News

Exclusive: Film At Lincoln Center will launch its horror film series Scary Movies next month, and titles set for the 13th edition include Alexander Ullom’s buzzy SXSW feature It Ends and a 4K restoration of Harry Kümel’s seminal Daughters of Darkness. Check out the official trailer for the season below.

Officially titled Scary Movies Xiii, the season will run at Lincoln Center from August 15 through August 21 and feature 16 titles. The season opens with Ullom’s It Ends. The film screened at SXSW and follows a group of friends who, on a late-night food run, become trapped on an infinite highway with otherworldly terrors lurking beyond. Confined in their Jeep Cherokee, they must decide whether to accept their fate or attempt escape. Also screening on opening night is Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chain Reactions, a documentary about the profound impact of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,...

Vuelta Group’s international sales division, Playtime, has completed the full acquisition of sales house Film Constellation from Fabien Westerhoff, and integrated its operations with Global Screen, the German-based international sales outfit under Playtime. Together, these entities will form Global Constellation.

Global Constellation will be part of the Playtime Group, which includes sales companies Playtime, Film Boutique, and Be for Films.

Westerhoff takes an executive role as managing director of the theatrical film division bringing together the strengths of both companies with a strategic market focus on animation, family entertainment, and genre cinema.

Ulrike Schroder will be managing director of the TV division, heading the hub for international TV distribution within Vuelta.

Global Constellation will collaborate closely with Vuelta Germany, Vuelta’s German film distribution arm, born from the merger of Squareone and Telepool. This positions Global Constellation as the “go-to partner for German and international filmmakers seeking pan-European collaborations and international reach,...

The pan-European Vuelta group has fully acquired UK-based sales outfit Film Constellation from founder and CEO Fabien Westerhoff.

The company’s operations will merge with Global Screen, the German-based international sales outfit that is part of Vuelta’s collection of sales companies, the Playtime Group.

Film Constellation and Global Screen will now operate as Global Constellation.

Westerhoff will take an executive role as managing director of the theatrical film division of Global Constellation, with a focus on animation, family entertainment and genre cinema.

Ulrike Schroderis managing director of Global Constellation’s TV division.

Global Constellation will collaborate closely with Vuelta Germany,...

European film and TV studio Vuelta Group’s international sales division Playtime has announced the full acquisition of subsidiary sales arm Film Constellation and merged it with Global Screen into a single entity called Global Constellation.

Fabien Westerhoff will take on the executive role of Managing Director of the theatrical film division bringing together the complementary strengths of both companies, with a strategic market focus on animation, family entertainment, and genre cinema. Ulrike Schroder, Managing Director of the TV division will head the exclusive hub for international TV distribution within Vuelta.

Global Constellation will collaborate closely with Vuelta Germany, the German film distribution arm born from the merger of SquareOne and Telepool. Vuelta said the operation positioned Global Constellation as the ‘go-to’ partner for German and International filmmakers seeking pan-European collaborations and international

First joint projects will be unveiled at the upcoming Cannes Market.

The current feature film slate includes...

A woman immolates herself in a silent glade—flames licking ancient pines as unseen figures watch, half‑hidden by shadow. It’s an opening so arresting it brands itself onto the mind.

Judith, a no‑nonsense Berlin paramedic, inherits her estranged father’s rural estate in Lower Austria. She and her photographer husband, Ryan, arrive expecting a quick sale. Instead, they tumble into a labyrinth of ritual and memory, coaxed by a cadre of overwhelmingly polite—and overwhelmingly female—villagers.

The setting wears two faces: sun‑dappled woodland trails give way to looming crosses, deer skulls hanging like mute sentinels. Prochaska summons the mood of 1970s cult horror, echoes of Rosemary’s Baby and Wicker Man reborn in damp mountain air.

This marks Andreas Prochaska’s cinematic comeback after eleven years. He places Julia Franz Richter at the story’s churning center—her Judith both healer and haunted, every controlled breath hinting at buried wounds.

If you are craving a movie that gives you that visceral big-screen experience you love, the Panorama section of the 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival has you covered out of the gate.

Welcome Home Baby, a psychological thriller from Austrian director Andreas Prochaska (The Dark Valley, Das Boot, Alex Rider) that opened the Berlinale sidebar, stars Julia Franz Richter as Berlin emergency doctor Judith who inherits a house in a village in her native Austria which she did not even know existed from the family that gave her away as a child. To see and sell the property, she visits the house with her husband Ryan. But her aunt Paula seems determined to keep them in the village. And the longer they stay, the more images and emotions from Judith’s subconscious come to the surface.”

Welcome Home Baby “uses genre tropes to confront the audience with questions about trauma,...

