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Ana de Armas is a brilliant and beautiful actor and she has proven her acting chops time and time again by giving several brilliant performances in recent years. She even added James Bond to the growing list of films. The Cuban actress is fluent in both Spanish and English and she has made a great career for herself in Hollywood by working with brilliant directors and actors. So, if you also love Armas’ brilliant performances and want to see more of her here are the 7 best movies starring Ana de Armas you can watch right now.

7. Ghosted (Apple TV+) Credit – Apple TV+

Ghosted is a romantic comedy spy action-adventure film directed by Dexter Fletcher from a screenplay co-written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers. The 2023 film follows Cole who falls head over heels for...

The following contains major spoilers for Inspector Ellis Season 1, Episode 1, "Hanmore," now streaming on Acorn TV. It also contains discussion of violence and sexual assault.

Acorn TV's Inspector Ellis is the latest entry in British television's long list of crime dramas, and it will immediately grab viewers' attention because of who's in the title role. Sharon D Clarke is a powerhouse, with three Olivier Awards and a Tony Award nomination under her belt, to name just a small cross-section of her acclaim. It's kind of surprising that no one has cast her as the lead of a series like this yet, but her performance as Detective Chief Inspector Ellis is everything viewers could possibly ask for.

The rest of Inspector Ellis, though, doesn't rise up to Clarke's level. Series creators Paul Logue and Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre have crafted a show that is completely outshined by its lead actor. Season 1, Episode 1, "Hanmore,...

The series drops on Netflix on Thursday

Charlie Covell’s comedic drama “Kaos” hits Netflix screens on Thursday, Aug. 29, and it’s giving Greek mythology buffs a new adventure to binge, reimagining the Greek gods in a contemporary setting.

The eight-episode series, directed by Georgi Banks-Davies and Runyararo Mapfumo, will all drop at the same time on the streamer.

Here’s Netflix’s official synopsis: “Zeus has long enjoyed his status as King of The Gods. That is until he wakes up one morning and discovers a wrinkle on his forehead. Neurosis sets in, setting him off on a dangerous, paranoid path. Zeus becomes convinced his fall is coming – and starts to see signs of it everywhere.”

Check out the full cast of the series below.

Jeff Goldblum as Zeus Jeff Goldblum as Zeus in “Kaos” (Netflix)

Jeff Goldblum comes in as the king of gods, Zeus. In the Netflix drama,...

BritBox is back with new titles this August! After adding the first two seasons of the Emmy Award-winning espionage series “Killing Eve” starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, the British streamer will add the junior and senior seasons throughout the month.

Multiple acclaimed United Kingdom dramedies will have their North American and United States premieres this month, including the first season of Channel 4’s “The Change,” created and written by and starring Bridget Christie, and the second season of “Avoidance,” written by and starring Romesh Ranganathan.

Whether you’re looking for a docuseries on King Charles or a multi-part crime thriller, find out everything coming to BritBox in August, including The Streamable’s top picks for the month!

7-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month BritBox.com What are the 3 Best Shows, Movies, and Specials Coming to BritBox in August 2024? “The Change” Season 1 | Thursday, Aug. 1

Award-winning stand-up Bridget Christie leads the cast as Linda,...

Doug Liman is set to direct and oversee development on Paramount Pictures’ reboot of The Saint.

Regé-Jean Page, a breakout actor from Netflix’s Bridgerton, was earlier tapped to star in and executive produce the studio’s imagining of the movie based on the early 20th century adventure novels by Leslie Charteris that featured a mysterious man named Simon Templar taking down various bad guys.

Val Kilmer starred in Paramount’s 1997 original film The Saint as a master of disguise. The character has proven quite popular, appearing in comics, serials and, of course, movies and television. Roger Moore famously starred in the 1960s British TV series of the same name.

Liman boarding the reboot gives new momentum to the long-gestating project, which earlier had Chris Pine attached and Dexter Fletcher directing. The logline for the new version from Liman, the filmmaker behind Edge of Tomorrow and Mr. & Mrs. Smith,...

BBC drama “Informer,” which originally starred Paddy Considine, Bel Powley and Nabhaan Rizwan, is getting a German adaptation.

Production has begun in Hamburg, Germany, on “Informant,” an adaptation of the All3Media International scripted format, which was BAFTA-nominated. The BBC One show was executive produced by Sam Mendes, who produced via his production outfit Neal Street Productions.

The six-part German thriller is being produced by filmpool fiction (part of All3Media Deutschland) for Ndr, Ard Degeto, Arte and Nrk (Norway). The show is expected to debut in fall 2024.

