News

Believe it or not, Fight Milk wasn’t the first not-exactly-milky drink that Ronald “Mac” Donald ever endorsed.

Before Rob McElhenney came up with the idea of shooting a shoestring-budget pilot for a sitcom about the biggest a-holes in Pennsylvania, he was a struggling actor in L.A. waiting tables in between acting gigs. The slightly embarrassing before-they-were-famous careers of McElhenney’s co-stars are already an integral part of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia lore — Glenn Howerton starred in the hated failure of a sitcom That ‘80s Show before becoming Dennis Reynolds, and Charlie Day passed on an almost-as-bad show to work as an illiterate janitor. But McElhenney’s list of credits pre-2005 is, comparatively, not quite as notable or mockable as those of his collaborators.

However, there is one particularly fascinating and thankfully surviving clip from McElhenney’s acting career pre-Sunny that even includes cameos from a couple of his future co-stars.

The organisers of the Australian Podcast Awards have officially announced the date and venue for the 2024 ceremony. The prestigious event will take place on Thursday, 21 November, at the luxurious Sofitel Darling Harbour in Sydney. This five-star venue, located on the city’s picturesque waterfront, promises a glamorous backdrop for celebrating the best in podcasting.

Podcasters aiming to compete for an award have only a few days left to submit their entries. The submission window closes this Thursday, 1 August, with judging commencing next week. Interested podcasters can download the entry kit from the Australian Podcast Awards website or start their submission directly here.

Last year's awards saw The Lawyer, the Sniper & the Nsw Police win Podcast of the Year and Best Interview Podcast, while Life Uncut secured the Podcast Champion category for its impactful discussions on young women and the Lgbtiq+ community.

The Listeners' Choice category, the only award determined by public vote,...

The first official trailer for Ridley Scott's long-awaited historical action epic Gladiator II has arrived online and it's every bit as epic as you'd expect as Paul Mescal (Normal People; Aftersun; The Lost Daughter) squares off against 3x Primetime Emmy-nominee Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian; Game of Thrones; Narcos) and Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington (Training Day; Fences; Malcolm X).

As per the official synopsis, "Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has unveiled the five projects it will showcase to sales agents and distributors at this year’s Cannes market.

This is the fourth year PÖFF has participated in the Goes to Cannes programme, which aims to spotlight work-in-progress projects by promising talent. The projects will be presented on 18 May. The films are without sales agents and aiming for a festival premiere.

Three of the films are by directors whose previous films premiered at PÖFF. Eeva Mägi is presenting Estonian drama Mo Papa. Her previous film Mo Mamma won the jury prize in the first...

Who doesn't love David Fincher? I did not love "Mank." But I still love David Fincher, and I know you do too. However you feel about that last feature, it's been a while since Fincher had a real consensus banger, and that's the kind of film he's known for. Viewers loved his Netflix series "Mindhunter", but hey, that's television, and Fincher only directed seven out of 19 episodes. Could "The Killer" slingshot Fincher back to the top of the American auteur pyramid, knocking the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Gina Prince-Bythewood, or any of his other Gen X competitors off the top spot?

That remains to be seen. But we do have a new trailer for the film, a follow-up of the trailer Netflix released way back at the end of August. There have been more developments than the mere release of a second trailer since then, too. People have seen the movie.

They say that great art is often inspired by the artist's life, and "Always Sunny" has given us plenty of examples of this. Season 8's "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution" is a story about euthanasia that was inspired by the writers' own conflicting thoughts on the topic. As co-creator Rob McElhenny (who plays Mac) explained in a 2012 interview, "[The episode] was sparked somewhat by a conversation [sic] that I was having with Kaitlin [Olson, who plays Dee] where we were fast-forwarding in our lives, and trying to figure out if one of us was on life-support—those are conversations that we have to have."