Germany’s film industry may have been hit hard by the economic slowdown, resulting in an overall gloomy outlook, but it’s still celebrating the biggest number ever of local films and co-productions at this year’s Berlinale and looking forward to a diverse lineup of 2025 releases, among them a number of high-profile sequels.

Compounding the sector’s overall predicament was the collapse of the federal government in November, forcing snap elections scheduled for Feb. 23. The political crisis left an ambitious reform of the country’s federal film funding system only partially implemented and a matter to be tackled by the next government.

The industry nevertheless welcomed the current government’s last-minute extension and increase of two key funding incentives in December that has ensured planning security for producers, studio operators and production service providers.

In the meantime, the local film community is cheering the strong showing of German titles at the Berlin Film Festival.

Timothée Chalamet and Robert Pattinson were among the latest high-profile names confirmed this afternoon as attendees for this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The pair were included this afternoon in an updated guest list shared by the festival.

Chalamet will attend for the German premiere of his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown while Pattinson will debut his Bong Joon-ho flick Micky 17. Both films play in the Berlinale Specials sidebar.

Other confirmed guests include Conclave filmmaker Edward Berger who will present Tilda Swinton her Honorary Golden Bear. Jessica Chastain will hit the German capital with Michel Franco’s Golden Bear Contender Dreams, and Jacob Elordi will make the trip to Berlin for the world premiere of his Justin Kurzel series The Narrow Road to the Deep South.

Other celebrity guests confirmed today by the festival include Naomi Ackie, Rose Byrne, Toni Collette, Denis Côté, Marion Cotillard, Lars Eidinger, Mala Emde,...

The Berlin Film Festival (February 13-23)has unveiled a raft of additions to its programme, including the full Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum line-ups.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Eight works have been added to the Berlinale Special line-up, including confirmation the festival will host the German premiere ofParasitedirector Bong Joon Ho’sMickey 17.The filmstars Robert Pattinson in the story of an “expendable” on a mission to colonise an ice planet who keeps dying and coming back to life. It is likely to world premiere in South Korean ahead of playing at the Berlinale.

The world premiere of...

The Berlin Film Festival’s 2025 Panorama section will launch with Welcome Home Baby, a psychological horror film from Austrian director Andreas Prochaska, leading a lineup of 34 films from 28 countries. The section head Michael Stütz unveiled the full program that addresses societal fractures, health systems, and democratic instability on Thursday.

Prochaska’s film reimagines the homeland horror genre as a response to 1950s German-language cinema. The selection continues its genre focus with the Norwegian body horror The Ugly Stepsister, Turkish political thriller Confidante, and Taiwanese gangster narrative Silent Sparks.

German productions hold a significant presence this year with six films. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay presents the conspiracy thriller Hysteria, while five female directors bring new works. Debut features come from Nele Mueller-Stöfen with Delicious and Sarah Miro Fischer with The Good Sister. Ina Weisse reunites with Nina Hoss for Cicadas.

The documentary selections include Martina Priessner’s The Moelln Letters, examining the 1993 racist arson attacks in Mölln,...

The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that Bong Joon Ho‘s highly anticipated Mickey 17, the director’s first feature since his historic Oscar sweep with Parasite, will have its international premiere out of competition in Berlin. The film will bow first in South Korea on Jan. 28, and will roll out in the U.S. on March 7. Warner Bros. is releasing the film worldwide.

The Robert Pattinson-starrer will get a Berlinale Special gala screening at the 2025 Berlinale. The sci-fi film features an ensemble cast including Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo alongside Pattinson.

Dylan Southern’s family drama The Thing With Feathers, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, also secured a Berlinale Special slot. The adaptation of Max Porter’s novel follows a father grappling with his wife’s sudden death while raising their young children.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the upcoming series from Australian director Justin Kurzel (The Order,...

The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that Bong Joon Ho’s Robert Pattinson movie “Mickey 17” will play at the festival, in the Berlinale Special section, alongside a new – and equally glitzy — addition, Justin Kurzel‘s series “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” starring Jacob Elordi.

Variety first reported last week that “Mickey 17” would have its international premiere at Berlinale.

“The Narrow Road of the Deep North” will world premiere at the festival. Adapted from Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel, the highly anticipated series stars Elordi as a celebrated World War II hero who is haunted by his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and memories of an affair that took place just before the war.

Also joining the Berlinale Special roster is “The Thing with Feathers,” Dylan Southern’s film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Boxall. The movie, which will have its European premiere at the fest,...

Aussie filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, will screen at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was among several titles added to Berlin’s lineup this morning.

