International Insider: From Rome To Cannes Via London; Lebanon’s Crisis-Weary Filmmakers; ‘Rivals’ Launch
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Mamma MIA!
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A trip to the Barberini: Deadline was in Italy this week, as top players from European and North American film and TV descended on the annual MIA Market conference. October is a busy month for Rome, with the film festival also kicking off on Wednesday with a premiere screening of Andrea Segre’s La Grande Ambizione at the Auditorium della Musica. Over at the Cinema Barberini, MIA got underway on Monday with Jesse interviewing Among Us showrunner Owen Dennis on stage about the creative process of turning the Covid-19 pandemic’s favorite mobile game into a comedy-horror animation for CBS Studios. “The game can be unsettling,” Dennis told us in a pre-interview. “You’re walking around what is mostly an empty spaceship with the knowledge that at least one person on the crew is an alien and wants to kill you. It’s creepy in the best way. At the same time, it’s funny and tongue-in-cheek, clearly echoing Alien, Star Trek, and The Thing.” With the tenth edition of MIA in equal parts a rumination on the creative endeavors, the business of film and TV, and the state of the local industry, Owen’s appearance was warmly received by a knowledgable audience. Later in the week, Italian execs discussed whether FAST channels will ever take off in Europe like they have in the U.S., with Paramount+ and Pluto TV SVP of Streaming for Italy and South EMEA Antonella Dominici saying her company was “trying to put in place everything we can to accelerate this.” Off-stage, execs wondered out loud if the business actually makes money, and there are conflicting views as to whether it does or not. A lively co-production panel yesterday looked at the future of producing, with the likes of Fifth Season, Media Res and Nordisk Film all contributing. Joe Lewis, the former Amazon originals execs who now leads Amplify Pictures alongside former Netflix exec Rachel Eggebeen, had perhaps the most noteworthy view, saying that “truly independent” TV show financing was “the actual solution to the problem that studios, producers, creators and even distributors have.” With budgets squeezed and streamers finding their way in a new world of reduced costs, co-productions and innovative dealmaking, Lewis’ view certainly had delegates on the sidelines thinking. Also thought-provoking was documentary filmmaker Odessa Rae, whose tales of how the Oscar-winning Navalny and new film Hollywoodgate were made really highlighted the determination needed to make features with the power to change the world.
Pope speaks: No, not that one. Katherine Pope, the Sony Pictures Television Studios President, made a return trip to the Barberini eight years after she last attended and featured in an engrossing keynote interview that had local Italian producers and international counterparts fully engaged. Notably, she railed against the long gaps between seasons of streaming shows. She criticized “data-driven companies” for refusing to commit to second seasons until they had data from the first, which inevitably means a slowdown in the production process and, ultimately, when viewers get to continue their journey with a show. “It is absolutely untenable,” she said. “It’s not fair to the fans. The experience of watching eight episodes and then two years later watching the next eight is not a good fan experience.” She also struck a hopeful tone when saying that the current economic challenges facing studios and producers meant that some of the old school production “rigor” of the broadcast system that pumped out procedurals and multi-cam comedies at 22 or 24 episodes a season was returning, but this time melded with the “artistry” that the golden era of streaming brought about. “You really had to get shows done. You did not have a choice,” she recalled. In essence, necessity to find solutions, added with branded ambitions, could lead to a generation of programs that achieve new heights. “Creative production budgetary friction is a good thing,” she said. It always yields unexpected answers.” Turns out Francis wasn’t the most important Pope in Italy this week, in entertainment circles, at least.
Pitching in: MIA has gained a reputation as a co-production forum where nascent projects can come to emerge as something altogether more complete. Film, animation, docs and drama series events were run — sadly us hacks aren’t granted access — but Jesse spent the week tracking down the characters behind some of the most notable. There was an eclectic mix in the drama pitch with Riccardo Rossi of Bim Produzione in town with Fumettibrutti (Uglycomic), an adaptation of Italian cartoonist and activist Josephine Yole Signorelli’s coming-of-age trans identity graphic novel one notable project. From the U.S. and Japan was an adaptation of crime novel The Aosawa Murders that Upgrade Productions’ Matt Brodlie and Takeo Kodera from Kadokawa are prepping as a limited series. We also had word on Yes!, a Cold Feet-style relationship drama out of Ireland that has backing from pubcaster RTé and Viktoria Frankenstein, a German-UK drama using the famous Mary Shelley book as a jump off point for a story about a scientist desperate to bring her deceased son back from the dead. Full MIA coverage can be found here.
