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Though often complicated and highly dramatized, mafia stories can be a great way to explore the history of a country. And if you don't know much about Sweden, you will be glad to know that there's a new series that not only offers the thrills of an investigative story but also contextualizes how crime evolved in the Northern European country. Collider can exclusively reveal that Viaplay is bringing the thriller series Mafia to U.S. screens, and episodes start rolling out on June 19. We also have your first look at the series with new images and a trailer!

Our exclusive trailer reveals that, aside from connecting crime investigation with Swedish history, Mafia will also be told from a unique perspective: we will see the evolution of organized crime through the eyes of a petty criminal who rises to become a notorious gangster. Additionally, we will follow a police detective who...

The creation of the "Spotify" music platform is explored in the 6-episode limited, dramatic TV series "The Playlist", ow streaming on Netflix:

"...'Spotify' launched in Sweden and became the top music streaming service in the world.

"Now follow a Swedish tech entrepreneur and his partners as they set out to revolutionize the music industry..."

Cast includes Edvin Endre as Spotifys co-founder and CEO 'Daniel Ek' , Christian Hillborg as Ek’s friend and co-founder of Spotify, 'Martin Lorentzon', Gizem Erdogan is ​​lawyer and longtime Spotify employee 'Petra Hansson' and Joel Lützow is Spotify’s 'Andreas Ehn'.

Click the images to enlarge...

The creation of the "Spotify" music streaming platform is explored in a new 6-episode limited, dramatic TV series titled "The Playlist", premiering October 13, 2022 on Netflix:

"...'Spotify' launched in Sweden and became the top music streaming service in the world.

"Now follow a Swedish tech entrepreneur and his partners as they set out to revolutionize the music industry..."

Cast includes Edvin Endre as Spotifys co-founder and CEO 'Daniel Ek' , Christian Hillborg as Ek’s friend and co-founder of Spotify, 'Martin Lorentzon', Gizem Erdogan is ​​lawyer and longtime Spotify employee 'Petra Hansson' and Joel Lützow is Spotify’s 'Andreas Ehn'.

Click the images to enlarge...

"Shut them down or we won't have an industry." Netflix has revealed the first official trailer for the mini-series The Playlist, arriving this October. This is pretty much The Social Network but about the creation of Spotify, following other series recently about tech businesses – from Uber to WeWork. In this hyper-fictionalized account of the true story: led by Swedish tech entrepreneur Daniel Ek, a group of passionate young people come together in what seems to be the impossible task to revolutionize the music industry - and the world. They set out to create a legal streaming service for music. The series stars Edvin Endre as Daniel Ek, Ulf Stenberg as Per Sundin, Gizem Erdogan as Petra Hansson, Joel Lützow as Andreas Ehn, Christian Hillborg as Martin Lorentzon, and Janice Kamya Kavander as "Bobbie T". Also with Valter Skarsgård, Amy Deasismont, Hanna Ardéhn, Ella Rappich, Agnes Kittelsen, and Sofia Karemyr. This all looks like extremely exaggerated,...

Exclusive: Viaplay has lightened the tone of its originals slate with the greenlight of R.S.V.P., a Swedish romcom featuring The Emigrants star Lisa Carlehed as lead.

Airing later this year and based on award-winning Danish feature Long Story Short, the Nent streamer’s latest spans four years and is structured around nine chapters, each of which focuses on a different holiday celebration. At the center of the narrative is Klara (Carlehed), a 37-year-old single nurse whose perpetual search for love is increasingly causing her to question whether it even exists.

Miso Film, who last week revealed it had signed former Dr Head of Drama Christian Rank, is producing, award-winning Jordskott actor Moa Gammel is directing and Ella Lemhagen is writing.

Alongside Carlehed, who was recently nominated for Best Actress at Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards for Erik Poppe’s The Emigrants, the film features Oscar Töringe (Thin Blue Line...

"It's the ultimate clickbait thirst trap." IFC Films has revealed the first official trailer for The Beta Test, a seductive, provocative new thriller from filmmaker Jim Cummings (of Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow). Cummings teams up with actor Pj McCabe to co-write & co-direct this film, which initially premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. It also played at the Tribeca, Edinburgh, Deauville, Vancouver, and Champs-Elysées Film Festivals this year. A married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, infidelity, and digital data. It's partially a commentary on the wrold of agents in Hollywood, and partially a commentary on the disruptive nature of sexual provocation, how easily it can tear things apart. The film stars Cummings & McCabe, plus Virginia Newcomb, Kevin Changaris, Olivia Grace Applegate, Jessie Barr, Malin Barr, and Christian Hillborg. This...