Unlike the episode itself, this was a serious issue for the couple. "What do we want? Do we want to be Dnr? Do we want to be hooked up forever?" McElhenny explained. "We were having that conversation and I brought it up in the writer's room and then that's what sparked the conversation and we started thinking; okay,...

Barry Newman, best known for starring in the action-thriller “Vanishing Point”, has died. He was 92.

Newman’s wife, Angela, confirmed the news of Newman’s death to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday. The actor died of natural causes on May 11 at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Newman had a number of smaller screen roles and performed on Broadway until he was cast in the 1971 car chase classic “Vanishing Point”, by director Richard C. Sarafian. He starred as a former race car driver named Kowalski who drives a Dodge Challenger across the US while avoiding cops and getting entangled in a deadly criminal conspiracy.

The film went on to be a cult classic and genre-defining epic that went on to be revered for its action set-pieces and proved to be influential on the next generation of blockbuster filmmakers.

Newman later went on to play defence lawyer Anthony J. Petrocelli...

Barry Newman, best known for playing the muscle-car-driving Kowalski in the cult classic Vanishing Point and the titular defense attorney in the NBC series Petrocelli, has died. He was 92. The veteran actor passed away on Thursday, May 11, of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center, his wife, Angela, told The Hollywood Reporter. Born on November 7, 1930, in Boston, Massachusetts, Newman started his acting career in Herman Wouk’s comedy Nature’s Way, playing a jazz musician. Following this, he landed a featured part in Mel Tolkin’s play Maybe Tuesday. He would go on to appear in numerous Broadway productions, including the musical What Makes Sammy Run, Sidney Kingsley’s Night Live, and Jean-Claude van Itallie’s America Hurrah. This soon led to film and TV work, including the role of John Barnes in the daytime drama The Edge of Night and the breakthrough role of Tony Petrocelli in...

Barry Newman, who somehow made souped-up muscle cars look even cooler in the 1971 film “Vanishing Point” and starred in the titular role on NBC’s legal drama “Petrocelli,” has died. He was 92 years old.

Newman died at Columbia University Irving Medical Center on May 11, according to media reports.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he took a college course with renowned acting instructor Lee Strasberg, who inspired him to become an actor. After graduating from Brandeis University and serving time in the army, Newman moved to New York City to study with Strasberg.

Newman went on to perform in various Broadway and New York theater shows before moving into feature films like 1971’s “The Lawyer” and, of course, “Vanishing Point,” in which he played Kowalski, a car delivery driver known for transporting hot rods in record time — but with a knack for running into trouble with highway cops.

He went...

Barry Newman, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred in the 1971 cult action thriller “Vanishing Point” and as the eponymous lawyer in the NBC series “Petrocelli,” died on May 11. He was 92. No further details are currently available on his death.

In “Vanishing Point,” Newman played former race car driver Kowalski, a speedster that darts around in a Dodge Challenger after becoming entangled in a criminal conspiracy. The film is regarded as one of the defining American action films of the ’70s by genre enthusiasts.

Two decades and change later, Newman would play a heavy in Steven Soderbergh’s fractured crime yarn “The Limey,” which featured a second act car chase involving the actor getting back behind the wheel.

Newman was born in Boston on Nov. 7, 1938, where he would attend Boston Latin School and go on to attend Brandeis University. During his education, Newman met Lee Strasberg and became inspired to pursue acting.

Barry Newman, who was behind the wheel of a “super-charged” Dodge Challenger in Vanishing Point, a 1971 film featuring several breakneck police chases, and later starred as a defense attorney on the NBC series Petrocelli, has died. He was 92.

He died May 11 in a New York hospital, with his death confirmed by social media posts from friends. No cause has been established.

Newman had appeared on Broadway and the film The Lawyer (1970) (which later spun off into the TV series Petrocelli) when he was offered Vanishing Point. In the film, his drug-addicted character was tasked with delivering a car from Colorado to California, with the stipulation that if he could do it in 15 hours, his meth purchase would be free.

