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“Rise of the Raven,” the anticipated European event series from Beta Film, behind “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” and producer Robert Lantos, will world premiere at Cannes content trade fair Mipcom on Oct. 22.

Beta Film has shared in exclusivity with Variety a first teaser to the series, which is a bracing introduction to the scale and ambition of “Rise of the Raven’s” production values, as well as the brutality of its battles scenes as it tells in an 10-part epic the extraordinary real-life feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who turned back the tide of the Ottoman Empire’s seemingly unstoppable advance into Europe.

This looks set to climax in the series as in history in 1456 when Hunyadi won a bloody Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were sometimes armed with just slings and patriotic fervor.

European giant Beta Film, known for ambitious titles such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first-look picture of 1o-part series “Rise of the Raven,” which it hails as “one of the most epic European TV productions of all time.”

“Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of Hungarian-born and Canada-based producer Robert Lantos, behind “Sunshine,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises” and “Crimes of the Future.”

A highlight at Beta Film’s showcase this Tuesday at the London TV Screenings, “Rise of the Raven” turns on the extraordinary feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who in 1456 won a bloody, brutal Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were often farm labourers armed with just slings and patriotic fervor.

Hunyadi largely halted a full Ottoman...

Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV fest, and German film-tv powerhouse Beta Group has revealed the 10 projects in the first edition of Seriesmakers, unveiling what must be one of the most talent-packed project lineups at any festival, film or TV, in 2023,

A mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut, Series Mania features in development drama series from “Compartment No 6’s” Juho Kuosmanen, ‘Bang Gang’s’ Eva Husson and “Birds of a Passage’s” Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego.

Also in the mix is “Amigas,” the first TV project of Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”), one of Brazil’s foremost young movie directors, “The Invisible Ink,” teaming Cannes best first feature winner César Díaz (“Our Mothers”)and New Uruguay Cinema founding father Fernando Epstein; and Indian arthouse filmmaker Pushpendra Singh, who scored with Berlin Encounters’ title “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.”

All in all, Seriesmakers, which is just...

HBO Europe veteran Antony Root is set to leave Warner Bros. Discovery at the end of March after 11 years spearheading original programming across the continent.

Root has commissioned and overseen more than 1,000 episodes of original premium programming across scripted, documentaries and unscripted for HBO Europe and HBO Max streaming services. The executive was a champion of European originals long before pushing into local production became in vogue among studios and streamers.

Some of his top local originals include “The Pack” and “Blinded by the Lights” in Poland; “Burning Bush” and “Wasteland” in Czechia; “Golden Life” in Hungary; the Oscar-nominated documentary “Collective” in Romania; “Patria” and “30 Coins” in Spain; and “Beartown,” “Beforeigners” and “Kamikaze” in the Nordics.

While there has been extensive restructuring of Warner Bros. Discovery operations since the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger last year — including a significant rejig of international — Variety understands that Root had long-standing plans to retire from Wbd,...

While the summer movie season will kick off shortly––and we’ll be sharing a comprehensive preview on the arthouse, foreign, indie, and (few) studio films worth checking out––on the streaming side, The Criterion Channel and Mubi have unveiled their May 2021 lineups and there’s a treasure trove of highlights to dive into.

Timed with Satyajit Ray’s centenary, The Criterion Channel will have a retrospective of the Indian master, along with series on Gena Rowlands, Robert Ryan, Mitchell Leisen, Michael Almereyda, Josephine Decker, and more. In terms of recent releases, they’ll also feature Fire Will Come, The Booksellers, and the new restoration of Tom Noonan’s directorial debut What Happened Was….

On Mubi, in anticipation of Undine, they’ll feature two essential early features by Christian Petzold, Jerichow and The State That I Am In, along with his 1990 short documentary Süden. Also amongst the lineup is Sophy Romvari’s Still Processing,...

Auteur! Auteur! Four of this year’s Best Director Oscar nominees — Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) — have a writing credit on their films. Zhao, Fennell and Chung reaped bids for their scripting efforts.

Over the past decade, the majority of the Oscar-winning directors were also nominated for their screenplays. Last year, Boon Joon-Ho won Best Director and shared in the Original Screenplay award with Han Jan for their work on the Best Picture champ “Parasite.”

