News

Exclusive: Julian Fellowes is going from crimes of high society to real crimes. The Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age creator is set to write and executive produce a TV adaptation of Swiss-American author Donna Leon’s contemporary Detective Brunetti book series, which is in development at 20th Television.

The project was originated and set up at the studio by Fellowes’ longtime friend and mentor, producer Ileen Maisel who died in February at the age of 68. She had been in the 20th Television fold since 2018 when she signed a first-look deal with its former division Fox21.

Maisel will be credited as an executive producer on the Brunetti series alongside writer Fellowes, Gesine Lubben, Pk Fellowes and Lawrence Elman. Author Leon will co-executive produce. Playwright Felix Legge will serve as co-writer and producer.

While the setting is contemporary, the Brunetti series adaptation’s official description pays homage to a literary classic...

While he may be best known for features such as “The King of Scotland” and “The Mauritanian,” Kevin Macdonald has directed a number of documentaries about well-known figures, including 2012’s Bob Marley doc “Marley,” 2018’s revelatory “Whitney” about Whitney Houston and last year’s “High & Low: John Galliano.” His latest film, “Klitschko: More Than a Fight” — which opens the 2024 Sheffield Doc/Fest on Wednesday (and lands on Sky Documentaries in August) — is a little different.

At its center is Vitali Klitschko, the Ukrainian heavyweight boxing legend who, alongside his brother Wladimir, dominated the sport for a decade starting in the mid-2000s. But unlike Macdonald’s other documentaries, “More Than a Fight” follows its subject in the present day and in an entirely different role, as mayor of Kyiv, the capital city at the epicenter of the deadly ongoing war with Russia. Klitschko is seen visiting destroyed homes, giving medals...

Ileen Maisel, who served as a studio executive at Paramount, Lorimar and New Line Cinema and as a producer on films including Onegin, Ripley’s Game and The Golden Compass, has died. She was 68.

Maisel died Feb. 16 of cancer in London, her home for the past 34 years, her sister, Hollywood publicist Cheryl Maisel, announced.

Maisel received a BAFTA nomination for best British film for producing Samuel Goldwyn’s Onegin (1999), starring Ralph Fiennes, and was said to be most proud of her work on the Fine Line Features thriller Ripley’s Game (2002), starring John Malkovich.

In addition to the New Line fantasy The Golden Compass (2007), which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and grossed $372.2 million at the global box office, her other producing credits included Twelfth Night (1996), Inkheart (2008), and Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2015).

Born in Los Angeles on April 6, 1955, Ileen Marla Maisel began working for entertainment journalist Rona Barrett...

Editor’s note: Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age writer Julian Fellowes has written a heartfelt salute to his friend and colleague, the producer Ileen Maisel, who died in London on February 16 aged 68.

Ileen Maisel was born in Los Angeles, California, where she was raised. In fact, her father had moved there from Alabama to work in retail sales, so she had no immediate help with a career in show business, but it was clearly enough that she breathed the same air as the great filmmakers of the past and present. It is no surprise to learn that by the age of 15 she was working for the entertainment journalist Rona Barrett.

From then on, she embraced, bathed in, and generally loved the film industry until the end of her life. There was never much doubt as to where she was headed and she was still young when she entered the industry.

Luc Besson To EP ‘Rainbow Warrior’ Feature Doc

Luc Besson is exec producing a feature documentary exploring the stranger-than-fiction tale of the bombing of the iconic ship Rainbow Warrior, which is in the works with Doscville Studios, Gnz, EuropaCorp and Expanded Media. Pre-sales to Dr, Svt and Nrk have already been struck for Rainbow Warrior and a streamer and UK broadcast partner will soon be announced. The feature charts happenings in 1985 when two bombs exploded in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, sinking the ship of a small environmental group in the dead of night. Investigators initially suspected terrorists but quickly uncovered a trail of clues that lead directly to the French secret service. “This story is more relevant than ever with the seemingly constant threat of nuclear war and the environmental crusade that many young people will consider their life’s mission,” said director Edward McGurn. Besson is an...

Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards

Vanessa Redgrave will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards this December. Across six decades, the actress has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits. Having first achieved fame as Rosalind in a 1961 a televized Royal Shakespeare Company performance of As You Like It, she broke out in cinema in Karel Reisz’s 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Redgrave won Best Actress in Cannes for the role and was also Bafta and Oscar nominated. Other key early credits include Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Reisz’s Isadora, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen Of Scots, for which she won a Special David at the Italian David di Donatello Awards; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia, for which she won an Oscar and James Ivory’s The Bostonians and Howards End and James Gray’s Little Odessa.

Award

British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards.

Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She returned to Cannes in the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.

More Oscar nominations followed – in 1969 for her performance as Isadora Duncan in “Isadora” by Reisz, which again won her best actress at Cannes, and in 1972 for “Mary, Queen of Scots, by Charles Jarrott – which won her a special David at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards. Her performance in Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (1978) won her an Oscar, and she scored further nominations for James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1985) and “Howards End” (1993). In...

Rebranding

Germany’s Leonine Studios has rebranded its television subsidiary Odeon Entertainment as Madame Zheng Production to reflect its primary focus of “equality and diversity in every aspect of the production business, both in front of and behind the camera.” Tina Wagner, previously producer and executive producer at RedSeven Entertainment, and Nina Etspüler, co-head of entertainment at Leonine Studios, are joining the management team and will lead the company under Wagner’s direction along with Martin Schneider, Odeon Entertainment’s long-standing managing director.

Fred Kogel, CEO and co-head of entertainment at Leonine Studios, said: “Ever since Nina Etspüler joined Leonine in Jan. 2021, we have jointly pursued the goal of establishing a production brand that advocates for equality and diversity in front of and behind the camera, in order to firmly anchor these themes, which are essential for Leonine Studios, in the production market. The entertainment sector in Germany, in particular,...

The life and career of Reverend Jesse Jackson is set to be examined in a new theatrical documentary film and limited TV series, helmed by Jesse’s son Yusef D. Jackson and director Shola Lynch. According to Deadline, Expanded Media and Lawrence Elman/Nick Fraser’s Docsville Studios are behind the currently untitled project, which will feature exclusive access to the famous Baptist minister and his family, in addition to unseen archival footage dating back 60 years. The project is described as “Reverend Jackson’s personal story, in his own words, for the first time.” Born in 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jesse is a famed civil rights activist and a two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination (1984 and 1988). He served as a shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997 and hosted the weekly news show Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000. “Despite his Parkinson’s,...

Exclusive: The untold story of Reverend Jesse Jackson is to be made into a theatrical documentary feature and limited TV series, with Jackson’s son Yusef D Jackson set to co-exec and Peabody Award-winning Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed director Shola Lynch attached.

Expanded Media and Lawrence Elman/Nick Fraser’s Docsville Studios are behind the as-yet-untitled big-budget project, which will include exclusive access to the influential U.S. heavyweight figure and his family, along with unseen archive footage over a period of 60 years.

The producers described the film and series as “Reverend Jackson’s personal story, in his own words, for the first time.”

The civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate was born in 1941 in the segregated south and the film will explain and explore what drove him and continues to drive him, detailing his omnipresence wherever civil rights, human rights and injustice are present.

“Despite his Parkinson’s,...

Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter moves from Venice into 579 theaters this weekend — the first in a welcome stream of specialty films from the Lido, Telluride and Toronto that could, perhaps maybe, buck up the struggling arthouse market this fall. The film is 90% certified fresh and hails from Focus Features, which presented one of the rare specialty hits of recent months, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.

That film came out in mid-July before the Delta Variant reached full sweep. It was released on nearly double the number of screens.

The Card Counter stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan. William Tell (Isaac) a military interrogator haunted by his past just wants to play cards. But his spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he’s approached by Cirk (Sheridan), a vulnerable, angry young man seeking help to get revenge on a military colonel (Willem Dafoe). Tell...

Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards

Sweden’s primary national film awards, the Guldbagge Awards, were held in Stockholm last night. Henrik Schyffert’s comedy drama Run Uje Run won Best Film as well as Best Actor (Uje Brandelius) and Best Screenplay (also for Brandelius). Amanda Kernell’s drama Charter was another of the big winners, taking Best Director, Best Actress (Ane Dahl Torp), and Best Cinematography (Sophia Olsson). Waad Al-Kateab’s For Sama won best International Feature, while I Am Greta took Best Documentary Film.

