News

Buckle up — the Extraction universe just got new players, and they’re bringing plenty of heat.

May Calamawy, Waleed Zuaiter, and Ed Speleers are suiting up in the next chapter of the action juggernaut — a heart-racing, eight-episode installment set in the same world as the hit films. They’ll join the already stacked lineup of Boyd Holbrook, Natalie Dormer (The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones), and Omar Sy.

The high-octane Extraction films — based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks, Joe Russo, and Anthony Russo — depict perilous search-and-rescue missions around the globe. The new action-thriller series follows a mercenary (played by Sy), who’s trapped between warring factions...

HBO's Harry Potterreboot has reportedly cast another key character after recently locking in the actors for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Olivier Award-winner Bertie Carvel, best known for his roles in The Crown and Dalgliesh, has been tapped for a recurring role as the Minster for Magic Cornelius Fudge in the high-profile TV adaptation. He would be taking the mantle from the late Robert Hardy, who fulfilled the role in the originalfilm series for four consecutive installments, starting with 2002's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The report, which comes courtesy of Deadline, has yet to be officially confirmed by HBO. The network shared with the outlet that casting details will only be announced when deals are finalized, indicating that Carvel's prospective role as Cornelius Fudge is still being negotiated at this time. The acclaimed actor is the only name that has surfaced in relation to the character,...

With only one year under her belt as Studiocanal’s executive managing director of TV series, M-k Kennedy, who joined from Netflix, is leveling up the scripted ambitions of the French pay TV group’s production arm.

After spearheading Studiocanal’s first in-house international series, “Paris Has Fallen” — which broke rating records on Canal+ and topped the charts on Amazon U.K. and Hulu in the U.S. — Kennedy reveals to Variety that the highly anticipated second season of the anthology, “Apollo Has Fallen,” has started filming. Rather than taking place in a single location, the eight-part series will hop from country to country, unfolding everywhere from the Libyan coast to the streets of Madrid, with principal photography taking place across the U.K., Marta and Spain. The series is produced by Studiocanal, Urban Myth Films, Millenium and G-Base, who were also behind “Paris Has Fallen,” which sold to more than 170 territories worldwide.

Doctor Who has confirmed episode titles for its upcoming second season. The hit Disney+ and BBC science fiction series will return on April 12 with all-new episodes.

The show's official website has revealed that Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies will write five of the season's eight episodes, starting with the season premiere, "The Robot Revolution," which is directed by It's a Sin and Daredevil's Peter Hoar. Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor meets a new friend in this episode, as Varada Sethu joins the Tardis as companion Belinda Chandra.

Doctor Who Season 2 Has Eight All-New Episodes

Here's the official synopsis for Doctor Who's season 2 premiere: "The Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-travelling Tardis team must face great dangers, ferocious enemies and wilder terrors than ever before."

The showrunner has also penned episode two,...

Exclusive: Fremantle is laying of all staff at storied drama indie Euston Films and docs label Undeniable, with senior execs Mandy Chang and Kate Harwood exiting.

Around 10 staff members have been laid off as nasty economic headwinds and the global contraction bite at Element Pictures and 72 Films-owner Fremantle.

Former BBC in-house drama boss Harwood is leaving Euston along with fellow MD Noemi Spanos and a number of others. All staff are leaving. The Euston brand and IP remain with Fremantle, so the label is technically not closing, we understand. Harwood and Spanos remain attached to their respective IP.

Euston is a fabled British drama indie that was founded in 1971 and made hits including The Sweeney and Van der Valk in its early years. It was revived under Harwood’s leadership in 2014 and went on to make seven shows, with the latest, Nightsleeper, launching on the BBC in just 10 days’ time.

With production underway in Belfast, Ireland on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO has announced five new additions to the cast, along with a new director.

New cast members include Finn Bennett (True Detective: Night Country), Bertie Carvel (The Crown), Tanzyn Crawford (Tiny Beautiful Things), Daniel Ings (The Gentlemen) and Sam Spruell (Fargo). Bennett plays Aerion Targaryen, with Carvel as Baelor Targaryen, Crawford as Tanselle, Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, and Spruell as Maekar Targaryen.

Also new to the production is Sarah Adina Smith (Lessons in Chemistry), who has joined to direct three of the six episodes. As previously announced, Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell will also star. Check out a first look still from the series below.

A drama series based on the novella The Hedge Knight from George R. R. Martin, the visionary whose A Song of Ice and Fire inspired Game of Thrones, A Knight...

Real-time thriller “Nightsleeper” has been acquired by French network TF1.

