever meeting their partner face-to-face.

The premise each season remains the same: if two singles connect in the pods, through a wall, they can get engaged and finally meet. Next, they’ll move in together, plan their wedding and find out if and how their lives can come together. Once their wedding days arrive, they each must decide if they want to get married or call it off.

Nick and Vanessa Lachey return to the 10-episode season, during which the singles will “form deep and immediate connections, setting the stage for an unexpected journey full of twists, turns, and shocking revelations that will...

It’s fair to say that many in Hollywood are wishing good riddance to 2023.

Between the brutal Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, a crumbling TV advertising market, and looming uncertainty over the economy and generative artificial intelligence, it was a year to forget for the business.

While the strikes are over and everyone is back to work (at least after the holidays), 2024 is shaping up to be nearly as uncertain, with venerable Hollywood studios likely to make market-moving decisions, the continuing evolution of generative AI spooking creatives, and macroeconomic factors all taking their toll.

Here are some of the big business questions The Hollywood Reporter has for 2024:

Shari Redstone’s Paramount’s Predicament Buy, sell or…?

What will Shari Redstone do? Does the mogul pursue a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, now that we know Bob Bakish and David Zaslav talked about a possible deal on Dec.

L.A.-based Wild Sheep Content, headed by former Netflix international honcho Erik Barmack, is adapting German No.1 bestseller “When Butterflies Fly Loops” for Mexico, as it branches out into unscripted with Adal Ramones, Mexico’s No.1 standup, and boards Lucía Puenzo’s gangster epic, “The Gunwoman (Pepita’s Legend).”

Starring Luisana Lopilato, and just announced, “Gunwoman” reps a “giant story” account, said Puenzo, of real life mobster Margarita Di Tulio, which is backed by a far-ranging consortium of good and great players in and outside Argentina.

All three titles see Wild Sheep driving ever deeper into big IP in highly packaged and star-laden projects, while branching out in sectors and territorial reach – strategies which may well become text-book tactics as streamers and broadcasters pull back on commissions or buys over much of international.

Their announcement comes three days before Jimena Rodríguez, producer of “Three Idiots” and head of Mexico...

Speaking at a panel during Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria, founding execs of Madrid’s newly formed Audiovisual Cluster held forth on the opportunities of the new initiative which launched in March this year.

Also participating was Gonzalo Cabrera, director general of cultural promotion of the Community of Madrid who pointed out that Madrid generates an annual revenue of approximately 3.3 billion euros ($3.96 billion). “The audiovisual sector in the Community of Madrid employs around 20,000 people directly. It accounts for 1% of the regional Gdp. Moreover, it is projected to grow by approximately 25% in the coming years, thanks to technological, demographic and geopolitical changes that have recently occurred,” he asserted.

Apart from Madrid’s current tax break of 31.25% that has lured multiple foreign shoots, he called for the formation of more post production companies. Their presence would likely attract more big budget productions as their respective time frames for shooting, post-production and exhibition will have been significantly reduced,...

Podcasts are continuing to grow in the UK, with one in five adults listening to a podcast each week and regular listeners consuming an average of seven podcasts weekly. With this increase in popularity, comes the need to make podcasts accessible for as many people as possible, including those with auditory, visual, or cognitive disabilities.

Launching on 25 September, during National Inclusion Week, the Simple Content podcast aims to be the UK’s first fully accessible business marketing podcast. This new release aims to open up the podcast world to all, with an accessible media player that allows anyone to enjoy episodes without having to see or touch the podcast player itself.

The aim is to open up podcast enjoyment to a wide range of people, including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities. With a focus on usability and participation, the Simple Content podcast website...

Launching during National Inclusion Week, the Simple Content podcast aims to be the UK’s first fully accessible business marketing podcast. The aim is to open up the podcast world to all, with an accessible media player that allows anyone to enjoy episodes without having to see or touch the podcast player itself. This means the podcast can be enjoyed by a wide range of people.

China has been named Country Of Honour at next month’s Mipcom Cannes and Tencent VP Sun Zhonghuai is set to keynote the confab.

Coming as various nations revalue their relationship with the world’s most populous country, Mipcom unveiled today a specially curated program spotlighting “China’s co-production, acquisition and distribution activities and opportunities.”

The program will include Fresh Content China, a session presented by the China Pavilion, featuring both the country’s latest output alongside creatives from the Chinese TV industry who will share learnings from its evolution domestically and internationally. Further sessions include masterclasses focusing on successful format adaptations and the use of the latest technology within production, and showcases specializing in the latest in animation, scripted and non-scripted content to emerge from the country.

Zhonghuai, meanwhile, one of the most senior execs at media conglomerate Tencent, who also runs Tencent Online Video, will “share insights into...

Netflix is gearing up for another terrifying ride as production for the second season of Hellbound has officially begun.

The official announcement of Hellbound Season 2's production start was made by Netflix through a 31-second video clip. The short clip did not reveal a lot, but one significant change was divulged - lead actor Yoo Ah-In, who portrayed Jung Jinsu, will be replaced by Kim Sung-Cheol. The South Korean horror series, based on the popular webtoon Hell and created by Yeon Sang-Ho, took the streaming platform by storm when it debuted in 2021, becoming one of the biggest K-Drama hits after Squid Game.