Starring Jürgen Vogel (“Trust Me”), Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot”) and Ivar Wafaei (“Rheingold”), “Informant” tells the story of how the ‘war on terror’ and indications of an attack on the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg plunges people into a maelstrom of fear, prejudice and hysteria.

The cast also includes Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Bayan Layla, Claudia Michelsen, Sabrina Ceesay, Nico Holonics, Ali Reza Ahmadi and Majid Bakhtiari.

Exclusive: Apple has rounded out the cast for its crime drama series Sinking Spring with the addition of Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible franchise), Dustin Nguyen (The Accidental Getaway Driver), Nesta Cooper (See), Idris Debrand (Dear Edward), Liz Caribel (Pussy Island) and Will Pullen (A Little Prayer).

The actors join an ensemble led by 2023 Academy Award nom Brian Tyree Henry (of the Apple drama Causeway) which also includes Michael Mando, Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew and Amir Arison, as previously announced.

Related Story ‘Presumed Innocent’: Chase Infiniti, Lily Rabe, Nana Mensah, Matthew Alan & Kingston Rumi Southwick Cast In Apple TV+ Series Related Story 'The Blacklist' Star Amir Arison Joins Ridley Scott's Apple Series 'Sinking Spring' Related Story Marin Ireland Joins Apple's 'Sinking Spring' TV Series

The eight-episode series created by Top Gun: Maverick scribe Peter Craig, entering production this week in Philadelphia,...

Three new execs will develop their own film and TV slates.

Ann Phillips, former Film4, House Productions and Ray Pictures exec, is re-joining film and TV outfit See-Saw Films as head of development for film and executive producer for limited TV series, as part of an expansion drive by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman’s UK-Australian outfit.

Phillips previously worked at See-Saw as head of development before joining Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s House Productions in 2016. Prior to that Phillips had worked as a creative exec at Film4. She was named a Screen Future Leader in 2012.

She joins from...

BBC Studios Science Unit Names First Creative Director

The Anthrax Attacks and Dinosaurs: The Final Day producer BBC Studios Science Unit as named its first Creative Director for UK Unscripted. Emma Lorenz has joined from Wonderhood Studios and will responsible for the domestic creative strategy and growing the unit’s UK slate in documentaries, formats and returning series. The BBC production division is led by Andrew Cohen and Director of Development Nicola Cook. Along with big ticket titles for Netlflix and the BBC, it has produced advertiser-funded programming series Cook Clever, Waste Less with The Great British Bake Off Judge Prue Leith for Channel 4. At Wonderhood, which former Channel 4 CEO David Abraham runs, she was Deputy Creative Director, working on shows such as BBC Three’s Trump in Tweets, Channel 4’s Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles, the recent Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life and BBC One’s The Airport: Back in the Skies.

‘In Camera’ is BBC Film and BFI-backed, and unites several Screen Stars of Tomorrow.

UK filmmaker Naqqash Khalid has wrapped a six-week shoot in Manchester on his debut feature In Camera, which stars Nabhaan Rizwan, Amir El-Masry and Rory Fleck Byrne.

The film is produced by Juliette Larthe for the UK arm of UK-us production firm Prettybird, and by former BFI exec Mary Burke for her new UK company Public Dreams. Larthe developed the script alongside Khalid.

Developed with BBC Film, In Camera is financed by BBC Film and the BFI, and in association with Uncommon Creative Studio.

In...

“Encanto” star John Leguizamo has signed on to executive produce short film “Triggered” from Tara Westwood.

“Triggered,” which stars Westwood, Isiah Whitlock Jr. (“Da 5 Bloods”), Caitlin Mehner (“Dopesick”) and Robert John Burke (“Law & Order Special Victim’s Unit”), deals with themes of gun violence.

“’Triggered’ is exceptional in that it doesn’t preach and never hits you over the head with a message – but I don’t know how anyone can watch it and not agree that we need to do things differently,” said Leguizamo. “Most Americans, even NRA members, already support basic changes such as improved background checks and this is a conversation that we must have. I’m so excited to be a part of this powerful piece directed and starring Tara Westwood.”

The short tells the story of Ohio (played by Whitlock Jr.) and Virginia (Mehner), who have both lost family to gun violence and who believe a senator,...

Starz will take viewers into the early years of Queen Elizabeth I.

The premium cabler announced today a Sunday, June 12 premiere date for Becoming Elizabeth, its upcoming Tudor drama exploring the fascinating, untold story of the early life of England’s most iconic Queen.

On linear, it will debut on Starz at 9:00 Et/Pt in the U.S. and Canada.