Starring Alexandra Roach (“The Light in the Hall”) and Joe Cole (“Gangs of London”), the six-episode thriller unfolds in real-time as a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London is hacked and events rapidly escalate on board, causing a government agency to frantically intervene.

“Can two people who’ve never met, one on the train and one not, work together to save the lives of its disparate group of passengers as the Heart of Britain overnight service hurtles towards what might quite literally be its final destination?” reads the logline.

The series, which is produced by Fremantle’s Euston Films for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, was written by “Murdered For Being Different” scribe Nick Leather with Laura Grace writing episodes 4 and 5. It’s directed by Jamie Magnus Stone (“Doctor Who”) and John Hayes (“Dublin Murders”).

It will air in the U.

Production banner FlipNarrative, set up by Waleed Zuaiter — the BAFTA-nominated star of “Baghdad Central” and “Gangs of London” and Oscar-nominated producer of “Omar” — has optioned the rights to Shannon Chakraborty’s latest novel “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi,” with plans to develop it into a multi-season series and gaming platform.

The book — the first in a trilogy being published by Harper Voyager — is a swashbuckling high seas adventure following a notorious Muslim pirate captain who has survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands and an actual demon before retiring to a life of piety. That is until she and her crew are forced into one last adventure — embarking on a mission across the Indian Ocean battling a supernatural world they never knew existed.

“With ‘The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi,’ we are given a rare insight into the melting pot that is the 12th century Indian Ocean,” said Zuaiter, who...

Hamzah Jamjoom’s eco-thriller “Running Dry,” which will start principal photography on Dec. 26, has revealed its leading cast members.

The film will star Baraa Alem, Waleed Zuaiter, Houshang Touzie, Naif Aldaferi and Ali Fardi.

Jamjoom’s credits include “Rupture,” winner of the Best Saudi Film Award at the Red Sea Film Festival in 2021, and “How I Got There,” the Best Saudi Film Award winner at last year’s Red Sea Film Festival.

It is based on a script by Gregory Collins and Jamjoom, from a story by Waleed Al Sanad and is produced by Abubakar Khan.

Inspired by real events, “Running Dry” follows the story of a poor mechanic from rural Saudi Arabia who is lured overseas only to be held captive by a sadistic drug lord.

Jamjoom said: “This film is really about overcoming forces that use and manipulate resources in order to divide people and consolidate power. In that sense,...

Disney+ is set to take viewers on a journey through Tudor England with its latest series, “Shardlake.”

Based on the internationally acclaimed Tudor murder mystery novels by C.J. Sansom, the four-part drama is set in 16th century England during the dissolution of the monasteries.

The series will follow the story of Matthew Shardlake, played by Arthur Hughes, a lawyer with an acute sense of justice and one of the few honest men in a world beset with scheming and plots. Shardlake works for Thomas Cromwell, played by Sean Bean, the dangerous and all-powerful right-hand man to Henry VIII.

Despite Shardlake’s unwavering loyalty to Cromwell and the Crown, his position in society is unfavored due to his appearance, as a person living with scoliosis during the Tudor period, suffering the indignity of being abused as a “crookback” wherever he turns. As he investigates the murder of one of Cromwell...

This new Italian series The Good Mothers, offers a unique twist on the crime genre: this is the mafia seen entirely from the women’s perspectives. The series is a multifaceted, choral work that tells the true story of three women, raised within the fiercest and richest clans of ‘Ndrangheta. They decide to cooperate with a courageous magistrate working to destroy it from within. These women will then have to fight against their own families for the right to survive and build a new future for themselves and their children.

A Star Original for Disney+, the series is directed by BAFTA and Emmy nominee Julian Jarrold and Elisa Amoruso (Sirly, Chiara Ferragni: Unposted) and executive produced by Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross for House Productions (Brexit: The Uncivil War) and Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, written by BAFTA Award-winning Stephen Butchard (Baghdad Central), and based on the...

U.K. broadcaster ITV has commissioned “Six Four,” a four-part crime thriller inspired by the bestselling novel by Hideo Yokoyama.

Set primarily in Glasgow, the drama follows the O’Neills, police detective Chris and his wife, former undercover officer Michelle, whose teenage daughter goes missing. Chris is finds out that fatal mistakes were covered-up in the disappearance of another local girl and revisiting the case, he uncovers a series of errors, corruption and unbridled ambition. Michelle takes matters into her own hands using her skills. Meanwhile, the daughter of the justice minister is suddenly kidnapped, just as the minister is on the cusp of achieving an election victory.

It is created by BAFTA Scotland-winning screenwriter Gregory Burke (“’71”) and Clare McQuillan (“Impulse”) will also write on the series.

