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Critics didn't look favorably at Case 39 when it came out in 2009, calling it unoriginal and not very scary. It is easy to see why it was regarded as a letdown, considering it was an American debut by an up-and-coming German director, Christian Alvart, known for his gruesome and provocative first thriller, Antibodies (2005). Even though Case 39 doesn't reach the level of Alvart's spectacular debut, it still offers a solid, somber atmosphere and a few surprisingly captivating sequences (the one with hornets is particularly memorable). However, the film's true forte was its secretly genius casting, which brought together a young horror prodigy, Jodelle Ferland, a recent Oscar winner, Renée Zellweger, who was widely famous for her rom-com roles at the time, and Bradley Cooper, who hadn't had his big break yet. It might seem like these people shouldn't mix well in a horror setting — but they do, and the way...

“The Gorge” is a unique blend of romance, horror, and action that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Directed by Scott Derrickson and featuring a stellar cast including Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver, the film follows two elite snipers guarding opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. As they develop a deep connection, they must also confront the monstrous beings that emerge from the depths. If you enjoyed the suspense, character development, and intense action in “The Gorge,” here are 6 movies like ‘The Gorge’ that will satisfy your cravings.

Related Read: The Gorge (2025) Review: A Hurried and Hollowed Would-be Blockbuster The Maze Runner (2014)

“The Maze Runner” is a dystopian sci-fi action film that shares a similar sense of mystery and survival with “The Gorge.” Directed by Wes Ball, the film follows Thomas, played by Dylan O’Brien, who wakes up in a massive maze with no memories of his past.

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The Gorge is a sci-fi horror action film directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay by Zach Dean. The Apple TV+ film follows Levi Kane and Drasa, two elite snipers who are assigned to protect the guard towers on opposite sides of a massive gorge. They soon develop feelings for each other, but their love story is threatened by what’s inside the gorge. The Gorge stars Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, and Sope Dirisu. So, if you loved the fun action sequences, wild creature designs, and entertaining characters, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Maze Runner (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – 20th Century Studios

The Maze Runner is a dystopian sci-fi action film directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay co-written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin. Based...

In a key strategic move and following some of the smart TV money in these current times, New Regency has partnered with Bravado Equity to drive into Europe, making its first European series acquisition “Beyond” (aka “Oderbruch”), one of the standout recent TV hits in Europe.

New Regency will launch “Beyond” at the London TV Screenings, its market debut taking place for invited guests on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.

In industry terms, prestige drama “Beyond” ticks many of the boxes for series which can be made with high production values while tapping into Europe’s rich financing ecosystem.

The second series in a first-look TV deal between CBS Studios and Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment, “Beyond” is also produced by Ard Degeto, the film production arm of Germany’s Ard, Europe’s biggest public broadcaster which is moving into ever more ambitious series such as 2024 Canneseries winner “The Zweiflers” and indeed “Beyond.”

“Beyond...

German crime drama Oderbruch has won the Best Fiction Series Award at the South International Series Festival, which wraps today in Cadiz.

Set in Germany’s most sparsely populated region of the same name, Oderbruch is about an investigation into a serial killer and has touches of the fantastic genre. It’s directed by Christian Alvart and Adolfo J. Kolmerer and produced by Syrreal Entertainment, in co-production with Ard Degeto and CBS Studios.

The fiction jury, headed by producer Rémi Tereszkiewicz, gave the Best Fiction Series Screenplay Award to ITV drama Joan, a dramacreated by Anna Symon, directed by Richard Laxton and starring Sophie Turner.

German crime drama Oderbruch has won the Best Fiction Series Award at the South International Series Festival, which wraps today in Cadiz.

Set in Germany’s most sparsely populated region of the same name, Oderbruch is about an investigation into a serial killer and has touches of the fantastic genre. It’s directed by Christian Alvart and Adolfo J. Kolmerer and produced by Syrreal Entertainment, in co-production with Ard Degeto and CBS Studios.

The fiction jury, headed by producer Rémi Tereszkiewicz, gave the Best Fiction Series Screenplay Award to ITV drama Joan, a dramacreated by Anna Symon, directed by Richard Laxton and starring Sophie Turner.

The world premiere of Movistar Plus+’s period comedy drama The Short Life (La Vida Breve) will headline the second edition of South International Series Festival, which takes place in Cádiz in southern Spain from October 25-30. It will showcase 47 series, including 12 world premieres and 15 Spanish premieres.