Putting The MIP In MIPCOM
Roaming on to Cannes: And so we jump from the Italian capital to Cannes, during what is undoubtedly one of the busiest months in the TV calendar. MIPCOM has a fair bit of buzz around it this year with the confab celebrating its 40th anniversary and its first with no MIP TV on the horizon (questions around the shape of the new MIP London will no doubt be forthcoming at the Wednesday press conference). Senior sources we’ve spoken with this week sounded positive about a MIPCOM that comes as the TV buying landscape slowly picks back up again, although one suggested there might be fewer U.S. attendees than in prior years given the turmoil Stateside. A U.S. exec who is making the journey, however, texted to say that their schedule is packed to bursting. “It’s still tough going out there so I’ll be curious to see the temperature after I speak to people,” they added. The lineup itself may be lacking a bit of star power (Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson headed over last year to promote Alice & Jack) but there are premieres and industry bigwigs aplenty, with talks from Amazon Studios international originals chief James Farrell, All3Media CEO Jane Turton, Warner Bros. Television Studios boss Channing Dungey and, intriguingly, outgoing Sony head Tony Vinciquerra. Meanwhile on Wednesday, our very own Stewart Clarke is hosting a Mediapro panel as the Spanish major unveils more about its fledgling LA studio with Laura Fernández Espeso and guests including Oscar-winning director Juan José Campanella and Emmy-winning producer Evan Katz. One not to be missed.
Projects, sales & Sir David Suchet: For the third year in a row we’ve put together a glossy print mag which can be found along the Croisette and across the Palais for those making the journey. This week our site has been awash with pre-market content including some splashy projects heading to France such as this adaptation of Daniel Edelson’s The Tea House on the Death Pass from Ron Leshem and the latest international co-pro for Peter Chernin’s North Road – a Brazilian medical thriller series titled Suture. Elsewhere, we brought you sales news for shows such as the remastered Homicide: Life on the Street and Joel Kinnaman’s Debriefing the President prior to market open. To get a real feel for MIPCOM, you can check out our Hot Ones as we profile all the big projects heading to Cannes, and if you need more then we’ve been rolling out our annual MIPCOM Scenesetters all week. Jesse took a look at the new generation of World War Two shows, I penned a deep dive into the procedural genre and Stewart profiled the latest big sales house to rebrand in Sphere Abacus. Speaking of Sphere Abacus, Stewart also spoke with the star of its new doc series, the iconic Sir David Suchet himself, about Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet. If you’re going to read one piece of MIPCOM content this week (but please don’t just read one), it should be this one. All our coverage so far can be found here. Please do check back over the weekend and into next week for more. See you on the Croisette.
Crisis-Weary Filmmakers In Lebanon
Becoming “tools of resistance”: Last week we marked the anniversary of the October 7 tragedy. This one, Mel has been speaking with filmmakers in Lebanon and beyond impacted by the recent fighting in a nation that has given the world Capernaum, Perfect Strangers and West Beirut. A wealth of industry figures have been personally impacted by the bombing that has rained down on Lebanon in recent weeks, as the conflict spirals. The crisis-weary filmmakers told Mel they fear for what’s to come. “Just as I was getting used to this new world, this new Lebanon, and starting to figure out how to make it work, we suddenly have this full-blown war,” said producer Myriam Sassine, who is currently waiting in Cairo for her husband after her flight from LA to Beirut was canceled. Later, Sassine suggested getting Lebanese films over the line is becoming a militant act, describing these projects as “tools of resistance.” Mel’s piece is a timely reminder of both the personal and ideological impacts that conflict can have over local industries. Echoing last week’s message, we hope that things will be very different soon. Read Mel’s report here.
Best Of The London Film Fest
“Be bold and spend less”: Next to the London Film Festival’s industry forum, which ended Wednesday after the British Film Institute had put together an impressive lineup for the business-focused sidebar. Speakers included Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, who discussed their decades-long collaboration onstage with BFI CEO Ben Roberts. The pair also shared their take on the current indie film space. “Films need to cost less money and they need to be bolder in that space,” Fellner told the crowd in London. Bevan added that he believes there’s “a real shyness at the studio level in terms of original movies.” The pair concluded the talk telling the audience that moving forward they will make more movies around the $15M mark. Longtime Searchlight exec Katie Goodson-Thomas chaired a session in the week where she celebrated the mini-studio’s 30th anniversary in the biz. Goodson-Thomas, however, also bemoaned how difficult it has become for the company to compete with the bigger streaming companies on the market. “We can’t be competitive with Netflix or Amazon or Apple. It’s just not gonna happen,” she said, adding that she would personally like to work with new filmmakers like Emerald Fennell but Searchlight has been entirely priced out of a conversation with her. “She’s working on Wuthering Heights but we’re not going to be able to join that conversation,” Goodson-Thomas said of Fennel. The only thing that keeps Searchlight moving at all in the market is the company’s “humanity and face-to-face” relationships with filmmakers at all levels of the production process, which Goodson-Thomas said doesn’t exist at the streamers.
