News

French-Danish actor and director Niels Arestrup, best known to international audiences for playing a Corsican crime boss in Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Grand Prix, Oscar-nominated A Prophet, has died at the age of 75.

His wife, actress and writer Isabelle Le Nouvel, announced the news, saying Arestrup had died on Sunday (December 1) following “a courageous battle against illness” at their home outside of Paris.

Arestrup won best supporting actor César awards for his 2009 A Prophet performance and for playing the petty gangster father in Audiard’s 2005 BAFTA-winning The Beat That My Heart Skipped. He earned a third César award for Bertrand Tavernier...

Armando Iannucci has launched UK-based production company Touchscreen with producer Kevin Loader and has struck a development partnership with BBC Studios.

Iannucci and Loader are long-standing collaborators and are joined at Touchscreen by development producer Charlotte Draper.

Touchscreen aims to develop and co-produce scripted programming for the UK and international markets, which will be distributed by BBC Studios.

In a statement, Touchscreen and BBC Studios said the new partnership will be committed to mentoring and championing new British talent, on and off screen, and telling stories that resonate globally.

Iannucci and Loader have previously teamed on projects such as The Death Of Stalin,...

Armando Iannucci, a well-known comic writer and director, has founded Touchscreen Ltd. to nurture rising British talent and create creative narrative material for UK and international audiences.

Touchscreen announced a major agreement with BBC Studios this week, combining Iannucci’s famed creative expertise—the brains behind successful shows like Veep and The Thick of It—with the BBC’s global distribution reach.

Kevin Loader, Iannucci’s longstanding colleague and seasoned producer, and Charlotte Draper, development producer, will join him at Touchscreen. Together, they hope to highlight new voices in British television and create stories that appeal worldwide.

“Touchscreen is focused on making projects that reflect, confront, or celebrate the world we live in,” Iannucci told me. “The goal is to give others the same opportunity to find their voice and connect with their audience by creating bold, thought-provoking shows.”

President of Scripted at BBC Studios, Mark Linsey lauded the collaboration...

“Veep” creator Armando Iannucci has launched a new venture with production company Touchscreen, which has established a partnership with BBC Studios.

Together, the two will develop and co-produce “innovative, daring and world-class scripted programming for the U.K. and international markets,” according to a press release, which will be distributed by BBC Studios. The aim of the partnership is to mentor and champion new British talent, both on and off screen, as well as tell stories that resonate on a global scale.

Touchscreen will also be joined by Kevin Loader, Iannucci’s longtime collaborator who has worked with him on films “In the Loop” and “The Personal History of David Copperfield” as well as two seasons of HBO comedy “Avenue 5.” Charlotte Draper is also on board as a development producer.

“Touchscreen is focused on making projects that reflect, confront or celebrate the world we live in. I’ll be continuing my relationship with HBO,...

Armando Iannucci (Veep, The Thick of It, The Franchise) has launched the production company Touchscreen Ltd. with BBC Studios. The partners unveiled a U.K. development partnership Monday.

“The agreement will see BBC Studios and Touchscreen, founded by Armando Iannucci, work together to develop and co-produce innovative, daring and world-class scripted programming for the U.K. and international markets, distributed by BBC Studios,” they said in a press release.

Working alongside Iannucci at Touchscreen will be his long-standing collaborator and producer Kevin Loader, joined by development producer Charlotte Draper.

“The new partnership will be committed to mentoring and championing new British talent, on and off screen, and telling stories that resonate globally,” the partners said.

Said Iannucci: “Touchscreen is focused on making projects that reflect, confront or celebrate the world we live in. I’ll be continuing my relationship with HBO, and now with Touchscreen I have the opportunity to...

Armando Iannucci has launched a production company and is tying with BBC Studios on a development partnership.

The decorated British comedy writer has opened Touchscreen with long-standing collaborator and producer Kevin Loader along with development producer Charlotte Draper. The agreement with BBC Studios will see the pair work on scripted shows for the UK and internationally.

The new partnership will be committed to mentoring and championing new British talent, on and off screen, according to its founders. Iannucci will continue his partnership with HBO, which recently spawned The Franchise comedy with Sam Mendes.

Alongside Touchscreen, Loader will continue running Free Range Films, which he has overseen with Roger Michell since 1996, with credits including The Mother, Enduring Love and Venus. He won a BAFTA for ITV’s The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies in 2015.