Burke said: “At its heart, ‘Six Four’ is a human story about two people under incredible amounts of pressure, who both choose to try and address their pasts.

Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to Alice Troughton’s “The Tutor,” an upcoming drama and thriller that has Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack attached to star.

Troughton (“Baghdad Central”) will make her feature directorial debut on “The Tutor,” and the film plans to start shooting in Hamburg, Germany, on June 13, with Bleecker Street planning a 2023 theatrical release for the film.

“The Tutor” follows an aspiring young author, hungry for recognition and success, who takes a tutoring position at a legendary writer’s estate. Soon the young tutor realizes he is engulfed in his hero’s complicated family legacy which holds a deadly past and threatens his own future. The film is a high-class thriller, examining class, ambition and the lengths people will go to achieve – and cling to – social status.

Alex MacKeith wrote the screenplay.

Also Read:

Cannes Film Market Seeks a New Normal...

Bleecker Street has bought a new thriller starring Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack.

“The Tutor” marks the feature directorial debut of Alice Troughton, who’s known for directing TV shows such as “Baghdad Central,” “A Discovery of Witches” and “The Midwich Cuckoos.”

Written by Alex MacKeith, “The Tutor” follows an aspiring young author, hungry for recognition and success, who takes a tutoring position at a legendary writer’s estate. Soon, the young tutor realizes he is engulfed in his hero’s complicated family legacy, which holds a deadly past and threatens his own future. The film is billed as “a high-class thriller” that examines class, ambition and the lengths people will go to achieve — and cling to — social status.

Bleecker Street, which has picked up U.S. rights, is planning a 2023 theatrical release.

Poison Chef’s Camille Gatin, Jeva Films’ Cassandra Sigsgaard, Egoli Tossell Pictures’ Judy Tossell and Constellation Prods.

Sky has revealed a first look teaser for the highly anticipated return of ‘Gangs of London.’ In the teaser, fans will be reunited with ex-undercover cop Elliot (played by Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) and see the first glimpse of the returning series full of twists, turns and exhilarating, cinematic action sequences.

One year after the death of Sean Wallace and the violent reckonings of series one, the map and soul of London has been redrawn. The surviving Wallaces are scattered, the Dumanis broken and estranged, and Elliot is now being forced to work for the Investors.

As the Investors look down on a city sliding into chaos they decide enough is enough and bring in reinforcements to restore control. Old favourites and new players fight back against the new order, forcing sworn enemies to work together and family members to betray each other. Who will win the battle for London’s soul?...

Disney+ has commissioned a still-untitled TV series on Sicily’s Florio family who during the 19th century built an economic empire on the island and became known as the merchant princes of Europe.

Casting is underway in Rome and Palermo, the Sicilian capital, on this high-end period epic to be directed by Italy’s Paolo Genovese whose hit dramedy “Perfect Strangers” has spawned countless remakes around the the world, including an Arab-language adaptation for Netflix.

The Sicilian skein, which according to sources is expected to start shooting in July, is based on local bestseller “The Lions of Sicily,” by Stefania Auci, which has sold more than 500,000 copies in Italy and been translated in 30 languages.

News that Genovese is directing this Disney+ Italian original has been reported in the Italian press and confirmed by multiple sources.

The show, which marks the most high-end Disney+ Italian original to date, is being executive...

Rebranding

Endeavor Content‘s U.K.-based content studio The Story Company, which was launched in 2021, has rebranded as The Story Collective and made three senior hires.

Former ITV Studios producer Kate Lewis (“Vera”) joins as executive producer and brings with her a slate of projects she has been developing under her Neon Ink banner. Lewis will manage and expand the company’s slate of scripted projects, and provide creative support to their portfolio of invested production companies and writer partnerships. Former Tiger Aspect executive Amy Mobley joins as head of production from Fremantle’s label Euston Films, where she was responsible for overseeing all of the company’s productions, including “Baghdad Central” and “The Sister.” Natasha Neill, who has had previous stints at Entertainment One, Greenbird Media and Shine TV, joins as CFO from her previous role at Lookout Point.

The executive management of The Story Collective includes former Lookout Point MD Damian Keogh,...

Cary Elwes (Mission: Impossible 7), Corey Stoll (Billions), Michiel Huisman (The Flight Attendant) and Alfonso Herrera (Ozark) have joined the cast of Zack Snyder’s Netflix film Rebel Moon, Deadline can confirm. The quartet will star alongside Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Rupert Friend and Stuart Martin.

The sci-fi pic is set in a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius. They dispatch a young woman (Boutella) with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.