Created by Cristóbal Garrido and Adolfo Valor, and starring Leonor Watling and Javier Gutiérrez, The Short Life is set during the brief reign of Spain’s King Louis I. It is the only world premiere in competition.

Two competitions, fiction and non-fiction, have been created this year. BetaSeries CEO Rémi Tereszkiewicz heads the...

Having received mixed to negative reviews upon their initial releases, a few horror films from the 2000s are worth taking another look at. The 2000s prompted some memorable horror protagonists and horror sequels, but a few films took a bit longer to find their audience. Films like Cloverfield and Drag Me to Hell are widely discussed entries from the 2000s that have only continued to grow in popularity, while films like Thirteen Ghosts and Slither took longer to earn respect.

In a genre with rich, inventive storytelling and special effects, it's only understandable that certain films were widely dismissed when they first hit theaters. A few of the films have earned massive cult followings, while others are on their way to achieving a similar status. With enough time having passed since they were first released, there's something to enjoy in each of these horror films initially marked as a failure.

Alien: Romulus has transported audiences back to the horrors and traumas they remember from the original Ridley Scott space horror. Although Alien wasn't the first space horror, it was certainly the most profound one that would define the genre in years thereafter. Decades later, other space horror films have peppered the genre to scare audiences with maddened crews, alien landings, and otherworldly phenomenons altering nature.

Among these fresh horrors, which films stood out and felt par the course of Alien's inspiration? It's important to note that Alien's nemesis, Predator, and their franchise aren't included here, since the genre dips deeper into sci-fi action-suspense than horror. This omission builds a bigger berth of films that audiences of the Alien franchise may have not seen.

Pandorum Gets Grimy and Adds A Ending Twist

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Related How Aliens Xenomorph Has Changed Over 45 Years

From the beginning of 1979's Alien,...

2009 is not exactly a year that horror fans remember fondly. What came out that year? Off the top of the head, not much comes up. A quick search gives us The Unborn, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and Drag Me to Hell. Depending on who you ask, these range from ok movies to Drag Me to Hell, but not exactly memorable overall. Something happened at the end of the 2000s and horror didn’t give us much to work with for some reason. If we dig, we get better titles like The Collector, Laid to Rest, and Paranormal Activity, but their box office ranged from amazing in the case of Paranormal Activity to almost nonexistent for the others, so it was completely hit or miss, like studios didn’t know what to push and what to keep for the home video market. Another movie that had a lot of potential...

Retribution is a thriller drama film directed by Nimród Antal from a screenplay by Chris Salmanpour. Based on a Spanish film named El desconocido (also known as Retribution) by Alberto Marini, the film follows the story of Matt Turner, a financier, who is suddenly threatened by a mysterious bomber while driving his kids to school. Retribution stars Liam Neeson in the lead role with Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion, and Matthew Modine. So, if you loved Retribution here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Retribution (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Warner Bros. Spain

Synopsis: A bank executive receives an anonymous phone call informing him he has just a few hours to obtain a large amount of money or a bomb under his seat will explode.

Phone Booth (Hulu & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – 20th Century Fox

Synopsis: Stuart Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a somewhat sleazy publicist who...

Veteran media executive Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann took over as CEO of Telepool in January, barely a year after Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook took full control, in December 2021, of the German rights giant.

The appointment was a bit of a coup. The Japan-born, Germany-educated Higuchi-Zitzmann has more than a quarter century of experience in some of Europe’s biggest media companies. She was an acquisitions exec for Constantin Film — scoring Olivier Dahan’s Oscar winner La Vie En Rose for the German market among other deals — and producer at renowned German groups Ziegler Cinema — where she delivered sleeper hit My Blind Date With Life, a romantic comedy that earned more than $5 million at the German box office for distributor StudioCanal — and Studio Hamburg, where her hits included Herzogpark, a Desperate Housewives-style series for leading German network Rtl. She joined Telepool from Matthias Schweighöfer’s production outfit Pantaleon Films...

Cannibalism has emerged as the genre du jour in horror. With the success of last year’s Fresh and Bones and All as well as the second season of Yellowjackets finally digging into the human flesh, everyone seems to be exploring this taboo topic. From nightmare survival scenarios to narcissistic serial killers, these films follow humans or humanoid monsters who consume human flesh in one way or another. Some butcher and cook the meat, while others eat it from the bone, but all cannibal films offer a window into a world of depravity and a fascinating blend of horror and revulsion. We not only fear being eaten ourselves, but we often find ourselves imagining what the meat would taste like should we dare (or be forced) to take a bite.