Here's the logline:

Long before she ascended the throne, young Elizabeth Tudor, played by Alicia von Rittberg, was an orphaned teenager who became embroiled in the political and sexual politics of the English court.

The death of King Henry VIII sees his nine-year-old son Edward, played by Oliver Zetterström, take the throne and sets into motion a dangerous scramble for power when Elizabeth, Edward and their sister Mary, played by Romola Garai find themselves pawns in a game between the great families of England and the powers of Europe...

Stars: Olivia Popica, Tommy Bastow, Brooke Johnston, Michael Bisping, Nitu Chandra Srivasttava, Diana Hoyos, James Faulkner, Hannah Al Rashid, Vanesaa Campos, Raffaello Degruttola, Nicole Sousa, Cameron Jack, Christopher Sciueref, Antonio Bustorff, Andrew Hollingworth, Brian Jansen, Edward Linard | Written by Audrey Arkins | Directed by Kellie Madison

Where did this come from? Some five years after the last entry in the franchise and Thirteen years since the original, here comes Never Back Down: Revolt, a female take on the underground fight story that sees Anya (Olivia Popica), the sister of Mma fighter Aslan (Tommy Bastow), who is forced to compete in elite underground fights after Aslan refuses to throw a his latest illegal fight for promoter Julian (James Faulkner). Now working to pay off the debt Aslan owes for Not losing, Anya takes a trip to Rome to partake in a special fighting event (that she’s promised will clear her brothers...

It’s not unusual, in the world of Doctor Who, for the same actor to play more than one role on screen. From classic to modern Doctor Who, Nicholas Courtney, Ian Marter, Lalla Ward, Jaqueline Hill, Jean Marsh, Adjoa Andoh, Eve Myles, Naoko Mori, Vinette Robinson and more have all played multiple parts in the whoniverse. Before she debuted as companion Martha Jones, Freema Agyeman was a Torchwood employee who fell foul of the Cybermen in series two’s ‘Army of Ghosts’. Karen Gillan was a seer in series four episode ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ before she recurred as Eleven’s companion Amy Pond. Even the Doctor has had test runs. Colin Baker played a Gallifreyan commander in season twenty before taking over from Peter Davison. Peter Capaldi appeared in ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ as well as playing John Frobisher on Torchwood before taking up residence in the Tardis.

In...

Gemma Arterton (“Black Narcissus”) will headline “Funny Girl,” a series adaptation of Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel for Sky and Now.

Arterton stars as Barbara Parker, a force of nature who takes London by storm during the cultural explosion of the 1960s. The series follows the character’s journey from Blackpool beauty queen to comedy superstar and nation’s sweetheart. Clare-Hope Ashitey (“Riviera”), Arsher Ali (“Informer”) and Alexa Davies (“White House Farm”) will also star.

The series is written by multi-award-winning writer Morwenna Banks (“Damned”) and directed by BAFTA nominee Oliver Parker, who directed Arterton’s film debut “St. Trinian’s.”

Arterton said: “It’s a heart-warming story of an ambitious woman with a dream of making people laugh – it’s going to be something special. It’s an honour to be working with such an incredible team and be reunited with my first ever director, Oliver Parker.”

Director of comedy for Sky Studios,...

The TV adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s bestselling novel about surviving your 20s, Everything I Know About Love, has found its cast.

Bel Powley (The Morning Show, Informer, Diary of a Teenage Girl) and Emma Appleton (Pistol, The Witcher, Traitors) will play Birdy (Powley) and Maggie (Appleton), two childhood best friends whose love story is central to the seven-part series, being made for BBC One by NBCUniversal International Studios-owned Working Title Television.

Joining the two are Marli Siu (Alex Rider) playing Nell, Jordan Peters (Pirates, Gangs of London) playing Neil and making their on-screen TV debuts are Aliyah Odoffin playing Amara, Connor Finch playing Street; and Ryan Bown ...

The TV adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s bestselling novel about surviving your 20s, Everything I Know About Love, has found its cast.

Bel Powley (The Morning Show, Informer, Diary of a Teenage Girl) and Emma Appleton (Pistol, The Witcher, Traitors) will play Birdy (Powley) and Maggie (Appleton), two childhood best friends whose love story is central to the seven-part series, being made for BBC One by NBCUniversal International Studios-owned Working Title Television.

Joining the two are Marli Siu (Alex Rider) playing Nell, Jordan Peters (Pirates, Gangs of London) playing Neil and making their on-screen TV debuts are Aliyah Odoffin playing Amara, Connor Finch playing Street; and Ryan Bown ...

