The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Dubai Studios, which is a unit of Dubai Media Company, have forged a long-term partnership at the Mipcom TV market in Cannes.  The so called “Gala” partnership includes sponsorship of the International Emmy World Television Festival in New York, where over 600 television professionals from over […]

After becoming a prime Middle East hub for Hollywood and Bollywood productions Abu Dhabi is raising its rebate on film and TV productions and is at the Mipcom TV market looking to lure more business to the United Arab Emirates capital and the surrounding area. The Abu Dhabi Film Commission has announced they are upping […]

Turkish star Meryem Uzerli, who is known globally for her role as a former slave who becomes the powerful wife of Ottoman emperor Suleiman in Turkish megahit soap “Magnificent Century,” is headed to Mipcom with a new age-gap romance show titled “RU.” Uzerli will be making the trek to Cannes for the international launch of […]

Italy’s Groenlandia, the Banijay-owned and Rome-based company headed by directors and producers Matteo Rovere and Sydney Sibilia, is on a roll with three shows launching this month respectively on Disney+, Sky Italia and Netflix. They include crime drama “This Is Not Hollywood,” which bows Friday at the Rome Film Festival. The four-part crime series is based […]

Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as the businessman and former U.S. president, is skipping its planned release in cinemas in the United Arab Emirates — and also Kuwait — possibly for political reasons. Ali Abbasi’s film, which follows Trump’s rise to fame and his time learning from influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy […]

Ron Howard’s survival thriller “Eden,” starring Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney, has been set as the opening film of Italy’s Torino Film Festival with the director in tow. “Eden,” which follows a pair of high-minded Europeans, played by Law and Kirby, who are seeking a new life on a previously […]

Italy’s Rainbow Group – the company led by Iginio Straffi, creator of the hit “Winx Club” animation franchise – is set to launch into the high seas with a live-action series adaptation of Hugo Pratt’s “Corto Maltese” graphic novels. The comics follow the title character, a swashbuckling sea captain whose adventures take him around the world. […]

Nearly 10 years after its launch, Italian sales company True Colours is branching out from feature films into the TV content space under the new management of Elliot Gustin-Hollman, formerly with Paris-based distribution powerhouse Newen Connect. The move into TV sales is being made by True Colours – which is co-owned by Italy’s Indigo Film and […]

A new studio called WeirdBunch Entertainment, which aims to make Marvel-like content with a Middle-Eastern flavor, is being launched by a group of industry execs with offices in Saudi Arabia and Los Angeles.  WeirdBunch brings together prominent Saudi puppeteer, producer and podcaster Ammar Al-Sabban, who worked on the Arabic adaptation of “Sesame Street”; Marvel comics […]

French media executive Romain Bessi — who played a key role in building France’s Newen Studios and StudioCanal into international powerhouses — is joining the indie trenches as the leader of an alliance of indie production companies known as The Creatives in the newly created role of CEO. Bessi, who in February left his CEO […]

Rome’s MIA Market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries kicked off its 10th edition on Monday, with 60 selected projects from 90 countries ready to be unveiled to potential partners. The Oct. 14-18 pre-Mipcom boutique event – which is celebrating its first decade by continuing to adapt its innovative informal market […]

Anthony Hopkins is attached to star in “Maserati: The Brothers,” an English-language biopic directed by Bobby Moresco about the family behind the high-performance automobiles that, along with Ferrari and Lamborghini, Italy is known for.   The legendary Oscar-winning actor will play an Italian financier who bankrolls the Maserati brothers. The “Maserati” movie is is produced […]

Muvi Studios, the production arm of Saudi Arabia’s leading exhibition chain, have announced a slew of deals during the ongoing Saudi Film Confex confab, including a partnership with local label Sirb Production on hotly anticipated social satire “Lail Nahar,” directed by local hitmaker Abdulaziz Almuzaini. Almuzaini, who is a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen, is the director/producer behind […]

Italy’s Adler Entertainment and 39Films have teamed up on an innovative IP incubator called Writing Box that will bring together Italian and global screenwriters with the goal of germinating feature films, TV series and docs for the international market. The initiative – being launched at Rome’s MIA market next week – is the brainchild of […]

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s politically-charged thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which has been chosen to represent Germany in the upcoming international feature film Oscar race, is becoming a catalyst for calls urging the Academy to rethink the system under which countries submit their candidates. Tipped as a frontrunner in the category, Rasoulof’s movie […]

New Italian distribution company PiperFilm is launching its international sales unit at Rome’s upcoming MIA Market with veteran sales agent Catia Rossi spearheading the potentially high-powered player’s sales side having secured a small but promising multi-genre film slate. Rossi is a former head of international sales at Vision Distribution, True Colours, and RAI Com. She launched […]

Netflix is launching a local adaptation of “Love Is Blind” in Italy following recent European redos of the hit reality dating show in the U.K. and Sweden. “Love Is Blind Italy,” which is being produced for Netflix by Banijay Italia, “has begun casting and is now open for Italian residents,” said a Netflix statement that did […]

Oscar-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) will preside over the jury of the upcoming Marrakech International Film Festival, with which he has a longstanding rapport. The Marrakech jury will award its Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the fest’s international competition. Recent winners include Moroccan director Asmae El […]

Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio,” which recently won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion and is Italy’s international Oscars contender, is scoring stellar returns at the local box office and fast becoming the country’s indie darling. The intimate period drama, which is largely spoken in Northern Italian dialect and is playing with Italian-language subtitles in local cinemas, […]