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The HBO adaptation wrapped its four-season run up this week, but there’s plenty of other shows to watch next.

Six years, four seasons, and four novels later, HBO’s “My Brilliant Friend,” its adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, has come to its bittersweet end. The sprawling story follows lifelong friends Elena and Lila (played by eight actors collectively across the four-season run) throughout their 60-plus-year friendship as the elderly Elena recounts their lives together when Lila disappears.

Tackling female friendship and intimacy, class, gender, work, love, motherhood, and political clashes, “My Brilliant Friend” has been in a league of its own since its 2018 debut. While you can return to the epic at any time on Max, if you’re looking for similar stories in tone and scope, check out The Streamable’s recommendations for what to watch next!

My Brilliant Friend November 27, 2018

When the most important friend...

My Brilliant Friend Season 4 reveals the ramifications of Tina's (Maria Vittoria Miorin) disappearance from Lila's life. 

The final season of the Italian drama HBO series mainly revolves around Elena and Lila's friendship as they navigate their ups and downs through the years. 

A huge chunk of Season 4's story focuses on Lila's mental breakdown mainly focused on how and why her daughter, Tina, vanished. 

Read full article on The Direct.

The final chapter of HBO’s My Brilliant Friend, adapted from Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, arrives with “Restitution,” airing Monday, November 11. This series finale is expected to bring a complicated mix of emotions for longtime viewers as it attempts to wrap up the decades-spanning story of Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo. Picking up after Pasquale […]

My Brilliant Friend: Restitution...

Over the course of its four-season run, HBO’s My Brilliant Friend has featured gangland killings, sexual assaults, attacks by political revolutionaries, and other forms of violence. Yet time and again, the Italian drama series, based on Elena Ferrante’s quartet of Neapolitan novels, finds itself at its most savage, and powerful, in conversations between its two central characters, Elena and Lila.

Elena (played at various ages by Elisa Del Genio, Margherita Mazzucco, and most recently Alba Rohrwacher) and Lila (played by Ludovica Nasti, Gaia Girace, and now Irene Maiorino...

When director Paolo Sorrentino’s hit series The Young Pope debuted in 2016, it took the Vatican a year to grudgingly bless his imagined and occasionally blasphemous portrayal of the pope. Not so for Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope, which has gotten an early thumbs-down from Italy’s Catholic Church.

That has only seemed to pique interest in the film, driving it to the top of the box office here for Italian films since its release in theaters last month.

Set in Sorrentino’s native Naples, the film is a lush meditation on beauty, love and death, drawn from the Greek myth of the siren Parthenope, who throws herself into the sea after she fails to entice Odysseus with her song. Parthenope is closely affiliated with Naples, such that the city is sometimes called “Partenope” and its people “Partenopei” in Italian.

The film is by no means about the church, but toward the end,...

My Brilliant Friend is coming to an end.

The HBO series is airing its fourth and final season right now on Mondays at 9–10 p.m. Et on the network.

Based on the best-selling novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco (Margherita Mazzucco) and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (Gaia Girace). Their story covers over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila — Elena’s brilliant best friend and worst enemy.

Season 4 delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila, who find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s. Amid motherhood, career demands, betrayals, threats, disappearances, and natural disasters, the two lifelong friends once again reside in the same neighborhood.

Fans are curious whether the show might be extending past Season 4, but we already know the answer.

Keep reading to find out more…

HBO is not renewing My Brilliant Friend for Season 5, and there’s a reason.

Before long, the world will get to see Paul Mescal's performance in Ridley Scott's highly-anticipated, long-simmering sequel "Gladiator II" as Lucius Verus, son of the original film's protagonist Maximus (Russell Crowe). If you're unfamiliar with Mescal's game, though, you might want to prepare for "Gladiator II" by watching the actor's incredible breakout role in the miniseries "Normal People," based on Sally Rooney's bestselling second novel.