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is teaming up with frequent collaborator Beau Flynn to produce Emergency Contact, an original action film with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II attached to star. Warner Bros. has picked up the pitch from the writing team of Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani. Abdul-Mateen will also executive produce. As of yet, there is no screenplay written or director currently in sight. Emergency Contact is being described as a high-concept high-octane action film taking place within the underground music scene in Austin, Texas. No other details have been released.

Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani previously wrote the critically acclaimed legal drama The Mauritanian. It starred Jodie foster, Tahar Rahim, and benedict Cumberbatch in the lead. The film was a major contender in the award season bagging nominations for Best film, outstanding British film, best actor in a leading role, best adapted screenplay, and best cinematography at the BAFTAs. Haines and...

Comcast’s European pay giant Sky is working on a new eight-part supernatural crime thriller.

The Rising — which starts filming in the U.K.’s Lake District next month — marks the first series produced entirely in-house by Sky’s production arm Sky Studios, which is is working with exec producer Julian Stevens, who produced BBC dramas The Fall and Informer.

Clara Rugaard stars alongside newcomers Nenda Neururer and Solly McLeod in a story about a girl who discovers that she is dead, and sets out to find her killer and get justice, believing it was someone she knew.

Following The Third Day, The Rising is ...

Comcast’s European pay giant Sky is working on a new eight-part supernatural crime thriller.

The Rising — which starts filming in the U.K.’s Lake District next month — marks the first series produced entirely in-house by Sky’s production arm Sky Studios, which is is working with exec producer Julian Stevens, who produced BBC dramas The Fall and Informer.

Clara Rugaard stars alongside newcomers Nenda Neururer and Solly McLeod in a story about a girl who discovers that she is dead, and sets out to find her killer and get justice, believing it was someone she knew.

Following The Third Day, The Rising is ...

Set in the very near future where scientists have discovered a method of matching people with their perfect romantic fit using DNA, eight-part Netflix Original The One is technically a sci-fi drama. Really though, it’s a crime thriller revolving around the murky circumstances in which the cash cow company behind the matching service was created. Written by Misfits and Crazyhead creator Howard Overman, The One is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by John Marrs. It’s a cat-and-mouse game between wealthy, driven CEO Rebecca (Hannah Ware) and police detective Kate (Zoë Tapper).

While you’re solving the show’s mysteries, we’ve taken the liberty of solving that nagging background question of where you might have seen its cast on screen before…

Hannah Ware – Rebecca Webb

Prior to The One, actor and model Hannah Ware’s biggest roles were over in the US. She starred opposite...

Exclusive: Ana De Armas is set to star opposite Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in Joe and Anthony Russo’s big-budget action thriller The Gray Man for Netflix. The Russos have been developing the project for some time at Sony, and when the package went back on the market over the summer, Netflix was quick to acquire it and set Gosling and Evans to star. The film will be the biggest-budget film in Netflix’s history on the feature side.

The Russos penned the script with a recent polish by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The Russos along with Mike Larocca will produce on behalf of Agbo along with Joe Roth, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Chris Castaldi through their Roth Kirschenbaum banner.

The Gray Man is the debut novel by Mark Greaney, published in 2009 by Jove Books. It also is the first novel to feature the Gray Man, freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry.

We have a new trailer for The Informer. Coming from Vertical Entertainment and The Forest Road Company's Noriva, this looks to bring an A-list cast led by Joel Kinnaman and Ana de Armas home next month for some premium VOD action. Based on the trailer, this looks like it may well serve as a decent substitute for being able to check out a new thriller at an actual theater this fall.

The trailer opens with Joel Kinnaman and Ana de Armas leading a happy, domesticated life with their young daughter. The peace is interrupted when Kinnaman's character is called in to deal with an FBI informant who is involved in the drug trade. Things get messy, which puts him in a precarious situation, so much so that he ends up having to go back to prison to tackle the drug war from the inside. But this risky operation is the price of his freedom.

“House of the Dragon,” HBO’s upcoming prequel to “Game of Thrones,” has acquired one of its leading men. Paddy Considine, who starred in HBO’s “The Outsider” and “The Third Day,” will portray King Viserys Targaryen in the upcoming series.

HBO’s description for Considine’s character reads:

Viserys was chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, but as we’ve learned from “Game of Thrones,” good men do not necessarily make for great kings.

“House of the Dragon” was announced by HBO in November 2019. The 10-episode prequel series is co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal, who executive produce alongside Miguel Sapochnik, Vince Gerardis, and Sara Lee Hess. Sapochnik will direct the pilot and a handful of other episodes.

The “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon” at HBO has found its first cast member — English actor Paddy Considine.

