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Disney+ has ordered “Call My Agent Berlin,” a German remake of the hit French series revolving around the world of talent agents.

Directed by Boris Kunz, Laura Lackmann and Johann Buchholz, the German version of “Call My Agent” tells the story of the “Stern” actors agency and its agents.

The local cast is headlined by Moritz Bleibtreu, Nilam Farooq, Iris Berben, Veronica Ferres, Katja Riemann, Heiner Lauterbach, Frederick Lau, Heike Makatsch, Emilia Schüle, Kostja Ullmann, Jürgen Vogel, Alicia von Rittberg, Max von der Groeben and Florence Kasumba. The series just finished filming and will launch in the fall.

It’s produced by Johann Buchholz and Henning Kamm at haFriday Film GmbH, together with Wild Bunch Germany GmbH.

“Call My Agent Berlin” starts after the sudden death of founder Richard Stern. “Everything is at stake: the agency is on the verge of bankruptcy, so the staff must attract new talent in the shortest possible time,...

Picture Tree Intl. has boarded international sales for Constantin Film’s comedy fantasy blockbuster “Chantal and the Magic Kingdom,” which will receive its market premiere in Cannes.

The film has been No. 1 on Germany’s box office charts for four consecutive weeks since its release on March 28, and reached more than 2 million admissions, with a gross of $22.5 million.

“Chantal” is the latest German-language hit from writer-director Bora Dagtekin and producer Lena Schömann. The duo previously delivered “Turkish for Beginners,” the “Fuck You Goehte” franchise and the German remake of “Perfect Strangers,” which have collectively grossed more than $300 million worldwide.

In “Chantal,” the beloved “Fuck You Goehte” character Chantal and her best friend Zeynep are sent on a fantasy adventure into the world of fairytales with a comedic and contemporary twist.

Chantal, an influencer without followers, and Zeynep stumble into the fairytale world through an ancient magic mirror, which they mistake for a social media gimmick.

Exclusive: Chantal in Fairyland (Chantal im Märchenland) is off to a fantastic start at the German box office. A spinoff of the hugely successful Fack Ju Göhte comedies, the Constantin Film title banked the best Easter holiday launch day ever for a local movie and the best opening day of the year for all films, teeing it up for a strong debut session.

Thursday amassed 160K admissions ($1.73M) and took a 43% share of the market. The result is 40% higher than the launch day of Barbie. Including Wednesday previews, Chantal has grossed $2.8M through Thursday. Factoring in yesterday’s previews in Austria, the running cume from both markets is $3.12M.

Written and directed by the Göhte movies’ Bora Dağtekin, Chantal in Fairyland centers on one of the two principal female characters from the franchise, now an eternal influencer without followers. A time travel story that plays around with movie princess tropes,...

Die Mittagsfrau

For her next feature outing Barbara Albert lands on some heavy material in the adaptation based Julia Franck’s novel which reconstructs the complete mindf*ck of a situation where a mother is forced to leave her young son at a railway station in 1945. Production on Die Mittagsfrau (which translates to the midday woman) took place in May on the on what is a decade-spanning drama. Mala Emde and Max von der Groeben share the lead.

Gist: This follows the journey of a woman named Hélène who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, is ready to do anything to start a new life.…...

Hinterland (Homefront) Film Movement Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky Screenwriter: Hanno Pinter, Robert Buchschuwenter, Stefan Ruzowitzky Cast: Murathan Muslu, Liv Lisa Fries, Max von der Groeben, Marc Limpach, Aaron Friesz, Stipe Erceg Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/20/22 Opens: October 7, 2022 Critics often review […]

The post Hinterland (Homefront) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

It was a bold move for Stefan Ruzowitzky (“The Counterfeiters” among many others) to conceive of a gritty Expressionist detective-thriller set in the aftermath of World War I, shot almost entirely on blue screen. Whether it’s also fully successful is open for debate. Thematically, the idea was to tackle the impotent rage of the Austro-Hungarian patriarchy whose fanatical belief in Emperor and Empire went up in smoke when the Armistice brushed aside the monarchy and reduced the territory to a state of near insignificance. With this context, the film foregrounds the story of a traumatized lieutenant returning to his duties as police inspector in Vienna just when an especially sadistic murderer is killing his former comrades.