Iannucci, whose past credits include Veep, The Thick of It and The Personal History of David Copperfield,...

Uma Thurman, Anthony Hopkins and Phoebe Dynevor have been cast in Richard Eyre’s upcoming ‘The Housekeeper’.

Said to be an “evocative romance fictionalizing the inspiration behind Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” the film is set in the mystic, brooding and wild landscape of Cornwall. The rugged Atlantic foot of England, where Danni (Thurman), the housekeeper at Manderville Hall — a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers (Hopkins) — falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier (Dynevor). For one, their affair is an all-consuming love, for the other an intoxicating realization of her secret longings.

Also in news – Chris Hemsworth eyed for Disney’s ‘Prince Charming’ feature

Eyre will take the helm on a script penned by the bestselling author Rose Tremain, based on her own short story and forthcoming novel. The film is being produced by Julia Taylor-Stanley and Kevin Loader.

Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction), Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) and two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins (The Father) have been set to star in period drama The Housekeeper.

Set in 1930s Cornwall, UK, the film will chart the forbidden romance between a Polish housekeeper and a famous novelist.

Notes On A Scandal and Iris filmmaker Richard Eyre is directing with Julia Taylor-Stanley (Coriolanus) and Kevin Loader (The Death Of Stalin) producing from a script by British novelist Rose Tremain.

The story is inspired by Tremain’s short story in which a young woman is horrified to discover, after a brief sexual encounter with Daphne du Maurier, that she is the model for Mrs Danvers in the writer’s classic work Rebecca.

Dynevor will play Du Maurier, Thurman the housekeeper and Hopkins the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers.

Embankment Films is launching sales ahead of the upcoming American Film Market in Las Vegas. Filming...

“Notes on a Scandal” and “Iris” director Richard Eyre has assembled a starry cast for his next feature, an evocative romance fictionalizing the inspiration behind Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca.”

“The Housekeeper” — being launched at AFM by Embankment Films alongside CAA Media Finance, which is co-repping U.S. rights — will be led by Oscar nominee Uma Thurman, two-time Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins “(The Father,” “The Silence of the Lambs”) and Phoebe Dynevor.

Eyre will direct from a script written by bestselling author Rose Tremain, based on her own short story and forthcoming novel. The film is being produced by Julia Taylor-Stanley and Kevin Loader.

“The Housekeeper” is set in the mystic, brooding and wild landscape of Cornwall, the rugged Atlantic foot of England, where Danni (Thurman), housekeeper at Manderville Hall — a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers (Hopkins) — falls prey to the glance...

“Good Stories: Originals, Adaptations and Remakes” were in focus at the 68th edition of the BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday in a panel discussion presented in association with The Hollywood Reporter.

The panelists were Alex Walton, co-head, WME Independent, Kevin Loader, producer and co-founder of Free Range Film, Tolu Stedford, executive producer and CEO at Story Compound, and Meg Thomson, executive vp, worldwide content at Globalgate Entertainment, with Rowan Woods, creative director of the Edinburgh TV Festival serving as session chair.

“We’re in a time when the business is really, really hard,” Walton assessed early on in the discussion. “So I think IP gives you protection more than anything.”

His team puts together 16-18 independent movies every year, “and we don’t have the luxury of having IP, and many of those are generally independent stories, so they’re often original,” he shared. “If you have something with IP,...

Working Title Films co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and Searchlight Pictures executive Katie Goodson-Thomas will participate in conversation events as part of the 68th BFI London Film Festival’s industry programme.

This year’s industry forum will run from October 10-16 with a focus on the industry’s challenging financial climate while also exploring fresh opportunities.

Three Spotlight conversations include Bevan and Fellner, whose Working Title Films has produced more than 130 films that have grossed over $8.5bn and earlier this year announced with Universal the Global Writers Program, the studio’s first internationally-run talent initiative. Their latest film, Blitz directed by Steve McQueen,...

Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral headlined by Ralph Fiennes, Paul Andrew Williams’ The Nest starring Andrea Riseborough and Jan Komasa’s Jeremy Thomas-produced Good Boy are among the projects backed by the Yorkshire Content Fund and in production across the summer.

The Yorkshire Content Fund, administered by Screen Yorkshire, has been supporting local production since 2012. It was initially set up with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (Erdf), which was awarded through the now-defunct regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

Following the demise of the regional development agency structure in 2012, the Yorkshire Content Fund continued to support production in...