"Normal People" became a huge pop culture phenomenon when it hit Hulu in the spring of 2020 — by pure chance, it ended up coming out just as the entire world entered quarantine thanks to the Covid-19 virus, leaving people to watch a whole lot of TV at home — and the series absolutely put Mescal and his co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones on the map.

Mescal ultimately earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a limited series and won trophies for his performance at...

It’s always fascinating to know the reasons why actors decide to go behind the camera for the first time. After all, the subject must have hit a very personal part of their being so as to take up the extraneous effort of mounting an entire story to the screen in a language that is mostly foreign to them. So, when Maggie Gyllenhall was asked why she decided to make The Lost Daughter (now streaming on Netflix), her answer assured me more than anything else.

She said that when she first read Elena Ferrante’s book that goes by the same name, her first line of thought was “Oh my god! This woman is so fucked up and I totally related to her. So am I so fucked up?” As funny as that sounds, the reason feels palpable. I mean, I have always wanted to see a mother on screen...

When we first meet Nino Sarratore in the HBO adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend,” based on the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, he’s a young child at a wake for the dead husband of his father, Donato Sarratore’s (Emanuele Valenti) mistress, Melina (Pina Di Gennaro). While it’s clearly not the first time that our narrator, Elena Greco, has met the slightly older Nino, what’s important is that six-year-old Elena is already secretly in love with him. Later, when teenage Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) sees Nino (Francesco Serpico) at high school with his perfectly floppy hair, glasses on his adorable face while smoking a cigarette, she drops a sandwich on the ground at first glance. Her lust for him is palpable. How many of us haven’t felt that feeling for someone we would later learn is a nightmare?

As Elena narrates her life through the lens of...

Catalan films have impressed at festivals and awards ceremonies around the world for years now as the region continues to punch far above its weight in the screen industries. As the fall festival season transitions into awards season, we wanted to take a look at the buzziest Catalan titles set to make their debut sometime next year.

Carla Simon, among the most exciting young filmmakers working in Europe today, will return with her fourth feature, “Romeria,” which is shooting now. The film tells the story of Marina, who travels to Vigo in the northwest of Spain to meet her biological father’s family after he dies of AIDS. The film is particularly close to Simon, who lost her parents to the disease when she was only six years old.

Óliver Laxe made headlines when his next production, “After,” was unveiled in January with Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo producing alongside...

The complex relationship between Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo lies at the heart of My Brilliant Friend. We first met them as clever children navigating poverty and oppression in 1950s Naples. Now adults in the turbulent 1970s, their bond endures despite separate paths.

Elena pursues writing, traveling between Italy and France. But marriage troubles and an affair with Nino strain ties with family. Lila finds success but battles gangsters in her old neighborhood.

Their friendship surprises with turns, as do lives entwined with history. Lila encourages Elena’s ambitions, though envying her escape. Elena admires Lila’s fire, borrowing some rebelliousness.

In Season 4, old dangers materialize amid political turmoil. Elena faces disintegrating dreams with Nino while reconnecting with daughters and the past. Lila confronts roots she can’t quit, seeking empowerment through challenging the powerful.

The series excels at depicting lives shaped by location and era and their affection transcending rivalry.

My Brilliant Friend Season 4 adds stellar newcomers to its cast, such as Alba Rohrwacher, Irene Maiorino, and Fabrizio Gifuni.

Season 4 of Max's hit Italian drama series is based on Elena Ferrante's novel, The Story of the Lost Child, which chronicles the friendship of Elena and Lila as they endure gut-wrenching twists and turns in their marriage, career, and family. 

My Brilliant Friend Season 4 premiered on HBO and Max on September 9.

Read full article on The Direct.

If you've been a fan of Italian series My Brilliant Friend, you'll definitely want to tune in to the fourth and final season of the show. So when exactly can you start watching? We've got all the details for you so you don't miss an episode!