Films about cannibals may seem like a rare delicacy, but a closer look reveals that the pickens are not so slim.

If you’re already experiencing The Last of Us withdrawals after the finale, let Screambox fill the post-apocalyptic void in your life with The Island.

Known internationally as Sløborn, the series combines elements of disaster thriller, coming-of-age drama, dystopian sci-fi, and survival horror. The German-Danish co-production was created by filmmaker Christian Alvart, who directed the genre films Pandorum, Case 39, and Antibodies before creating Netflix’s Dogs of Berlin.

It’s never been easy to be a teenager, but it’s particularly difficult for Gen Z, who are doomed to reckon with fears of the future — or lack thereof. As 15-year-old Evelin Kern (Emily Kusche) puts it in The Island‘s opening voice over, “Ever since I can remember, the world has been ending. Species extinction, deforestation, economic crises, environmental pollution, terrorism, and climate change. Happy days. Somewhere there is always the next crisis, the next war, and mankind has...

Screambox is the exclusive home to “The Island” (“Sløborn”), the critically-acclaimed pandemic-fueled series from celebrated filmmaker Christian Alvart, director behind horror favs Antibodies and Pandorum, not to mention Case 39 and Netflix’s “Dogs of Berlin”.

Today, we’ve released Season 2 of the coming-of-age pandemic-set thriller and have all 14 episodes now streaming on Screambox!

“Blurring the line between pandemic fantasy and reality, the series centers around a remote island in the North Sea that falls victim to a merciless and mysterious virus. As authorities rush to contain the disease, a fever of madness sweeps across the island.”

“‘The Island’ [is] a coming-of-age-drama and post-apocalyptic disaster thriller merge into a modern epic,” explains Zdf Enterprises’ Robert Franke, “In a radical, uncompromising manner, the series raises the question of what happens to us modern people when the thin varnish of our civilization collapses. It has all the hallmarks of a top-quality thriller.”

March...

In addition to FeardotCom, the 2002 effort from director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill) that stars Stephen Dorff (Blade), the Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox has also revved up the streaming rights to Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, the 1990 sequel starring Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead)!

In the film, “Two college students driving coast to coast are lured off the main highway and onto a deserted Texas road. Here they are stalked by the menacing Leatherface and his demented family…a bizarre cannibalistic clan with blood on their hands and a feast on their minds. The students’ only chance for escape is a survivalist with enough firepower to blast Leatherface and the rest of the grisly predators to hell. A depraved shocker of intense terror from the gruesome beginning to the bloody finish.”

Watch Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III now on Screambox!

William Malone, a Master of Horror behind such films as Creature, House on Haunted Hill, and Parasomnia, once took a stab at mixing early internet tech with horror in FeardotCom, which starred Stephen Dorff and was released in theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2002.

The film has been making a bit of a resurgence and maybe even having a renaissance with horror fans newly appreciating the much-maligned techy horror film that followed Dorff as a New York City detective who investigates mysterious deaths occurring 48 hours after users log onto feardotcom.

Now, you can judge for yourself as FeardotCom is streaming exclusively on Screambox today, alongside Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, the 1990 sequel starring Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead)!

March is a huge month on Screambox as we’ll also be releasing the second season of “The Island” from Pandorum director Christian Alvart,...

The Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox has revealed the lineup of new films that are joining the horror streaming service in March 2023, including brand new The Outwaters companion shorts Card Zero & File Vl-624, original festival favorites Holy Shit! and Family Dinner, and the 1990s sequel Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III!

Joining Screambox on Wednesday, March 1, are Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, the 1990 sequel starring Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), and FeardotCom, the 2002 effort from director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill) that stars Stephen Dorff (Blade).

Created by Pandorum director Christian Alvart, the second season of “The Island” hits Screambox on March 7. Experience the world after its collapse with all six new episodes of the post-apocalyptic coming-of-age thriller series. The first season is streaming now.

‘Holy Shit!’

Following a rambunctious festival run, Screambox Original Holy Shit! drops on March 21. Living up to its title,...

Exclusive: The latest casting round of tributes and mentors in Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes includes Irene Boehm, Cooper Dillon, Luna Kuse, Kjell Brutscheidt, Dimitri Abold, Athena Strates, Dakota Shapiro, George Somner and Vaughan Reilly.