The film was directed by Richard C. Sarafian and became a cult classic, as Cleavon Little kept up a steady stream of radio chatter on the epic journey. No less than...

Actor Barry Newman, star of the 1971 hot rod classic “Vanishing Point”, has died at age 92.

Newman’s wife, Angela, told The Hollywood Reporter that Newman died May 11 at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

After appearing in Broadway, Newman was cast in 1970 feature “The Lawyer”. That led to a starring role in director Richard C. Sarafian’s 1971 “Vanishing Point”, which went on to become a cult classic that has influenced the likes of Steven Spielberg.

Read More: Canadian Actor Gordon Pinsent, Who Starred In ‘Away From Her’, Has Died At 92

Newman then reprised his role in “The Lawyer” — brash young attorney Anthony Petrocelli — in the 1974 made-for-tv movie “Night Games”, which was spun off as the series “Petrocelli”, which ran from 1974 until 1976.

Among Newman’s extensive list of credits are the TV movies “King Crab”, “City on Fire”, “Amy” and “Good Advice”, and TV series including “L.A. Law”, “Murder, She Wrote...

Just a few days ago, we published a list of great car movies (which is about to get a follow-up), and one of the movies we highlighted was 1971’s Vanishing Point. Many people consider it the greatest car movie ever made, with Quentin Tarantino paying homage to it in Death Proof, with the “hero car” a 1970 Dodge Challenger, just like the one featured in that movie. Sadly, the star of Vanishing Point, Barry Newman, is no more, with THR reporting the iconic seventies actor has died at 92.

In the movie, Newman plays Kowalski, a disaffected ex-cop turned car delivery driver who makes a wager that he can drive from Denver to San Francisco in two days. Hopped up on speed and driving up to 160 miles an hour, he quickly runs afoul of the law, but nothing will stop him from delivering the Dodge Charger by the agreed-upon delivery date. He soon becomes a counter-culture hero,...

Barry Newman, who propelled a supercharged Dodge Challenger across the American West in Vanishing Point and portrayed a defense attorney on the NBC series Petrocelli, has died. He was 92.

Newman died May 11 of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center, his wife, Angela, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After appearing on Broadway and starring in The Lawyer (1970), the Boston-born actor was up for a change of pace when he was offered the role of a man tasked with transporting a car from Denver to San Francisco in the action-packed Fox film Vanishing Point (1971), directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

“This was very unique,” he said. “I had just done this film about a lawyer, a Harvard graduate, and I thought this is a different kind of thing. The guy was the rebel, the antihero. I enjoyed doing that very much.”

Newman’s taciturn character, Kowalski, was a Vietnam veteran, former...

The CW has landed the U.S. rights to eco-thriller drama The Swarm, which comes from Game of Thrones exec producer Frank Doelger.

The eight-part series launched in Germany earlier this year, where it premiered on Zdf.

Brad Schwartz, President of Entertainment, The CW Network revealed the acquisition after the company’s fall schedule presentation and called The Swarm a “big swing”.

The Swarm follows an unknown enemy from the depths of the sea that strikes back due to the reckless treatment of the oceans. It debuted out of competition in Berlin last month before transferring to Zdf’s streaming service.

Related: The CW Fall 2023 Schedule

The series, considered one of Europe’s biggest TV drama swings in some time, stars Alexander Karim (The Lawyer), Cécile de France (The New Pope), Leonie Benesch (The Crown), Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt) and Takuya Kimura (I Come With The Rain).

Doelger, an exec...

Eco-thriller “The Swarm,” which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, has been acquired in the U.K. by pay-tv operator Sky. Negotiations with a U.S. partner are in the final stages.

The show, produced by multiple Primetime Emmy award winner and “Game of Thrones” executive producer Frank Doelger and Ndf IP’s managing director Eric Welbers, is set to play on the Sky Max channel in the U.K. later this year.

