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Alberto Barbera presided over a lengthy press conference Tuesday morning, when he announced the stacked lineup for this year’s Venice Film Festival, which runs August 27-September 6.

The lineup is expansive, with big names and arthouse darlings sprinkled across the festival’s strands, even including the shorts program.

High-profile titles include Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny. Roberts leads the cast as a college professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light. The film will screen Out of Competition on Guadagnino and Amazon MGM Studios’ request, Barbera explained during the presser.

Elsewhere, in Competition we have Jay Kelly, the latest film Noah Baumbach has made for Netflix. The...

The story of Karla begins with an act of quiet, immense courage. In Germany, 1962, a twelve-year-old girl walks into a police station and announces her intention to file a complaint against her father. She is methodical, firm, and offers no immediate details, insisting only on speaking to a judge. Director Christina Tournatzés immediately establishes the gravity of this action.

This is not just a family dispute; it is a child confronting a social architecture built on silence, an era where the inner lives of families were sacrosanct and the voices of children were background noise. The film places its central question before us without ceremony: in a world determined to look away, can a single, unwavering voice force the system to listen?

The Unlikely Alliance

The film’s narrative engine is not a sprawling investigation but a series of tense, intimate conversations that form a compelling two-hander. The story wisely...

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 23, 2025.

The Wheel of Time canceled after three seasons on Prime Video

Amazon has canceled fantasy series The Wheel of Time after three seasons. The series, which premiered on Prime Video in 2021, was based on the popular novel series by Robert Jordan, and featured a large ensemble cast led by Rosamund Pike. The third season made Nielsen's top 10 list of streaming originals, but the renewal bar is high for expensive fantasy series.

Cannes' Un Certain Regard winners revealed

The 2025 winners of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, which honors early career filmmakers, have been revealed. La misteriosa mirada del flamenco (The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo), the debut feature of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes, won the top Un Certain Regard Prize. Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto won the second-place Jury Prize with his film Un Poeta (A Poet). Palestinian...

“Corsage” and “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps and “The Zone of Interest” and “White Lotus” star Christian Friedel have joined Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn in the cast of “The Idiots.”

Krieps won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard best performance award and the European Film Award for “Corsage” in 2022. Friedel is a two-time nominee for best actor at both the European and German film awards.

Other actors joining the cast are Barbara Marten and three-time German Film Award nominee Rainer Bock.

The film is to be directed by Polish filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, and is co-written by Szumowska and Englert together with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein. Englert will also serve as cinematographer. International sales are being handled by the Match Factory.

The story is based on the novel “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” by Andrew D. Kaufman,...

Award-winning European actors Vicky Krieps (Corsage, Phantom Thread) and Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest, White Lotus) have joined the ensemble cast of The Idiots, the new film from Polish directors Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Woman of…, Never Gonna Snow Again).

Friedel’s White Lotus co-star Aimee Lou Wood, and Ripley actor Johnny Flynn headline the project in a cast that also includes Dune: Prophecy actress Barbara Marten, and Rainer Bock (Wonder Woman, The White Ribbon).

Szumowska and Englert co-wrote The Idiots together with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein, basing the story on Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky, which follows the lives of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write his classic The Idiot.

Wood and Flynn play Anna and her husband, nicknamed Fiedya.

Vicky Krieps and Christian Friedel have joined the cast of Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiots.

Krieps, Friedel, Barbara Marten and Rainer Bock join previously-announced cast members Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn, with filming scheduled to begin next month.

The Idiots is based on Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky. The film will tell the story of Russian writer Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna on their honeymoon trip to Baden – the period in his life that inspired him to write The Idiot.

Szumowska...

The Playmaker has acquired the international sales rights to Christina Tournatzés’ “Karla,” and will be screening the film at the Cannes Film Market on May 17. Variety debuts the trailer here.

Set in Munich in 1962, the film tells the true story of 12-year-old Karla, who presses charges against her father, seeking protection from his years of abuse. As she navigates the legal system, she forms a bond with Judge Lamy, who becomes her beacon of hope.

Karla’s reluctance to reveal the full extent of her suffering gradually forces Lamy to give her the freedom to tell her story on her terms, putting his own career at risk.

Lamy’s unconventional ruling reflects a moral imperative that transcends legal constraints and is “a poignant reflection on justice and empathy in the face of trauma,” according to a statement. The case pioneered a way of dealing with victims of child abuse that...