Snyder is directing from the script he wrote with Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and Kurt Johnstad (300), which was based on his and Johnstad’s story. Snyder is also producing alongside Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller for The Stone Quarry, with Eric Newman of Grand Electric. Bergen Swanson...

Streaming service hosts series such as ‘Outlander’ and ‘Baghdad Central’.

A consortium of Abu Dhabi-based companies is set to acquire a controlling stake in subscription streaming service Starzplay Arabia, providing parent company Lionsgate with nearly $50m in return.

The group, which has acquired a stake of approximately 57%, includes UAE investment company Adq and pay-tv operator E-Vision, which is part of e& (previously known as Etisalat Group). It has valued Starzplay Arabia at $420m.

The deal, which remains subject to regulatory approvals, will reduce Lionsgate’s stake from 30% to 13%. Starz and Lionsgate will maintain commercial agreements for content licensing to the venture.

Sky has revealed the TV that’s set to get the nation talking with two first-look trailers showcasing the latest Sky Originals, ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’ and ‘The Rising.’

The Midwich Cuckoos

An exciting modern-day reimagining of John Wyndham’s science fiction classic starring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley. Midwich is a quiet commuter town where nothing much happens. That is, until the twilight hours of a late summer’s day, when everyone within a set area of the town falls unconscious. The curious incident seems temporary and those affected regain consciousness, but every woman of child-bearing age inside the zone has suddenly and inexplicably fallen pregnant. As the children of the phenomenon grow, it becomes clear they are not of this world.

The series is written by David Farr, Sasha Hails, Namsi Khan and Laura Lomas. Alice Troughton is the lead director, with Jennifer Perrott serving as director.

Also in...

Few companies better reflect the transformation of the international television industry than independent production giant Fremantle.

From its London headquarters, Fremantle, which oversees more than 40 companies in 20 territories worldwide, has surfed atop the boom in non-English-language series, successfully combining local-language talent with regional and international financing (often from global streamers) to deliver such hits as Danish sci-fi thriller The Rain and Israeli dramedy Shtisel for Netflix; Middle East-set series Baghdad Central and No Man’s Land, both of which stream on Hulu; and My Brilliant Friend and We Are Who We Think We Are, which bowed on HBO and Amazon, respectively, in the U.S.

Ahead ...

Few companies better reflect the transformation of the international television industry than independent production giant Fremantle.

From its London headquarters, Fremantle, which oversees more than 40 companies in 20 territories worldwide, has surfed atop the boom in non-English-language series, successfully combining local-language talent with regional and international financing (often from global streamers) to deliver such hits as Danish sci-fi thriller The Rain and Israeli dramedy Shtisel for Netflix; Middle East-set series Baghdad Central and No Man’s Land, both of which stream on Hulu; and My Brilliant Friend and We Are Who We Think We Are, which bowed on HBO and Amazon, respectively, in the U.S.

Ahead ...

Fremantle has expanded its scripted department. The American Gods producer has hired Nyanza Shaw and Jerry Jacobs.

Shaw joins as EVP, Scripted Business and Legal Affairs, and Jerry Jacobs joins as EVP, Scripted Productions.

In her new role, Shaw will oversee all dealmaking pertaining to the development, production, and financing of Fremantle’s scripted series and new media content produced for the U.S., her purview spanning business strategy, IP acquisition, and production financing, along with production business and legal affairs.

Jacobs will oversee all aspects of production for Fremantle’s slate of scripted entertainment, including the hiring of key production staff, the sourcing of production locations, and the setting and maintaining of overall project budgets.

Shaw comes to Fremantle with more than 20 years of experience in entertainment, business, media, technology, and intellectual property matters. She formerly owned the firm Shaw Esquire and served as its managing attorney, developing relationships with various distributors,...

Disney Plus has announced its first Italian original doc series, titled “Ndrangheta, World Wide Mafia,” that will aim to provide an in-depth look at the Calabrian mob.

The four-part piece will look at the “Ndrangheta” through the prism of the war being waged by an Italian prosecutor against this lesser-known organized crime syndicate, which has become a global drug trafficker and money launderer.

The investigative series is being produced by Disney with Italy’s Ibc Movie, the shingle that produced veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” about Cosa Nostra’s first high-ranking turncoat, Tommaso Buscetta. Bellocchio’s high-profile drama competed in Cannes.

Disney’s “Ndrangheta” doc series, to be directed by France’s Jacques Charmelot and François Chayé, will chronicle the work of Italian public prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who is based in the southern city of Catanzaro.

It will follow the lead-up to and ongoing proceedings of a watershed...

Moroccan producer Khadija Alami and Nigerian producer and Africa Intl. Film Festival founder Chioma Ude have announced a 50-50 partnership in Morocco’s Oasis Studios, a thriving production hub that they aim to use as a launching pad for the next generation of African filmmakers.