Related: Squid Game Fans Create a Life-Size Replica of the Red Light, Green Light Robo

The first season of Hellbound was a story of supernatural beings descending upon Earth to drag sinners to Hell. With a cast including Ah-in Yoo as the cult leader Jin-soo Jung, Hyun-joo Kim...

Warner Bros. Discovery’s newly launched Max lumped film directors and writers under a single “creators” heading — a change that prompted a backlash from filmmakers and Hollywood’s directors and writers guilds. Now the company says it is reverting the listings back to how they were presented on HBO Max, blaming the issue on a technical “oversight.”

“We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” a Max spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake.”

Max’s move to consolidate writers, directors and other creatives under the single “creators” listing drew ire amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, as the union is seeking to reach a new contract with major studios through the...

Exclusive: Anonymous Content is elevating longtime literary managers and producers Ryan Cunningham, David Kanter and Nicole Romano to partner.

Cunningham joined Anonymous Content in 2019 from Madhouse Entertainment where he had been a manager and producer for a decade. On the management side, his clients include filmmakers Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (65), Derek Tsang (The Three Body Problem), Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei (How to Blow Up a Pipeline); showrunners and writers Steven DeKnight (Spartacus), Jewel Coronel (The Chi), Seamus Fahey (Walker: Independence) and Sonya Winton & Jonathan Kidd (Lovecraft Country), Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), Neil Uliano and Bryan Schulz (The Peanuts Movie), and Ben Queen (The Addams Family 2). Cunningham most recently produced the Sky/Relativity feature The Independent, and executive-produced Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, which will be released in June by 20th Century Studios and Disney.

Kanter is a producer and manager at Anonymous...

The European industry has created support initiatives, including for funding, co-production and raising awareness.

How do you keep an industry going when your cities are being bombed, some of your leading directors are fighting on the front line and your local sources of funding have dried up?

This is the question Ukrainian filmmakers have been asking themselves over the last 12 months, since the full-scale invasion by Russia on February 24th, 2022.

To the outside eye, it may seem the industry is doing remarkably well. From Pamfir and Butterfly Vision in Cannes last year to Iron Butterflies and 20 Days In Mariupol in Sundance,...

Returning to Johannesburg cinemas for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Joburg Film Festival kicked off its 5th edition with a joyful relaunch on Tuesday night, as local luminaries walked a gold carpet in Nelson Mandela Square in honor of the festival’s slogan, “Our Stories. Our Gold,” and the crowd was serenaded with a soaring performance from South African soprano Zandile Mzazi and singer Thandiswa Mazwai.

The event, which runs Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, bowed with the African premiere of “Xalé” (pictured), from veteran Senegalese director Moussa Sène Absa, a story of female subjugation and self-liberation that opened last year’s BFI Film Festival and was the West African nation’s entry in the 2023 international feature film Oscar race.

The festival wraps with “The Umbrella Men,” by local helmer John Barker (“Wonder Boy for President”), a caper comedy about first-time bank robbers pulling a heist...

As part of their Content for Change initiative, Showtime and Paramount Global have donated 300,000 to North Community High School, home of the student football team featured in the new Peter Berg-directed docuseries “Boys in Blue.”

The four-part docuseries “Boys and Blue” sets a spotlight on North Community High and the players on its predominately Black football team during the 2021 season, a year after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. With Floyd’s racially-charged murder on their minds, the students try to balance their goal of winning a state championship while searching for common ground with their coaching and mentor staff, which is made up of members of the Minneapolis Police Department.

Through Content for Change, which aims to break down narratives and structural racism, Showtime partnered with Paramount Global to donate 300,000 to the high school, establishing a multi-year scholarship program.

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Netflix has revealed the cast, and released a first-look image, of its upcoming Australian original drama series Boy Swallows Universe.

An all-Aussie production, the eight-part limited series stars Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Simon Baker (The Mentalist) and Phoebe Tonkin (H₂O: Just Add Water) as leads in the adaptation of Trent Dalton’s book of the same name. The cast also includes Felix Cameron, Lee Tiger Halley, Bryan Brown, Anthony La Paglia and Sophie Wilde.

Boy Swallows Universe, a very Australian coming-of-age novel that has become an international bestseller, tells the story of a broken family in Brisbane in 1985. The publisher’s synopsis reads: “A lost father, a mute brother, a junkie mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It’s not as if Eli Bell’s life isn’t complicated enough already. He’s just trying...

The Producers Guild of America will present “Producing During Unprecedented Times: Reflections from Today’s Leading Producers” at the 60th Monte-Carlo Television Festival that starts this weekend.

The curated conversations, in which producers explore the challenges they faced getting their shows made during the Covid-19 pandemic, detail how they learned to work within the myriad global safety regulations, and how their ability to pivot during these uncertain times may end up changing business models moving forward.

Participants include:

Bradley Bell, president of Bell-Phillip Television Productions, who’s the nine-time Emmy-winning producer and head writer of The Bold and the Beautiful Producer Yolanda Cochran had three scripted shows that were in mid-season or were about to start that were interrupted by the shutdown: The Astronauts, which was shot in Vancouver and was among the very first to return to production there; Danger Force, which shot in Los Angeles,...