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Are you living up to those New Year’s resolutions so far? Need a little help gaining momentum? BBC Maestro is here to help with a phenomenal deal. Sign up by January 31 and you can take 40% off any purchase. The most popular plan is their annual subscription, now $72 instead of $120. That’s just $6/month to learn a world of new skills. Use the code JANUARY2024 to get the deal.

Get the Deal $6/month bbcmaestro.com Save $48 on the Annual Plan with code JANUARY2024 What is BBC Maestro?

BBC Maestro is very similar to the well-known MasterClass series. Celebrity instructors will walk you through everything you need to know to get started on a new skill set. Gain new skills in the kitchen, learn how to create stories, and discover how to start a business!

Each course runs between 2-4 hours, and the lessons are broken into short videos.

While you...

“Succession” star Brian Cox is the latest luminary to impart his knowledge as part of the BBC’s Maestro online education initiative.

Cox’s course, titled simply “Acting,” will shine a spotlight on how to deliver award-winning performances, capture — and hold — an audience’s collective attention, and embody a multitude of iconic characters. As is customary with the Maestro template, across his lessons, Cox will direct aspiring actors through practical exercises designed to help them master both stage and screen. Lessons will delve into character development, script analysis and the essential techniques to take into their next audition. The course will include a discussion of the key components of acting, insights from a casting director and a practical workshop led by Cox.

The classically trained actor is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Besides Logan Roy in “Succession,” his performances as Hermann Göring in “Nuremberg,...

A group including Prince Harry, Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley are suing the publishers of The Daily Mail, saying they are “the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy” including the hiring of private investigators.

The group also includes actor Sadie Frost, John’s partner David Furnish and British campaigner Doreen Lawrence.

In a press release from Prince Harry and Frost’s lawyer Hamlins in the past hour, it was alleged that Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and The Mail Online, hired private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes.

The lawsuit also says Associated Newspapers commissioned individuals to listen to private telephone calls, paid police officials “with corrupt links to private investigators” for inside information and impersonated individuals to obtain medical records. It alleges bank accounts were accessed “through illicit means and manipulation.”

“The alleged...

Sony Pictures Television Options Lizzy Barber’s ‘Out Of Her Depth’

Sony Pictures Television (Spt) has optioned Lizzy Barber’s psychological thriller Out of Her Depth and will develop into a TV show, with up-and-coming British writer Matilda Curtis set to adapt. Luke Scrase’s Golden Gate Studios, which has a first look deal with Spt, will produce the adaptation, which isn’t yet attached to a network. Published late last year, Out of Her Depth is set in the Tuscan summer, and follows Rachel, a headstrong woman who’s given the job of a lifetime at the Villa Medici Hotel. When she asks her new friend Diana to help her win the affections of the handsome and charming Sebastian, she thinks she might finally have a chance to become part of their world, but when she discovers that Diana may have intentions of her own, she begins to learn the real cost of friendship.

French In Motion Sets Up In LA

Exclusive: French In Motion, the non-profit that brings together French and American professionals from the film and TV industry is launching a chapter in Los Angeles, with Martine Melloul set to run the new office. Headquartered in New York with an existing chapter in Washington DC, the org supports international co-productions and collaborations between France and the United States through its partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute and has been doing so since 2016. The org is also creating an honorary board, composed of talent from the independent film and television industry whose work and influence span both sides of the Atlantic. U.S.-based French filmmakers Mathieu Demy and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire have both joined the board alongside French In Motion’s Founder Nathalie Perus.

Msr Hire

Production outfit Msr Media has appointed Nick Royak to the newly-created role of Vice President of Development.

Jed Mercurio, creator of hit series “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard,” will executive produce a three-part sequel to BAFTA-winning 1999 single drama “The Murder of Stephen Lawrence,” for U.K. broadcaster ITV.

Titled “Stephen,” the series will be directed by Alrick Riley (“NCIS”) and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (“The Railway Man”) and Joe Cottrell Boyce (“Vivid”). Paul Greengrass, who directed the 1999 drama, will executive produce alongside Mercurio, Mark Redhead (“The Secret”) and Jimmy Mulville (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”). Mercurio’s Htm will produce, with Madonna Baptise (“The Stranger”) serving as producer.

“The Murder of Stephen Lawrence” (pictured) recreated the night in April 1993 when 18-year-old student Stephen Lawrence died after being attacked by a gang of youths in south London. The narrative was as seen through the eyes of his parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence. The sequel will portray the investigation that secures the convictions of two of the gang...

ITV is to follow-up Paul Greengrass’ BAFTA-winning 1999 drama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence with a sequel series following the pursuit of justice for the murdered teenager.

The UK commercial broadcaster has commissioned three-part series Stephen, which will be made by Hat Trick Mercurio Television, the production outfit co-owned by Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio and Hat Trick Productions, the Jimmy Mulville-run indie behind Matt LeBlanc’s Golden Globe-winning Episodes.

Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary And Jackie) and Joe Cottrell Boyce (Treasure) are writing Stephen, while it will be directed by Alrick Riley (The Cops). Madonna Baptiste (The Stranger) is the producer, while Greengrass and Mark Redhead — who produced the original drama — serve as executive producers. Mulville and Mercurio are also executive producers.

With the full support of Doreen and Neville Lawrence, the story will portray events from 2006, 13 years after Stephen’s death in a racially motivated attack while he was waiting...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Asif Kapadia's Diego Maradona is Mubi Go's Film of the Week of June 14, 2019.Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Asif Kapadia: Diego v. Maradona Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theatre? Kapadia: The Curzon Soho in London.Notebook: Why is it your favorite?Kapadia: This is the cinema I went to most often while a student at the Royal College of Art—this is when I was trying to make the leap from short films to feature film maker. My girlfriend Victoria—now wife—and I would go every Friday. We’d see the greatest films of world cinema week in week out. This was the cinema I wanted my features to be shown in. This is where I was for the opening night...

80 signatories signed a letter which was delivered to Downing Street today.

A group of creatives and actors, led by Lenny Henry, have penned a letter to Downing Street calling for the introduction of a diversity tax relief for TV and film.

The letter, signed by 80 signatories and published in The Guardian this morning, was delivered by Henry and actor Adrian Lester at 2pm today. It asks that productions meet three of four criteria to benefit from the “representation tax relief”.

The criteria are:

female/Bame/disabled director female/Bame/disabled writer female/Bame/disabled director of photography off-screen staff are...