“The Swarm” scored huge ratings in Germany on Zdf and on Austria’s Orf. In Germany, it attracted up to 10 million views per episode (linear and catch-up combined), multiple prime time wins, and big successes within the younger target group (between the ages of 14-49).

The series will continue its international roll-out throughout the year. It was acquired by pay-tv platform Movistar+ Plus for Spain, and will be available on Hulu in Japan; on Viaplay Group in Finland,...

New York, NY (4/7/23) – Yen Press, LLC held a panel at Sakura-Con 2023, at which they announced twenty-three new acquisitions being published under its Yen Press and Yen On imprints. This Fall 2023 lineup of titles includes sixteen manga titles.

The Deer King (novel)

By Nahoko Uehashi

Van, a former soldier made slave, toils away endlessly in a salt mine. An unexpected chance at liberation drops in his lap when a pack of infected dogs pass through, killing everyone but him and a young girl called Yuna. Van hopes to make a peaceful life for himself now that he's escaped. However, the disease that cleared out the mine is rapidly spreading, placing him and his ward at the center of a conflict greater than any the world has ever seen.

The Deer King (manga)

Story Nahoko Uehashi

Art by Taro Sekiguchi

Van resolves to fight the Zol Empire and save his homeland, only...

Breaking into the world of filmmaking is never an easy prospect.

And when you are a queer filmmaker who wants to focus on LGBTQ subjects, and lives in a traditional, Catholic, former Soviet Eastern European country, the bar to success is set pretty high.

Romas Zabarauskas’ career proves that with grit, determination — and, as he says, “no bitterness” — it is possible to create your own path on the international stage.

The 32-year-old producer and director — currently in production of his first English-language feature, “The Writer,” the second in a trilogy of films examining gay relationships — says being in the public spotlight as a queer filmmaker is a “complex issue.”

“In Lithuania, the reality of my country is complex; on the one hand, here I am engaged to my fiancé Kornelijus, but we cannot get married because Lithuania does not recognize same-sex partnerships, but on the other hand, I am here...

‘The Writer’ and ’The Activist’ will follow ’The Lawyer’.

Lithuanian writer-director-producer Romas Zabarauskas has unveiled the next two parts of a queer genre-driven trilogy at the Baltic Producers Spotlight as part of the EFM’s Baltic Countries in Focus.

Following first film The Lawyer, Zabarauskas has cast Jamie Day and Bruce Ross to star in the English-language romantic drama The Writer about two former lovers reconnecting in New York 30 years after serving together in the Soviet army.

The €350,000 co-production between Zabarauskas’ own Vilnius-based production outfit Naratyvas, Glenn Elliott’s Berlin-based Artysta Management and Aidan Tumas of New York’s Dead Heat Pictures,...

On the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel, we will be posting one full movie every day of the week, giving viewers the chance to watch them entirely free of charge. The Free Movie of the Day we have for you today is the Vietnam War drama The Veteran, and you can watch it over on the YouTube channel linked above, or you can just watch it in the embed at the top of this article.

Directed by Sidney J. Furie from a screenplay by J. Stephen Maunder and John Flock, The Veteran was originally released in 2006 and is a follow-up to Furie’s 2001 film Under Heavy Fire, a.k.a. Going Back. This one has the following synopsis: Thirty years on from the Vietnam War, a government official is trying to track down soldiers who went missing in action, in the hope that it may lead her to her father. Meanwhile,...

Probably best known as the basis for the TV series Petrocelli, Sidney Furie’s 1970 crime drama stars Barry Newman as an ambitious lawyer who makes his name in a high profile murder case. Diana Muldaur co-stars as Newman’s wife and TV perennial Harold J. Stone plays his volatile courtroom rival.