New to Prime Video, The Calendar Killer has taken no time to become a chart-topping hit thanks to its promising premise of a tense, twisting storyline grabbing the attention of millions of viewers. On the surface, the German thriller has all the traits of a great slow-burn movie that puts its build-up and character development above the need for relentless action, and it seems to have paid off in terms of viewership if not reviews.

The movie has surpassed several American movies to grab the top spot after just a few days on Prime Video, seemingly through the usual marketing recommendations, as word of mouth has not been incredibly positive. It is notably the second foreign language title with a middling reputation to dominate the global chart after Spanish drama Culpa Tuya claimed the top spot for a number of weeks. The synopsis offered for the movie reads:

“The Calendar Killer...

Amazon Prime is ringing in the new year with a fresh lineup of exciting movies and TV shows for January 2025. Whether you’re a fan of thrilling action, heartwarming dramas, or laugh-out-loud comedies, there’s something for everyone this month.

With an ever-growing library of content, Amazon Prime continues to offer a mix of original series and popular films, giving you plenty of options to kick back and enjoy some quality entertainment.

From eagerly awaited new releases to fan-favorite classics, January’s offerings promise to keep you entertained all month long. Get ready to dive into new adventures, explore different genres, and discover hidden gems that you might have missed in the past. Whether you’re planning a cozy night in or looking for something to binge-watch over the weekend, Amazon Prime has you covered.

‘Harlem’ season 3

Prime Video’s comedy ‘Harlem’ returns for Season 3 after a dramatic cliffhanger in...

While Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) is arrested and put on trial for the murder of Fred Whalen (James Austin Johnson) during season 5 of Better Call Saul, it’s easy to forget exactly who did Lalo kill and why, given that Whalen only appeared in a single episode from season 4. Introduced in the episode "Winner," Fred Whalen was an innocent bystander and TravelWire agent who happened to get caught in the middle of the war between the Salamanca drug empire and Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Despite having a minor role in season 4, Whalen created an opportunity for Fring to remove Lalo from his leadership role in the Salamanca drug empire.

In season 5 of Better Call Saul, Fring has Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) implicate Lalo in Whalen’s murder during the episode "Wexler v. Goodman," placing Lalo in jail where he can no longer interfere with the expansion of Fring’s drug empire.

Winner of the audience award and prize for best creation at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, six-part drama “The Seed” mixes Scandi-noir, ecological concerns and corridors-of-power intrigue into a tense geopolitical thriller that turns around the most elemental of concerns.

“Beneath all the thriller convention we explore this question of who feeds the world,” says show creator Christian Jeltsch. “Because whoever feeds the world has a hold on political power, and today only three companies supply us all.”

The seeds (ahem) of the idea were planted years ago, when Jeltsch read about mercenaries destroying a seed vault in Aleppo and connected the idea to the very real Svalbard Global Seed Vault just off the North Pole. The wheels began turning, the seeds took to sprouting, and soon the show-writer had a narrative full of international intrigue that begins when a young German activist goes missing on the Norwegian northern archipelago.

This article contains spoilers for Better Call Saul season 5 but not season 6.

Even though Better Call Saul aired its series finale almost a year ago now, many fans of the show don’t watch until it premieres on Netflix rather than AMC. In keeping tradition with the streamer’s usual release schedule, the sixth season of creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s Breaking Bad spinoff finally came out this April, approximately one year after the first episode was seen on cable. That means an entirely new audience is ready to experience the climax of this legendary drama, and they may have forgotten the main plot events and themes exhibited during the penultimate fifth season. No reason to fret, friends! We’re here to help you take a time machine back to Albuquerque circa 2004. Let’s recap the fifth season:

What’s Gene Takovic Doing in Nebraska?

One of the...

The "Dedicated to Max" Better Call Saul Easter egg is a dedication to a character previously introduced on Breaking Bad who holds special significance for Gus Fring. Situated at the center of a small and peaceful Mexican village is a luxuriously out-of-place yet tastefully designed memorial fountain with an inscription that reads “Dedicado A Max” or "Dedicated to Max." Though Better Call Saul gives no explanation as to what this means, clues are laid out in Breaking Bad that reveal more about the character of Gus Fring.

Gus Fring is introduced in Breaking Bad as a brilliant and ruthless drug kingpin who hides in plain sight thanks to his public persona as a successful and charitable business owner. However, Better Call Saul humanizes Gus Fring as the spinoff series dives deeper into his character and shows new aspects of her personality and motivations. This includes the tribute he has given to the character of Max,...