Variety has learned that Considine has signed on to star in the series in the role of King Viserys I, who chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy. But good men do not necessarily make for great kings.

Fans of the lore created by George R.R. Martin will recall that Viserys I ruled over Westeros around 100 years after Aegon’s Conquest. His children, Rhaenyra and Aegon II, would ultimately fight a civil war over his throne that became known as the Dance of Dragons.

Considine is no stranger to HBO audiences, having recently starred in “The Outsider” and currently starring...

Music drama will receive a theatrical release this autumn.

BFI Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to music drama Mogul Mowgli, starring Riz Ahmed, in a deal with Paris-based sales company Charades.

The film received its world premiere at the Berlinale where it won the Fipresci prize. It will be released theatrically on an as-yet-unspecified date this autumn.

Ahmed plays a British-Pakistani rapper who is about to start his first world tour when a crippling illness strikes him down and he is forced to move back in with his family.

It marks the debut fiction feature of documentary filmmaker Bassam Tariq,...

Jonny Campbell, who recently directed Netflix’s “Dracula” series, will helm Paramount’s “Cold Storage,” an adaptation of veteran screenwriter David Koepp’s first novel.

Koepp became the go-to screenwriter for blockbusters, having worked on features like “Jurassic Park,” “Angels and Demons”, “Panic Room,” and “Mission: Impossible.” When he brought his debut book to the market in 2018, most major studios tried to grab rights, with Paramount being the most aggressive. Publishing rights went to Ecco and Harper Collins.

Paramount considers the project a high priority, with the current Covid-19 pandemic shuttering the industry, a production start date is still unknown.

“Cold Storage” follows a Pentagon bioterror operative named. Roberto Diaz. When he is sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he finds something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction. He contains it and buries it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository. Now, after...

Exclusive: Nabhaan Rizwan (1917) and Philippine Velge (Ete ’85) are set as series regulars in HBO Max’s Station Eleven, a 10-episode post-apocalyptic limited drama series based on the international bestseller by Emily St. John Mandel, from Maniac creator Patrick Somerville and Paramount TV Studios.

Written and executive produced by Somerville, Station Eleven is a post-apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines. It tells the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.

Rizwan will play Frank Chaudhary, a successful war correspondent, who is struggling with his own demons when the flu strikes.

Velge will portray Alexandra, a member of the Traveling Symphony too young to remember what the world was like before the Georgia Flu.

They join previously announced series regulars Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, David Wilmot and Matilda Lawler.

Somerville also will serve as showrunner.

The first Italian Amazon Original fiction series, created by Andrea di Stefano, will be a crime series set in 1980s Milan, featuring a teenage protagonist. Shooting is due to start, in the coming months, on the first Italian Amazon Original fiction series Bang Bang Baby, created by Andrea di Stefano (the director of Escobar: Paradise Lost and The Informer) and produced by The Apartment and Wildside on behalf of the streaming platform Amazon Prime Video (which boasts over 100 million subscribers worldwide). Unfolding in Milan at the end of the 80s, Bang Bang Baby is a crime series centred around a shy and insecure teenager, Alice, who becomes a mafia organisation’s youngest member in a bid to win the love of her father, an ‘ndrangheta affiliate. “It’s a hugely important and significant project for us, and a highly ambitious challenge”, insisted Chief Executive Officer of The Apartment Lorenzo Mieli yesterday,...

Riz Ahmed stars as a rapper on the cusp of fame forced to return home to his family after he is struck down by a crippling illness.

Paris-based sales company Charades has boarded sales on New York-based Pakistani director Bassam Tariq’s music drama Mogul Mowgli, starring actor and rapper Riz Ahmed, ahead of its premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section.

Endeavor Content will represent North American rights.

Ahmed plays a young British rapper, who is about to start his first world tour, when a crippling illness strikes him down, and he is forced to move back in with his family.

In early 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee inadvertently kicked off a global Latin pop renaissance with their reggaetón lento, “Despacito.” The song gave a second wind to the Puerto Rican artists, both of whose respective heydays seemed to have come and gone in the 2000s. Soon, they would once again dominate Latin music charts in the United States.

Justin Bieber happened upon the song while club-hopping in Colombia; he liked it enough to propose a remix with Fonsi and Yankee, who gave their green light with gusto. With some help...

In Variety’s third Mipcom Roundup Alibaba’s streaming platform Youku gets BBC programs, Lagardère buys full ownership of Barcelona’s Veranda, Banijay rolls out Guinness World Records series, Blue Ant International sells and renews and All3Media Intl. extends into Japan and Taiwan.