Though writer/directors getting Oscar love is the norm these days, that wasn’t always the case. When nominations were announced for the first Academy Awards, Charlie Chaplin was cited for both Best Actor and Comedy Direction for his 1928 masterpiece “The Circus,” which he also wrote and produced. But the academy decided to withdraw his name from the competitive classes and decided “that...

Above: Easy LivingIn football, the American film industry found a setting to prattle its American platitudes—their -isms and -ivenesses that titivate the truth. By making a mill from America’s most popular sport, which was already riddled with truisms, Hollywood strove to insulate itself with lush banalities of American exceptionalism. They glommed to the mythology and readymade drama of the gridiron. Underdogs with long odds, inner crises, and familial strife—all seem to be absolved on the football field. Yet, as Don DeLillo writes in End Zone, the regnant work of fiction on football, “whatever complexities, whatever dark politics of the human mind, the heart—these are noted only within the chalked borders of the playing field. At times strange visions ripple across that turf; madness leaks out.” The tired tropes of the sport give way to something else, something unpolished but no less telling, all braced by...

Italy’s Minerva Pictures — the company specialized in genre fare such as teen chiller “Shortcut” that recently made a U.S. splash — is launching world sales at AFM on “Mondocane,” a dystopian drama about the struggle of two 13-year-old orphan boys in a Southern Italian gangland.

“Mondocane” toplines Alessandro Borghi (“Devils”).

In “Mondocane,” Borghi (pictured) plays the leader of one of two gangs vying for control of the Southern Italian port city of Taranto which in a dystopian near-future that has become a no man’s land surrounded by barbed wire and abandoned by police. The film is being marketed as an “Oliver Twist tale in a ‘Mad Max’ setting,” Minerva Pictures international sales chief Francesca Delise told Variety.

Delise noted that for Minerva, “Mondocane” segues from the international success it saw with Alessio Liguori’s “Shortcut,” which despite the pandemic recently went out theatrically on almost 700 U.S. screens via Gravitas Ventures.

When director Guillermo Del Toro asks for quarantine entertainment recommendations, his famous friends sure don’t disappoint.

Del Toro took to Twitter Monday for help in passing the time during the pandemic. “What are you reading, what are you watching, what are you listening to, and how many days have you been indoors?,” Del Toro posted Monday morning.

Del Toro added that he has “been indoors for over a month… self-imposed. I have gone out only for primary needs: food, supplies, etc., and I have been mostly rewatching and re-reading.”

Among the content Del Toro said he was revisiting were several films by director Mitchell Leisen, including “Death Takes a Holiday” and “Easy Living.” For literature, Del Toro said he’s re-reading “The Devils of Loudon,” a thriller by dystopian author Aldous Huxley, calling it “incredibly pertinent to what we are going through and how autonomy can be destroyed in times of crisis.

Exclusive: Fyi has given a 10-episode series order to Big star David Moscow’s From Scratch, which follows the actor, producer and adventurer on a worldwide expedition making meals literally from scratch. It’s set for premiere Sunday, February 16 at 6 Pm Et on Fyi.

In From Scratch, after being presented a recipe from a chef, David must hunt, dive, gather, forage and grow each ingredient to remake the meal, revealing the overwhelming amount of work, craftmanship and passion that brings everyday ingredients into the kitchen. In its first season, Moscow milks a water buffalo for fresh mozzarella, harvests salt from the ocean, presses olive oil, and dives for octopus in rough waters. Along the way he spotlights acclaimed chefs, restaurants and cultures around the world: from crafting a local sustainable Scandinavian feast with Chef Jari Vesivalo in Helsinki, to a statewide wild goose chase for a Northeast fall meal with New York Chef Dan Kluger,...

The centerpiece of Scott Ora’s cluttered San Fernando Valley apartment is the 1939 Oscar his step-grandfather, the late lyricist Leo Robin, was presented for co-writing “Thanks for the Memory.” Sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” the trophy sits proudly on the piano where Robin worked on some of his biggest hits. The movie marked the comedian’s breakout role and Leo’s tune, co-written with frequent collaborator Ralph Rainger, soon became Hope’s theme song. It was Robin’s only Academy Award win out of a total of 10 nominations.