My Brilliant Friend season 4 premieres tonight, Sept. 9, 2024, at 9 p.m. Et on HBO and Max. That's right. If you'd like to stream the series, then you'll need to wait until later tonight as well since the release time apples to both the television debut and streaming release. One new episode will air/stream on Mondays at that time until the series finale on Nov. 11. Check out the episode release schedule below:

Episode 1, "The Separation" - Sept. 9Episode 2 - Sept. 16Episode 3 - Sept. 23Episode 4 - Sept. 30Episode 5 - Oct. 7Episode 6 - Oct. 14Episode 7 - Oct. 21Episode 8 - Oct. 28Episode 9 - Nov. 4Episode 10 - Nov. 11Episode...

The season premiere of My Brilliant Friend, based on Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan Novels, centres on the intricate bond between Elena Greco and her friend, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. In this opening episode, titled “The Separation,” Elena weighs the option of returning to Naples following criticism from Immacolata and Adele. Meanwhile, Lila discloses unexpected news about […]

My Brilliant Friend: Story of the Lost Child – The Separation...

While we have already made a list of the best of the best movies coming to Max in September, those are not the only films you should look out for as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service is also bringing you a ton of original and licensed new content in the upcoming month, from the brilliant anime film The Boy and the Heron to the highly anticipated DC action crime drama series The Penguin. So, we picked out the 5 best new movies and TV shows coming to Max in September 2024.

The Boy and the Heron (September 6)

The Boy and the Heron is a Japanese fantasy anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The 2023 film revolves around Mahito, a 12-year-old as he struggles with the death of his mother but when a talking heron tells him that his mother is still alive. Mahito enters an abandoned tower to search for his mother,...

The highly anticipated Season 4 of “My Brilliant Friend: Story of the Lost Child” kicks off with the episode titled “The Separation,” airing at 9:00 Pm on Monday, September 9, 2024, on HBO. This beloved series, based on Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed novels, continues to explore the deep and complex friendship between Elena and Lila as they navigate the challenges of life in Italy.

In this season opener, the backdrop is set in the late 1980s, a time marked by significant political turmoil and social unrest in Italy. As the country nears the end of decades filled with violence and instability, Elena and Lila find themselves caught in the middle of it all. Their personal struggles mirror the chaos surrounding them, leading to intense emotional conflicts and decisions that will shape their futures.

Fans can expect powerful performances as the characters grapple with their identities and relationships against a changing societal landscape. The...

From Naples to Gotham City, let Max pick your end-of-summer destination!

This September, leading up to the release of the highly anticipated HBO Original series “The Penguin,” starring Colin Farrell as Batman’s avian antagonist, Max has also curated a “DC Universe” collection, including the Michael Keaton-led “Batman” films beginning with 1989’s “Batman,” the hit adult-animated series “Harley Quinn,” and the 11-time Emmy-winning “Watchmen,” among many others.

But beyond Gotham, it’s a busy month for HBO and Max, which will premiere the fourth and final season of “My Brilliant Friend,” based on Elena Ferrante’s novels, as well as the two-part Original Documentary “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” an up-close look at the creative process behind the cultural phenomenon and HBO anchor.

Also new to the streamer’s collection this month are several titles from Discovery, Food Network, and more, including Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki...

Mediawan, the European parent company of Brad Pitt’s Plan B, is taking a majority stake in Our Films, a new production and film financing company led by film and TV producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli.

Launched in 2024 and based in Rome, Our Films is focused on working with established and emerging European, U.S. and international filmmakers and talent across features documentaries and series.

Mediawan, which is home to over 80 production companies, has produced projects like “Call My Agent,” “Three Body Problem,” “Bob Marley: One Love,” “Miraculous Ladybug,” “Rhythm and Flow France,” “The Agency,” “The Count of Montecristo,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” “Hip/High Potential,” and “One Day.”

Its investment in Our Films comes as part of the company’s strategy to create a truly pan-European studio with an increasingly growing presence, which now spans 13 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, and the UK in Europe,...