All3Media Strikes Deals in Japan, Taiwan

All3Media has grown its footprint in Asia thanks to newly announced deals with U-next, Disney and Wowow in Japan and Catchplay in Taiwan. The U-Next deal includes 22 hours of primetime drama including Neal Street Productions’ Bafta-nominated “Informer,” two seasons of Screentime’s Australian drama “Playing for Keeps” and The Forge Entertainment-produced mini-series “Dark Money.” Catchplay in Taiwan and Tohokushinsha in Japan have secured rights to Bafta-nominated mini-series “Mrs. Wilson,” produced by Snowed In for BBC One and Masterpiece. All3Media also sold two factual entertainment series to Japanese broadcasters, “Travel Guides (Australia)” in the company’s first-ever...

Brown’s gave insights into Amazon’s European ambitions during her Mipcom keynote.

Georgia Brown, the London-based director of European originals for Amazon Studios, made an unusual recruitment call during a keynote at Mipcom on Monday in a sign of Amazon Studios’ expanding European ambitions.

Brown revealed the platform is looking for heads of scripted in both Italy and Spain as it expands its operations in both territories.

“We’re hiring, email me if you’re interested or know anyone who is looking”, she said.

The development and production executive made the impromptu job announcement during a joint keynote presentation...

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” maintained its hold on the top of the Rolling Stone 100 this week. The track was streamed 23.7 million times.

The Top Ten was controlled mostly by the usual suspects — Lil Nas X, Shawn Mendes and Billie Eilish. The one new entry came from Lil Tecca, whose single “Ransom” continues to stream at an impressive rate. “Ransom” was co-written and co-produced by Nick Mira, who also contributed to Juice Wrld’s breakout hits “Lucid Dreams” and “All Girls Are the Same.” “Ransom” is currently the...

The scheme is open to writers, directors and producers who are Scottish residents.

Young Films Foundation’s second-annual residency on Scotland’s Isle of Skye welcomed mentors including producer Margaret Matheson, actor Joe Thomas, director Jonny Campbell, writers Olivia Hetreed (Girl With A Pearl Earring) and Francesca Gardiner and more to mentor six selected rising Scottish film and TV creatives.

Other top industry attendees included Dan MacRae (StudioCanal), Dionne Farrell (BBC Films), Celine Coulson (Film4), Isabel Davis and Sean Greenhorn from Screen Scotland, producers Beth Willis and Liz Lewin (Derry Girls).

The six participants, selected from more than 100 applicants, were:

Daisy Costello,...

Westworld and Borgen star Sidse Babett Knudsen has joined Channel 4 and Hulu drama The Light (w/t).

Babett Knudsen, who plays Theresa Cullen in the HBO sci-fi thriller, is joining Happy Valley star Sarah Lancashire in the four-part series, which is the follow-up to National Treasure and Kiri.

The cast also includes Nabhaan Rizwan (Informer), Mark Lewis Jones (National Treasure), Jade Croot (Casualty), Shaun Parkes (Line of Duty), Ruth Madeley (Years and Years), Joanna Scanlan (No Offence), Adrian Scarborough (Gosford Park), Genevieve Barr (Press) and Eiry Thomas (Rillington Place).

Written by Jack Thorne and produced by The Forge, it is currently in production in Wales with Anne with an E’s Sandra Goldbacher directing and Killing Eve’s Morenike Williams producing. George Ormond and George Faber are Executive Producers.

The Light is set in the fictional town of Glyngolau and explores a forgotten community devastated by disaster. An explosion...

Speaking from his home in Toronto, Snow is still baffled that his reggae-hip-hop merger “Informer” topped charts and moved millions of copies over 25 years ago. “That’s a jail song,” he says, still sounding surprised. “It’s not, ‘Baby, I love you.’ I wrote that song in jail about informers. But people didn’t know what I was singing.”

When no one was looking, “Informer” — with its pumping beat, spit-fire patois and “licky boom-boom down” hook — has refused to go away. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler danced to it in the 2015 comedy Sisters,...

British actress Bel Powley has signed on to play the female lead in Pete Davidson’s untitled comedy from director Judd Apatow.

Universal has given the project a prime summer release date of June 19, 2020. The film, described as “semi-autobigraphical,” is written by Apatow, Davidson, and Dave Sirus.

Davidson, who grew up in Staten Island, lost his firefighter father in the Sept. 11 attacks, started performing stand-up comedy at the age of 16, and joined the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in 2014 at age 20. Davidson’s coming-of-age film “Big Time Adolescence” premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival.