Filming for the fourth season of the Sky Original series “Das Boot” wrapped in Malta last week, and the first look images have been released. NBCUniversal Global Distribution is handling international sales of the series, which is produced by Bavaria Fiction, on behalf of Sky Studios.

In Season 4, which is coming to Sky’s premium channel Sky Atlantic and streaming service Now next year, the brutal submarine war in the Mediterranean Sea comes to a head, while intrigues and secrets spread through Berlin. Resistance to the Nazis grows within the Kriegsmarine’s own ranks.

Rick Okon as Klaus Hoffmann, Sascha Gersak as Rahn, Jakub Horak as Bischof

After a shared tragedy, the siblings Klaus (Rick Okon) and Hannie Hoffmann (Rosalie Thomass) find their way back to each other. Both fight for their cause. Klaus has returned to the German Reich from Portugal. As a submarine commander he travels to Naples...

This article contains spoilers for all of Better Call Saul.

Better Call Saul is known for being the quieter, less violent successor to Breaking Bad, but there are still plenty of morbid character deaths that have occurred across the six seasons of the show. Because these deaths happen less often, they also hit harder than in other dramas.

Now that the show has wrapped its run, we thought it would be a great time to recap which departed characters got the most and least deserving fates. Were they bad people? Did their death signify a turning point in the story, or could Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould give these people more of a dramatic farewell? It also works the other way around. Perhaps moral characters died in flashy ways that made it even more tragic when they met their demise. Let’s rank them!

Note: We will be cataloging only...

Exclusive: Leonine Studios has taken worldwide rights to German-Norwegian thriller series The Seed (working title), which is set around the explosive takeover of a seed company and comes from Chameleon writer Christian Jeltsch.

The Germany-based producer-distributor joins its subsidiary Odeon Fiction, alongside co-commissioners German broadcaster Ard Degeto and Norway’s Nrk and Czech producer Mia Film on the production, which began shooting on May 10 at spectacular original locations in Spitsbergen (Norway), Munich (Germany) and Prague (Czech Republic). The service producer in Spitsbergen is PolarX As.

Jeltsch, who is writing upcoming Sky Deutschland corporate lobbying mystery drama Chameleon and works on Ard procedural Tatort, is creator and head writer of the English-language series. He wrote the screenplays with Axel Hellstenius and Alexander Dierbach (Line of Separation) is directing.

Westworld‘s Ingrid Bolsø Berdal Heino Ferch stars opposite Heino Ferch.

The drama uses the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen as the backdrop to the six-part thriller. The vault acts as an insurance policy and backup facility for crops globally by providing storage for seed duplicates storied in gene banks around the world.

The Seed follows German detective Max (Ferch) and Norwegian policewoman Thea (Bolsø Berdal), who set out to find Max’s missing nephew Victor (Jonathan Berlin) in Spitsbergen. It soon becomes apparent his disappearance may be connected to the takeover of a seed company that is causing controversy in Brussels. As they plunge deeper into webs of intrigue and political interests they find their own lives in danger too.

Rainer Bock, Seumas Sargent, Erik Madsen and Friederike Becht round out the international cast.

“With The Seed, we would like to draw attention to an important global issue because it is about the struggle for food,” Ard Degeto Senior Vice President of Drama Christoph Pellander told Deadline. “With a top cast in front of and behind the camera, this is an exciting German-Norwegian co-production that will not only reach the German audience but also attract international attention.“

Pellander is overseeing the drama for Ard Degeto along with Head of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Sebastian Lückel, with Elisabeth Tangen doing the same for Nrk. The producers are Odeon Fiction’s Britta Meyermann (Spy City) and Mischa Hofmann and the Director of Photography is Ian Blumers. FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Creative Europe Media of the European Union, the German Motion Picture Fund and the Czech Tax Incentive are supporting the production.

Babylon Berlin commissioner Ard Degeto and Nrk have been two of the most active co-producers of European drama this year. Last month, Deadline revealed Nrk had ordered a drama about Leonard Cohen’s relationship with muse Marianne Ihlen from the UK’s Buccaneer Media, Oslo-based Redpoint Productions and Canada’s Connect3 Media, for example.

Ard Degeto is working on several new dramas, including mystery thriller series Oderbruch, which is co-produced by Syrreal Entertainment and CBS Studios. Others such as Scandinavian series Blackwater, co-produced with Sweden’s Svt, ITV Studios-owned Apple Tree Productions and Filmpool Nord) are in post-production.

The firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of German public broadcaster Ard, commissioning and producing more than 100 productions of feature films, TV movies and series each year. It also acquires programs, with all of its content going out on the Das Erste (Ardi) channel and streaming platform Mediathek.

Crime show “Divided We Stand,” which will premiere in Germany on the public broadcaster Ard on Feb. 22 with the title “Zerv,” screened this week at the European Film Market in the Berlinale Series Market Selects section. World sales are being handled by Beta Film.

The show, based on true events, follows a group of police officers from West Germany who are sent to Berlin to form a special investigations unit, called Zerv, which aims to root out crimes committed in the German Democratic Republic (Gdr) during the Communist era. However, as the officers dig deeper into the crimes in the East they start to find that many of them had originated in the West.

Speaking to Variety, exec producer Gabriela Sperl says the clash of cultures, values and ideologies was not only interesting, but also held the promise of some darkly comic moments as the West Germans try to “teach...

Leading German actors Sebastian Koch (The Lives Of Others) and Paula Beer (Frantz), co-stars in Oscar-nominated 2018 drama Never Look Away, are set to topline the German adaptation of hit Israeli series Your Honor, we can reveal.

Germany’s SquareOne Productions is behind the update (locally titled Euer Ehren) in co-production with Austria’s Mona Film Produktion.

The six-episode legal thriller, based on Israel’s yes Studios original, will star Koch and Beer alongside a strong cast comprising Tobias Moretti (Bad Banks), Ursula Strauss (Hotel Sacher), Sascha Geršak (Bad Banks), Taddeo Kufus (1917), Lena Kalisch (Unorthodox) and Rainer Bock (Atlas).

Al Munteanu produces for SquareOne Productions, the production arm of the Munich-based distributor, while Thomas Hroch and Gerald Podgornig oversee for Vienna’s Mona Film. German public broadcaster Ard Degeto and Austrian public broadcaster Orf are also aboard.

David Nawarth (Atlas) will direct all six episodes and also serves as the series co-writer alongside David Marian Möhring.

"Where are you from again?" The Match Factory has debuted the first official promo trailer for the indie drama Exile, also titled just Exil. This is a German film produced and made in Germany, but it's directed by a Kosovan filmmaker named Visar Morina. The film just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and is playing at the Berlin Film Festival now, seeking international distribution at the market. The sweltering (literally) drama is about a Kosovan man who now works as a chemical engineer in Germany. He starts to feel discriminated and bullied at work, plunging him into an identity crisis. Starring Misel Maticevic and Sandra Hüller, along with Rainer Bock, Thomas Mraz, Flonja Kodheli, Stephan Grossmann, and Nicole Marischka. It's a complex, fascinating examination of how biased perspectives can warp the truth. Here's the first promo trailer (+ promo poster) for Visar Morina's Exile, direct from Tmf's YouTube:...

As AMC’s “Better Call Saul” embarks on its penultimate season, showrunner and co-creator Peter Gould says he finds himself quite dismayed by where the title character is going. By embracing his inner Saul, “he makes a decision at the end of last season and the beginning of this season and that unleashes a lot,” Gould says.

“Better Call Saul” returns for Season 5 with a special two-night premiere event on Feb. 23 and 24, and Gould reveals that “there are going to be some effects and some surprising consequences to becoming Saul Goodman, or pretending to be Saul Goodman that I don’t think he’s expecting. He makes some very small decisions early in the season that have some enormous consequences as we go on.”

When viewers first met Saul in “Breaking Bad,” he was already a sleazy lawyer helping criminals launder money and silence their enemies. But Saul was a...

Giancarlo Esposito is going into his third season of playing “Breaking Bad” villain Gus Fring on the AMC series’ prequel “Better Call Saul,” which takes place well before he comes into Walter White’s orbit.

While Fring primarily lurks in the background, away from the main story of Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) descent into Saul Goodman, the series gives viewers a chance to see how Gus Fring becomes the feared drug kingpin of Albuquerque. And for Esposito, that meant one very important cosmetic change to Fring’s appearance in “Better Call Saul.”

We’ll let him explain:

Also Read: 'Better Call Saul': Giancarlo Esposito Says 'Things Will Be Strained' Between Mike and Gus in Season 5

“I was convinced that my hairstyle should be a certain way for ‘Better Call Saul.’ It should not be that very — what I look at as a very strident hair cut — the...