The final season of the drama series “My Brilliant Friend”, based on the novels of Elena Ferrante, is directed by Laura Bispuri, starring Alba Rohrwacher, Irene Maiorino, Fabrizio Gifuni, Stefano Dionisi, Anna Rita Vitolo, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Daria Deflorian, Lino Musella, Eduardo Scarpetta Pesce and Sonia Bergamasco, streaming September 9, 2024 on Max:

“…the series follows ‘Elena Greco’ and the most important friend in her life, ‘Raffaella Lila Cerullo’. After meeting as children in 1950’s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila - Elena's brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

“They now find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980’s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest. Amid motherhood and career demands, amid betrayals, threats, disappearances and natural disasters, Elena and Lila once again reside in the same neighborhood…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Italy’s Leone Film Group is taking the legacy of its founder, spaghetti Western master Sergio Leone, to the next level.

As the Rome-based company run by the maestro’s children, Raffaella and Andrea, celebrates its 35th anniversary, it continues to consolidate its standing as the preeminent supplier of U.S. indie product to Italy. The Leone’s film and TV production side has been recently growing with a robust slate of high-end content for the international market.

Having become the top distribution partner in Italy for U.S. indies such as Lionsgate, STX Entertainment, Voltage and Black Bear, the Leone Film Group is now focused on what Raffaella Leone calls the “more difficult task” of “laying the groundwork for our production side in the international arena.”

The group’s Lotus Production label, which is now run directly by Raffaella, has a slew of projects in various stages, with new films by James Gray,...

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced the movies, TV shows, and live sports that will be available on the Max streaming service in September. The Max September 2024 lineup includes The Boy and the Heron, My Brilliant Friend Season 4, The Penguin, and Wise Guy David Chase and The Sopranos.

The September schedule also includes the A24 films Civil War and I Saw the TV Glow.

The Penguin Featured Programming

Coming From America (Max Original Unscripted Series)

The first of six episodes will debut on September 5, followed by one new episode weekly through October 10.

Four African American families pack up all their belongings, risking everything to move to the new land of opportunity: Africa. Enticed by cheap housing and picturesque landscapes, these families travel 5000 miles to find love, jobs, and a better life. First, they’ll have to survive the inevitable culture shock – but if they can endure the first 60 days, their lives could be changed forever.

The trailer for the final season of My Brilliant Friend is here.

Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, the series follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy. The fourth installment of the saga, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest. Amid motherhood and career demands, amid betrayals, threats, disappearances, and natural disasters, Elena and Lila once again reside in the same neighborhood.

Keep reading to find out more…

Alba Rohrwacher portrays Elena Greco/Lenù and Irene Maiorino portrays Raffaella Cerullo/Lila.

Despite not having any flashy A-list stars, the HBO series, “My Brilliant Friend” continues to be one of the most acclaimed series the network has right now. But that’s about to come to an end, as the fourth season also serves as the final one.

Read More: Fall 2024 TV Preview: 40 Must-See Series To Watch

As seen in the trailer, the fourth season of “My Brilliant Friend” is based on the bestselling novel “My Brilliant Friend: The Story Of The Lost Child,” the fourth book of the quadrilogy by Elena Ferrante.

Continue reading ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Final Season Trailer: The Acclaimed HBO Drama Series Comes To An End This Fall at The Playlist.

HBO has released the official trailer and key art for the fourth and final season of the critically acclaimed original drama series My Brilliant Friend, which will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

The fourth and final season of HBO’s sumptuous 20th-century saga “My Brilliant Friend” brings us back to Naples one more time. HBO has released the trailer for the last 10 episodes of the series, based on Elena Ferrante’s worldwide-bestselling quartet of Neapolitan novels, with Season 4 adapting the last book, “The Story of the Lost Child.” Watch below.

The series is created by Saverio Costanzo, who hands directing duties over to “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” filmmaker Laura Bispuri. Costanzo’s partner and Bispuri’s longtime collaborator Alba Rohrwarcher joins onscreen as protagonist Elena Greco after narrating behind the camera the last three seasons. Irene Maiorino joins the cast as Elena’s complicated longtime friend Lila, whom she first met as a girl in 1950s Naples. This season brings us back to the namesake Italian city — which the production recreated on a vast soundstage when not filming on location — where Elena,...