Exclusive: Embankment Films is making Garbo: Leave Me Alone, a feature documentary about the enigmatic movie star who died in 1990. The doc will have previously unseen archive material including personal photographs of Garbo and letters written by the iconic actress, who is regarded as one of the all-time greats.

Production is underway and the film will have a theatrical release at the end of this year before bowing on Sky in the UK in 2025. It is being made in partnership With Non Stop Entertainment and co-produced with Mylla Films, the Scandi label founded by Patrik Andersson and Jakob Abrahamsson. Fremantle is on board for international sales.

Lorna Tucker, whose previous work includes Katharine Hepburn feature doc Call Me Kate, will direct. “This is a natural follow on to Call Me Kate in a way because it’s a similar era, but it is a very different story because here is...

Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale are starring in 'The Choral'.The actors have signed up to feature in the latest collaboration between director Sir Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett following on from 'The History Boys' and 'The Lady in the Van'.Unlike the pair's previous films, 'The Choral' is an original script rather than an adaptation of one of Bennett's plays.The movie is set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916 and follows the chorus master and the men in the ambitious local Choral Society, who have volunteered for the frontline during World War I.Under the guidance of the demanding Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the Choral recruits a group of teenage boys and girls who discover the joy of singing while the new boys come to terms with the fact that they will soon be serving their country.The film explores the humour and humanity in a community that faces an uncertain future.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken worldwide rights to Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral, written by Alan Bennett, and set to star Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale.

This is the fourth feature collaboration between Bennett and Hytner after The Lady In The Van, The History Boys and The Madness Of King George. Unlike those films,The Choral is based on an original screenplay rather than a play.

Hytner will produce the film alongside Kevin Loader and Damian Jones. Backing comes from Sony Pictures Classics, BBC Film and Screen Yorkshire, and shooting will commence in Yorkshire this May.

Executive producers include Caroline Cooper Charles,...

Director Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett are collaborating again, with The Lady in the Van, The History Boys and The Madness of King George duo set to team on The Choral, which will star Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale. Production begins in May in Yorkshire, according to Sony Pictures Classics, which said Wednesday that it has acquired all worldwide rights to the pic.

Unlike their previous collaborations that were based on Tony-winning playwright Bennett’s stage plays, this is an original screenplay. Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society, who have volunteered for the front. Under the direction of the demanding, driven Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the Choral recruits a crop of teenage boys and girls. Together they discover the joys of singing and the urgency of desire as the new...

“We’re investing in highly intelligent young future leaders,” said Embankment’s Tim Haslam.

London-based production, finance and sales outfit Embankment Films has expanded its team with the appointment of director of acquisitions and production Archie Faulks; acquisitions, production and distribution executive Bianca Fabbri; and international sales and marketing executive Clare Harris.

Faulks and Fabbri will head up Embankment’s scripted production, development and acquisitions team alongside producer Kevin Loader, while working closely with the company’s unscripted production team.

Embankment’s slate includes Sophie Hyde’s upcoming period piece An Ideal Wife, starring Emilia Clarke and Hope Dickson Leach’s biopic Making Noise,...

“The Kitchen” co-director and co-writer Daniel Kaluuya and “Polite Society” writer-director Nida Manzoor are among the emerging talents recognized at the British Independent Film Awards’ (BIFA) New Talent categories.

Both have been longlisted twice, in the debut director and debut screenwriter categories. In all, 20 fiction and 15 documentary features have been longlisted in the four debut filmmaking categories. Nineteen first-time fiction feature directors, 17 first-time feature documentary directors, 17 first-time writers and 24 breakthrough producers have been recognized by BIFA voters this year.

BIFA Springboard, an annual program supporting second-time feature filmmakers will launch in early 2024. BIFA will reveal the Netflix-sponsored 2023 breakthrough performance longlist, which highlights British acting talent in their first significant role in a British feature film, on Oct. 24. The final five nominations in each category will be unveiled on Nov. 2. Winners will be revealed at the 26th BIFA ceremony on Dec. 3.

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) Sponsored By...

Eight films listed in three of the four categories.

Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex are among the 35 features on the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Filmmaker New Talent longlists for 2023.

The ceremony has released longlists for four awards: the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director), Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary (a new award for this year) and Breakthrough Producer.