We’ve entered the dark times on “Better Call Saul.” Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s prequel to “Breaking Bad” has always been one of the more heart-wrenching tragedies on television, but following his brother’s suicide and the permanent, embittering effect it had on Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), any hope for a happy ending has vanished. Nuanced characters and morally gray circumstances allowed viewers to hang onto pipe dreams for nearly four seasons; fueled by true romance and good intentions, it was easy to pretend the scrappy attorney’s endearing love life and upstanding law practice could go on forever.

Not anymore. At the end of Season 4, Jimmy became Saul Goodman; he embraced the name and everything attached to it. Now, the slippery slope has become a waterfall, and it’s harder than ever to watch Jimmy come tumbling down.

Metaphors aside, Season 5 is literally tinged with darkness. Dp...

There’s much talk these days of microaggressions: words and gestures of disrespect toward others, particularly those of other social groups, that betray prejudice even when everyday or unintentional. It’s a term that sounds almost scientific, though as a unit of measurement, it’s frustratingly inexact: how many microaggressions add up to plain, violent, not-so-small oppression? How many seemingly accidental slights must one endure before crying malice? And if it makes you feel unsafe, can any aggression be called micro? In Kosovan-born director Visar Morina’s fine-cut sophomore feature “Exile,” these are the considerations that drive a mild-mannered Kosovan expat to the brink of madness in staid German suburbia.

Slicing into its protagonist’s psyche with surgical finesse and discomfort, this queasy-comic character study pulls off a subtly perilous balancing act: It’s painfully exact in dramatizing the quiet xenophobia he experiences on a daily basis, even as the...

Exil

Kosovo’s Visar Morina embarks on another co-production (Kosovo/Germany/Belgium) for sophomore feature, Exil, a project produced by the high-profile trio of Janine Jackowski (we profiled her in 2018), Jonas Dornbach and Toni Erdmann helmer Maren Ade. Mišel Matičević is joined by Sandra Hüller and Rainer Bock in the cast and Morina reunites with his Bibai (2015) Dp, Italy’s Matteo Cocco. Morina’s Babai competed in Karlovy Vary, winning him Best Director and the Label Europa Cinemas award. His 2013 short “Of Dogs and Wallpaper” was programmed in Locarno.

Gist: A chemical engineer who feels discriminated against and bullied at work falls into an identity crisis.…...

Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio,” starring Roberto Benigni, will have its international premiere at the 70th Berlin Film Festival the event announced Tuesday as new artistic director Carlo Chatrian unveiled the first titles for his debut edition.

“Pinocchio” will play as part of the Berlinale Special Gala section, which replaces the Out of Competition category.

Chatrian, who co-heads the Berlinale with executive director Mariette Rissenbeek, said: “Garrone succeeds in re-telling the well-known story with his very own world of images. Although he is faithful to Carlo Collodi’s ideas, he has nevertheless created a very personal Pinocchio that is much more cheerful than we’ve experienced before.”

The first films selected for the Panorama, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Generation and Forum Expanded sections were also announced (links attached).

Among other titles, Michael Stütz, the new head of the Panorama section, has picked films by Faraz Shariat (“No Hard Feelings”), Uisenma Borchu (“Black...

For Jonathan Banks, the role of Mike Ehrmantraut is the gift that keeps on giving. This summer Banks earned his fourth Emmy nomination for Best Drama Supporting Actor for “Better Call Saul,” the fifth he’s received overall for this role as an ex-cop turned drug cartel fixer. He previously competed in 2013 for the show’s predecessor, “Breaking Bad,” and additionally contended in the category for “Wiseguy” in 1989.

For his Emmy submission, Banks has chosen the season four finale, “Winner.” In this installment, Mike discovers that foreman Werner (Rainer Bock) has escaped from the construction site to spend time with his wife. In an attempt to save his life, he tries to locate him before Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) and his men do. But by the time he finds him, Werner has mistakenly given information about the underground drug lair to one of Gus’s enemies (Tony Dalton) over the phone.

Gold Derby can exclusively reveal that Jonathan Banks is entering the “Better Call Saul” season finale episode “Winner” as his 2019 Emmy Awards submission for Best Drama Supporting Actor. This program aired October 8 and was the 10th episode of the fourth season for the AMC show.

In this installment, Lalo (Tony Dalton) tricks Werner (Rainer Bock) into revealing lab construction details over the phone before Mike (Banks) ends the conversation. Mike kills him after Werner sends his wife home.