The festival describes the series as a “riveting new Australian drama” about a WWII hero haunted by his past. The show will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala. Also in Specials strand is The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The pic screens at Berlin following a debut bow at Sundance and is from filmmaker Dylan Southern. The pic is an adaption of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children. As previously reported, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 will also screen. Scroll down...

The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the first wave of titles for its 75th edition, including features in its Panorama, Berlinale Special and Generation strands.

An initial 12 titles have been revealed for Panorama, of which eight are world premieres. These include Paul, a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Denis Cote, who has played in competition at Berlin four times with titles including Vic + Flo Saw A Bear and That Kind Of Summer. His latest follows a man struggling with social anxiety who finds refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Scroll down for full list of...

The Berlin Film Festival forges a new path next year with the first year under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, who succeeds Carlo Chatrian and brings a background as a journalist and curator to the annual German showcase. This year’s festival runs February 13-23, and also in new positions this year are Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz, both serving as co-directors of programming.

With bigger announcements to come, the Berlinale unveiled its first wave of titles across the Panorama and Berlinale Special gala lineups on Tuesday. As previously announced, Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” is opening this coming 75th edition. Filmmakers getting a boost from today’s announcement include Denis Côté, Michel Gondry, and Ira Sachs, all bringing new films to the festival.

In the Berlinale Special lineup, German director Jan-Ole Gerster debuts the neo-noir thriller “Islands,” starring Sam Riley and Stacy Martin. Per the festival synopsis, in the film,...

The Berlin Film Festival has named the first dozen titles for its 2025 Panorama lineup, Berlin’s main sidebar, and there are a few familiar faces in the mix.

Berlinale regular Ira Sachs will return with Peter Hujar’s Day, starring Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall, a feature based on a 1974 conversation between photographer Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, offering insight into the New York art scene. Canadian filmmaker and fellow Berlinale alum Denis Côté is back in Panorama with Paul, a documentary on a cleaner who uses his job cleaning homes and sharing his routines on social media to help combat depression and social anxiety.

Other Panorama titles announced Tuesday include Emilie Blichfeldt’s Danish horror feature Den stygge stesøsteren (The Ugly Stepsister), a dark twisted fairy tale, which will premiere in Sundance; Frelle Petersen’s Hjem kaere hjem, a social realist drama on the life of an elder...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

New films by Jasmila Zbanić and Radu Jude are among 38 projects sharing almost €15m of production support from the Austrian Film Institute’s (ÖFI) selective funding programme, the ÖFI+ automatic incentive and the Vienna Film Fund

Vienna-based Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion received €175,000 from ÖFI’s project committee and €120,000 from the Vienna Film Fund for its minority participation in Zbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida? - The Missing Part which will be the sequel to her award-winning war drama from 2020.

Produced by Zbanic’s own company Deblokada with partners such as Germany’s Razor Film and Poland’s Madants, the new film is...

Season 3 of the spy-adventure TV series “Alex Rider”, directed by Andreas Prochaska, starring Otto Farrant, based on the books by Anthony Horowitz, will premiere 8 new episodes, April 5, 2024 on Amazon Freevee:

“…’Alex Rider’ is a London-based teenager, trained for the dangerous world of espionage since he was a child. Season Three sets the teenage spy on the tail of his greatest enemy: the elusive criminal network known as ‘Scorpia’. Under new leadership, the criminal cabal plan to extort the Brit Government using their catastrophic new super-weapon: ‘Invisible Sword.’

“Free of ‘The Department’ and aided by his closest friends, ‘Tom’ and ‘Kyra’, Alex embarks on a personal mission to destroy Scorpia once and for all. But little does he know, his ties to both organizations run deeper than he ever thought possible..”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Poster for ‘Alex Rider’ season 3 (Photo Courtesy of Amazon Freevee)

Amazon Freevee has set an April 5, 2024 premiere date for season three of Alex Rider, based on Anthony Horowitz’s fifth novel of the bestselling spy series. All eight episodes will drop on April 5th and will wrap up this chapter in Alex’s life.

“It’s been such a great experience seeing the fan reaction to the first two seasons of Alex Rider,” said author and executive producer Horowitz. “I am thrilled this upcoming season will focus on Scorpia, as the story will lead Alex and viewers to question everything they’ve learned so far.”

Returning cast members include Otto Farrant (Edge of the World) as Alex Rider, Vicky McClure (Line of Duty) as Mrs. Jones, Stephen Dillane (The Outrun) as Alan Blunt, Brenock O’Connor (Game of Thrones) as Tom Harris, Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Rain Dogs) as Jack Starbright, and...

The end is in sight for Alex Rider. The Anthony Horowitz spy thriller will wrap its run with the upcoming third season. All eight episodes will be released on April 5 on Amazon Freevee in the UK, U.S. and Germany, bringing the final chapter of Alex’s journey of self-discovery to a close.