Sitting on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, the sprawling Oasis facility hosts over 12,000 square meters of built sets, a 300 square meter sound stage, studio and post-production facilities and production offices. Since opening in 2015, the studio has attracted the likes of Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind,” the U.S.-Moroccan actioner “Redemption Day,” starring Andy Garcia, and “Baghdad Central” for the U.K.’s Channel 4.

Principal photography has wrapped on the first two productions to come out of the partnership, with two more currently in development. Also underway is a writing lab and residence that’s hosting five Moroccan and six Nigerian filmmakers,...

Gangs of London’s second season is currently shooting ahead of its return to Sky and AMC next year.

Production got underway on the eight-part mob drama three weeks ago, with Pulse Films producing in association with Sister. No news yet though on whether Joe Cole will reprise his role as Sean Wallace after Season 1’s cliffhanger ending.

Returning cast includes Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Michelle Fairley, Brian Vernel, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Lucian Msamati, Paapa Essiedu, Valene Kane, Orli Shuka, Asif Raza, and Narges Rashid. New cast includes Baghdad Central star Waleed Zuaiter, as previously revealed by Deadline.

French rapper Jasmine Armando in her first TV role, Salem Kali (Un Prophete), Aymen Hamdouchi (Sas: Red Notice) and Fady El-Sayed (Baghdad Central) have also joined the gangland drama series.

Created by Gareth Evans and his creative partner Matt Flannery, Season 2 is set a year after the events of the first season. Since the collapse of the Wallace Dumani empire,...

Exclusive: Waleed Zuaiter, who scored a Leading Actor BAFTA nomination for his role in Channel 4 and Hulu series Baghdad Central, has joined the cast of Sky’s crime drama Gangs Of London.

Production is now underway on season two of the Gareth Evans-created show. Sky recently confirmed directors for the series. Tom Butterworth is lead-writing this time. Evans is executive producing with Matt Flannery, Pulse Films’ Thomas Benski, Hugh Warren and Helen Grégory, Jane Featherstone for Sister, and Gabriel Silver for Sky Studios.

Zuaiter’s credits include Gideon Raff’s Netflix/Canal+ miniseries The Spy opposite Sacha Baron Cohen and HBO’s Oslo, which is released in May. His films roles include in Lodnon Has Fallen, The Men Who Stare At Goats and 20th Century Women. He was the producer and star of Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar.

Zuaiter is repped by A3 Artists Agency, The Artists Partnership,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, BAFTA prepares online sessions for several top 2021 TV nominees; Modern Films picks up global rights to “Lady Boss”; Mise En Scéne Company adds “Anchorage” to its Marché du Film slate; Abacus Media Rights will distribute “The Masked Dancer U.K.” abroad; Amazon launches miniTV in India and sets “Sherni” premiere date; Head Gear and Big Wave Productions make key hires in the U.K.; Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson gets animated in Sky Kids’ “Dodo”; Strawberry Blond opens offices in Glasgow; and MTV U.K. partners with The Open University on a digital series for promising alumni.

Awards

Jodie Comer, Steve McQueen, Hayley Squires and Waleed Zuaiter are a few of the stars headlining BAFTA’s The Television Sessions 2021, an annual event series — held online for the second year in a row — featuring BAFTA-nominated shows and talent. Taking place May 18 through June 4, the five panels...

Maisa Abd Elhadi, the Palestinian actress whose credits include the Channel 4 series Baghdad Central and Netflix original The Angel, reportedly is recovering after being shot by Israeli police during a protest in Haifa.

The region is experiencing its worst violence since the 2014 Gaza war. This week, at least 35 Palestinians including 12 children were killed, according to Palestinian officials, and several Israelis have also died, while hundreds more protestors have been injured by police, who have faced accusations of brutality.

Tensions have been rising in the country ahead of a looming court order that would expel dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in a majority Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

A photo purportedly of Abd Elhadi being treated in the back of an ambulance circled widely on social media this week. She has since posted on her Instagram account about the incident, highlighting a post that said Israeli soldiers had...

Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi — who starred in Hulu’s Baghdad Central and last year’s Venice-bowing feature Gaza Mon Amour — has been injured after allegedly being shot by Israel police during a demonstration on Sunday in the city of Haifa.

Elhadi had been part of a protest against an upcoming Israeli court ruling that, if passed, would allow authorities to forcefully expel several Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, one of numerous demonstrations that have erupted around Israel and the West Bank in recent days.

Following widely-shared pictures of Elhadi in the back of ...

Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi — who starred in Hulu’s Baghdad Central and last year’s Venice-bowing feature Gaza Mon Amour — has been injured after allegedly being shot by Israel police during a demonstration on Sunday in the city of Haifa.

Elhadi had been part of a protest against an upcoming Israeli court ruling that, if passed, would allow authorities to forcefully expel several Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, one of numerous demonstrations that have erupted around Israel and the West Bank in recent days.

Following widely-shared pictures of Elhadi in the back of ...

Sky One sci-fi Intergalactic is part conspiracy thriller, part prison break drama, and all space romp. It’s set 150 years in the future, when all of Earth’s nations have united into a single authority known as the Commonworld, and a new element has enabled Earth’s people to escape ecological collapse and colonise other planets via intergalactic travel. Over eight episodes, available to stream as a box-set on Now, we follow a group of female fugitives searching for freedom and uncovering long-buried lies.

The cast has been gathered from far and wide, ranging from relative newcomers to TV like Diany Samba-Bandza to more familiar faces Natasha O’Keeffe, Thomas Turgoose and Eleanor Tomlinson, and established actors Parminder Nagra, Craig Parkinson and Neil Maskell. Here’s who everybody is playing, and the major roles where you may have encountered them before.

Oliver Coopersmith as Echo Nantu-Rose

Coopersmith plays space pirate Echo in Intergalactic,...

The Bodyguard’s Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley have joined the cast of the dark, disturbing modern-day reimagining of ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’.

The eight-part series is will see Hawes take on the role of gifted psychotherapist Dr Susannah Zellaby, while Beesley plays Local officer Dci Paul Kirby.

Aisling Loftus (A Discovery of Witches), Ukweli Roach (Blindspot), Synnøve Karlsen, Lara Rossi (Robin Hood), Lewis Reeves (I May Destroy You), Rebekah Staton (Raised by Wolves) and Anneika Rose (Line of Duty) will also star.

The series is described as an unnerving fable for our turbulent times, a thrilling, strange and at times horrifying journey into parenthood, which lays bare any parent’s worst fear: that the thing most precious to us – a child – might desire our destruction.

Also in news – Mark Rylance & Simon Pegg to star in Channel 4 series ‘The Undeclared War’

Hawes stated: “I’m absolutely delighted to be working...

Four top TV production designers will reveal the secrets behind their crafts when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Btl Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published on Monday, December 7, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a group chat with Joyce and all of the designers together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Btl Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:

“Lovecraft Country” and “Westworld” (HBO): Howard Cummings

Cummings is a two-time Emmy winner for “Behind the Candelabra” and “The Knick.

Michaela Coel, Lenny Abrahamson’s “Normal People” and “The Masked Singer” were among the winners of the U.K.’s Royal Television Society (Rts) Craft & Design Awards.

Coel won the 2020 Rts special award for her groundbreaking BBC/HBO show “I May Destroy You.” In presenting the award to Coel, the judges said: “This piece sits in the true spirit of the craft and design Awards. The astonishing level of detail in all aspects of this production was humbling to see. A truly distinctive, highly creative and exemplary piece of work, in which the winner had also corralled outstanding demonstrations of expert craft skills across all the production disciplines.”

Lenny Abrahamson won best director of drama for smash hit BBC/Hulu show “Normal People.” “Beautiful, stylish and confident. This was the work of an elite director, skilfully providing the space for his actors to shine and their chemistry to transmit through the lens.

Legendary Entertainment and “The White Queen” and “Life on Mars” writers/showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham have launched a U.K. drama production company with a slate of 10 projects.

Frost and Graham, whose credits include “Ashes to Ashes,” “The Spanish Princess,” “Doctor Who” and “The Man In The High Castle,” will serve as joint CEOs of Watford & Essex, which will team with Legendary Entertainment’s television division and focus on television production and financing projects for the international market.

Christine Healy has been named COO, joining the venture from New Pictures where she was head of production since 2016.

Watford & Essex’s current list of projects in development include “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” based on

the Irwin Allen television series from the 1960s, developed and written by BAFTA-nominated Chris Lunt and Michael Walker (“Devils”), and “Hail Satan!,” a dark social comedy-drama created by Frost and Graham, in development with U.

ITV and Hulu drama “The Sister,” an adaptation of Neil Cross’ bestselling novel “Burial,” has sold around the world following a successful terrestrial run in the U.K.

The series, led by captivating “Years and Years” star Russell Tovey, has sold into 75 global territories, including HBO for Spain and Portugal, Pickbox for Eastern Europe, Rte for Ireland, new SVOD service Salto for France, Cosmote for Greece, Manoto TV for the Middle East and North Africa, TV2 for Norway, Canal Plus for Poland, Viasat for Russia, Svt for Sweden, Turkcell for Turkey and Sbs Australia, among others.