The post The Lawyer appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

LADstudios Behind ‘Lens On Ukraine’

Exclusive: LADbible production arm LADstudios is to produce Lens on Ukraine, a wealth of short and mid-form factual content dedicated to sharing reliable, informative and supportive content focused on the war in Ukraine. The series of shorts will include animated explainers, vox pops, and clips from contributors on the ground in Kyiv and other conflict zones covering events on TikTok. LADbible has also launched an initiative to raise funds for the British Red Cross, with each piece of content produced for the campaign linking to the charity’s Ukraine Humanitarian appeal where viewers can donate funds. “The unfolding tragedy in Ukraine has shocked us all,” said LADstudios Director Alex Morris. “The LADstudios team is committed to creating a wide range of content covering the crisis from a number of different angles.”

Stv Studios Buys ‘Ex Rated’ Producer Mighty Productions; Posts 2021 Growth

Scottish producer Stv Studios...

“Fitness advice, gig economy, binge watching Danish crime series, sustainability, sex when the kids watch cartoons, mobile bank ID, personal development 5:2 diet, anti-aging cream, Adobe updates, climate friendly travel, body activism,” Anders rants quietly to the camera, as he walks from his car to home in the equivalent of white picket fence Sweden at the beginning of Swedish Discovery Plus Original “Gotebia,” a half-hour dramedic psychological thriller.

“Exterior renovations, Roblox, mini Rodini hats, dinners from Fedora. Shared family calendar. Find us-time, life with kids, drainage pipes, hot yoga, performance review, changing the plumbing, pub crawls, doggy day care,” he goes on.

43, Anders is out of his depth at work where his company’s motivational speakers are no longer found in the newspaper or on TV but on YouTube, TikTok, Snap and Instagram. And suffering to keep up with the Joneses – in this case tennis player and neighbor Martin’s...

Paris-based Apc (About Premium Content) has acquired world sales rights on the six-part Finnish thriller “A Good Family,” currently filming in Estonia before moving back to Finland.

The high-end drama about love, marriage and parenthood is based on Finnish author and screenwriter Petri Karra’s 2019 novel “The Dark Light” (“Musta Valo”). The creative team takes in creator/producer Minna Virtanen, creator/writer Antti Pesonen and helmer Pete Riski, behind the crime show “Bullets,” which won the MIPDrama Buyers’ Coup de Coeur award in 2018 and launched on Walter Presents in the U.K. in January.

Virtanen said she started collaborating with Karra on the TV show concept even before his novel was published. Then Pesonen’s screenplay was polished by script editors Matti Laine (“The Paradise”) and Charlotte Lesche.

Seasoned actor Maria Sid and actor/singer Samuli Edelmann are toplining the TV show as police officer Anna and her husband Henrick,...

Lisa Farzaneh and Jesper W Nielsen’s new production, staged by Nice Drama in association with Twelve Town, will premiere on Viaplay later this year. In a press release published recently, Nent Group disclosed important details about one of its new productions, an eight-part thriller series entitled Max Anger – With One Eye Open. The project, currently in production, is based on Martin Österdahl’s book Ask No Mercy (2016), the first instalment in a trilogy focusing on former special-ops soldier Max Anger, here played by Adam Lundgren. Lisa Farzaneh (the TV series Quicksand and Agent Hamilton) and Jesper W Nielsen are attached to direct the series, whilst Mikael Newihl (the TV series The Lawyer and Black Widows) served as the head writer. Other screenwriters are Anders Sparring, Pauline Wolff, Åsa Anderberg Strolle and Jörgen Hjerdt. The story is set in tumultuous 1990s-era Russia and centres...

Nent Group’s new series, co-produced by German outfit Night Train Media, will star Alexander Karim, Peter Stormare and Anna Friel in the leading roles. A new Nent Group production is now in the making – namely, the seven-part psycho-thriller series The Box, penned and created by Adi Hasak (the TV series Shades of Blue and Eyewitness). The project, helmed by seasoned British director Steve Shill, has just begun filming in one indoor location in Stockholm, where a US police station has been purposely recreated. The story follows Sharon Pici, a Kansas City police officer (played by award-winning actress Anna Friel), who gets obsessed with an investigation and ends up experiencing a supernatural nightmare. Alexander Karim (the TV series The Lawyer) will play her partner, Loveall, whilst veteran thesp Peter Stormare will portray Jed, the police station manager. The Box is...