“It’s been such a great experience seeing the fan reaction to the first two seasons of Alex Rider,” Horowitz said. “I am thrilled this upcoming season will focus on Scorpia, as the story will lead Alex and viewers to question everything they’ve learned so far.”

Based on Horowitz’s best-selling book franchise, Alex Rider is a London-based teenager who, unbeknownst to him, has been trained for the dangerous world of espionage since he was a child.

“We’re so excited to bring Anthony Horowitz’s fifth novel Scorpia to life with this upcoming season of the show,...

Industry executives, creatives and international buyers came together to preview an exclusive selection of upcoming high-end German series at the Up Next: Germany showcase at the Berlinale Series Market, the dedicated serial content arm of the EFM running between Feb. 19-21.

Four projects were selected for the showcase: Dystopian drama “A Better Place” imagines the aftermath of a revolutionary state-led program that eradicates all German prisons. Directors include Anne Zohra Berrached and “Capernaum” editor Konstantin Brock. Studiocanal TV handles world sales on the French-German-Austrian co-production.

“Young Berlusconi” is a three-party documentary trailing the early stages of Silvio Berlusconi’s career and his pivotal role in revolutionizing commercial television in Italy and across Europe. “Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight” director Simone Manetti helms the series, with Arte on board as the German broadcaster and Mediawan handling world sales.

ZDFneo brought two series to the event: “Love Sucks,” an unconventional...

Season 3 of Amazon Freevee’s spy thriller series “Alex Rider” is in production in the U.K. and Malta.

Cast members Otto Farrant, Stephen Dillane, Vicky McClure, Brenock O’Connor, Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, and Marli Siu return. Joining them are Sofia Helin (“The Bridge”), Shelley Conn (“Bridgerton”), Kevin McNally (“The Crown”) and Jason Wong (“Strangers”).

Produced by Eleventh Hour Films and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Television, “Alex Rider” is based on the bestselling book franchise written by Anthony Horowitz, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. The series follows Alex, a teenager who has unknowingly been trained since childhood for the dangerous world of espionage.

Adapted by Guy Burt from “Scorpia,” the fifth Alex Rider novel, season 3 sets the teenage spy on the trail of his greatest enemy: the elusive criminal network known as Scorpia. Alex embarks on a personal mission to destroy Scorpia once and for all.

Horowitz...

Exclusive: Andreas Prochaska has signed on to direct the climbing film White Out for Chockstone Pictures.

The action-adventure pic is based on a story from climbing legend Reinhold Messner. It follows a young man who’s grown up in the shadow of a famous father, known as the world’s greatest mountaineer. In the end, it will take a perilous climb on a sacred Himalayan peak for the pair to finally face each other.

Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Sascha Arango (The Silent Guest) and Don Bohlinger (Elles) wrote the script for White Out. Chockstone partners Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz will produce, alongside Boris Schönfelder of Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion. Reinhold Messner and Andreas Prochaska will exec produce; Simon Messner and Roger Schwartz are also on board as co-producers.

“White Out has every element for an immersive cinematic experience: Epic scale and personal drama,...

Exclusive: Filming is underway on ambitious European drama series The Net, about corruption and conspiracies in the world of international soccer.

The Net will comprise four independent series, shot in their local languages, which will work as stand-alone dramas, but also as part of an interwoven narrative across 30 hours of storytelling.

The first of four seasons to get underway is Austria’s The Net – Prometheus, which will star Tobias Moretti (Bad Banks), Angel Coulby (Merlin), Amanda Abbington (Sherlock), Benjamin Sadler (Tribes of Europa) and Nicholas Goh (Skyfall). Andreas Prochaska (The Winemaker) is directing Martin Ambrosch’s (Brock) script.

Set in Austria’s mountains, the drama will center on Georg Trotter (Moretti), a doctor and former doping agent who gave up his career after a tragic car accident badly injuring his wife Diana (Coulby) and killing his beloved son. Known as notorious doping hunter and “bloodhound”, Georg is offered to run a new,...

Following on from dark Mipdrama thriller “The Winemaker,” Germany’s Goodfriends Filmproduktion, producer of recent HBO Max release “Arthur’s Law,” is re-teaming with Austria’s Satel Film, the company behind Netflix smash hit “Freud,” to produce “Mozart,” a limited series that casts Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a new and revolutionary light.

Andreas Prochaska, “The Winemaker” director and co-writer, is attached to direct from a screenplay penned by multi-prized Austrian screenwriter Martin Ambrosch.