Fremantle-Backed Podcast Producer Storyglass Hires Audible Exec

Storyglass, the Fremantle-backed podcast production company, has hired Audible originals executive Steve Carsey as its managing director. He will report to Storyglass chairman Bob McCourt and will be responsible for overseeing Storyglass’ projects across all scripted and unscripted genres. Storyglass was fully-owned by Fremantle until last year, when it was spun out into a standalone company within the Bertelsmann Group.

The doc is a co-production between Fraser’s Docsville Studios, Altitude Factual and Expanded Media.

Oscar-winning UK director Kevin Macdonald is teaming with Altitude and broadcaster ITV for a feature documentary that delves intothe UK’s ICU wards during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The One Day In September director is working with Canadian film producer Lawrence Elman and founder of BBC’s Storyville strand Nick Fraser on The Year That Changed Britain (working title).

The documentary is a co-production between Fraser’s Docsville Studios, Altitude Factual and Expanded Media.

ITV controller of factual Jo Clinton Davis and head...

ITV has commissioned Covid-19 documentary “The Year That Changed Britain” with Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald directing, Variety has learned exclusively.

The film will attempt to tell the story of the pandemic’s impact on Britain through the intimate personal and professional experiences of those who lived through it. Producers have secured “unprecedented” access to intensive care units across the country — from the Whittington Hospital in London to the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire. The film begins before the pandemic became a worldwide medical emergency and stretches through full lockdown, into the peak of the crisis and beyond.

“The Year That Changed Britain,” which is a working title, is a co-production between Lawrence Elman and former BBC Storyville commissioner Nick Fraser’s Docsville Studios, Altitude Factual and Expanded Media. The film will be released in U.K. and Irish cinemas by Altitude Film Distribution in 2021.

Macdonald’s film credits include “One Day in September,...

Director Barry Jenkins shared a teaser for “The Underground Railroad,” and Apple TV Plus announced that “Peanuts” specials including “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” will be made available on the platform.

Renewals

Vice TV announced that it has renewed “Dark Side of the Ring,” a docuseries about controversies in the wrestling world, for a third season with 14 new episodes in the works. The series, which has become the highest-rated Vice TV show, documented tragedies and shocking stories within the wrestling community through its first two season. Some stories explored in Season 2 include Dino Bravo‘s murder, David Schultz‘s assault on a reporter and a freak accident involving Owen Hart. Executive producers of “Dark Side of the Ring” are Jason Eisener, Evan Husney, Vanessa Case, Catherine Whyte and Lee Hoffman. Eisener is also the show’s director and Husney is the writer.

First Looks

Quibi shared a new...

Greenwich Entertainment has secured North American distribution rights to The Capote Tapes, a documentary feature by first-time director Ebs Burnough. The pic, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and closed the Doc NYC event last week, will get a theatrical release in 2020.

The logline: Answered Prayers was meant to be Truman Capote’s greatest masterpiece, an epic portrait of New York’s glittering jet-set society. Instead, it sparked his downfall. Through never-before-heard audio archives and interviews with Capote’s friends and enemies, The Capote Tapes reveals the rise and fall of America’s most iconic gay writer.

“Truman Capote is one of history’s most prolific and mysterious writers, and we are thrilled to work with Greenwich to release The Capote Tapes so a wider audience can appreciate the essence of such a fascinating icon,” Burnough said.

The documentary features interviews with Dick Cavett, André Leon Talley,...

Altitude has boarded “The Capote Tapes,” the feature documentary that has never-heard-before interviews with Truman Capote and that will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Altitude will handle international sales on the film, which is directed by Ebs Burnough, a former White House adviser to Michelle Obama. It will co-rep the U.S. with Endeavor Content.

“The Capote Tapes” filmmakers had unprecedented access to taped interviews with Capote made as part of an oral biography of the writer by George Plimpton, co-founder of The Paris Review. Using the tapes, animation, and new on-camera interviews with people who knew him, the film explores the impact of Capote’s explosive unfinished novel “Answered Prayers.”