Hulu holds U.S. rights to the series and will launch the show next year, though an exact date is still unknown.

Produced by Fremantle-backed banner Euston Films, “The Sister” was commissioned by ITV and is distributed internationally by Fremantle. It was commissioned for the U.K. broadcaster by head of drama Polly Hill.

Exclusive: Fremantle and Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, the Chilean-based company behind the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, have teamed to develop Vostok, a high stakes submarine environmental horror thriller, as a television series. The project falls under the exclusive first-look deal between the two companies to develop a slate of original English and Spanish-language dramas, which Fremantle will distribute worldwide. Pablo Trapero (The Clan) is attached to direct and executive produce the project.

Written by Chilean screenwriter Julio Rojas (The Summer of the Flying Fish) in his international English-language debut, Vostok, which refers to the subglacial lake in Antarctica, features a group of international scientists returning from a mission in Antarctica. The series will film in Latin America.

Rojas’ previous projects have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, including The Summer of the Flying Fish and Mi Mejor Enemigo. He also wrote on the Netflix quarantine anthology Homemade,...

Festival will focus on shows based on literary adaptations.

Marseille Series Stories, a new French TV festival focused on TV shows adapted from literary works, has unveiled the line-up for its inaugural edition running in the southern French city from November 19-22.

The new event joins a raft of TV festivals and industry events in France, including Canneseries in Cannes, Series Mania in Lille and Series Series in Fontainbleau, near Paris.

Aldous Huxley adaptation Brave New World, which premiered on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service Peacock in July and debuted on Sky One at the beginning of October, will open the event.

Los Angeles-based U.S. actor and producer Waleed Zuaiter, who plays the lead in Iraq war drama series “Baghdad Central,” is launching a TV and film production company called FlipNarrative that aims to become a bridge between Hollywood and the Middle East and South Asia.

Zuaiter — who is of Palestinian heritage, was born in California and raised in Kuwait — has long been involved in various types of production, including bringing to the stage the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival and also shepherding Hany Abu-Assad’s “Omar,” the Oscar-nominated love story set on the Palestinian border in which he plays a coercive Israeli agent.

“The feeling behind producing is something that, for me as an actor, has always been very complementary (to his acting work),” Zuaiter tells Variety, adding that throughout the years he’s established key industry relationships.

With FlipNarrative, the idea is “to extend this network and this collective of really talented,...

Waleed Zuaiter, who has starred in Netflix’s The Spy and Hulu and Channel 4 drama Baghdad Central, has launched his own production company to tackle diversity in TV and film.

Zuaiter, who produced Omar, the Palestinian feature that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, has established FlipNarrative, which will be based in LA, London and Beirut. He wants to amplify underrepresented and historically misrepresented voices around the world and to be a bridge between the U.S. and the Middle East and North Africa.

He has unveiled a slew of projects already in various stages of development. These include The Valley, a fictionalized take on the illicit drug trade in Lebanon, a romantic comedy feature set in Palestine/Israel, an epic female centric family drama feature set in Morocco, and Perception, a documentary currently in post-production about world-renowned artist, El Seed, who ventures into the...

Starz Play Arabia was launched in 2015 as the first Starz-branded SVOD outside the U.S. Now available in 20 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, the service until recently had been growing at a steady rate. After Covid-19 struck, much like other streamers around the world, Starz Arabia has seen a major growth spurt that’s set to grow further thanks to additional distribution through Apple TV channels starting this month.

The company’s co-founder and CEO Maaz Sheikh spoke exclusively to Variety about how he plans to sustain that growth and why the prospect of Disney Plus possibly launching in the region doesn’t serve as an “existential threat.”

You recently released figures pointing to strong growth during the coronavirus crisis that in the Middle East overlapped with Ramadan, which is always peak TV season for Arab audiences. What are your key indicators?

In terms of consumption,...

European broadcasting group Rtl, whose bouquet of companies include “American Idol” producer Fremantle, has seen group revenue down 16.4% to €2.7 billion ($3.3 billion) in the first half of 2020, according to half-yearly results declared on Thursday.

Adjusted earnings before interest and amortization (Ebita) fell 52% to €258 million ($305 million).

Fremantle’s half-yearly Ebita stood at €23 million ($27.2 million), less than half of the €52 million ($61.5 million) achieved during the same period last year. Revenues dropped from €828 million ($979 million) to €707 million ($836 million). The decline was “mainly due to fewer deliveries of shows and postponements of productions as a result of the Covid-19 impact on numerous territories,” Rtl said.