Ambrosch’s credits include a longterm creative partnership with Prochaska on multiple multi-prized films, which take in the Sam Riley starrer “The Dark Valley,” which swept the Austrian Film Awards in 2015. Ambrosch also wrote “Cold Hell,” directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, who won a 2008 Academy Award for “The Counterfeiters.”

Director of Sky One’s “Das Boot” and Amazon IMDb TV’s “Alex Rider,” Prochaska won an International Emmy for 2013’s “A Day for a Miracle.”

Film audiences’ image of...

Netflix ushered in a new TV dawn in distribution. In reaction, Europe’s public broadcasters are driving a less vaunted but still significant revolution in production. Few are pushing the envelope more than Germany’s Zdf.

After “The Typist” and “Shadowplay,” four-hour limited series “The Winemaker,” a MipDrama entry, marks another series from the German state broadcaster which bring cinematic values and a darker edge to its scripted output, thanks in large part to direction by Austria’s Andreas Prochaska, who won an International Emmy for 2013’s “A Day for a Miracle.”

Multi-prized Austrian actor Tobias Moretti (“The Dark Valley”) plays soigné vintner Matteo, a fine upstanding member of his Tyrol valley community, with a lovely loving wife and a daughter whom he is training to one day take over his business.

Then, suddenly, an immigrant is shot but not killed in his vineyards. Nico, a smiling ghost from Matteo...

A doyen of this year’s Berlinale Series Market, where it has “Echos” and “Alive and Kicking” screening in its new Series Market Selects showcase, Munich-based Beta Film has boarded two new European limited series: “Hotel Europa,” a historical drama, and mafia thriller “The Winemaker.”

Beta Films will handle international distribution on both titles which, it announced Thursday, form part of a spring slate that will feature at various events before and during April’s digital MipTV.

“The Winemaker” has just been confirmed as one of 12 series at the 2021 MipDrama, which will play online on April 9, just before the Digital MipTV Week.

Both titles air on German public broadcasters – Ard and Zdf respectively – reflecting Beta Film’s policy of cherry-picking some of finest of drama series coming out of European public TV networks, particularly in Germany and Italy, such as, in recent examples, Zdf’s “The Typist” and Rai’s “The Hunter,...

Alex Rider Renewed for a Second Season — IMDb TV and Amazon Prime has renewed television series Alex Rider for a Second Season. Alex Rider: Season 2 will be based on Anthony Horowitz’s Eagle Strike, the fourth book in the Alex Rider book series. Season One Cast and crew Andreas Prochaska and [...]

Continue reading: Alex Rider: Otto Farrant’s IMDb TV & Amazon TV Series Has Been Renewed for a Second Season...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleventh Hour Films is gearing up to start shooting the second season of Anthony Horowitz’s spy thriller Alex Rider from the start of next year.

Sony is yet to officially confirm Season 2, but Deadline understands that the drama is slated to begin a 22-week shoot from January 25 in Bristol, south-west England.

This is slightly later than originally intended. When we revealed the Season 2 renewal in June, Eleventh Hour was hoping to get into production this year, but the pandemic has created widespread disruption to shoot dates.

Alex Rider’s first season was fully financed by Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions. Sony later sold it to Amazon’s ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV in the U.S. and Amazon Prime in the UK. It is not clear if Sony will go it alone again on Season 2, or if it will work with a co-production partner.

In today’s TV news roundup, Apple TV Plus released the trailer for new comedy series, “Ted Lasso,” and “Alex Rider” gets release dates in new territories, including the U.S. and Germany.

Dates

“Alex Rider,” a coming-of-age spy thriller series, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in Germany and Austria on Aug. 7 and on IMDb TV in the U.S. on Nov. 13. It will also be available on Amazon in Latin America later this year. The series, which is based on Anthony Horowitz‘s second book in the Alex Rider series (“Point Blanc”) stars Otto Farrant in the titular role. Horowitz, Jill Green, Eve Gutierrez, Guy Burt and Andreas Prochaska executive produce. The show already launched in the U.K. and Ireland through Amazon, and it was previously announced to be launching on that service in Australia on July 31 as well.

Executive News

WarnerMedia Entertainment announced Kristy Chan as...

The Alex Rider Ya literary franchise has stepped into the realm of television.

The series, a product of U.K.-based indie company Eleventh Hour Films, ITV and Sony Pictures Television, adapts the Alex Rider literary mythology of Anthony Horowitz, who’s also known as the creator of popular U.K.-based World War II-set crime-solver series Foyle’s War. Thus, after a successful home country debut back on June 4, 2020 on Amazon Prime Video U.K. (from which you can check out our spoiler-free review), Alex Rider landed a quick Season 2 renewal.

Now, Alex Rider, which manifests as an eight-episode TV adaptation of the second book in Horowitz’s novel series, Point Blanc, has finally found a distribution home in the U.S.