SEE2019 Emmy nominations complete list: All the nominees for the 71st Emmy Awards

It’s the fifth nomination for Banks in this role and sixth for his career. For this year’s contest, he is competing against three-time champ Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”), past nominees Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game of Thrones”), Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”) and Michael Kelly (“House of Cards”), plus rookie contenders Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”) and Chris Sullivan...

Of all the ways to begin a movie, few are more cruel than presenting a character such as Lara Jenkins and, before the audience has even gotten the chance to know her, showing her wearily open the window to her depressing German flat, position a chair and prepare to jump. It is Lara’s 60th birthday and, judging from the way it starts, she does not see it as a special occasion. Director Jan-Ole Gerster makes quite the gamble opening “Lara” in such a way, but as the film unfolds, he demonstrates that his intention was never to shock, but to identify with this conflicted character, proceeding to create a portrait of remarkable depth over the span of the day that follows.

A filmmaker once told me that, in his opinion, all movies are mysteries. Audiences go in knowing little or nothing, and they participate as the storyteller slowly reveals...

Gus and Mike have some making up to do when “Better Call Saul” returns for its fifth season next year.

While the finale of the “Breaking Bad” prequel’s fourth season will be remembered for showing Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) final descent into Saul Goodman, it also left Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in a bad spot.

“They ended on a hard note,” Esposito told TheWrap. “Certainly, things will be strained, and Mike hasn’t given his allegiance over to Gus completely.” By the time “Breaking Bad” rolls around, Mike is Gus’s right-hand man and arguably his most-trusted employee, so it’s clear that next season the two will have to iron some things out between each other.

Also Read: 'Better Call Saul' Co-Showrunner Breaks Down That Long-Awaited Moment in the Season Finale

“Better Call Saul” showed that, at least at one point,...

Beta Film and Oscar-winning director Florian Gallenberger are continuing their partnership with WWII drama, The Turncoat. Described as being in the tradition of International Emmy winner Generation War, the limited series is based on the novel by Siegfried Lenz that centers on a young Wehrmacht soldier who is stranded in the no man’s land of the Polish forests, surrounded by partisans, questioning the meaning of duty, conscience, friendship and love. Jannis Niewöhner (Maximilian And Marie De Bourgogne) stars alongside Malgorzata Mikolajczak, Sebastian Urzendowsky (The Counterfeiters), Rainer Bock (Never Look Away) and Ulrich Tukur (The Lives Of Others). Gallenberger is helming from a script by Bernd Lange (The Vanishing). Shooting is underway in Poland and Germany on the Dreamtool production for public broadcaster Ndr, Ard Degeto and Swr. Beta Film handles world sales and will present first images at Mipcom in Cannes this fall.

Four-hour Second World War series is shooting now in Poland and Germany.

Beta Film and producers Dreamtool have started shooting Second World War drama series The Turncoat, directed by Oscar-winner Florian Gallenberger.

Bernd Lange (The Vanishing) adapts the script from the novel by Siegfried Lenz about Walter, a young Wehrmacht soldier in the summer of 1944 who is stranded in the no man’s land of the Polish forests, surrounded by partisans, questioning the meaning of duty, conscience, friendship and love.

Broadcast partners are Ndr, Ard Degeto and Swr. Backers also include the Polish Film Institute, the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, and the Mfg Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg.

Following “Colonia,”Beta Film and Oscar-winning director Florian Gallenberger are set to re-team on “The Turncoat,” a WW2 mini-series based on Siegfried Lenz’s bestselling novel by the same name.

Currently shooting in Poland and Germany, “The Turncoat” will boast a high-profile German cast including Jannis Niewöhner (“Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne”), Malgorzata Mikolajczak, Sebastian Urzendowsky (“The Counterfeiters”), Rainer Bock (“Never Look Away”) and Ulrich Tukur (“The Lives of Others”).

Dreamtool is producing “The Turncoat” for public broadcaster Ndr, Ard Degeto and Swr. Written by Gallenberger and Bernd Lange (“The Vanishing”), “The Turncoat” depicts the story of young Wehrmacht soldier Walter who is stranded in the no man’s land of the Polish forests starts questioning the meaning of duty, friendship and love.

“These are stormy times, even though we are the generation which has everything – peace, freedom and prosperity. We want to create a touching film that shows us...