IFC FIlms holds US rights.

Buyers in the UK, France and Canada have acquired rights to Jim Cummings’ recent Berlin Encounters selection The Beta Test.

Benjamin Wiesnner of Los Angeles-based production company Vanishing Angle negotiated the deals with Blue Finch in the UK, New Story in France, and Vortex Media in Canada.

The horror thriller centres on a Hollywood agent who gets sucked into a world of sexual infidelity and mysterious streams of digital data.

It recently sold to IFC Films for the US and is expected to launch in the US and the first wave of international markets in autumn.

Jim Cummings’ thriller “The Beta Test” has been acquired by IFC Films.

Cummings wrote, directed and stars in the film that was an official selection for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. IFC will distribute the film theatrically, on digital platforms and on demand this fall.

“The Beta Test” follows an enraged Hollywood agent who received a letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes trapped in a world of lying and infidelity. Pj McCabe, Virginia Newcomb, Kevin Changaris, Olivia Grace Applegate, Jessie Barr, Keith Powell, Joy Sunday, Wilkey Lau, Malin Barr and Christian Hillborg also star.

“IFC has partnered with the boldest and most insanely talented filmmakers in history, Armando Iannucci, Paolo Sorrentino, Andrea Arnold, and hundreds of others and then they let us just ruin it in 2021,” Cummings said in a statement to TheWrap. “This movie was financed independently through a crowd-equity platform called WeFunder, we produced it independently,...

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “The Beta Test,” a new digital-age thriller that was written, directed by and starring Jim Cummings and Pj McCabe.

The film was an official selection for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. IFC will release “The Beta Test” theatrically, on digital platforms and on demand later this fall. The film centers on an engaged Hollywood agent, who receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, infidelity and digital data.

“I cannot wait for everybody to see this movie, it is so much fun,” Cummings said. “We raised the budget through crowd-equity, we shot the film with our friends, we edited and finished the film from our homes. Our audience helped make this wild, beautiful film possible and we are anxious to get to share it with people. I can’t think...

Exclusive: Swedish musical comedy A Piece Of My Heart, which is set for a wide domestic release in its home territory via Nordisk Film on Christmas Day this year, is getting the international treatment with an English dub arranged by Abba band member Björn Ulvaeus.

Berlin-based sales outfit Picture Tree International is taking the film to Afm having initially picked it up ahead of last year’s market in La, and will be hosting two private screenings of the English version.

It stars Malin Akerman, whose credits include Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, Rampage alongside Dwayne Johnson and Showtime series Billions, and Christian Hillborg of Fleabag and The Last Kingdom fame, in a story based on the music by legendary Swedish artist Tomas Ledin.

Ledin composed the original score and Swedish lyrics. Ulvaeus has re-arranged them into English with altered lyrics, which were re-recorded by the same cast.

With the international...

Cast includes The Innocents’ Laura Birn; project presented at Finnish Film Affair’s works in progress this week.

LevelK has acquired world sales rights for Jenni Toivoniemi’s Finnish comedy Games People Play.

Venla Hellstedt and Elli Toivoniemi produce for Finland’s award-winning female-focused production company Tuffi Films, whose credits include 2019 Berlinale Crystal Bear winenr Stupid Young Heart. The deal marks the first collaboration between LevelK and Tuffi.

Jenni Toivoniemi makes her feature film debut following award-winning shorts such as The Date and The Committee.

Games People Play is a bittersweet comedy about a group of thirtysomething friends regressing to...

Among the many surprise inclusions on Emmy nominations morning was Sian Clifford, who earned her first career bid in the Best Comedy Supporting Actress category for “Fleabag.” It was one of 11 noms the Amazon series received overall, including Best Comedy Series. Clifford contends for playing Claire, the uptight sister of Fleabag (creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who’s struggling with grief and man problems.

For her Emmy submission, Clifford has chosen “Episode 2.3.” In this installment, Fleabag helps Claire at a work event honoring a prominent woman (Kristin Scott Thomas). It ends in disaster when she accidentally breaks the expensive trophy meant to be presented and must find a replacement. Meanwhile, she meets a friend of Claire’s — also named Klare (Christian Hillborg) — who has caught her married sister’s eye.

See Sian Clifford interview: ‘Fleabag’

Can Clifford win for this episode? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons:

Pros...