Over the course of 20 years, from 1934 (when the best original song category was introduced and he was nominated for “Love in Bloom”) through 1954, Robin, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame who died in 1984 at the age of 84, earned 10 Oscar nominations (two in 1949 alone). His impressive catalog includes signature tunes for Maurice Chevalier...

Scandinavian sci-fi series “The White Wall” is coming to the international market, starting at Natpe, after Drg picked up international rights to the upcoming project. Finland’s Fire Monkey and Nice Drama, part of the Nordic Entertainment Group, are making “The White Wall” for Swedish pubcaster Svt and its Finnish counterpart, Yle.

It will feature a roster of well-known Scandi talent, including Aksel Hennie (“Headhunters”), Vera Vitali (“Arne Dahl”), Ardalan Esmaili (“Greyzone”), and Eva Melander (“The Bridge”). It was created by Aleksi Salmenperä (“A Man’s Job”), Mikko Pöllä (“Easy Living”), and Roope Lehtinen (“Black Widows”).

The series follows events after a mysterious white wall is discovered at the site of the world’s largest nuclear waste depository. It becomes clear that the wall is not made of any material known to man, and the team at the nuclear waste center must decide how to deal with it.

Drg is...

A trio of new dramas and two returning originals are in HBO Europe’s fall-winter lineup as it continues to increase its original programming efforts outside the U.S.

When the European arm of HBO officially unveils its new fall-winter plans later Friday, it is expected to announce a Dec. 26 launch for “Success,” the highly anticipated Croatian drama helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”). The show is HBO Europe’s first original from the Adriatic region, and tells the story of four strangers bound together by a violent event. HBO has committed to making at least one original drama per year from Adriatic countries.

HBO will also release the first trailer for upcoming Polish crime drama “Blinded by the Lights.” The action-packed curtain raiser for the Warsaw-set drama underscores its key settings and themes: high-level cocaine trafficking, gangsters, and nightclubs. Based on the book by Jakub Zulczyk,...

Adding to its line-up of original productions from Central and Eastern Europe, HBO Europe announced Sunday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that it has greenlit an original Czech series, “Oblivious.”

The espionage drama set in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s will be helmed by Ivan Zacharias, whose HBO Europe series “Wasteland” is now set for streaming distribution in the U.S.

The six-part spy story is being written by television screenwriter Ondrej Gabriel, which the company has said illustrates its commitment to developing new talent from the region.

Zacharias created a bleak, menacing world in his past series for HBO Europe, “Wasteland,” which followed the trail of a child-napping in the Czech Republic’s northern coal region amid power intrigues and corporate secrets.

That series, which released two seasons, premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2016 amid warm audience and critical responses.

The “Oblivious” announcement capped a panel at the festival that...

Game Of Thrones broadcaster will produce one regional series per year through its offshoot HBO Europe.

Broadcaster HBO is launching an initiative to produce one high-end TV drama series per year from what it calls the ‘Adria’ region.

The news is being revealed today (Aug 18) at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Drama forum, where Steve Matthews, executive producer of drama development, HBO Europe, and Gábor Krigler, creative executive of original production, HBO Hungary, are in town to announce a call for project proposals.

The aim is for several of these proposals to be developed and put into production starting from 2018. The HBO team are looking specifically for contemporary stories written in a local language.

The scripts must come from the Adria region, which covers Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The deadline for submissions is November 15 2016.

HBO is the company behind global hit TV drama Game Of Thrones, which has utilised...

Screen spoke to festival industry chief Jovan Marjanovic about the necessity of introducing a TV forum at this year’s event.

This year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) is introducing an inaugural Drama forum to its CineLink industry strand, with the goal of encouraging discussion and ultimately bolstering TV production in the region.

CineLink Drama 2016 will see producers, talent and broadcasters from the region and further afield taking part in sessions, lectures and case studies that focus on the current state of high-end TV programmes, and what can be done to integrate the area’s film and TV industries.

Six series in development will also be presented [scroll down to the see the list], with top talent attached including Danis Tanović (Death In Sarajevo) and Ognjen Sviličić (Nightlife). European broadcasters, distributors and SVoD and VoD operators will be in Sarajevo to see presentation pitches, and to take part in one-on-one meetings with producers.

“This has been on the table for a while,” says...