Elena is returning to a nearly unrecognizable Naples in My Brilliant Friend Season 4.

HBO released a trailer for the adaptation’s fourth and final season on Thursday, and in it, a grown-up Elena (now played by Alba Rohrwacher) moves back to Naples where she finds Lila (Irene Maioria) has become the neighborhood’s biggest force. Elsewhere, Elena reveals that she’s pregnant (!) while her mother’s health declines, and she grapples with the demands of family and ambition. (Watch trailer above.)

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HBO has released the official trailer for the fourth and final season of the critically acclaimed original drama series My Brilliant Friend. It premieres Monday, September at 9 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max. New episodes will debut every Monday. Watch the trailer above.

Created by Saverio Costanzo, based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco (Alba Rohrwacher) and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (Irene Maiorino). After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

E! has released the trailer for Season 2 of “House of Villains,” the Joel McHale-hosted reality show that sees 10 of reality TV’s most infamous “villains” come together to outsmart and out-manipulate each other in a series of challenges to win a cash prize, and the title of “America’s Ultimate Supervillain.”

The show has been slated for a two-night premiere, with the first episode to be broadcast live on E!, Bravo, Syfy and USA on Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. Et/Pt and the second on the same time on Oct. 10. Following the premiere, the series will air in its regular Thursday timeslot at 10 p.m. Et/Pt on E! and will be available to stream on Peacock.

The trailer features the season’s malicious cast, all reunited at the iconic lair (mansion) from Season 1, with “RuPaul’s Drag Race’s” Kandy Muse iconically declaring, “You are going to come into the house of villains?...

The HBO Original drama series “My Brilliant Friend” is set to debut its fourth and final season on Monday, September 9, at 9:00 Pm Et/Pt. The 10-episode season will air weekly on HBO and stream on Max. Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, the series follows the story of Elena Greco and her […]

“My Brilliant Friend” Returns for Its Fourth and Final Season on HBO...

Enter the adult lives of longtime girlfriends-on-edge Lenù and Lila in the final season of HBO’s “My Brilliant Friend.” The Italian series is based on Elena Ferrante’s wildly popular, globally best-selling Neapolitan Novels, beginning with “My Brilliant Friend” and concluding with “The Story of the Lost Child,” which forms the basis of the fourth and final season. Watch the teaser below.

New to the cast are Alba Rohrwacher, who has previously only narrated the decades-spanning series as the autofiction-writing Lenù, and Irene Maiorino as Lila, her dark-haired mercurial childhood friend with whom Lenù has fractiously jockeyed for the affections of the lothario Nino Sarratore. Nino, a political writer, is now played by Fabrizio Gifuni. The series is set in Naples, with this season directed by Laura Bispuri (who directed the films “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” with Alba Rohrwacher) and executive produced by Saverio Costanzo, who created the series.

Across three seasons, HBO’s critically acclaimed drama and coming-of-age series, “My Brilliant Friend,” has chronicled the story of two young friends whose stormy relationship evolves amidst the backdrop of post-wwii Italy. Based on the bestselling series by Elena Ferrante and created by Italian writer/director Saverio Costanzo (known for “Hungry Hearts” with Adam Driver and “Finalmente L’alba” with Lily James and Joe Keery), the fourth and ten-episode final season of “My Brilliant Friend,” debuts Monday, September 9 on HBO (9pm Et) and will be available to stream on Max, with new episodes debuting weekly.

Continue reading ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Season 4 Teaser Trailer: Alba Rohrwacher Joins The Final Season Of HBO’s Acclaimed Series at The Playlist.

HBO has announced that the fourth and final season of its original drama series My Brilliant Friend will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

Amid motherhood and career demands,...

Exclusive: The new boss of My Brilliant Friend producer Wildside is on a mission to discover the next generation of Italian talent.