Alex Rider TV Series Release Date

Alex Rider is now set to premiere stateside on IMDb TV on November 13.

For those unfamiliar, IMDb TV is an ad-supported Amazon-owned U.

IMDb TV, Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service, has swooped for U.S. rights to Eleventh Hour Films and Sony Pictures Television’s young-adult espionage series Alex Rider.

The adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling teen spy novels has also been picked up as an Amazon Prime Video original in Latin America, Germany and Austria. It follows the drama premiering in the UK on Amazon last month and Amazon taking the rights to the show in Australia.

IMDb TV will premiere eight-part Alex Rider on November 13 and it adds to a growing archive of content after the streamer recently picked up shows including Mad Men and Lost. Amazon will drop the spy series in Germany and Austria on August 7.

Alex Rider was fully financed by Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions without a network or streamer attached. Sony has taken it to market as a fully formed proposition and,...

Alex Rider

Point Blanc

Blanc, not Blank!

That’s the name of the mysterious academy that has quite a few skeletons hidden in its cupboards. The fact that this academy, stylishly called Point Blanc, is in the middle of the alps further lends a mystic feel to the entire setting. Well, this is where teenager Alex Rider has been given the responsibility by none other than MI6 to run his own espionage operation. That when the boy is all of 14 and the entire British intelligence is hinging on his support to find out what happens behind the curtains!

Preposterous as it may sound but such is the prowess of Anthony Horowitz’s writing (originally seen and read in the multi-edition novel of the same name) that you allow suspension of disbelief to set in and join this spy show. Even as those with a conscience want the spy agency’s...

Exclusive: Alex Rider, Eleventh Hour Films’ TV adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling teen spy novels, looks set for a second season.

Deadline understands that Sony-backed Eleventh Hour is targeting a return to production later this year after the first season was picked up by Amazon in the UK, as well as a host of international broadcasters.

Alex Rider’s first season was fully financed by Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions without a network or streamer attached.

It is not clear if Sony will go it alone again on Season 2, or if it will work with a co-production partner. Amazon came on board in May and debuted the drama in the UK on June 4.

Sony has said that the show, which was penned by Guy Burt (Bletchley Circle), is close to finding a home in the U.S., Australia and China after the 12 books...

It’s March 2019 and actor Otto Farrant is sitting in his car listening to heavy metal at top volume. Over the din, he’s screaming out the words to Jake Bugg’s ‘Seen it All’ (‘I’ve seen it all/I’ve seen it all now/I swear to god I’ve seen it all/ Nothing shocks me anymore.’) He changes songs, trying another, then another, and another. For an hour. For two hours. It leaves him and his voice totally drained.

No, the stress of leading Sony’s new teen spy thriller Alex Rider hasn’t got to him. This is rehearsal. He’s practising for an upcoming scene in which his character – a teenage schoolboy recruited by MI6 – is kidnapped and tortured by a band of mysterious operatives.

“I’ll never forget sitting in my car for a good two and a half hours trying different songs to...

Sony Pictures Television has sold its upcoming “Alex Rider” teen spy series to nearly 100 territories around the world.

Produced by Spt-backed Eleventh Hour Films, the adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s novels was the first series commissioned by Spt’s international production and distribution divisions on spec, greenlighting the project independently to be distributed worldwide.

Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group) has picked up the series for their streaming service Viaplay in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Lionsgate-owned streamer Starzplay has licensed the show for broadcast in multiple territories across the Middle East and North Africa, while Mnet has acquired the series for Showmax across Sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa.

The series has also been picked up by Moviestar Plus in Spain, Kinopoisk HD in Russia, and will air on Nova in Greece, and DSmart in Turkey. Axn will broadcast the series across multiple European territories, including Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic,...

Amazon has snapped up the UK rights to Alex Rider, Eleventh Hour Films’ TV adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling teen spy novels.

The streamer will drop the first eight-part series on June 4, featuring Otto Farrant as Alex Rider, a British teenager who has unknowingly been trained as a spy since childhood.

Alex Ryder has been two years in the making and was fully financed by Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions without a network or streamer attached.

Eleventh Hour is part-owned by Sony and its CEO Jill Green is the husband of Horowitz. The author has penned 12 books on the reluctant secret agent, selling more than 20M copies worldwide.

Horowitz and Green are executive producers alongside Eve Gutierrez. The series writers are Guy Burt and Andreas Prochaska, who also co-directed the show with Christopher Smith.

Stephen Dillane and Vicky McClure also star in the series as members of The Department,...

Amazon Prime Video has taken U.K. rights to coming-of-age spy thriller “Alex Rider,” which will launch on the platform in June.