Scroll down for the full New Talent longlists

Eight films have been longlisted in three of the four categories: Earth Mama, Femme, In Camera, Pretty Red Dress,...

The U.K.’s Embankment Films has made four key hires to lead its unscripted division.

Nick Taussig and Malcolm Neaum both join as producer, unscripted; Sophie Harmer as head of production, unscripted; and Henry Farrington as head researcher.

BAFTA and Grierson nominated feature documentary producer Taussig teams with factual television series veteran Neaum to produce varied unscripted series formats.

Harmer and Taussig produced “Call Me Kate” and “Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me,” celebrating the work of this year’s Oscar-winning director and writer.

Embankment’s credits include the Oscar-winning “The Father,” “The Son,” “Emma” and “Purple Hearts.”

Embankment founders Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar said: “Our mission is to enable audience-facing storytellers to produce surprising and emotive entertainment. The company now increases its offering to the market. Film producer Kevin Loader – ‘The Death of Stalin,’ ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield,’ Roger Michel...

UK sales and production firm Embankment Films has set a wholesale rejig of its nonfiction arm with four new senior hires.

Producers Nick Taussig, Malcolm Neaum, Sophie Harmer, and researcher Henry Farrington will join the company, taking on their new positions with immediate effect.

Taussig, a BAFTA and Grierson nominated feature documentary producer, will team with Neaum to produce unscripted series formats, including returnable series, for Embankment.

Those two will be joined by Harmer, who, with Taussig, recently produced the feature docs Call Me Kate and Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me. Harmer will be Head of Production Unscripted at Embankment, while Henry Farrington joins as a senior researcher.

These four new hires are the latest to be announced by Embankment since veteran UK producer Kevin Loader joined the fold in May 2022. Embankment teamed up with Loader to create the new label Free Range Entertainment. The key shareholders in the company are Embankment’s Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar and Loader.

The combined company will develop, produce, co-produce, sell, and distribute film, TV, and “allied” content while also investing directly into production and working with third-party investors and financiers.

“Our mission is to enable audience-facing storytellers to produce surprising and emotive entertainment. The company now increases its offering to the market,” Embankment founders Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar said of today’s four new hires.

Taussig added: “We are joining a dynamic and experienced team with a proven record for providing filmmakers a dependable and consistent premium infrastructure to greenlight production through to worldwide distribution.”

Embankment has handled over 50 scripted feature films and five feature documentaries. The company’s next global release is The Miracle Club, starring Maggie Smith, Laura Linney, and Kathy Bates, recently acquired by Sony Picture Classics.

Exclusive: Deadline has learned that 8x Oscar nominated actress Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie have signed on to star in a feature film take of Tove Jansson’s novel The Summer Book which Charlie McDowell will direct and produce with his Case Study Films, a production company he co-founded with Alex Orlovsky and wife Lily Collins.

Recently celebrating the 50th anniversary of its original print publication, The Summer Book tells the life affirming story of a young girl and her grandmother as they spend a summer on a tiny, unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The novel distills the essence of the summer into 21 vignettes and has been translated into 35 languages since its first publication in 1972.

Robert Jones adapted the book for screen. Pic is co-financed by High Frequency Entertainment and Hurst Capital. Production starts this summer in Finland.

Anders Danielsen Lie, courtesy Case Study Films

“I’m...

“Avenue 5″ has crash-landed. The Armando Iannucci science fiction comedy series has been canceled at HBO after two seasons, IndieWire has confirmed.

The news comes almost three months after the show wrapped its second season in November. The series, led by Hugh Laurie, originally premiered in January 2020.

“Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” an HBO spokesperson said in a statement to IndieWire. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of ‘Avenue 5,’ we look forward to many more adventures together.”

“Avenue 5” starred Laurie and Josh Gad as the captain and owner of the titular interplanetary cruise ship. Set in 2060, the show also featured Zach Woods, Rebecca Front, Suzy Nakamura, Lenora Crichlow, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Ethan Phillips as the various employees and passengers onboard Avenue 5. The ship gets tilted off course after a mishap, forcing the group to work together in order...

The Armando Iannucci comedy series “Avenue 5” has been canceled after two seasons at HBO, Variety has learned.

“Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” an HBO spokesperson said. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of ‘Avenue 5,’ we look forward to many more adventures together.”