Detailing the Fremantle-backed producer’s strategy for the first time since taking over, Sonia Rovai said she will not depart from the genres that the Italian outfit specializes in but will instead attempt to shift the dial by unearthing young scribes and directors.

Rovai said she is slowly building up a development slate featuring these voices, with projects that she will likely produce herself.

“We need to push to find the Italian next generation,” she told Deadline at the AVPSummit in south Italy. “So we are selecting and working on new voices and young talent.”

Rovai is “investing time” in the endeavor, she said, visiting local theaters and reaching out to those who may have left Italy to find work in nations like the UK. “To find...

The sky is blue in Payal Kapadia’s revelatory All We Imagine as Light. It’s in the heathered cornflower blue of morning, still cottoned over with sleep, as well as in the gnashing, striated blues of the afternoon grind. And when the sun gives way to the horizon, indigo blossoms like ink in a well of midnight.

The hues of Kapadia’s blues run so deep that they bleed across the entire canvas of the film, from the support beams of a lumbering pedestrian highway crossing where two characters share a wordless intimacy, to the panels of a bathroom door where blue towels are scrubbed over a blue bin, to the workwear and casual dress of her hospital-worker protagonists. And, of course, the sea, where they all end up by the end of All We Imagine as Light.

That Kapadia is able to render such a richly varied emotional...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival has announced its TV lineup, with the June festival featuring the world premiere of the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent.

The legal thriller, set to premiere on Apple TV+ on June 14, comes from David E. Kelley and executive producer J.J. Abrams and also stars Ruth Negga and Peter Sarsgaard. Gyllenhaal also executive produces.

Other world premieres include Hulu’s Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer, executive produced by Dakota and Elle Fanning, exploring Dr. Ann Burgess’ investigations; and the MGM+ docuseries, Hollywood Black, about the Black experience in the entertainment industry, executive produced by Justin Simien and featuring Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay.

The festival will also screen the ESPN’s In the Arena: Serena Williams, Paramount+’s Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken and the premiere of the fourth and final season of My Brilliant Friend, among other titles.

Tribeca Festival, which announced its feature film lineup Wednesday, has now also revealed its television lineup for the 2024 festival, which includes brand new docuseries featuring Issa Rae and Dave Eggers and projects from Dakota Fanning, Jake Gyllenhaal and J.J. Abrams.

This year’s program includes 11 premieres, including Hulu’s “Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer,” an in-depth exploration of Dr. Anne Burgess’ career and her journey to closing some of America’s most infamous criminal cases from executive producers Dakota and Elle Fanning; MGM+’s “Hollywood Black,” an examination of the Black experience in Hollywood featuring conversations with Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay from executive producer Justin Simien; and Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent,” a legal thriller starring and executive produced by Jake Gyllenhaal from David E. Kelley and executive producer J.J. Abrams. The show also stars Ruth Negga and Peter Sarsgaard.

Returning series getting...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival TV and Now lineup is just about as star-studded as it gets.

This year’s installment, presented by Okx, includes the world premiere of David E. Kelley’s legal thriller “Presumed Innocent” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, who also executive produces along with J.J. Abrams. Ruth Negga, Peter Sarsgaard, Renate Reinsve, and O-t Fagbenle co-star in the Apple TV+ series that marks Gyllenhaal’s first foray into TV.

The Tribeca Festival takes place June 5 through 16 and highlights new and returning programs from networks and streamers such as Apple TV+, AMC, HBO, Hulu, Paramount+, and more. The 2024 TV lineup features 11 series premieres and two first looks at returning series, including the Season 4 premiere of “My Brilliant Friend” and “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol” Season 2.

True crime docuseries including as Hulu’s “Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer,” executive produced by Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, and...

Here’s your first look at Christian Bale’s suited-up as Frankenstein’s monster in actress-turned-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal’s take on the classic monster with The Bride, her forthcoming feature at Warner Bros.