Produced by Eleventh Hour Films and Sony Pictures Television, the show is based on the second novel in Anthony Horowitz’s “Alex Rider” novels, “Point Blanc.” All eight episodes of the series will launch on Amazon on June 4.

The show was produced under a unique funding model that saw distributor Sony come on board in 2018 to fully finance the project without a lead commissioning broadcaster or platform attached.

The series stars Otto Farrant as Alex Rider, a London-based teenager who has unknowingly been trained since childhood to be a spy. Pressured to help investigate his uncle’s death, and how it connects to the assassination of two high-profile billionaires, Alex goes undercover in a remote boarding school called Point Blanc.

In addition to Farrant, “Alex Rider” stars Stephen Dillane as Alan Blunt,...

In 1981 director Wolfgang Petersen made a great film adaptation of author Lothar-Günther Buchheim‘s World War II submarine thriller novel Das Boot. I loved that film and now Hulu is taking a crack at the source material by adapting it into a series.

Here’s the official description of the series that was shared:

A story of choices and survival, Das Boot explores the emotional torment of life during World War Two, and the brutal reality of living within a senseless war.

During the Autumn of 1942, in occupied France, U-612 is now ready for its maiden voyage, preparing to head into the increasingly brutal warfare with its young crewmen, including the new captain, Klaus Hoffmann. As the 40 young men take on their first mission, they struggle with the cramped and claustrophobic conditions of life underwater. Their personalities are pushed to the limit as tensions rise and loyalties begin to shatter.

We now exist in a time further away from Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot” than that film was to the end of the global conflict it depicted.

Almost four decades since the German submarine-centered epic first arrived in theaters, Hulu and Sky are partnering for a summer release of a new eight-part companion piece to the original story. “Das Boot” picks up a year after the 1981 film (based on the Lothar-Günther Buchheim novel of the same name) leaves off. Instead of solely focusing on underwater life aboard a U-boat, this new Hulu series also looks at life on the shore among the growing French resistance.

The trilingual ensemble — including Lizzy Caplan, Vicky Krieps, Vincent Kartheiser, Tom Wlaschiha, James D’Arcy, and Rick Okon — span across countries and international water, through Nazi-controlled France and the launch of the German fleet’s newest ship, U-612. But alongside the spy subplots taking...

Exclusive: One day after finding its Alex Rider, Sony Pictures Television has rounded out the full cast for its adaptation of the teen superspy drama. Game of Thrones star Brenock O’Connor and Stephen Dillane are starring alongside Doctor Who’s Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, Broadchurch’s Andrew Buchan and Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure.

O’Connor, who plays Olly in the HBO drama, stars as Alex Rider’s jovial best friend Tom. The Rider household consists of Alex’s housekeeper Jack Starbright, played by Adékoluẹjo, and Ian Rider, his detached uncle and reluctant guardian, played by Buchan. Unbeknownst to Alex, Ian has been relentlessly training him since childhood and preparing him for the threatening world of espionage.

Alex and Tom lead ordinary teenage lives, navigating between school, girls and social lives until Alex’s world is quickly capsized as he is coerced by Alan Blunt, played by Dillane,...

Exclusive: Sony has found its Alex Rider – Mrs Wilson star Otto Farrant has been chosen to front the small-screen reboot of the teen superspy.

Farrant, who played Nigel Wilson in the Ruth Wilson-fronted PBS Masterpiece and BBC drama, will play the eponymous character in the series, which is being produced by Sony Pictures Television and British indie Eleventh Hour Films, which optioned the screen rights to Anthony Horowitz’s novels in 2017.

The move comes after the producers opened a wide search for a young actor to play Alex Rider, a reluctant teen superspy who goes on missions to save the world.

Farrant has also previously had small roles in ITV and Netflix drama Marcella, War & Peace, The White Queen and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Eight-part series Alex Rider is fully financed and in production after Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions teamed up...

When Bavaria Fiction executive producer Moritz Polter looks out at the company’s backlot from his office window, he can see the original sets built for “Das Boot,” the classic 1981 movie set in the belly of a German U-boat that’s been recently rebooted with stellar results.

The Oscar-nominated anti-war pic, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and based on Lothar-Gunther Buchheim’s autobiographical bestsellers, was the most expensive feature film to come out of postwar Germany at the time; now “Das Boot” has undergone a major refit and resurfaced as one of the country’s most expensive TV shows and a ratings hit wherever it has aired.

Budgeted at roughly $32 million, and shot over 105 days in Munich, La Rochelle, Prague and Malta, the eight-episode series directed by Andreas Prochaska stems from brainstorming among Bavaria Fiction (a subsidiary of Bavaria Film and Zdf Enterprises), paybox Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, which has...