On the Hunt: The industry forum concluded with a well-attended session with Apple TV+ exec and BFI Chair Jay Hunt. The session was chaired by Traitors host Claudia Winkleman, who quizzed Hunt on her time running BBC One. The Australian-born exec described her time at the channel as a “huge privilege” but said the job’s visibility creates a unique strain on creativity. “It’s probably the terrestrial channel where it’s most important to be creatively courageous and yet it is the most difficult environment to be brave because you can’t smuggle things onto BBC One,” Hunt said. “If you’re on BBC One, you’re there for the nation to see.”However, Hunt added that the channel’s cultural prominence allows execs to make important interventions in wider social and political issues that divide the nation. “When we put [Idris Elba] as the lead on Luther, it was the first time there was a Black lead on BBC One and that’s just extraordinary,” she said. “So you can go into people’s homes and change the way they think about the country they live in.” The London Film Festival ends this Sunday with the Pharrell Williams biopic Piece by Piece. Check back with us on the weekend to see how picks up the festival’s competition awards.
‘Rivals’ Snobbery
Farting in the face of failure: If you’re going to watch one new TV series this week then take it from me it should be Disney+’s Rivals. The Jilly Cooper adaptation launches today and the first ep at the very least is an absolute riot, with starry performances aplenty and a pleasing ‘inside baseball’ vibe in its portrayal of the commercial TV sector in the 1980s. Turns out its journey to screen has been almost as interesting. Producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins told me that the idea for the show has been living rent free inside his head since he entered the industry as a green twenty something, but he consistently came up against the same enemy – the innate “snobbery” of British TV and Cooper’s reputation as an author of ‘bonkbusters.’ “I had meetings with the BBC and ITV years ago when I didn’t have the rights and when I said, ‘Would you go for something like Jilly Cooper?’ They would look at me like I’d farted,” he explained candidly. But Dominic, who described Cooper as “like Dickens” due to her observatory powers, always believed in Jilly and, having launched his own indie, the ITV Studios-backed Happy Prince, Rivals eventually ended up at Disney+ of all places. The big-budget romp starring David Tennant and Aidan Turner is the result, and Treadwell-Collins is confident in franchise potential, alluding to a potential ‘Cooperverse’ as streamers seek the next big long-running series beyond the States. You could look further than this one.
The Essentials
??? Hot One: Big one from Breaking Baz with Gary Oldman set to step back on the London stage for the first time in almost four decades in Krapp’s Last Tape.
??? Really Hot One: Lionsgate Play will provide free access to its entire content library for one week from October 18 to 24 as part of its ‘Gatecrash Lionsgate’ campaign in India, per Sara Merican.
??? Excruciatingly Hot One: A buzzy young cast have assembled for sci-fi thriller UAP. Cameras will roll next month.
?? Contenders: Our dedicated site profiling the films set to compete for awards glory in 2025 can be found here, featuring full coverage of our starry event over the weekend in London.
??? Slate: From Netflix Benelux HQ, including a reality series following Yolanthe Cabau’s journey to LA.
?? The big interview: Vice Media CEO Bruce Dixon and Vice Studios Group Co-President Danny Gabai outlined to Diana how they are planning to revive the famous youth brand after its bankruptcy.
?? All about toons: All of Us Are Dead’s Joo Dong-geun told Sara about his 11-year adaptation journey with the hit webtoon.
??? Agencies: UTA signed NewlyWeds duo Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo.
??? Festivals latest: Germany’s Seriencamp set dates for 2k25.
??? More festivals: Egypt’s El Gouna launched an initiative supporting and promoting emerging talent in the MENA region.
?? Doctor Who?: The curious case of Ncuti Gatwa’s Season 3 remarks was resolved by Jake.
?? Ratings: Citadel: Diana, the latest in the Russo bros’ franchise, broke records for Amazon Italy after its first weekend.
???? ElectionLine: Jake chatted with Spain’s Vanessa Jaklitsch, the first Spaniard to receive an I-1 journalism visa under Trump’s White House.
?? Box Office: Joker: Folie à Deux‘s sad journey around the world continued.
?? New job: For former Newen boss Romain Bessi, who will lead international indie alliance The Creatives.
?? Done deal: Critical Content had a busy one, signing first looks with WBITVP Australia and Dubai’s Blue Engine.
And finally: The entertainment world was shocked this week by the death of Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer who made his name on Simon Cowell’s X Factor. Tributes have been flooding in over the past couple of days. Deadline’s thoughts go out to his family at this difficult time.
Jesse Whittock and Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s International Insider. It was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Jesse Whittock.
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