Gyllenhaal shared the first look of Bale today on her Instagram, alongside an image of Jessie Buckley as “The Bride.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maggie Gyllenhaal (@mgyllenhaal)

Bale and Buckley star in the pic alongside Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard. The film’s logline reads: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aid of Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police, and a wild and radical social movement.

The movie is being produced by Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Gyllenhaal, Talia Kleinhendler (The Lost Daughter), and Osnat Handelsman-Keren (The Lost Daughter). EPs are Courtney Kivowitz (The Lost Daughter) and Carla Raij.

The pic will mark Gyllenhaal’s second directorial effort following The Lost Daughter, her screen adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley. The film was nominated for three Oscars: Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gyllenhaal).

The Bride is currently slated for release in IMAX on October 3, 2025. The pic is just the first Frankenstein adaptation audiences can expect on the big screen soon. Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has a Frankenstein feature set at Netflix with Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, and Christian Convery signed on to star.

Jessie Buckley as “The Bride.”...

Thom Yorke has composed the soundtrack for Italian director Daniele Luchetti’s relationship drama “Trust,” which will soon launch in competition from the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Yorke’s work with Luchetti on “Trust” marks the second feature fully scored by the Radiohead and the Smile frontman since working on Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 “Suspiria” remake. The following year, in 2019, Yorke contributed to Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn.”

“Trust,” which is based on the novel “Confidenza” by Neapolitan writer Domenico Starnone, centers on a teacher in his 40s named Pietro Vella – played by A-list Italian actor Elio Germano – who works in a rundown Roman high school. He becomes romantically entangled with a former student years after they intersect in class. Their affair triggers some deep-seated fears in Pietro.

“It’s the story of a man who, for his entire life, finds himself trapped between a fear of love and a love of fear,...

Exclusive: Annette Bening is joining Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein lore feature at Warner Bros; the studio making it official that this is a go-project. Cameras roll in Q1. This package with its attachments has been out there since it was at Netflix, and the deals have finally closed with everyone. Jessie Buckley is the star of the movie which follows Frankenstein’s pursuit of love.

There’s already been word out there about the cast, including Buckley, and it’s a murderers’ row with Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard. Bale and Buckley have been circling this project well before the strikes.

Logline: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the...

Beta Film has announced a half-dozen sales to European public broadcasters on high-end period drama “La Storia,” which is Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show of the year and is world premiering at the Rome Film Fest.

The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.

Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948, “La Storia” looks at fascism and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teenage son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.

Ahead of the Rome Film Fest premiere of its first two episodes on Friday,...

The MediaPro Studio will look to invest in literary and library program rights in the U.S., the Spanish company’s boss told delegate here at Mipcom Cannes today, as it unveiled several new projects during a Mipcom Cannes keynote.

Laura Fernández Espeso announced projects such as including season 3 of thriller drama The Head and a project with British director Mike Leigh in post-production, but also revealed plans in the English-language U.S. market and talked up growth opportunities.

“For the American market, we’re going to be focused on books, library acquisitions and finished content because we are receiving a lot if proposals that are super high quality,” she said. “Our rights team are open be part of those projects, and they are going to help us to diversify.”

An example is survival thriller Hunting Ana Bravo, which Erik Barmack’s LA-based Wild Sheep Content is producing. Barcelona-based production...

The Mediapro Studio will shoot from November Season 3 of “The Head,” its biggest international hit, filming in the Sahara Desert with John Lynch (“The Fall”) and Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scots), attached once more to star.

Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.

“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.

“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.

“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert,...

Italian distribution and production company Notorious Pictures is expanding into the TV series sphere by snapping up rights to buzzy literary property “Forbidden Notebook,” a 1952 novel by Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Céspedes that has been recently rediscovered and successfully republished in English.

De Céspedes has been described by the New York Times as “a bestselling novelist and political activist in her native Italy” admired for her sensitive depictions of women whose recently rediscovered work “has lost none of its subversive force.” She is considered a source of inspiration for Elena Ferrante, the Italian writer with legions of fervent fans around the world and whose four “Neapolitan Novels” have been adapted into the long-running “My Brilliant Friend” TV series by Italy’s Rai and HBO.