A tense World War II drama plays out in Nazi-occupied France and in the belly of a cramped German submarine in the trailer for Hulu’s adaptation of Das Boot. The show premiered on German TV last year and will arrive on Hulu June 17th.

The eight-episode series is based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 book of the same name, while it also incorporates elements from his 1995 sequel Die Festung. Wolfgang Petersen previously adapted Das Boot into a movie in 1981.

The show is set in the port of La Rochelle, France...

Exclusive: It’s official: Lalo is going to be a permanent fixture on Better Call Saul. It was announced today at the AMC Summit that actor Tony Dalton will be a series regular for season 5 of the Breaking Bad spinoff.

Dalton’s Lalo was a character that was first referenced in the season two episode of Breaking Bad when Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) was first introduced. In case you don’t remember, Saul asked Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) if Lalo sent them as he was kneeling over a grave dug by our favorite meth-dealing duo.

The actor first appeared as Lalo in the last couple of episodes of season 4 of Better Call Saul and in the season finale, he was in a “who can get to Werner Ziegler (Rainer Bock) first” competition with Mike (Jonathan Banks). And it was a pivotal episode as it was the metaphorical...

Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Cai Cohrs, Oliver Masucci, Ina Weisse, Rainer Bock, Johanna Gastdorf, Jeanette Hain, Hinnerk Schönemann, Florian Bartholomäi,Hans-Uwe Bauer, Jörg Schüttauf, Ben Becker, Lars Eidinger […]

The post Never Look Away Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

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,...

Spoiler Alert: This article contains details of the season 4 finale of Better Call Saul.

There are many moving parts to Better Call Saul, with the main lingering question being: “How did Jimmy McGill become Saul Goodman?” The season 4 finale addresses this and continues to clear the path for the inevitable intersection with the Breaking Bad timeline — although we’ll probably have to wait a little longer to see Walter White or Jesse Pinkman make an appearance in Saul.

Even so, the AMC spinoff and its predecessor have practically crossed over already considering the amount of overflow from one to the other. The season 4 finale of Better Call Saul adds to the Breaking Bad-iverse narrative, focusing on two points: the metaphorical death of Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill and the birth of Saul Goodman as well as a “who can get to Werner Ziegler (Rainer Bock) first” competition between Mike...

Among the fantastic line-up of the 26th Raindance Film Festival is the exciting German thriller "Luna's Revenge" which premiered last night at the Vue Cinema in London's West End. In attendance were Lisa Vicari who plays the title role Luna and Branko Tomovic who stars as the dangerous and scary undercover agent Victor.  "Luna's Revenge", directed by Khaled Kaissar, also features Bibiana Beglau (The Legend of Rita), Rainer Bock (The White Ribbon), Benjamin Sadler (Luther), Carlo Ljubek (The Wilhelm Tell Legend), Annika Blendl (Rabbit Without Ears), Alexander Beyer (Deutschland 86) and Genija Rykova (Tatort). The German premiere was last year at the Munich Film Festival. The film tells the story of Luna, who is spending her summer...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Among the fantastic line-up of the 26th Raindance Film Festival is the exciting German thriller "Luna's Revenge". We caught up for a chat with Branko Tomovic who stars as the dangerous and scary undercover agent Victor.   "Luna's Revenge", directed by Khaled Kaissar, also features Bibiana Beglau (The Legend of Rita), Rainer Bock (The White Ribbon), Benjamin Sadler (Luther), Carlo Ljubek (The Wilhelm Tell Legend), Annika Blendl (Rabbit Without Ears), Alexander Beyer (Deutschland 86), Genija Rykova (Tatort) and Lisa Vicari (Dark) in the title role. The film tells the story of Luna, who is spending her summer vacation in an idyllic mountain chalet with her family, when their holiday harmony suddenly becomes a nightmare: Foreign men take...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

A first trailer just dropped for Khaled Kaissar's directorial debut "Luna's Revenge" which recently premiered at the Film Fest Munich. Featuring many German stars such as Bibiana Beglau, Benjamin Sadler, Branko Tomovic, Rainer Bock, Annika Blendl, Alexander Beyer, Genija Rykova and Lisa Vicari in the title role, this certainly looks very promising. Luna, a smart, self-possessed and carefree 17-year-old, is spending her summer vacation in an idyllic mountain chalet with her family, when their holiday harmony suddenly becomes a nightmare: Foreign men take the family hostage and kill her parents and little sister. Luna only barely manages to escape, chased by the killers. Soon she has to find out they all were living a lie: Her dad was a Russian secret agent, their wholesome family...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men), James D'Arcy (Marvel's Agent Carter) and Thierry Frémont (Juste un regard) round out the cast of Das Boot, as filming begins on the Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment co-production. The series is shooting in Prague, La Rochelle, Malta and Munich. The four join an international cast including Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), August Wittgenstein (The Crown), Rainer Bock (Inglourious…...

