Hello and welcome to International Insider, Jake Kanter here. Take me for a walk through some of the global movie and television stories you need to read this week. Would you like to contact us? I’m on [email protected] or my DMs are open on Twitter. And sign up here to have this delivered to your inbox every Friday.
Disney is reaching for the star
Disney doubles: It was a big week for Disney + as the international entertainment streaming brand Star rolled out in 17 territories on February 23rd in 17 territories. Almost a year after launching in Europe, Disney + is now causing a stir in the EU streaming wars to further expand the quickly accumulated base of 95 million subscribers in 58 areas around the world.
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So what is star? Well, you can think of that as the international answer to Hulu. It will go live as a tile in Disney +, showing series and adult films. The content falls into one of three buckets: 1) Star will search Disney’s extensive catalog for brands like Lost and 24. 2) He’ll be sucking in originals from Disney’s general entertainment studios like ABC’s Ryan Phillippe series Big Sky (pictured) and FX’s American Horror Stories. 3) Star gives the green light for its own originals.
Tell me more about these originals: . had an overview of Star’s first eight series outside of Europe this Tuesday, including dramas, comedies and documentaries. You can read about them all here, but executives have particularly high hopes for the mafia saga, The Good Mothers, which originated in the UK and Italy and is written by Stephen Butchard, the writer of The Last Kingdom. It tells the real story of how three brave women in the infamous Calabrian Ndrangheta mafia worked with newly minted prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti to overthrow the criminal empire. Further projects are a new series by the German inventor Jörg Winger (83), while Disney also withdrew some Disney + -Or originals, not least the fantasy parallel series Parallels by Quoc Dang Tran.
There is more to come: The originals are just the beginning after Disney has set itself the goal of lighting 50 international series for Star and Disney + over the next three years. Liam Keelan, vice president of original content in EMEA, said a UK plan was about to be announced. . also hears that Disney is open to co-productions when the legal situation is favorable. Netflix, Amazon and, more recently, HBO Max have become very active in the coproduction space in recent years, with series like Fleabag (Amazon / BBC) gaining worldwide recognition.
What not to expect: Disney + has decidedly excluded itself from the sports rights arena in Europe for the time being. That means it won’t be competing for Premier League rights in the upcoming UK auction. And Disney + won’t deprive some of Disney’s megabrands like Marvel from international value. So don’t expect to see Captain Britain anytime soon.
Why now: Jan Koeppen, European boss at Disney, summarized the internal subscriber research as follows: “The adults among them had a term they used a lot. “We’d like to have even more choice” for what they call “me time”, the time the kids went to bed … This is where Star really comes in. “
Brexit visa crisis
The Brexit problem: When Britain left the European Union at 11:00 p.m. on December 31, British film and television workers lost their freedom to work on the continent without a visa because the government had not negotiated an agreement for the British creative sector. We are now seeing the consequences of this oversight. An explosion in bureaucracy is preventing people from traveling quickly and freely across the continent. Spring shots are at risk, according to The Production Guild, while casting calls only ask EU passport holders.
Pollock about actors: In an interview today, Equity Secretary General Paul W. Fleming told us that thanks to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “deeply irrational” fixation on fishing, actors and other filmmakers have over the collective needs of a £ 112 billion industry have become the “collateral damage” of Brexit. This offers a kaleidoscope of first-class film, television, theater and music stars. The government has since blamed the EU, saying that its visa-free travel proposals were rejected during the talks.
What now: Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage said Tuesday that “there is no appetite” to reopen the Brexit deal, which means that bilateral “negotiations with individual member states” will be the most likely route to a solution. Government-run industry working groups are now looking for a way forward. “The UK government and the EU can make change and that will likely happen at a multilateral level,” said Fleming.
The final result: Brexit has created a headache for film and television shootings that would be deeply uncomfortable even in the best of times – and a global pandemic is certainly not the best time. The industry is keen to take action to resolve the visa crisis before Europe reopens this spring.
Hollywood Heads Down Under
An eye on Oz: Our new international recruit Diana Lodderhose published a fascinating piece about Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday. The feature examines how production is thriving in the antipodean countries thanks to high-profile incentives and a firm hold on Covid-19.