Sf Studios is teaming up with “Easy Money” screenwriter Maria Karlsson on “The Stockholm Bloodbath,” an epic film

inspired by the true story of Kristina Gyllenstierna, a fearless woman who fought to protect Stockholm when the Danes invaded the city in 1520.

“The Stockholm Bloodbath” refers to a lesser-known, dark chapter in Scandinavian history when the three-day coronation ceremony for the Danish king Christian II became one of Sweden’s most violent power struggles. During this turmoil, the Danish king ordered the execution of many figures of the Swedish nobility.

Currently at script stage, “The Stockholm Bloodbath” will mark yet another big-budget, internationally-driven epic film on Sf Studios’s production and distribution slate. The Scandinavian powerhouse recently wrapped the productions of “Margrete – Queen of the North” and “The Emigrants,” two highly anticipated historical dramas which will be teased at Goteborg’s virtual Nordic Film Market. Both films will be released in...

“Just start shooting.” That was the advice the legendary A.C. Lyles delivered to young filmmakers when they asked him how he managed to produce five films every year. “Don’t waste your time waiting for some nameless executive to give you the green light,” Lyles told them.

His approach was problematic, but in today’s stalled pandemic economy, it makes perverse sense. Two young female filmmakers successfully pursued his tactic this year with festival-winning results that might inspire others to follow suit. So did a distinguished 87-year-old director who has finished shooting his new film built around two veteran stars, ages 82 and 90.

In both cases, the filmmakers knew the odds were stacked against them – too much experience on one side, too little on the other. They thus decided not to wait in vain for a studio green light, instead scratching together their resources until they could finally shout, “Action!”

The films,...

AMC Networks’ Sundance Now has acquired Schiaffino Musarra’s Swedish crime comedy series “We Got This” from Banijay Rights for the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

The show follows George English (Musarra), a recently jobless American man living in Sweden who sets off to solve the 30-year-old murder of the former prime minister Olof Palme, in hopes that the 50 million Swedish crown ($5 million) reward can pay off his insurmountable tax bill. English teams with his closest friend, a wacky conspiracy theorist and former police officer, as he ventures into a web of intrigue.

Created and co-written by Musarra, the six-part dark comedy series is set against the backdrop of the true story of Palme’s assassination in 1986. Until recently, a reward was being offered by Swedish authorities, given Palme was hailed a national hero for his humanism. Ironically, “We Got This” finished airing in Sweden just days before...

Romas Zabarauskas’ Lgbtq+ title received its market premiere at Berlin’s European Film Market in February.

Paris-based sales outfit Wide Management has unveiled a slew of sales on Romas Zabarauskas’ The Lawyer, which had its premiere at this year’s online edition of the UK’s BFI Flare festival.

The Lithuanian drama about a corporate lawyer, played by Eimutis Kvoščiauskas, who tries to help a Syrian refugee he encounters in an online chatroom, played by Doğaç Yıldız, received its market premiere at the Efm in February.

Wide has sold all rights (including theatrical) to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and...

An American actor-turned-screenwriter living in Sweden, Schiaffino Musarra dared to tackle his adoptive country’s “greatest tragedy and biggest embarrassment” in his crime comedy “We Got This,” which bowed May 3 on Swedish broadcaster Svt.

The show, which is repped by Banijay Rights, follows George English (Musarra), a recently jobless American man living in Sweden who sets off to solve the 30-year-old murder of the former prime minister Olof Palme, in hopes that the 50 million Swedish Crown ($5 million) reward can pay off his insurmountable tax bill. English teams with his closest friend, a whacky conspiracy theorist and former police officer, as he ventures into a web of intrigue.