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...

Louisa Mellor Feb 19, 2017

This new BBC Len Deighton adaptation SS-gb imagines an alternative 1941 in which Germany won the Battle of Britain…

This review contains spoilers.

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Nuance and Nazis rarely go hand in hand. It's the skulls on the hats - they invite more shades of pantomime than subtlety. Mega successful Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade don't miss an opportunity for Nazi or noir cliché in the first episode of SS-gb, their five-part adaptation of Len Deighton’s bestselling alt-history novel.

We’re introduced to high-ranking Nazi officer Standartenführer Huth (Lars Eidinger) overseeing an autopsy from the shadows. His subordinate Kellerman (Rainer Bock) has “the subtlety of a pig” he complains, before stubbing out his cigarette in a specimen dish and stalking off, black cane in leather-gloved hand, promising our hero “We are going to be busy,...

Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.

The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.

Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.

James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.

Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.

In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.

For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...

Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.

The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.

Joining the competition are

18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.

The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.

Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...

The Weinstein Company has acquired U.S. distribution TV rights to SS-gb, the upcoming alternate history thriller from UK-based production house Sid Gentle Films and the BBC, which will air the five-part miniseries in the UK. The project based on Len Deighton's 1978 novel was adapted by James Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and stars Sam Riley and Kate Bosworth. Jason Flemyng, James Cosmo, Aneurin Barnard, Maeve Dermody, Rainer Bock and Lars Eidinger co-star. The…...

The Weinstein Company has acquired Us television rights to UK-based Sid Gentle Films’ upcoming alternate history thriller to star Sam Riley and Kate Bosworth.

SS-gb is based on Len Deighton’s 1978 novel of the same name and will air on BBC One in the UK.

James Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade adapted the speculative story, which takes place in a London in the 1940s occupied by the Nazis as a detective stumbles upon a web of intrigue.

Jason Flemyng, James Cosmo, Aneurin Barnard and Maeve Dermody also star alongside German actors Rainer Bock and Lars Eidinger.

Germany’s Philipp Kadelbach directs and executive producers are Sid Gentle Films’ Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris.

The miniseries marks the second partnership between the Weinsteins, BBC, Lookout Point, and Bbcww this year following War & Peace.

David Glasser, Negeen Yazdi, James Gold, Michal Podell Steinberg, and Talia Houminer negotiated the deal for TWC with Bbcww and Lookout Point.

Kate Bosworth has joined Sam Riley in a new BBC thriller from the writers of Spectre.

The Superman Returns actress will play an American journalist named Barbara Barga in SS-gb, a five-parter from Spectre writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

Jason Flemyng, James Cosmo, Aneurin Barnard, Maeve Dermody and Rainer Bock will also appear in the series, directed by Philipp Kadelbach.

Based on Len Deighton's alternate history novel of the same name, SS-gb takes place in Nazi-occupied London and follows British detective Douglas Archer (Riley) investigating a black market murder.

However, Archer finds himself dragged into a much darker and treacherous world, with extremely high stakes.

"Archer is a compelling and complex character," said Riley. "He is a good guy struggling to reconcile his job as a policeman within the repressive Nazi machine.

"Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have written a gripping screenplay that pays homage to Len Deighton's novel.

Title: Run, Boy, Run Director: Pepe Danquart Starring: Andrzej and Kamil Tkacz, Jeanette Hain, Rainer Bock, Itay Tiran, Katarzyna Bargielowska. ‘Run, Boy, Run’ (German: ‘Lauf, Junge, lauf,’ Polish: ‘Biegnij, ch?opcze, biegnij,’ French: ‘Cours sans te retourner’) is a 2013 German-Polish-Frenchco-production of the film director and producer Pepe Danquart. The film is an adaptation of the 2000 novel ‘Run, Boy, Run’ by Uri Orlev, based on true events from the life of Yoram Fridman. It’s the Shoah seen from the eyes of a nine year old: Skrulik is the youngest of five Jewish siblings living in a village near Warsaw. His father will sacrifice himself to spare the young boy from [ Read More ]

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