The series originally debuted on HBO in January 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic production on Season 2 could not begin until late 2021, with the second season finally debuting in October 2022. The series ultimately received middling reviews upon its release and generated only modest ratings.

The series starred Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad, Zach Woods, Rebecca Front, Suzy Nakamura, Lenora Crichlow, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Ethan Phillips.

The series took place in the not-so-distant future when space tourism is a booming business. Per the official logline, “While manning a luxury spacecraft owned by Herman Judd (Gad), Captain Ryan Clark...

The crew and passengers of Avenue 5 won’t be returning to Earth.

HBO has canceled the space-set comedy from Armando Iannucci after two seasons. The show’s second and now final season aired its finale on Nov. 28, with the ship saved from a disaster but a decidedly uncertain future.

“Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” HBO said in a statement. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of Avenue 5, we look forward to many more adventures together.”

Iannucci created the multiple Emmy Award-winning Veep for HBO and is an executive producer, along with director Sam Mendes and others, of the premium cabler’s comedy pilot The Franchise, about the making of a superhero movie.

Avenue 5 is set aboard a spacefaring cruise ship and follows the various mishaps of its crew and passengers. Hugh Laurie heads a cast that also includes Josh Gad,...

Armando Iannucci’s space comedy Avenue 5 officially has been canceled by HBO.

The Warner Bros. Discovery premium cable network has finally confirmed that the series will not return for a third season.

It comes eight months after Deadline revealed that the series likely was coming to an end and a few days after star Hugh Laurie emerged as the star of Season 3 of Apple TV+’s Tehran.

Related Story TV Series Fading To Black In 2023 & Beyond: Photo Gallery Of Canceled Shows Related Story HBO Content Set To Move From Disney+ Hotstar In India Related Story 'Ginny & Georgia,' 'The Walking Dead' Top Nielsen U.S. Streaming Charts; 'The Last Of Us' Posts Impressive Debut Night Viewership

“Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” said an HBO spokeswoman. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of Avenue 5,...

An acquisitions, production and distribution manager has joined the fold.

UK sales and production outfit Embankment Films has expanded its team with the appointment of Gabriella Kramer-Khan as acquisitions, production and distribution manager, the first role of its kind for the company.

Kramer-Khan will report in to Toby Hill, head of acquisitions and production, and producer Kevin Loader.

She joins from Sky, where she was Sky TV’s group acquisitions executive for the UK, Italy, and Germany.

Kramer-Khan previously worked in acquisitions and content strategy at Universal Pictures and in legal and business affairs at Warner Bros, having specialised in...

UK production and sales company Embankment Films has hired former WestEnd Films executive Toby Hill as Head of Production & Acquisitions.

At Embankment, Hill will manage company IP with the goal of converting IP to production and global distribution. He will work closely with Embankment CEO Tim Haslam, co-founding partner Hugo Grumbar, and producer Kevin Loader — who teamed with Embankment earlier this year to create a new label, Free Range Entertainment.

Hill succeeds Max Pirkis, who leaves Embankment after nine years.

Hill was previously Head of Acquisitions & Development at WestEnd Films, where he worked on titles like Mr. Malcolm’s List, The Last Rifleman, and the forthcoming Freud’s Last Session, starring Anthony Hopkins.

Prior to that, he was Head of Global Acquisitions at the UK-based financing company AI Film. During his time at AI, Hill was responsible for greenlighting titles like I, Tonya, American Animals, Mr. Holmes, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

Hill joins as head of production and acquisitions.

UK production and sales outfit Embankment Films has hired former WestEnd Films and AI Film executive Toby Hill as head of production and acquisitions.

Hill will lead all of Embankment’s management of intellectual property, converting IP into production and global distribution. He will collaborate closely with producer Kevin Loader – whose London-based production outfit Free Range Films joined forces in May of this year with Embankment to form new umbrella company, Free Range Entertainment – plus Embankment CEO Tim Haslam and co-founding partner Hugo Grumbar.

Hill takes over from Max Pirkis, head of acquisitions and distribution,...

Captain Ryan Clark, played by Hugh Laurie, is ready to just “sit here and wait for death” as an ill-fated spaceship heads straight into the Sun.

So starts the trailer for Season 2 of HBO’s “Avenue 5,” where food is running low and passengers on a luxury space craft will have to wait eight years before returning to Earth. Josh Gad reprises his role of billionaire Herman Judd, who owns the spaceship captained by Ryan (Laurie) as customer relations executive Matt (Zach Woods) tries to thwart the growing panic onboard. The second season premieres October 10 on HBO.