“We Got This” scooped the best pitch prize at last year’s Series Mania festival in France and went into production in record time after its win, with Patrik Eklund directing and a strong cast including Alexander Karim (“The Lawyer”), Olle Sarri (“Apan...

The Lithuanian production helmed by Romas Zabarauskas is shortly to head to the Efm in Berlin. The Lawyer, which has a script penned by director Romas Zabarauskas, tells the complicated love story between two men. Life drifts by for gay corporate lawyer Marius (played by Eimutis Kvosciauskas), who spends his days teasing friends and chasing young lovers. One day, Marius’ estranged father dies. Mourning turns to love as the lawyer finds he has an unanticipated connection with a sex-cam worker, Ali (Turkish thesp Doğaç Yıldız), a Syrian refugee stuck in Belgrade. The feature, budgeted at €314,300, received support from the Lithuanian Film Centre, which earmarked a €197,500 production and development grant for it. The production also benefited from the local tax incentive, raising a further €75,000. The rest of the budget was raised through smaller grants, private donations and a pre-sale for Lrt, Lithuania’s pubcaster. Sales are entrusted to France's...

The Lithuanian helmer’s third feature is the first Baltic production to explore the theme of male homosexual love; France's Wide Management will be selling it at the impending Efm. Update (11 February 2020): The script of The Lawyer, penned by director Romas Zabarauskas himself, tells the complicated love story between two men. Life drifts by for gay corporate lawyer Marius (played by Eimutis Kvosciauskas), who spends his days teasing friends and chasing young lovers. One day, Marius’ estranged father dies. Mourning turns to love as the lawyer finds he has an unanticipated connection with a sex-cam worker, Ali (Turkish thesp Doğaç Yıldız), a Syrian refugee stuck in Belgrade. The feature, budgeted at €314,300, has received support from the Lithuanian Film Centre, which earmarked a €197,500 production and development grant for it. The production also benefited from the local tax incentive, raising a further €75,000. The rest of the budget was...

French pay-tv group Canal Plus is launching Canal Plus Series, an Ott channel dedicated to scripted shows, which will bow Tuesday with a slightly cheaper subscription fee than Netflix’s in France.

The new Ott service will showcase a mix of Canal Plus original series such as “Spiral,” “Versailles” and the anticipated contemporary half-hour “Vernon Subutex,” and high-profile international shows such as “Killing Eve” and “My Brilliant Friend.” Other series such as “Deadly Class” and the new season of “Gomorra” will also be exclusively available on Canal Plus Series in France

Canal Plus Series’ slate will boast recent Showtime, FX and Studiocanal productions, notably “Billions,” “What We Do in the Shadows” and “The Lawyer,” respectively. Some flagship series such as “”24,” “Dexter” and “The X-Files” will be part of the channel’s offer as well.

As it aims to lure younger demographics, Canal Plus Series will be available as a standalone,...

Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group), the operator of Scandinavia’s leading streaming service Viaplay, has ordered “Cryptid,” the Swedish-language horror series produced by Dramacorp, and Per-Olav Sørensen’s series “Commando” which is based on actual events and set in Norway, Libya and the UK.

“Commando” is an eight-episode series based on the special operation carried on in 2011 which saw Norwegian F-16 fighter jets drop nearly 600 bombs over Libya. The series follows the stories of four women, an F-16 pilot, a journalist, a possible terrorist and a prime minister, exploring the genesis and consequences of the operation. Sørensen is a popular Norwegian filmmaker whose credits include “Quicksand” and “Nobel.”

Written by Jenny Lund Madsen (“Follow the Money”) and Christian Spurrier (“Spooks”),”Commando” is being produced by Trond Håndlykken Kvernstrøm for The Oslo Company and Anders Tangen for Viafilm.

“The immediacy, urgency and powerful visual language of ‘Commando’, including extensive first-person footage from inside an F-16 jet,...

Scandinavia Svod service Viaplay is moving into the short-form horror genre with a Ya series from French/Swedish crime drama Midnight Sun.