As we told you previously, the film is set during the early days of tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy,...

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’re talking with top German talent agency Players. Headed up by Mechthild Holter and Fabian Haslob, the duo have clients that have worked across recent projects such as Babylon Berlin, Unorthodox and Deutchland ’89. In a rare interview, they tell us why now is a great time for German-speaking talent to cross borders.

With film and television sectors more globalized than ever, international talent has fast become a premium for streamers as they lean in on local language productions in foreign markets to offset stagnant domestic growth. One company at the sharp end of this change is Germany’s Players Agency. The company, which was founded by Mechthild Holter in 1994, represents around 180 actors, writers, directors and cinematographers and is...

Commission

Warner Bros. Discovery U.K. is re-teaming with Optomen TV to produce a follow-up to “Johnny vs Amber,” a two-part documentary which explored Johnny Depp’s defamation trial in the U.K. High Court with explosive evidence, intimate personal archive and in-depth interviews from both legal teams. Following the success of that documentary, the follow up will be focused on the recent and very high-profile legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, this time in the U.S. The two-part Discovery+ documentary will again look at the extensive evidence and testimony of both Depp and Heard. Each episode will present one side of the argument through legal teams, friends, family and key witnesses.

In addition, Discovery+ has also greenlit two further ‘vs’ series: “Coleen vs Rebekah,” will examine the recent U.K. court battle between high profile footballers’ wives Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy; and “Britney vs Jamie,...

Production has got underway in Germany and Poland on “Oderbruch,” a major thriller series produced by Paramount Global’s CBS Studios, Syrreal Entertainment and Ard Degeto, part of German public broadcast group Ard.

The previously announced drama stars Karoline Schuch (“Dark Woods”), Felix Kramer (“Dogs of Berlin”) and Lucas Gregorowicz and is a tale which begins with the discovery of multiple murder victims in a remote area near the German-Polish border.

The eight-part series is directed by Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Christian Alvart. Series creator and head writer Arend Remmers developed the series concept with Kolmerer.

Siegfried Kamml, Christian Alvart and Timm Oberwelland from Syrreal serve as producers. The executives overseeing the project are: Christoph Pellander, editor-in-chief of Ard Degeto; Sebastian Lückel, head of acquisitions and co-productions at Ard Degeto; Patrick Noel Simon, commissioning editor at Ard Degeto; and Meghan Lyvers, senior VP of international co-productions and development at CBS Studios.

Oderbruch (working title), the CBS Studios and Syrreal Entertainment supernatural mystery drama for Germany’s Ard Degato, has added four cast members, as principal photography begins this week.

André Hennicke (Pandorum), Alix Heyblom (Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo), Winfried Glatzeder (Die Legende von Paul und Paula), Robert Glatzeder (In Aller Freudschaft) and Jan Krauter (3 1/2 Hours) are onboard the eight-part series, which is currently filming in Görlitz, Germany and will also shoot in Poland.

The series follows Detective Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) on a serial murder case after after numerous victims shock the Oderbruch region of Germany. His former colleague and childhood sweetheart, Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch), joins the police investigation when her family comes under immediate suspicion.

Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Christian Alvart are directing, with Siegfried Kamml, Christian Alvart and Timm Oberwelland from Syrreal producing. Overseeing the shoot are Ard Degato trio Christoph Pellander, Sebastian Lückel and Patrick Noel Simon and Meghan Lyvers,...

Zdf Enterprises has struck further deals for the first season of post-apocalyptic disaster thriller “Sløborn,” including sales in the U.K., Russia and Japan.

The eight-part series is produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in co-production with Zdf, Tobis, Nordisk Film and Zdf Enterprises. Alvart, who also penned and helmed the Netflix series “Dogs of Berlin,” co-wrote and directed “Sløborn” along with Adolfo J. Kolmerer.

Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series deals with the outbreak of a fatal virus on the North Sea island of Sløborn and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the global catastrophe. Alvart was in production with “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late.

In Season 2, which premieres on ZDFneo on Feb. 21 and will soon be available for distribution,...

Casting

BBC One original series “Casualty” has announced its first transgender character, Sah, to be played by newcomer Arin Smethurst. Sah joins the series’ popular existing team of paramedics including Jan (Di Botcher), Teddy (Milo Clarke) and Iain (Michael Stevenson). “Casualty” is Smethurst’s first time working on a TV series, and the first episodes featuring their new character will begin airing later this month.