Apatow will produce the pic for his Apatow Productions alongside Barry Mendel. They share producing credits on “The Big Sick,” “Bridesmaids,” “This Is 40,” “Trainwreck,” and “Funny People.” Production will be starting this summer in New York City.

Powley won a Gotham Award for her feature debut in “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.

Exclusive: White Boy Rick and The Diary of a Teenage Girl actress Bel Powley has landed the female lead in the Judd Apatow directed Pete Davidson comedy at Universal. Powley can next be seen opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in Apple’s The Morning Show. Airing in the UK this month, she’s part of an all-star cast that also includes Kate Winslet, Taron Egerton and Rosamund Pike , Powley voices “Little My” in Sky One’s animated series “Moominvalley.” This past year, Powley starred as Dawn Wershe, the drug-addled sister of Rick Weshe Jr., opposite Matthew McConaughey in Studio 8’s. Powley also stars opposite Paddy Considine in the BBC/Amazon spy series Informer and opposite Chris Evans, Brian Tyree Henry and Michael Cera in Kenneth Lonergan’s Tony-nominated Lobby Hero on Broadway. Her feature debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl earned Powley a 2015 Gotham Best Actress award as well as BAFTA,...

DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures announced today that Sam Mendes’ 1917 will start shooting on April 1 on location in England and Scotland.

The film follows two young British soldiers (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay; Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) on a single day at the height of World War I.

Joining the two are Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Daniel Mays, Adrian Scarborough, Jamie Parker (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Nabhaan Rizwan (Informer), Claire Duburcq, with Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Mendes, who will direct and wrote the screenplay with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Penny Dreadful) produces the film with Pippa Harris—his partner at Neal Street Productions—along with Jayne-Ann Tenggren and Callum McDougall. Co-producing is Michael Lerman.

Also announced today is the pic’s creative team: cinematographer Roger Deakins; production designer Dennis Gassner; costume designer Jacqueline Durran; editor Lee Smith; and composer Thomas Newman, who has created the scores for six previous Mendes films, including Skyfall, Road to Perdition and American Beauty.

The film is being produced by Neal Street Productions for DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures, and will be released by Universal in U.S./Canada on Dec. 25. Universal and Amblin Partners will distribute the film internationally, with eOne distributing on behalf of Amblin in the U.K.

1917 reps a reunion for Mendes and DreamWorks Pictures. His feature directorial debut, the Best Picture Oscar-winning American Beauty, was first made under Dw as well as two other films: Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road.

John Simm plays a rabble-rousing populist politician in “Cold Courage,” and Lionsgate has stepped up and taken international rights to the series.

Based on the series of novels by Pekka Hiltunen, the drama is billed as the biggest yet out of Finland and will bow on the Viaplay streaming service in Scandinavia. With a cast from all over Europe and a shoot spanning Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and the U.K., “Cold Courage” is international in scope and ambition.

That was part of the appeal for Simm, a familiar face on British TV, playing The Master in “Doctor Who” and starring in a host of other shows for British networks. “There was a point I was on BBC and ITV at the same time and that was a bit much,” he told Variety. “I thought it would be nice to step away from that for a little bit and do something I haven’t done,...

Pulse Films and Left Handed Films producing project.

Pulse Films and Left Handed Films have completed the cast on their UK drama Mughal Mowgli, which has now begun shooting in London.

Joining Riz Ahmed in the feature are this year’s Royal Television Society Breakthrough Award winner Nabhaan Rizwan, who won the prize for his work on BBC/Amazon series Informer.

Also newly added to the film are Aiysha Hart, whose credits include Colette and Line Of Duty, Sex Education actor Anjana Vasan, Mary Poppins Returns actor Sudha Bhuchar, and The Valley actor Alyy Khan.

The project is the feature directing debut of Bassam Tariq,...

Reggaeton icon Daddy Yankee made an electrifying appearance at Univision’s 31st Annual Premio Lo Nuestro awards show on Thursday night. The rapper was one of two top honorees at the show: Both he and the regional Mexican band, Premio veterans Intocable, were given the show’s Premio Lo Nuestro a la Trayectoria, otherwise known as the network’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Daddy Yankee’s landmark album, Barrio Fino, which became the best-selling Latin music album of the 2000s — and helped propel reggaeton,...

German public broadcasting group Ard Degeto has picked up rights to two new British series ahead of next week's Drama Series Days event at Berlin's European Film Market: Cheat, a psychological thriller starring Happy Valley's Katherine Kelly and Molly Windsor (Three Girls), and Baptiste, a crime drama featuring The Missing actor Tcheky Karyo, The Night Manager's Tom Hollander and Jessica Raine (Informer).