Created by two-time Emmy winner and “Veep” alum Armando Iannucci, “Avenue 5” is set 40 years into the future where traveling the solar system is a booming tourism business. The eight-episode second season charts how an eight-week space cruise has turned into a nightmare never-ending vacation for those onboard.

Picking up five months after failing to reroute the vessel,...

Mark Lane appointed new head of worldwide sales and distribution.

UK sales agent Embankment Films has appointed HanWay Films’ Mark Lane as its new head of worldwide sales and distribution, taking over from Calum Gray.

Lane has joined after 13 years at UK sales agent HanWay Films, where he was director of sales.

Gray is leaving Embankment to start his own film industry business venture.

In May of this year, Embankment joined forces with Kevin Loader’s London-based production outfit Free Range Films to create a new umbrella company, Free Range Entertainment.

Lane said: “It’s so refreshing that 2.5 years of...

Exclusive: Avenue 5‘s space voyage may be coming to an end. Season 2 of Armando Iannucci’s space comedy, delayed by the pandemic, has not been scheduled yet. I hear it will likely launch in the fall and is expected to be the series’ last. A rep for HBO declined comment.

This is not surprising. Season 1 of Avenue 5, Iannucci’s followup series to the Emmy-winning Veep, premiered in January 2020 and was renewed for a second season in February of that year, just a couple of weeks before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Filming on the new season, delayed by Covid, finally got underway in August 2021 and wrapped in November.

Given the time that has passed, the options on the cast, led by Hugh Laurie, came up, and the actors were released, sources tell Deadline. Some of them have moved on, signing as series regulars on new shows.

In addition to Laurie,...

‘Bob’s Burgers’, ‘Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts’ competing with the blockbuster.

Long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick takes flight in 737 UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend through Paramount – the fifth widest opening of all time in the territory.

The number – coincidentally a significant one for the aviation industry – is also the third-widest opening for a 12A certificate film, behind Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and No Time To Die.

Top Gun: Maverick is one of the last blockbusters that were originally scheduled for the pandemic months to hit cinemas. It was originally dated for July 12, 2019, before a delay to June 26, 2020 due filming certain action sequences.

Exclusive: Emmy winner Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave), Gotham Award winner Anthony Mackie (Captain America), BAFTA winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), and triple Emmy winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black) will star in feature Clybourne Park, which is a hot package launching for the Cannes market.

Bruce Norris’ adaptation of his incendiary Pulitzer-, Tony- and Olivier award-winning play about race and real estate in America will to be directed by Pam MacKinnon.

The cast is also joined by Nick Robinson (Maid) and Hillary Baack (Sound of Metal).

Tony Award winner MacKinnon, who makes her feature debut, first launched Norris’ Clybourne Park on Broadway, winning a 2012 Tony Award for Best Play and a nomination for Best Direction.

Producers are Simon Friend (The Father) and BAFTA nominee Kevin Loader (The Death of Stalin), both known for their stage-to-screen adaptations including Friend’s Oscar winner The Father and Loader’s...

The UK companies will both operate under umbrella company, Free Range Entertainment.

London-based production outfit Free Range Films and UK sales agent Embankment have joined forces to create a new umbrella company, Free Range Entertainment (Fre).

The key shareholders are Embankment’s Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar and Free Range Films’ Kevin Loader.

Through its Free Range Films and Embankment divisions, Fre will develop, produce, co-produce, sell and distribute, while investing directly into production and working with third party investors and financiers.

All resources between the two companies will be pooled, but with Embankment continuing to operate as the sales and financing arm.

Exclusive: UK sales and production firm Embankment is teaming up with veteran UK producer Kevin Loader to create new label Free Range Entertainment.

The key shareholders in the company are Embankment’s Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar and Free Range’s Kevin Loader.

The combined company will develop, produce, co-produce, sell, and distribute film, TV and “allied” content, while also investing directly into production and working with third party investors and financiers.

Tim Haslam explained: “Free Range Entertainment is a creative hub for like-minded storytellers, writers, directors, and producers; converting IP from inception and development, through to production and commercial global exploitation. The Embankment sales brand will continue.”

Free Range Films was founded by producer Kevin Loader and director Roger Michell in 1996. Following Michell’s untimely passing last September, the production company has decided to embark on a new structural partnership.

Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.

Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.

The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.

Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.

It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...

Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.

Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.

The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.

It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.

It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...

Exclusive: Roger Michell’s last movie, Elizabeth, about British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, has sold around the world for Embankment Films.

Following the pre-sales we revealed with A24 for the U.S. and Signature for the UK, pacts have also been set in in France (Originals Factory), Germany (Square One), Benelux (The Searchers), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (Vertice), Scandinavia (NonStop), Anz (Madman) and Canada (Mongrel).

Also picking up the movie are Japan (Tohokushinsha), Israel (United King), Singapore (Shaw), Middle East (Front Row), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo) and South Africa (Empire).

Signature will release the film in the UK on June 3, 2022, to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The film was described by BAFTA winner Michell as “a truly cinematic mystery tour, up and down the decades; playful, poetic, funny, disobedient, ungovernable, affectionate, inappropriate and mischievous but, in awe”.

The filmmaker completed the movie...

A24 will release a documentary about the life of Queen Elizabeth II, directed by Roger Michell, TheWrap has learned. The film is the director’s last project. Michell died in September.

“Elizabeth” will be released by A24 in the U.S. Signature Entertainment will release the documentary in the U.K. on June 3, which coincides with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration. No U.S. release date has been set.

A24 had no comment.

Michell completed “Elizabeth” just days before his death in September. The “Notting Hill” and “Venus” director died at age 65.

The film will document Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign, the longest in the history of the British monarchy, and be both a nostalgic and modern look at her life.

Kevin Loader (“The Death of Stalin”) is producing the film. George Fenton, a five-time Oscar nominee, is also listed as the film’s composer.

Deadline first reported the news.

Exclusive: A24 will release Roger Michell’s last movie, the documentary Elizabeth about the life of Queen Elizabeth II, we can reveal. The stateside debut has yet to be dated.

The late British filmmaker, known for movies including Notting Hill, The Duke, Hyde Park On Hudson and My Cousin Rachel, completed Elizabeth just days before he passed away last September.

The film has been previously described to us as a “nostalgic, uplifting and fresh modern chronicle of the extraordinary 70-year reign of Her Majesty the Queen, the longest-lived, longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving female head of state in history.”

Pic is produced by UK producer Kevin Loader, known for movies including Nowhere Boy, The Lady in the Van and The Death of Stalin. Composer is five-time Oscar-nominee George Fenton.

In the UK, Signature Entertainment has set a June 3 theatrical release to coincide with the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee. Embankment handles international sales.

Exclusive: Roger Michell’s last movie, the documentary Elizabeth about the life of Queen Elizabeth II, has been picked up by Signature Entertainment and set for a Friday 3 June theatrical release to coincide with the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee.

The late British filmmaker, known for movies including Notting Hill, The Duke, Hyde Park On Hudson and My Cousin Rachel, completed Elizabeth just days before he passed away last September.

The film is described to us as a “nostalgic, uplifting and fresh modern chronicle of the extraordinary 70-year reign of Her Majesty the Queen, the longest-lived, longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving female head of state in history.”

Elizabeth is produced by UK producer Kevin Loader, known for movies including Nowhere Boy, The Lady in the Van and The Death of Stalin.

Loader commented: “Roger literally finished this last film the day before he left us, and I know he was excited...

Here’s our annual rundown of the 10 largest awards given out by the British Film Institute’s Film Fund across 2021. Backed by National Lottery money, the grants are a key supporter of indie cinema in the UK.

This year also saw long-time Film Fund chief Ben Roberts, now BFI CEO, hand over the keys to the fund to new director Mia Bays.

Top of the list is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, an adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s popular novel about a man who embarks on a 450-mile walk across the UK in the belief that his journey will save the life of an old friend. Jim Broadbent is starring in the pic, which Joyce is adapting herself. Hettie Macdonald, who helmed Normal People with Lenny Abrahamson, is directing. Producers are Kevin Loader with Juliet Dowling and Marilyn Milgrom.

Second on the list is Typist Artist Pirate King[/link], the...

Hunter Biden Pic Casts Actor To Play Joe Biden

John James (Dynasty) will portray President Joe Biden in My Son Hunter, a film focusing on his son Hunter Biden, who as previously announced will be played by Laurence Fox. Robert Davi (License to Kill) is directing the film. Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney are producing. Filming begins in Serbia this week and will last for four weeks.