“We are pleased to announce the ambitious and important serial development of de Céspedes’ ‘Forbidden Notebook,’ said Notorious Pictures CEO Stefano Bethlen, who added that “we...

When filmmaker Maggie Betts premiered her feature debut, the stunning period piece “Novitiate,” at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the drama starring Margaret Qualley as a young nun took a path many other films had already followed. It showed to strong reviews (including from this writer), earned Betts a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Director, was bought at the festival by Sony Pictures Classics for an estimated 7-digit price, got a theatrical release in the heat of the fall season, and even picked up some awards buzz for co-star Melissa Leo.

These days, that once-traditional route is a vestige of the past, as the theatrical landscape continues to shift and festival buys grow slimmer. But while Betts readily admits she’s had to change her ambitions to suit the ecosystem, that hasn’t diminished her work. It has, however, altered it a bit. For one thing, it took her six years...

Cameras are set to roll in mid-October in Budapest on Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria” toplining Angelina Jolie in the title role with several new cast members now on board.

Italian star Valeria Golino, whose recent appearances include a lead in Netflix’s Elena Ferrante series “The Lying Life of Adults” and season 2 of Apple Original “The Morning Show,” is set to play the legendary opera singer’s older sister Yakinthi – known as Jackie – while revered Turkish screen and stage veteran Haluk Bilginer (“Winter Sleep”) has landed the role as Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

Fremantle, which is among companies producing “Maria,” also confirmed on Thursday that the film’s additional cast comprises Italian A-listers Alba Rohrwacher and Pierfrancesco Favino and Oscar-nominated Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”), all in unspecified roles.

“Maria” “tells the tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer,...

Isabel Coixet recounts that she vowed to never to do another literary adaptation after her 2017 English-language feature The Bookshop based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed 1978 novel of the same name.

Then the Spanish director read compatriot writer Sara Mesa’s dark 2021 novel Un Amor at the tail-end of the pandemic.

The unsettling work follows troubled translator Nat who quits life in the city for a dilapidated, leaky house in a remote village in Spain’s depopulated rural interior.

It is not exactly clear what prompted the move but she appears to be suffering from some sort of vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the harrowing refugee accounts she translates for her job.

A figure of curiosity as a lone woman, Nat lives as an outsider and then embarks on an unexpected and inexplicable passionate affair with a local social outcast.

“Sara Mesa is one of the most powerful voices in young Spanish literature.

Penélope Cruz is taking on an Elena Ferrante adaptation.

IndieWire can confirm the “Ferrari” actress is reuniting with “Elegy” director Isabel Coixet for the adaptation of Ferrante’s 2002 “The Days of Abandonment,” which followed Olga, an Italian woman, who loses her grasp on reality after her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves her for another woman.

The big screen adaptation will instead be set in America, as Variety reported, with the script penned by Laurence Coriat (“Summer in Genoa”). “The Days of Abandonment” will be produced by Lotus, a unit of Raffaella and Andrea Leone’s Leone Film Group, and Cruz’s production banner Moonlyon. Cruz’s brother Edu Cruz will also produce along with Marco Perego through their Nimoa Entertainment company.

Director Coixet has recently helmed “Un Amor,” “My Life Without Me,” and “The Secret Life of Words.”

Author Ferrante’s novels have been adapted for the big and small screens,...

Penélope Cruz is set to star as Olga, a writer forced to give up her artistic ambitions when her husband suddenly leaves her and their two young daughters, in Isabel Coixet’s English-language adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s “The Days of Abandonment.”

The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. While Cruz did not attend the Venice Film Festival, she elicited raves from critics on the Lido for her performance in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as the angry, lonely, grief-ravaged Laura Ferrari, emotionally estranged from her husband Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).

“The Days of Abandonment,” which will transpose the novel’s original Italian setting to America, reunites the two top Spanish talents following their collaboration on another U.S.-set film, the 2008 drama “Elegy” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal,” about an affair between a...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.