Das Boot director Andreas Prochaska has signed on to helm the television adaptation of Alex Rider for Sony.

The director, who was behind the camera for the Sky drama that was recently picked up by Hulu, will direct and exec produce the first four episodes of the teen superspy drama.

The show is heading to the small screen after Sony’s international production and distribution divisions teamed up to greenlight an eight-episode series. Sony Pictures Television’s International Production and Worldwide Distribution divisions have teamed up together for the first time to pick up an original spec series. They are working with British indie Eleventh Hour Films, which optioned the screen rights to Horowitz’s novels last year.

The novels, written by Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz, chart the adventures of a reluctant teen superspy on his missions to save the world. The twelfth book in the Alex Rider series,...

Andreas Prochaska, the director of upcoming Sky and Hulu series Das Boot, has signed on to direct and executive produce drama series Alex Rider for Sony Pictures Television and Eleventh Hour Films, based on the best-selling young-adult series of novels from Anthony Horowitz.

The Austrian director (The Dark Valley) will direct and executive produce the first four episodes of the drama based on Point Blanc, the second book in the series, which is being adapted by BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Guy Burt (Bletchley Circle, The Borgias).

Das Boot is inspired by the Oscar-nominated submarine movie and is an eight-part series that will debut in Sky territories ...

World War II drama series Das Boot, co-produced by Bavaria Fiction, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, has been sold to more than 100 territories worldwide. Hulu has picked up rights for the U.S. The series will premiere in Sky territories Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Ireland beginning November 23 and Italy in December.

Territories sold to date include StarzPlay in France; AMC in Spain and Portugal; Epix/Viasat in Russia, Central & Eastern Europe; Di and Ma in Serbia; Czech TV in the Czech Republic; Vrt in Belgium; Nrk in Norway; Svt in Sweden; Yle in Finland; Ruv in Iceland; Mnet in South Africa; StarzPlay in Latin America; Sbs in Australia; and Tvnz in New Zealand.

Inspired by Wolfgang Petersen’s Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film, and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel, the series was produced on a budget of $33 million. A story of choices and survival, Das Boot explores the...

World War II drama series “Das Boot,” which was produced on a budget of $33 million, has been sold to more than 100 territories worldwide. The show will debut on Hulu in the U.S. and pay TV operator Sky across Europe.

The series is produced by Bavaria Fiction, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, which distribution rights for the world, except for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, U.K., Ireland and Italy, where Sky holds the rights.

Territories sold to date include StarzPlay in France; AMC in Spain and Portugal; Epix/Viasat in Russia, Central & Eastern Europe; Di and Ma in Serbia; Czech TV in the Czech Republic; Vrt in Belgium; Nrk in Norway; Svt in Sweden; Yle in Finland; Ruv in Iceland; Mnet in South Africa; StarzPlay in Latin America; Sbs in Australia; and Tvnz in New Zealand.

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated movie by Wolfgang Petersen, and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel, the series filmed in Munich,...

Joseph Baxter Jan 22, 2020

Alex Rider, the teen spy novel franchise of author Anthony Horowitz, is coming to television.

The Alex Rider Ya literary franchise is about to step into the realm of television.

Back in July 2018, U.K.-based indie company Eleventh Hour Films received a major boost to its spec project from Sony Pictures Television, having landed the rights to bring British author Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books to the small screen.

The series, which adapts the second book in Horowitz’s novel series, Point Blanc, will manifest as an eight-episode offering for a network/platform to be determined.

Alex Rider TV Series Trailer

Check out the newest trailer for the Alex Rider TV series!

Video of Alex Rider I Official Trailer

You can also check out the previous trailer and teaser just below.

Video of Alex Rider I Official Trailer Video of Alex Rider | First Official Teaser...

Production on the big-budget television series is set to commence this summer.

Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment have announced that filming on the Das Boot sequel will begin this summer, and have revealed its cast.

The eight-episode series is a sequel to Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s novel and 1981 film of the same name and will premiere in autumn in 2018 in Sky territories Germany, Austria, Italy, the UK and Ireland. Co-producer Sonar Entertainment will handle international distribution in the rest of the world.

Directed by Andreas Prochaska, the 104-day shoot on the $28 million production is set to begin on August 31 in La Rochelle, France and will contine in Prague, Malta and Munich.

In addition, the cast has been announced for the event series, including including Lizzy Caplan, August Wittgenstein and Rainer Bock.

Also starring are Rick Okon, Vicky Krieps, Jonathan Zaccaϊ, Leonard Scheicher, Robert Stadlober, Franz Dinda and Stefan Konarske.

Tony Saint and [link...