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Exclusive: Strand Entertainment has signed actress Angela Sarafyan for management.

Widely known for her series regular role as park host Clementine on HBO’s Westworld, Sarafyan can currently be seen starring opposite Viola Davis in Amazon’s action thriller G20 and will next be seen in the drama Billy Knight, opposite Al Pacino and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

This past year, the actress filmed the lead role in Jose Eduardo Belmonte’s Quase Deserto, as well as a supporting part in Justine Bateman’s experimental film Feel. Upcoming, she’ll also be seen in the Prime Video series El Gato and Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Dark Matter, which is currently in production.

Other recent credits for Sarafyan include the Darren Aronofsky-produced Little Death, which premiered at Sundance 2024; Olmo Schnabel’s directorial debut, Pet Shop Days, alongside Willem Dafoe; and Oscar Boyson’s Sundance short film Power Signal, which is now...

Exclusive: Brazilian director José Eduardo Belmonte and actor Rodrigo Lombardi are re-teaming for Em Suas Mãos (In Your Hands). The New York-set indie movie follows two Brazilian immigrants living in New York who are hellbent on revenge after a family member is killed and the perpetrator goes unpunished

Belmonte and Lombardi previously worked together on award-winning Brazilian drama Carcereiros (Jailers). The Globo series scooped the Grand Jury Award at the MIPDrama event in Cannes back in 2017.

Belmonte unpacked the backstory to his new project. “In 2018, we were living through an explosion of hatred and division, which greatly intrigued me,” he told Deadline.

“During the pandemic, I reached out to screenwriter and adjunct professor at Columbia, Fábio Andrade, and together we developed a story about revenge. Fábio brought a lot of his experience as a Brazilian in New York.”

Em Suas Mãos will be shot mostly in English, with some scenes in Portuguese or Spanish.

Exclusive: Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) will exec produce and star in Ponchik, a semi-autobiographical dramedy marking the narrative feature debut of writer-director Natalie Shirinian.

Set to go into production next spring, the film delves into the life of a 30-year-old first-generation Armenian American (Sarafyan) residing in the neighborhood of Little Armenia, Los Angeles with her immigrant parents. Over the course of the film, our protagonist grapples with the intricate interplay between her traditional Armenian heritage, her familial ties, and her own authentic identity. Tensions rise as she finds herself at odds with her mother. As the story unfolds, viewers are drawn into the world of creativity and introspection, witnessing the journey towards self-realization and fulfillment of aspirations, all while navigating the intricate dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship.

Elizabeth Baudouin and Shirnian will serve as producers of the project, which was a finalist at the 2023 Academy-qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

Exclusive: Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) is set to recur in the Prime Video series El Gato.

Based on the comic series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez, El Gato follows Frank Guerrero (Diego Boneta), who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father and finds himself neck-deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire. But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless parcel of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante — his father, “El Gato.”

Now, Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot.

Sarafyan will portray Elisa Kazanjian, a stoic CIA agent who, 10 years ago, was involved in a terrible...

Second edition of high-end drama showcase featured 12 upcoming shows.

Brazilian prison drama Jailers and Tom Tykwer’s ambitious detective tale Babylon Berlin, capturing the city in the Golden Twenties, clinched the grand jury awards in the full episode and work-in-progress categories at MIPDrama Screenings on Sunday.

Unfolding on the eve of Miptv, the second edition of the showcase put the spotlight on 12 upcoming drama shows, screening either full episodes or extracts as a work-in-progress.

“There is a lot of commercial pressure to do a certain type of drama series but what really struck me was the diversity and originality of all these shows… every one of them was very unique and defied simple expectations,” jury member Frank Spotnitz, creator of hit series such as The Man In The High Castle and Medici: Masters Of Florence, said.

Also on the jury were The Bridge producer Lars Blomgren, writer Virginie Brac (Cannabis, Spiral), director...

Second edition of high-end drama showcase featured 12 upcoming shows.

Brazilian prison drama Jailers and Tom Tykwer’s ambitious detective tale Babylon Berlin, capturing the city in the Golden Twenties, clinched the grand jury awards in the full episode and work-in-progress categories at MIPDrama Screenings on Sunday.

Unfolding on the eve of Miptv, the second edition of the showcase put the spotlight on 12 upcoming drama shows, screening either full episodes or extracts as a work-in-progress.

“There is a lot of commercial pressure to do a certain type of drama series but what really struck me was the diversity and originality of all these shows… every one of them was very unique and defied simple expectations,” jury member Frank Spotnitz, creator of hit series such as The Man In The High Castle and Medici: Masters Of Florence, said.

Also on the jury were The Bridge producer Lars Blomgren, writer Virginie Brac (Cannabis, Spiral), director...