Originally commissioned for Britain's ITV, Cheat has already sold wide, including to France Television, Australia's Seven Network and to Sundance Now for North America.

Baptiste, a BBC One production, has been picked up by Dr in Denmark and ...

Already off to a promising start in 2019, HBO just added an impressive ensemble for one of their upcoming shows. Jason Bateman’s “The Outsider,” which previously announced its leading man \ Ben Mendelsohn, has rounded out the rest of the main cast with powerhouse performers Cynthia Erivo, Bill Camp, Paddy Considine, Mare Winningham, and Julianne Nicholson.

The series is based on the prolific author’s novel of the same name, which was published in May of last year. (In truest King fashion, that isn’t even his most recent novel — “Elevation” was published just five months later.) It follows the investigation of a crime against a young boy in a small Oklahoma town, only to find that things take on a King-like turn towards the otherworldly.

Erivo (fresh off her part in “Bad Times at the El Royale” and in the wake of one of the best Broadway performances in recent...

Variety has unveiled its fifth edition of 10 Europeans to Watch, spotlighting 10 rising talents from across the continent who are poised for breakthroughs in 2019. The selection includes emerging actors, directors, showrunners and cinematographers from six countries whose dynamic talents are being showcased on screens big and small, and on both sides of the camera.

The group will be feted at the upcoming Berlin Intl. Film Festival with a luncheon in partnership with Dr. Hauschka at the Gorki Apartments on Feb. 9, and at the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg party that evening at the Ritz-Carlton.

The 2019 10 Europeans to Watch:

French cinematographer and director Marine Atlan has two films screening in Berlin: her directorial feature debut, “Daniel,” premieres in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section and she shot Panorama selection “Jessica Forever.”

German thesp Jonas Dassler toplines Fatih Akin’s Berlin competition pic “The Golden Glove.”

Belgian helmer Bas Devos, whose feature debut, “Violet,” won the Berlin...

“Informer” is a show in which people die, a certainty that’s presented mere minutes into its opening episode. The new Amazon Prime Video series begins with an act of wanton violence not merely to thrust audiences into a world of brutality and warped justification, but to show that there is a cost to the six-part story about to unfold.

It’s not rooted in miraculous feats of bravery or redemptive acts that can wipe away years of misleading and uncertainty. It’s a pursuit of justice and public safety that acknowledges a human price at the beginning of each chapter. In the context of an unfolding story about policing, intelligence gathering and the informants recruited to be literal eyes and ears in those efforts, “Informer” also fashions a story that reevaluates how much that potential price is worth it.

“Informer,” which originally premiered on the BBC last fall and...

Raza Shar is an easygoing young guy, born and raised in East London, who works at a shipping company and lives at home. Then one night he and some friends drop Molly at a club, things go sideways, and pretty soon Raza finds himself in police custody… where his Pakistani heritage suddenly makes him a very attractive, very conflicted asset in England’s counter-terrorism battle.

From there, Informer — all six episodes of which are available today on Amazon — weaves a complicated but compelling story of how Raza, his counter-terrorism agent handler Gabe and a slew of other characters are (or...

The trouble with the format popular among British dramas — a scant number of episodes, standing alone or else subject to years’-long hiatuses between installments — is that fans are bound to be left wanting more. But for everyone who felt a hankering for more propulsive counterterrorism drama after the recent Netflix import “Bodyguard,” with its relatively meager six episodes, can be comforted by Amazon’s “Informer.” Like “Bodyguard,” it’s been brought over from a first airing in the U.K. (where it played on the BBC), and like that show, too, it foregrounds a transporting, granular depiction of contemporary London. While it’s at times glutted with incident and could use a bit less complication and a bit more springy tension, it still makes for a compelling and, finally, rewarding binge.

The story begins with a crystalline moment of horror, as a pair of Londoners’ seeming meet-cute is interrupted by an act of terror.

Don’t let the title of Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani’s counter-terrorism drama fool you: the series is not solely focused on the titular “Informer,” a young man named Raza (Nabhaan Rizwan) who, after getting arrested for possession, gets coerced into working with intelligence officers to gather intel about potential terrorists. Instead, the core of the show is really focused on the relationship between Raza and his handlers Gabe (Paddy Considine) and Holly (Bel Powey).

“We wanted to approach what is a big, heavy theme of the war on terror from a very, very personal angle and story because we feel there have been a lot of dramas where you see CIA boardrooms and executive branch decision-making and that story’s great, but it’s been done, so what does it look like from the street level — from the ground up?” says Haines.

To throw their audience into just...