Given all these elements, it’s not such a leap to envision a reawakening of Expressionism, at its cinematic height in 1919-1920, as an appropriate visual style. Ruzowitzky however isn’t content with its hermetic,...

Ahead of the film’s world premiere at Locarno Film Festival, Variety has been given exclusive access to the debut trailer for “Hinterland,” the crime thriller from Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky, who won the Foreign Language Film Oscar with “The Counterfeiters.”

The film is a center-piece of the festival with a prestigious first weekend primetime premiere on Friday, Aug. 6 in the event’s iconic open-air venue, Piazza Grande. Beta Cinema, the film’s sales agent, is looking to close further deals out of Locarno to follow up on Cannes Pre-Screenings deals soon to be announced.

“Hinterland,” starring Murathan Muslu (“Pelican Blood”) and Liv Lisa Fries (“Babylon Berlin”), is set in Vienna in 1920, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Peter Perg (Muslu) returns home from the Great War, after years of captivity, but the Vienna he comes home to is nothing like the place he once knew.

The new Austrian...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film festival has unveiled its line-up ahead of a physical 2021 edition running August 4-14. Scroll down for a list of titles.

As previously announced, Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s Beckett, starring John David Washington and Alicia Vikander, will open the festival with its world premiere on August 4.

Joining the movie for a screening at the fest’s main venue, the Piazza Grande, will be titles including John Swab’s Ida Red starring Frank Grillo, which will world premiere, Shawn Levy’s Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds, and several U.S. classics including Michael Mann’s Heat and James Cameron’s The Terminator.

Back in November last year, Deadline interviewed new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, who told us about his love for popular cinema and American movies. This will mark his debut edition at the helm.

Screening in the Concorso Internazionale strand, which features international works from around the world,...

‘Next Door’ is directed by Daniel Brühl and Dan Stevens stars in ‘In Your Man’.

World sales agent Beta Cinema has swooped on international rights to Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut Next Door and Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man, which will both premiere in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival (March 1-5).

The Munich-based outfit will introduce the features to buyers at the European Film Market (EFM), which will run alongside this year’s industry-focused, online-only event.

Next Door marks the directing debut of Brühl, who also stars in the black comedy alongside Peter Kurth and Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps.

Actors Gerard Butler (pictured above with Soho House’s Dominic Hofer and Studio Babelsberg’s Christoph Fisser), Daniel Brühl and Tom Wlaschiha, who played Jaqen H’ghar in “Game of Thrones,” were among the guests at the Studio Babelsberg Night Friday at Berlin’s Soho House.

Other actors at the party included Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Schuele, Elyas M’Barek, Iris Berben, Max von der Groeben, Sebastian Koch, Sabin Tambrea, Sonja Gerhardt, David Schuetter, and Hannah Herzsprung.

The directors at the event were Tom Tykwer, Ruben Fleischer, Baran bo Odar, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Lars Kraume, Marco Kreuzpaintner, and Jan-Ole Gerster.

Among the politicians and business execs were Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, Monika Gruetters, Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn., David Goldman, VP, original series at Netflix, Martin Bachmann, managing director at Sony Pictures Releasing in Germany, and Kirsten Niehuus, M.D. at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Pre-sales on Kidnapping thriller will kick off at Afm.

Munich-based sales outfit Global Screen has snapped up worldwide distribution rights to new thriller Kidnapping Stella and will start pre-sales on the title at this year’s Afm (October 31-November 7).

Kidnapping Stella stars Max von der Groeben and Jella Haase (from runaway hit Suck Me Shakespeer) alongside Clemens Schick. Thomas Sieben is the director. The film will be released in Germany by Universum Film in 2019.

The film is produced by Henning Ferber Filmproduktions (Henning Ferber), in co-production with SevenPictures Film with funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the German Federal Film Board and the German Federal Film Fund.