“I am honored to be joining the spectacular ‘Casualty’ family as a shiny new paramedic! I’m so excited to portray this transgender, non-binary, salty but fiercely compassionate character and hope they are not only well-received, but also a source of awareness for those who have never met someone like me,” said Smethurst in a release.

Development

Ard Degeto is developing “Oderbruch,” a new drama series destined for the company’s Ard Mediathek online platform. The series will be co-produced with Syrreal Entertainment and CBS Studios,...

Jack Huston is leading the latest take on The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Fargo star, who recently wrapped production on House of Gucci and is set as the male lead in Amazon drama series Expats, is to star in and write the package, which is now being taken out to buyers by Shadowhunters producer Constantin Film.

The project, which has been in development for a while, will see Huston play Nicolas Cristo, a man broken, betrayed and locked away for over a decade, fighting to bring justice to a world even more cruel and corrupt than the one that was taken from him.

The twist for the latest adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel? It will be set in Asia and the U.S.

Into The Badlands and Wu Assassins director Stephen Fung is on board to direct and exec produce. Huston will also exec produce along with...

German indie Augenschein, whose credits include Netflix sci-fi Stowaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt thriller 7500, is launching Augenschein Sales, an in-house worldwide sales and financing arm.

The new operation will be headed by Jonathan Saubach as Head Of Sales. The acquisitions exec joins from Will Smith-owned Telepool.

The new division will focus on combining the financing for the company’s production slate through access to equity, market pre-sales and film funds. Saubach will be in charge of financing, packaging and worldwide sales of the company’s film titles and will also serve as an executive producer on upcoming productions. He will report to Augenschein founders Maximilian Leo and Jonas Katzenstein.

During his ten-year tenure at Telepool the company acquired Ryan Gosling starrer Drive, The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, The Hitman’s Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman, the Has Fallen franchise starring Gerard Butler,...

Zdf Enterprises has boarded the second season of the coming-of-age, pandemic thriller “Sløborn” as co-producer and global distributor.

Season 1 of the ZDFneo original series dealt with the spread of a deadly virus across the world that ravaged the island of Sløborn, and the inhabitants’ fight to survive the catastrophe. In Season 2, audiences will experience the world after its collapse.

Shooting for the new season will take place in the spring of this year. Wotan Wilke Möhring, Emily Kusche, Alexander Scheer, Aaron Hilmer, Adrian Grünewald and Lea van Acken will once again star. Christian Alvart and Adolfo J. Kolmerer direct from a screenplay by Arend Remmers and Alvart.

In Season 2, the island has been evacuated after many residents died of the fatal pigeon flu. But a small group of people refused to be evacuated and hid on the island, for fear of being exposed to an even greater risk of infection on the mainland.

Berlin, March 23 (Ians) Popular American TV personality David Hasselhoff is headed to German TV. The 68-year-old will be playing a fictionalised version of himself in the upcoming German TV show, "Ze Network", alongside actor Henry Hubchen.

The series is being described as an international conspiracy story, according to a report in aceshowbiz.com.

"To do a cutting-edge series and working with Rtl is a dream come true. The series is funny, deadly, creative, informative and simply exciting. Fact or fiction, you decide," he said in a statement as reported by the publication.

The report also states that Christian Alvart will direct the show. "I can't wait to share with audiences the crazy ride Mr. Hasselhoff will be bravely taking on with 'Ze Germans'," Alvart said in a statement.

This won't be the first time the star has played a fictional version of himself. He did the same in the sitcom...

David Hasselhoff is heading to Germany to star in a comedy spy series produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in what will be the first project from the company’s new international first-look deal with CBS Studios.

A straight-to-series order for Mediengruppe Rtl’s SVOD platform TVNow, “Ze Network” sees Hasselhoff playing himself as he travels to Germany to headline a stage production in what he believes is a major theater in East Berlin, only to discover it’s actually a small venue located “east of Berlin” — in the town of Görlitz. Once there, the Hoff is plunged into the center of an international conspiracy of former Cold War assassins, while around him the fabric of reality seems to break down.

German actor Henry Hübchen likewise plays himself, co-starring with Hasselhoff in the play. This version of Hübchen, however, has a more shadowy East German past than his...

CBS Studios and German producer Syrreal Entertainment are teaming to create a series for Rtl streamer TV Now in which David Hasselhoff will star as himself in a fictional international conspiracy story.