The first chapter of the novel was released in 1975, revealing the intimate secrets, from adultery to murder, of Manhattan’s high society. There are various theories as to what happened to the full work: did Capote destroy it,...

In today’s film news roundup, “Whitney” filmmaker Kevin Macdonald is partnering with Docsville, “Marfa Girl 2” is getting distribution, and a Dave Gurney mystery series is heading into development.

Partnerships

Documentary streaming service Docsville has signed a partnership with “Whitney” filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, Variety has learned exclusively.

Macdonald’s credits include “Touching the Void,” “One Day in September,” “The Last King of Scotland,” the thriller “State of Play,” “How I Live Now,” and the upcoming Whitney Houston documentary “Whitney,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

He won an Academy Award for best documentary in 2000 for “One Day in September,” working with Docsville co-founder Nick Fraser on the film.

“It’s been a joy to work with Kevin over many years, from our collaboration on ‘One Day in September’ up until our most recent efforts with Docsville,” Fraser said. “Having such a talented director on board will surely...

In today’s film news roundup, Shia Labeouf is starring in “Tax Collector,” Scout Taylor-Compton joins “Abeyance,” and streaming service Docsville is expanding.

Castings

Shia Labeouf and Bobby Soto are starring in David Ayer’s crime thriller “Tax Collector,” which will be shot in Los Angeles this summer.

Cross Creek Pictures is financing “Tax Collector,” a co-production between Cross Creek and Cedar Park Entertainment, Ayer’s production company. Ayer and Chris Long of Cedar Park are the producers. The filmmakers are keeping the logline under wraps.

Ayer’s directing credits include “End of Watch,” “Sabotage,” “Fury,” “Suicide Squad,” and “Bright.” Labeouf worked with Ayer in the World War II action-drama “Fury.” Labeouf’s show business drama “Honey Boy” is in post-production.

Cross Creek is repped by CAA Media Finance and Schuyler Moore of Greenberg Glusker Fields. Cedar Park, Ayer, and Long are repped by CAA. The news was first reported by Deadline.

After leaving his postition as editor of BBC Storyville, Fraser is launching a doc streaming platform with CEO Lawrence Elman.

After two decades at the helm, documentary supremo Nick Fraser has stepped down from his position as editor of BBC Storyville.

He is continuing to executive produce and collaborate on various projects (including major new African documentary, Sierra Leone: An Artist’s Journey and Final Account, a doc based on 1000 hours of material of “old Nazis sitting in their living rooms” assembled by Luke Holland.)

He is also writing a wide-ranging book on his life in documentary for Faber. However, his current major project is the new doc streaming service Yaddo, which launched in Europe last month and is due to expand to expand to 160 territories worldwide in November. Yaddo has backing from Swedish tech company, Magine. The subscription based service will co-finance films as well as show them. Among the initial...

Veteran action director Simon West ("Con Air," "The Mechanic") has been set to helm the supernatural period war drama "War Wolf" for Fortitude International and Amber Entertainment.

Set in 1356, after decades of relentless war between the French and English armies, an English solider is awarded the castle of his French assassin enemy. But in the walls and the lands that surround it, someone has reawakened the Loup de Guerre, a nightmarish creature on a killing spree.

West will direct from a script by Andy Briggs and Paul Finch for what is a first in a planned franchise. Ileen Maisel, Lawrence Elman and Jib Polhemus are producing and filming begins in Italy in November.

Source: Variety...

Fortitude International has added the action title to its Cannes slate and the producers have earmarked a November shoot in Italy.

Ileen Maisel, Lawrence Elman and Jib Polhemus are producing War Wolf. West, Fortitude International and Amber Entertainment hope to build a franchise around the property and Paul Finch, author of the Heck crime novels, is working on a novel of the project.

Andy Briggs and Finch wrote the screenplay to War Wolf, which takes place in 1356 during the Hundred Years War between England and France.

After the Englishman Earl Hugo wins the castle of his enemy, French assassin Mauchet, someone has reawakened a ferocious fabled wolf known as the Loup de Guerre that threatens to go on a killing spree.

Mission: Impossible effects, make-up and costume specialist Dave Elsey and Lou Elsey are on board

West’s (pictured) credits include The Expendables 2, Con Air, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Fortitude International...