No other show had a bigger second season bump at the Emmys than Amazon’s “Fleabag,” which earned a whopping 11 nominations after a first season tally of zero. Gold Derby recently spoke with many of the show’s competitors, including creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, actress Sian Clifford, director Harry Bradbeer and editor Gary Dollner. Scroll down and click on any name below to be taken to their full interviews.

See Now five Emmy Experts predict ‘Fleabag’ will win Best Comedy Series 2019: Watch out, ‘Veep’!

Initially, Waller-Bridge had no intentions of returning for a second installment of the series, which casts her as a young London woman struggling with grief and man problems. “The relationship with the camera and Fleabag in Season 1 was the most complex and important to me,” she reveals. “She invites the audience in under the pretense of showing them a good time and telling them that she is hilarious,...

“We’re all flawed, but perfectly human, and nothing captures that like this show,” says Sian Clifford about “Fleabag,” for which she earned an Emmy nomination for Best Comedy Supporting Actress. The series explores the life of the title character and her family as they navigate their messy relationships. While Clifford seems to have her life together as Fleabag’s sister Claire, we learn in season two that she has her own insecurities to work through. Watch our exclusive video interview with Clifford above.

For starters, Claire is married to Martin (Brett Gelman), a spiteful alcoholic. “Her and Martin have reached the point of no return where they’re just sort of in their own way tearing into each other,” Clifford explains. She doesn’t think their relationship started that way, but their marriage eventually curdled into resentment “because it’s been failing for a long time … We all have blind spots.

Exclusive: Twilight and Expendables actor Kellan Lutz has been tapped to lead Divertimento, an indie thriller written and directed by French filmmaker Keyvan Sheikhalishahi.

The film, Sheikhalishahi’s third one, follows Jonas Olsen (Lutz), a chess player haunted by a tragic past who is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, Divertimento.

Torrey DeVitto from TV’s Vampire Diaries and Chicago Med also stars in the pic as well as Ola Rapace (Skyfall), Götz Otto (Cloud Atlas), Christian Hillborg (The Last Kingdom), Ellie Heydon (Harlots), and Brittany Lynn.

Sheikhalishahi is also producing the pic which is currently shooting in France.

Lutz is also gearing up to shot the action film The Last Story of David Allen later this month. Directed by Justin Gullet, the plot follows an ordinary man who is forced into killing. It tells the story of his last victim and the girl he tried not to fall in love with.

“Fleabag” isn’t just an intellectual comedy but operates on a physical level as well. There’s no better example than in the contrast between Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and her older sister Claire (Sian Clifford). Everything about the title protagonist is loose — from her chic hair and slinky jumpsuit to her mobile face and penchant for dashing about. In contrast, Claire is sedate, controlled, and very, very tense.

As the series creator and star, Waller-Bridge pushed to cast her old drama school chum Clifford to play her sister in the Amazon series. IndieWire spoke to both actresses and also attended a “Fleabag” Emmys Fyc event to unlock the mystery of playing Claire.

“Sian manages to change on a cellular level when she’s playing this character. She instinctively understands the feeling of the character, and then she allows that to sort of manifest in her body. She’ll want to have a quick chat,...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from Season 2 of “Fleabag,” including the finale.]

“This a love story,” Fleabag says into the camera in Season 2’s opening scene of Amazon’s eponymous series created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Who or what the love story is about, however, is up for debate.

For most viewers, the central relationship between Fleabag and Priest (Andrew Scott) is the clear love story. Their chemistry is instant and electric, and she even leads him into temptation, prompting him to break his vow of celibacy. But in the end, despite the their feelings of rightness together, he sticks with God. Fleabag and Priest exchange “I love yous” at a bus stop, and then part ways.

“The most important thing about that scene is that we know they love each other. Now you understand something that you might’ve suspected about these two people watching them throughout the series,” said Andrew Scott. “I think what’s...

"This is our lifeline!" Cinedigm has released another new trailer for a survival thriller titled The Chamber, which first premiered at the Horror Channel FrightFest in 2017. We actually featured a trailer for this one year ago, but it's just now finally getting a release in February. The film is about a Special Ops team that takes a small submersible craft (read: submarine) beneath the Yellow Sea off the coast of North Korea. Some things go wrong, and they end up trapped underwater in a tiny "chamber" - hence the title. The cast includes Charlotte Salt, Johannes Kuhnke, Christian Hillborg, and Elliot Levey. I'm still not really too sure what to make of this, and the release delay seems like a sign it isn't that great. But you never know. Dive in. Here's the second official trailer (+ poster) for Ben Parker's The Chamber, direct from YouTube: You can still...