‘Sentinel’ Wraps In Estonia

Altitude will launch sales on sci-fi thriller Sentinel, which recently wrapped production in Estonia, at AFM next month. Kate Bosworth, Thomas Kretschmann, Lucien Laviscount, and Martin McCann star in the movie, which comes from Estonian filmmaker Tanel Toom. Set in the future on a war-ravaged Earth, four soldiers man Sentinel – a remote military base in a vast ocean that separates two warring continents. They await the relief or the enemy, whichever comes first. Malachi Smyth wrote the screenplay, producers are Ben Pullen,...

Cast also includes Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley and Derek Jacobi.

Shooting has commenced in London on Pathe’s Allelujah, an adaptation of the stage play written by Alan Bennett.

Notes On A Scandal’s Richard Eyre directs with Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas adapting the screenplay.

Damian Jones and Kevin Loader produce. The duo previously worked on the adaptation of Bennett’s memoir, The Lady And The Van.

Judi Dench, Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley and Derek Jacobi star.

Allelujah is a Pathé, BBC Film and Ingenious Media presentation of a DJ Films and Redstart Production.

Festival

The 65th BFI London Film Festival, which concluded Oct. 17, attracted crowds for in-person events and virtually. The festival unspooled over 12 days across London venues, 10 partner cinema venues around the U.K. and online. There were more than 139,000 physical attendances at screenings and events and over 152,000 virtual attendances.

The festival closed with the European premiere of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” at new festival venue, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall with director Joel Coen and key cast, including Frances McDormand, in attendance.

There was a sting in the tail, however, as two people who attended the closing film and after party tested positive for Covid-19, compelling the BFI to send letters to attendees informing them about this. The positive tests came as no surprise as the U.K. is experiencing a dramatic surge in cases currently.

The array of celebrities who attended the festival in person included Jay Z,...

Shooting is taking place across the UK, from Devon to Northumberland.

Production is underway on The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, with shooting beginning on location in the UK on Monday (September 27), in Devon.

Linda Bassett, star of East Is East and Kinky Boots, has joined the previously announced cast of Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton.

The high-budget independent feature is the first work from director Hettie Macdonald since BBC series Normal People (for which she directed 6 of the 12 episodes), and is based on Rachel Joyce’s 2012 novel of the same. Joyce has also penned the screenplay.

The story follows...

“Notting Hill” director Roger Michell’s last film — a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II — was completed before he died on Wednesday.

“Roger’s feature documentary about The Queen — ‘Elizabeth’ — will be out in the first half of 2022,” the film’s producer, Kevin Loader, told Variety. “We have a few technical processes to complete, but Roger supervised the final mix.”

In his director’s statement, published on a website for the film, Michell wrote: “She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. Ever. She is the longest-serving female head of state in the history of the world, the world’s oldest living monarch, the longest-reigning current monarch, and the oldest and longest-serving current head of state. More people dream about the Queen than any other living person.”

“She’s the Mona Lisa, instantly recognisable, and yet elusively and perpetually unknowable. She’s more famous than The Beatles. She’s a Queen...

”His body of work represents exactly what many British filmmakers aspire to.”

Friends and collaborators in the international film industry reacted with shock and sadness to the sudden death of UK director Roger Michell, who died on Wednesday at the age of 65.

“It is a shock. He was my oldest professional friend,” said UK producer Kevin Loader, who produced six of Michell’s feature films including 2004’s Enduring Love, 2012’s Hyde Park on Hudson and 2013’s Le Week-end, through the duo’s London-based Free Range Films, founded in 1996. “I’d known him for over 30 years. We spoke several times a...

Exclusive: Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star Penelope Wilton is joining Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) in Hettie Macdonald’s (Normal People) upcoming feature The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Wilton will play Maureen, the wife who is left bereft and bewildered when Harold doesn’t come home one day. The Duke and Lady In the Van star Broadbent will play the eponymous Harold, an ordinary man who has passed through life living on the sidelines until he goes to post a letter one day…and just keeps walking.

The character embarks on a 450-mile walk across the UK in the simple belief that his journey will save the life of his old friend Queenie who is dying in a hospice. Step by step, a spark is ignited in Harold’s hibernating soul as he rediscovers the majesty of the world, reflects on his mistakes, and finally...