CBS has signed a first-look production pact with Berlin-based Syrreal, which makes Netflix series Dogs of Berlin, and the Hasselhoff series is the first project under the partnership. Created by Syrreal CEO Christian Alvart, the show is titled Ze Network.

It follows The Hoff as he lands a lead role in a German stage show, which plunges him into the center of an international conspiracy of former cold war assassins, while around him the fabric of reality seems to break down. German actor Henry Hübchen also stars as a version of himself.

Alvart is directing Ze Network. Series producers are Sigi Kamml, Alvart, and Timm Oberwelland, while Hasselhoff executive produces. CBS Studios has remake and other rights to the series,...

Italian screen legend Franco Nero is having a busy year. “Recon,” the Robert Port-directed World War II thriller in which he stars, opened theatrically on Veteran’s Day in the U.S. as an event release and since then has been playing well online. German courtroom procedural “The Collini Case,” in which Nero has the title role, recently dropped Stateside on several platforms after scoring well theatrically in Germany. His Cuba set “Havana Kyrie” will also be coming out in the U.S. soon.

And Nero’s got plenty more projects in the pipeline including “Django Lives!” where he plans to reprise the role that brought him worldwide fame in Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 classic Spaghetti Western “Django.” On his birthday, the 79-year-old icon spoke exclusively to Variety from Rome, where he’s been stuck due to the pandemic, but was pleased to get flowers sent from England by his wife Vanessa Redgrave.

With depictions of pandemic catastrophes, war, failing empires, the divide between rich and poor, shooting rampages and massive power outages, Germany’s newest TV shows appear to reflect the current apocalyptic zeitgeist.

German broadcasters and streaming services alike are going heavy on suspense, crime, psychological thrillers, action and adventure, often colored by themes of societal disruption and armed conflict.

Showrunner Christian Alvart (“Dogs of Berlin”) was in production with Zdf Enterprise’s new series “Sløborn” well before the Covid-19 pandemic but the storyline was eerily prescient: A community on the North Sea island of Sløborn is slowly devastated when a deadly virus begins killing residents while being largely ignored by most of the population until it’s too late. Alvart says he wanted to make a series about a crisis that occurs because people are too occupied with their daily lives to take the situation seriously.

In Zdf’s “Shadowplay,...

From post-Francoist State Spain to post-reunified Germany, director Christian Alvart moves Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos’ Goya Award-winning thriller Marshland to a newly democratized remote village outside of Berlin via Free Country. Considering detectives Patrick Stein (Trystan Pütter) and Markus Bach (Felix Kramer) are thrust together despite building their careers in the West and East respectively, Alvart and co-writer Siegfried Kamml have ample room with which to retool things through a prism of their own nation’s potential for dark political secrets and guilt-ridden pasts. So while both men seek to solve a mystery surrounding two missing teenage sisters, they also look to peel back each other’s conditioned layers of subterfuge in order to begin unpacking Patrick’s rejection of authority and Markus’ complicity to a fallen regime.

The fallout of the Berlin Wall’s destruction creates a ripple effect that consumes every single character from a factory strike...

From the outset, the locals don't show much sympathy or concern for the missing sisters. "They liked to have fun. You know what I mean." says one.

"And you don't?" asks Patrick.

Patrick (Trystan Pütter) is a fish out of water. He's not only a city boy in a small town; he's a Westerner in the East. By taking Alberto Rodríguez's 2014 thriller Marshland and relocating it in Germany in 1992, Christian Alvart is able to explore a different set of political subsets. This is a country undergoing deep, fundamental change. The rules that Patrick is used to don't apply. The men he meets are preoccupied with competing for status, or possessed of a lingering fear of those who wielded power under the old regime. The women are cowed and reticent, many dreaming of getting out, building new lives in the west - yet this desire for escape has made them.

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...

Now with the month of June pretty much in our rearview, it’s time to look forward to a new month of VOD and Digital releases headed our way throughout the month of July. There’s a lot of great content coming out over the next few weeks, so even though most movie theaters won’t be open, you’ll still have plenty of stuff to keep you entertained from the comfort of your own home.

Some of the highlights for July’s Digital and VOD releases include Homewrecker and Belzebuth on July 7th (the latter had previously been streaming exclusively on Shudder until now), The Beach House on July 9th, Relic on July 10th (this debut from Natalie Erika James was one of my favorite films out of Sundance 2020), the cult classic Rad, which has several digital release dates in July, Joko Anwar’s Impetigore on July 23rd (another...