"If you do this, we're dead. We're all dead!" The first official trailer has debuted for an indie survival thriller titled The Chamber, which first premiered at the Horror Channel FrightFest last year. The film is about a Special Ops team that takes a small submersible craft (read: submarine) beneath the Yellow Sea off the coast of North Korea. Some things go wrong, and they end up trapped underwater in a tiny "chamber" - hence the title. The cast includes Charlotte Salt, Johannes Kuhnke, Christian Hillborg and Elliot Levey. I'm not sure what to make of this. The footage is a bit confusing - I can't tell if it's some weird creature or alien under the water, or something the North Koreans put down there, or their own screw up that trapped them. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Ben Parker's The Chamber, direct from YouTube: A claustrophobic...

Originally slated to debut December 19, the release of Crackle’s original movie The Throwaways was put on hold because of the massive hack attack on parent Sony Pictures Entertainment. Now the cyber-attack film, executive produced by Jeremy Renner, has been re-dated and will start streaming January 30. Director Tony Bui’s pic stars Sam Huntington as a notorious hacker who uses his smarts to track down another cyber-attacker. Katie McGrath, Christian Hillborg, Jack Kesy, Kevin Dillon and James Caan also star in the film written by Michael Arlen Ross and Don Handfield. Renner and Don Handfield executive produce. You can watch the trailer above.

Sony Pictures Television unit Crackle has set a December 19 release on its platform for its original cyber thriller The Throwaways featuring Jeremy Renner as executive producer.

Sam Huntington, Katie McGrath, Christian Hillborg, Jack Kesy, Kevin Dillon and James Caan star in the story of a hacker who recruits a team and is tasked by the CIA to take down a cyber terrorist.

Tony Bui directs from a screenplay by Michael Ross. Renner and Don Handfield are on board as executive producers via their company The Combine along with Timothy Linh Bui.

The Throwaways is set in Bulgarian capital Sofia and was completed in October.

Directv Cinema has begun its exclusive VOD window on Atom Egoyan’s thriller The Captive through December 11, prior to theatrical release the following day via A24. The exclusivity component is pursuant to the partners’ ongoing agreement. Ryan Reynolds stars in the abduction thriller.

Crackle has some new spy thriller entertainment coming your way. The online distributor will release its original, feature-length film The Throwaways on its site on December 19, 2014. The film centers around a character named Drew Reynolds (played by Sam Huntington of Being Human and Superman Returns fame), a hacker captured by the CIA and offered either a job with the organization or life in prison. Reynolds joins a “throwaway” group of the CIA’s least-favored agents, including Colonel Christopher Holden (played by James Caan from The Godfather) and combat specialist Dan Fisher (portrayed by Kevin Dillon of Platoon). Together, the three aim to take out a cyber-terrorist bent on destruction. Written by Michael Ross of Jerry McGuire, The Throwaways co-stars Katie McGrath from Merlin, Christian Hillborg of The Bridge, and Jack Kesy of The Strain. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Avengers) and his colleague Don Handfield (Kill the Messenger) executive...

So it’s all over, finally. We know who did it, and why. And once again we’ll have to find a way of detaching ourselves from a group of Nordic characters who’ve made their way into our hearts, in all their chrome-coordinated, subtitled glory.

Saga Noren and Martin Rohde are wiser but much, much wearier, after a gripping finale that borrowed elements from films such as Seven (as hinted previously with the socially-aware serial killer) – where killing their culprit is the intuitive, but very wrong, response, and not only because it’s exactly what he wants.

But, they made it very much their own, too, with all the character traits we’ve absorbed over 10 beautifully paced episodes, brought out to bear in an un-cliched but thoroughly logical and satisfying finale.

There are so many good things to say about The Bridge – the acting across the board, the production design,...

So it's all over, finally. We know who did it, and why. And once again we'll have to find a way of detaching ourselves from a group of Nordic characters who've made their way into our hearts, in all their chrome-coordinated, subtitled glory.

Saga Noren and Martin Rohde are wiser but much, much wearier, after a gripping finale that borrowed elements from films such as Seven (as hinted previously with the socially-aware serial killer) – where killing their culprit is the intuitive, but very wrong, response, and not only because it's exactly what he wants.

But, they made it very much their own, too, with all the character traits we've absorbed over 10 beautifully paced episodes, brought out to bear in an un-cliched but thoroughly logical and satisfying finale.

There are so many good things to say about The Bridge– the acting across the board, the production design, Saga's car. Here, off the top of my head,...