The platform, which is operated by Nordic Entertainment Group, has given a greenlight to Cryptid, a ten-part series of 22-minute episodes that centers on the idyllic lakeside town of Mörkstad, whose peaceful existence is suddenly shattered by a series of terrifying and unexplainable events.

The series is one of the most interesting concepts to emerge out of Europe since Norwegian teen drama Skam and is sure to draw the eye of U.S. producers.

The high-concept Swedish-language drama is based on an original pitch by graphic novelist Sylvain Runberg, and is being written by a writer’s room that includes Ya novelist Anna Jakobsson Lund.

Mörkstad is a small town in the northern hemisphere near a beautiful lake. But there’s a dark side to Mörkstad’s idyllic...

Mika Ronkainen and Merja Aakko won the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for outstanding writing on a Nordic drama series on Wednesday evening for “All the Sins,” a crime thriller and broken family drama set in Finland’s singular Bible belt and sod by Sky Vision.

The six-part series marks the first venture into series drama creation by documentary director Ronkainen, whose 2003’s “Screaming Men” played Sundance, and 2009’s “Freetime Machos” the Tribeca Film Festival, and by Aako, a former journalist specialized in human interest stories and social issues.

“All the Sins” is lead produced for Finnish VOD service Elisa Viihde by Ilkka Matila at Finland’s Mrp Matila Rohr Productions.

The series begins with detective Lauri Räiha being dispatched to investigate the murders of two men, both pillars of the ultra-conservative Laestadian religious community, in Varjakka, a small northern Finnish town where he grew up. He is accompanied by a senior officer,...

“State of Happiness,” “The Flatey Enigma” and “The Inner Circle” are among the six Nordic drama series which will be presented at Goteborg Film Festival’s TV Drama Vision and compete for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize.

Written by Mette M. Bølstad (“Nobel”), “State of Happiness” follows four young characters who come from different backgrounds and are thrown into a whirlwind of opportunity during Norway’s oil boom of the 1970s.

“The Flatey Enigma,” written by Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, is a mystery thriller series based on Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson’s novels. “The Inner Circle,” penned by Håkan Lindhé, is a political thriller about an ambitious young man belonging to the Swedish political elite on a journey to fulfill his life long dream and become Prime Minister of Sweden.

The other nominated series are “Kieler Street,” written by Stig Frode Henriksen, Jesper Sundnes and Patrik Syversen; “All the Sins,” written by...

Cannes — Launching new production units in France and the U.K., European film-tv powerhouse Studiocanal is priming its established talent relationships as it pushes ever more fiction format sales. The production-distribution-sales house hits Mipcom with “Pros and Cons,” the latest series from Sam Productions, co-run by “Borgen’s” Adam Price, and “,” from Nicola Shindler’s Red Picture Company, “Happy Valley” producers.

With Urban Myth Films’ producer-scribe Howard Overman set to shown “The War of the Worlds,” produced by Urban Myth, Canal Plus and Fox Networks Group Europe, Studiocanal has now acquired world sales rights outside Spain to “Instinto,” a original series from Telefonica’s Movistar + produced with Ramon Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdes Bambu Producciones, in which, as Sam and Urban Myth, Studiocanal holds a minority equity stake.

The “Instinto” deal marks Studiocanal’s first move on a title from Bambu Producciones, one of the drivers in Spain’s fiction boom,...

The deal will cover properties developed from now going forward.

REinvent Studios, the Copenhagen-based company launched by former TrustNordisk CEO Rikke Ennis, has signed a three-year strategic partnership to handle international sales for Sf Studios’ new Scandinavian TV series.

The deal will cover properties developed from now going forward.

Tim King, executive vice president production for Sf Studios, based in Stockholm, explained, “We have eight new shows in active development across the Nordics that we will start discussing at Mipcom. These shows represent a broad range of genres, which reflects the general need for Scandinavian producers to move away from pure Scandi Noir.