The overall group downturn was due to the Covid-19 outbreak across Europe in the second quarter of the year, that led to a year-on-year fall of 40% in advertising revenue. However, this fall would be down to 10% in the third quarter, the group estimates, but is unable to provide an outlook for the full year,...

Eerie, desolate sci-fi series War of the Worlds aired in France in late 2019 and earlier this year in the Us and UK. Less an adaptation of the titular H.G. Wells novel than a contemporary riff on the alien invasion thriller by creator Howard Overman, it resolutely ploughed its own furrow. Moody, atmospheric, bleak and emotional, it swapped red weed, tripods and heat rays for a grief-soaked meditation on family and survival… with terrifying alien robot sniper dogs.

The series’ second run commission has been an open secret for months, but the official stamp was announced this weekend, with filming due to begin on Monday the 13th of July after a dry run of the new Covid-19 filming protocol took place last Friday.

Deadline, speaking to Urban Myth producer Johnny Capps reported on the meticulous planning and procedures in place to film the second series in the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic.

In what looks a key moment in the streaming revolution, Disney has announced that from Oct. 1 it will shutter its kids channels in the U.K. following the launch of Disney Plus and an inability to reach new carriage deals with Sky and Virgin Media.

All three linear Disney brand channels – Disney Channel, Disney Xd and Disney Jr – will be taken off air, though other Disney-owned networks such as National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild and Fox will remain. Last year, Disney did the same in New Zealand shortly after Disney Plus was launched there.

“The direct-to-consumer service, which garnered more than 54.5 million subscribers worldwide in its first seven months, will now premiere all the latest films, series and specials from the three Disney Channels, along with offering a rich and expansive back catalogue of Disney Channel titles in the U.K.,” said Disney’s official statement.

Although Comcast-owned Sky...

Showtime is moving Ethan Hawke’s The Good Lord Bird later in the year – a shift designed to put more context around the abolitionist miniseries as the focus sharpens on the issue of systemic racism in the U.S.

The Hawke drama was originally intended to premiere on August 9 but will now move its launch to October 4 in a slightly earlier slot – 9pm rather than 10pm.

The series, which is based on James McBride’s award-winning novel, is told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of John Brown’s motley family of abolitionist soldiers and eventually finds himself participating in the famous 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry. Brown’s raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended but was a key instigating event of the Civil War.

The network is understood to have consulted with the producers and...

Cherien Dabis among executive producers.

Garrett Hedlund and Brady Jandreau will star in Reagent Media’s Iraq-set survival drama Outside The Wire, which Film Constellation will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market.

UTA Independent Film Group represents North American rights to the story of an American soldier and an Iraqi insurgent who find themselves together in Iraq and must rely on each other to reach their final destination. Zahraa Ghandour is also attached to star.

Outside The Wire marks the second screenplay from Paxton Winters (Pacified) and was chosen to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab.

Cherien Dabis among executive producers.

Garrett Hedlund and Brady Jandreau will star in Reagent Media’s Iraq-set survival drama Outside The Wire, which Film Constellation will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market.

UTA Independent Film Group represents North American rights to the story of an American soldier and an Iraqi insurgent who find themselves together in Iraq and must rely on each other to reach their final destination. Zahraa Ghandour is also attached to star.

Outside The Wire marks the second screenplay from Paxton Winters (Pacified) and was chosen to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab.

Cherien Dabis among executive producers.

Garrett Hedlund and Brady Jandreau will star in Reagent Media’s Iraq-set survival drama Outside The Wire, which Film Constellation will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market.

UTA Independent Film Group represents North American rights to the story of an American soldier and an Iraqi insurgent who find themselves together in Iraq and must rely on each other to reach their final destination. Zahraa Ghandour is also attached to star.

Outside The Wire marks the second screenplay from Paxton Winters (Pacified) and was chosen to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab.

Reagent Media has set Garrett Hedlund and Brady Jandreau for filmmaker Paxton Winters’ next feature, Outside the Wire, about an American soldier and an Iraqi insurgent who find themselves dependent on each other for their survival. The two are thrust together on a road trip through the perils of the new Iraq. What starts as a journey of hate, forces the men to face their fears and navigate each other to reach their final destination.

Outside the Wire is Winters’ second script, which was chosen to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab.

Zahraa Ghandour is also attached to star. Paula Linhares and Marcos Tellechea (Pacified) of Reagent Media are producing with Rick Rosenthal and Cherien Dabis serving as EPs. .Film Constellation is handling international rights with UTA Independent handling North American. Sales will launch at the upcoming Marché du Film Online.