Illustrated list of shoots: Nine major international projects have set up camp in Oz since 2019, including Thor Love and Thunder (New South Wales) and George Miller’s fantasy romance drama Three Thousand Years Of Longing (Sydney). Across the rift in New Zealand, projects include James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and Amazon’s Lord of the Rings. Other filming has moved to the country to escape coronavirus hell in LA, not least Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s A24 and the Apple comedy drama Mr. Corman.
Man on the ground: Graeme Mason, CEO of Federal Government Agency Screen Australia, told Diana, “We have gone from tumbleweeds in the studio space to all the rooms and crew and furniture stores and have made some really good bookings. We all feel that we have more inquiries and more things going on than any of us can remember. “
The cinema area isn’t too shabby eitherJoel Pearlman, CEO of exhibitor Roadshow Films, said Australian theaters are the third largest area for Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 1984, with around 75% capacity. In a message of hope for the countries affected by Covid, he said: “These films are set and show that audiences are dying to return to theaters if they can. “
Roland with the blows
Lord of Disaster: Andreas Wiseman sat down with Roland Emmerich to discuss the detour to film his independent blockbuster Moonfall, valued at $ 140 million. His experience is likely to resonate with many. He had to stop pre-production last year after spending up to $ 7 million on the Halle Berry and Donald Sutherland science fiction story. After filming began, Emmerich had to grapple with tests three times a week to find a workaround for an absent Stanley Tucci and a Covid case right before the final hurdle.
It’s Roland’s world, we all just live in it: “Everyone tells me that the pandemic feels like a never-ending Roland Emmerich film, like a Roland Emmerich film in slow motion,” said the independence day helper to Andreas. Read the full questions and answers here.
Mission less possible: Of course, it wasn’t just independent films struggling with coronavirus complications. Diary collisions (another regular Covid headscratcher) have forced Paramount to rethink its plan to shoot Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 in a row. Tom Cruise is now required by the studio for Top Gun: Maverick for promotional purposes before the film releases on July 2nd and will be out of action for a period of time. Tom Grater had the ball.
The most necessary
🌶️ Hot of the week: Star Wars star Daisy Ridley will direct the film adaptation of the hit psychological thriller novel The Marsh King’s Daughter. The limitless helmer Neil Burger directs. Andreas had the exclusive.
🍿 International box office: Chinese moviegoers ushered in the Year of the Ox with the whopping three-day debut of Detective Chinatown 3. The company had estimated sales of $ 398 million, boasting rights to the biggest opening weekend ever in a single market. Nancy Tartaglione has the details.
🏆 Awards news: After shockingly berated by the Golden Globes, Michaela Coel’s scorching BBC / HBO series I May Destroy You garnered a number of nominations for the UK’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. Full nominations here.
✍️ International line of critics: Anna Smith has reviews from Taiwan and Romania’s Oscar nominees. Read how it takes up A Sun and Collective.
🚚 On road: BBC Studios hired Amanda Wilson and Elliot Johnson, the co-founders of Banijay’s own production company, Sharp Jack, to co-create international hits like The Chase and Strictly Come Dancing. Shovel here.
🎦 Trailer Dash: Check out the exclusive first trailer of Fizz and Ginger Films’ cheap UK science fiction film Infinitum: Subject Unknown (pictured above), which features cameos from Ian McKellen and Game Of Thrones star Conleth Hill. Look here.
📺 To see one: Bloodlands, the first order for production company Hat Trick Mercurio Television from bodyguard inventor Jed Mercurio, lands on the BBC this Sunday. James Nesbitt is known as “Irish Noir” and plays a Northern Irish police officer. Trailer here. Kevin Macdonald’s Guantanamo Bay thriller The Mauretanian will also premiere in the UK on February 26th. Trailer.
And finally …
Amazon was startled: It’s Britishism that International Insider finds too amusing to ignore when describing your show being canceled as “a massive kick in the willy”. The man who said those words: Comedy hero Nick Frost, who (presumably) had just received an unsolicited message from Amazon that exorcized his ghost-hunting comedy Truth Seekers. In a now-deleted Instagram video, Frost grimly revealed, “Unfortunately, Truth Seekers won’t be returning for a second season … If you enjoyed the show, thank you. And if not, are you happy now? “But it was a comment from a . reader who might sum up the problem for Amazon:” Loved the first series. It was different, fresh and fun. Shame on you, Netflix! “
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