Cut Off is one of the latest thrillers from director Christian Alvart (Pandorum). Shot in Germany, this dark yarn is based on novelists: Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos' work. To be released in the U.S. this July, the film's story follows a coroner and a strange mystery. Paul finds an even stranger clue, which leads to the location of his kidnapped daughter. But, each clue leads to another character and another twist. Cut Off stars: Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Jasna Fritzi Bauer (Dogs of Berlin) and Fahri Yardim. A U.S. trailer and poster are hosted here. The trailer shows how other characters are connected to a serial killer, through no choice of their own. All of the characters continue to find clues as a trail of bread crumbs leads to a final confrontation. Dark Sky Films will show Cut Off on Digital and DVD this July 3rd.

London-based sales agent Embankment Films has boarded world rights on Frankie, Anthony’s Wonke’s feature doc about horse racing star Frankie Dettori. The movie follows Dettorri over the course of one season and is currently in production. Producers are Nick Ryle, Pete Russell and Damien O’Donohoe of Trombone Productions. Embankment’s recent docs slate includes the BAFTA nominated McQueen, Harvey Weinstein deep-dive Untouchable, and the upcoming The United Way, the story of Manchester United narrated by Eric Cantona.

Leonine has continued a busy Efm by unveiling a deal with fellow German company

Syrreal Entertainment to co-develop the limited series Santiago, based on a pitch by Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Arend Remmers (Schneeflöckchen). The pair are creating the series with Christian Alvart, it is a modern interpretation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and will span two seasons with eight episodes each, travelling from a Venezuelan prison,...

New German mini-major Leonine is teaming up with Christian Alvart's Syrreal Entertainment on Santiago, a modern-day adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' revenge classic The Count of Monte Cristo. The series, which is part of a co-development deal with Syrreal, is the first major TV project from Leonine.

In Dumas' story, Edmond Dantès, a young merchant sailor, is arrested, falsely accused of treason and imprisoned in a grim fortress. But he manages to escape and plots revenge against all who have wronged him.

The new series is based on a pitch by Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Arend Remmers, the director and writer ...

German film and TV company Telepool, jointly owned by Hollywood actor-producer Will Smith and Swiss investor Elysian Fields, is moving forward in multiple areas of the entertainment business, CEO André Druskeit tells Variety. Druskeit reveals a major new acquisition for its German distribution arm, and Julia Weber, head of theatrical sales and acquisitions at Telepool’s world sales arm Global Screen, speaks about the films making their market premieres at this month’s European Film Market in Berlin.

Last year Telepool launched into theatrical distribution in Germany, and continues this year with titles such as “Ironbark,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Now the company has acquired the German distribution rights for the next Will Smith movie, “King Richard,” about the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, Druskeit says. The film is fully financed by Warner Bros., but co-produced by Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.

Referring to “King Richard,” Druskeit says: “This...

Thomas “Tom” Zickler, one of Germany’s most successful producers, died Monday following a short illness. He was 55.

Zickler worked with actor-director Til Schweiger on some of Germany’s most successful films of the past two decades. Overseeing production at Barefoot Films and Mr. Brown Entertainment, companies he ran with Schweiger, Zickler produced such hits as 1997’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” 2010’s “Friendship!” and 2014’s “Head Full of Honey.”

In 2017 he teamed up with Christoph Fisser, vice president and COO of Studio Babelsberg, to launch a new shingle, Traumfabrik. Zickler most recently produced a movie of the same title, “Traumfabrik,” a period-piece love letter to East Germany’s famed Defa film studios, in Potsdam, which became Studio Babelsberg.

The new shingle marked a return to his professional roots. Zickler began his film career at Defa, in what was then East Germany, in 1986, three years before German reunification led to the privatization of the studio.

Zickler best known for collaborations with actor Til Schweiger, including box office hits ’Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ and ’Barefoot’.

The German film community is mourning producer Tom Zickler, who died aged 55 on Monday (September 2) after a brief, but very severe illness.

“We are stunned, devastated and deeply sad,” Christoph Fisser, board member of Studio Babelsberg and co-managing director with Zickler of Traumfabrik Babelsberg, said. ”The German film landscape loses one of the greatest film producers and most passionate storytellers, who knew like no other how to enthral the audience. Cinema was his life. Far too early We have to...

Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Lars Eidinger, Fahri Yardim, Enno Hesse, Christian Kuchenbuch, Urs Jucker, Barbara Prakopenka, Stephanie Amarell, Dirk Nocker, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Klara Höfels, Joy Maria Bai, Georg Veitl | Written and Directed by Christian Alvart

Cut Off (Abgeschnitten) is based on a novel by Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos with a screenplay from Christian Alvart who also directs, and is a dark German thriller set in the world of forensic pathology. A coroner named Paul Herzfeld discovers, in the head of a corpse, a phone number and the name of his daughter. When he calls the number he finds that his daughter has been abducted and the man who is holding her captive will kill her if Paul doesn’t do as he wants. What follows from there is a bloody story as Paul tries to find and save his daughter, Hannah, and along the way finds Linda,...

In his latest Arrow Video Frightfest preview podcasts, host Stuart Wright talks Cut Off (aka Abgeschnitten) with director Christian Alvart.

A massive success at FrightFest 2005 was the serial killer thriller Antibodies which put director Christian Alvart firmly on the rising star map. Since then Alvart has become one of Germany’s most commercially viable directors and he returns to his triumphant roots with this compelling, gripping and twisted blockbuster adaptation of the worldwide best selling novel set in the world of Forensic Pathology. Coroner Paul Herzfeld finds a capsule buried deep in the head of a heavily mutilated corpse, containing a phone number and single word: the name of his daughter. And soon the nerve-jangling suspense never stops….

Catch Cut Off (aka Abgeschnitten) at Arrow Video Frightfest

22th to 26th August 2019

Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7Na.

Programme listings and film details www.frightfest.co.uk/2019films/index.html...

This year marks the festival’s 20th anniversary.

This year’s FrightFest, the annual UK genre festival, has unveiled a line-up that features 20 world premieres including films from the Soska Sisters (American Mary) and Tom Paton (Black Site).

The Soska Sisters, Jen and Sylvia, are screening their second feature Rabid, their re-imagining of David Cronenberg’s 1977 film. Paton’s Stairs is a sci-fi horror about a special ops squad that find themselves trapped on a never-ending stairwell.

Also screening are Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by André Øvredal’s, and Crawl,...

The UK’s biggest and boldest horror and fantasy film festival, Frightfest, is celebrating its 20th bloody year. This year Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 is back at the Cineworld Leicester Square and The Prince Charles Cinema from August 22 – August 26; and will be hosting a record-breaking Seventy-eight(!) films, embracing fourteen countries and spanning six continents, this year’s five-day fear-a-thon includes 20 World, 20 International / European and 28 UK Premieres.

From the press release:

As previously announced, this year’s festivities begin with the UK premiere of Ant Timpson’s deviously edgy stunner Come To Daddy, starring Elijah Wood and reaches its bloody conclusion with the World premiere of Abner Pastoll’s superbly crafted crime story, A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. Other main screen international attractions include producer Guillermo del Toro and director André Øvredal’s Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, producer Sam Raimi and director Alexandre Aja’s gruesome ‘gator yarn Crawl,...

‘Cut Off’ is based on Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos’ book.

Global Screen has announced a raft of sales on its new thriller Cut Off, directed by genre specialist Christian Alvart (Antibodies) and produced by Ziegler Film, Syrreal Entertainment and Warner Bros Film Productions Germany.

The film has gone to China (Shanghai Jushi Films), Japan (Culture Entertainment Co), South Korea (Jaye Entertainment), Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films), Ukraine (Ufd) and Russia (Cinema Prestige) with France and the Us in negotiation.

Screening this week at Efm, Cut Off is based on the bestselling book by Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos about a...

Netflix’s VP for Original Series, Kelly Luegenbiehl, has unveiled five new German originals which will launch on the streaming service in 2019. Speaking at the Medientage München conference this morning, she said the titles will be available in all of the markets where Netflix is present. The projects include Skylines, a contemporary drama produced by Maren Ade who directed, wrote and produced Oscar nominee Toni Erdmann.

The five projects are a variety of genres and formats, including historical and futuristic works, crime drama, a quirky coming-of-age story and a family saga. They add to Netflix’s current slate of three local originals including Dark, Dogs Of Berlin and The Wave which are in various stages of development and production. Dogs Of Berlin is led by showrunner Christian Alvart and launches on December 7.

This represents a significant investment in the German market and Luegenbiehl said, “We want to tell local stories with global appeal.