International Insider: Splashy Week At The Lido; TV Oscar Consideration; Anonymous Content Deep Dive

Afternoon Insiders, here we are once again, another week and another busy one in the world of international film and TV. Sign up to the newsletter here. Or read on.

Splashy Last Week On The Lido

Uncharacteristically buzzy: The Venice Film Festival ends tomorrow after an uncharacteristically buzzy second week. The festival is usually front-loaded, with the splashiest titles playing early. This year, however, Alberto Barbera, who dished to Andreas, said the lengthy runtimes of some competition titles meant the spoils had to spread across both weeks. Enter Brady Corbet’s 215-minute post-WWII epic The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Stacy Martin, Raffey Cassidy, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé and Alessandro Nivola. The pic was well received, landing a 13-minute ovation from the Sala Grande audience. Pedro Almodóvar launched his English-language debut The Room Next Door with his leading ladies Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The Spanish maestro’s latest is an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through. The film also garnered positive notices and a lengthy 18-minute ovation in Venice. In terms of business on the Lido, FilmNation inked a series of international deals on Pablo Larraín’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie. Headline deals include Studiocanal for the UK, Germany, Poland, and ARP in France. Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl – unpicking the deceits of German filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl – also scored a slew of deals.

Folie à Deux: The buzziest title could only have been Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux. The pic, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, debuted Wednesday evening in Venice after a lively press conference. During the presser, Phoenix was asked about his much-talked-about dramatic exit from a gay romance movie directed by Todd Haynes. He declined to answer the question on his departure, only saying: “If I do, I’d just be sharing my opinion from my perspective and the other creatives aren’t here to share their piece so I don’t think that would be helpful. So I won’t.” The overall reception for Joker in Venice was tepid, with mixed notices on the performances and Phillips’ direction. However, Deadline’s Pete Hammond called the film a “brilliant musical return.”

Georgian controversy: Elsewhere, the anti-Putin drama The Antique from Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze was handed back its screening slot at Venice after a copyright complaint against the film was overturned. The Antique had its screenings suspended last week after an emergency decree was filed on behalf of Russian and Croatian producers claiming copyright issues with the screenplay. The claims were contested by the film’s Georgian producers and its sales agent, MPM International, while the Italian media, which first reported the suspension, suggested the move to prevent the film screening was politically motivated. Venice Days head Francesco Ranieri Martinotti said the film’s legal win has set a precedent for the Venice Film Festival, “which will benefit the future of filmmakers everywhere.” Venice finishes in earnest tomorrow.

Other side of the pond: Meanwhile across the Atlantic, TIFF is rolling into action. Thursday evening’s opening ceremony was disrupted by protesters who called on the festival’s main sponsor, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), to stop funding Israel’s attacks on Gaza.  After the protesters were escorted out Canadian PM Justin Trudeau gave a speech and David Gordon Green‘s Nutcrackers, starring Ben Stiller, opened proceedings. Running September 5-15, TIFF’s reformed market is already booming with heavyweight titles popping up. WME Independent and Range are taking a Jo Nesbo crime-thriller adaptation titled Blood On Snow to the market with attached talent including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Hardy and director Cary Fukunaga. FilmNation is also launching sales on the dark heist comedy 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank. Liam Neeson is in talks to lead the project alongside Talia Ryder, Noah Jupe, Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl), Jack Dylan Grazer and newcomer Deacon Phillippe, son of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe. The biggest locked deal so far is Netflix’s $20M-plus for worldwide rights deal on the Stephen Chbosky-directed comedy Nonnas, starring Vince Vaughn, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco and Talia Shire. Follow our coverage of the TIFF market here, and watch along as the deals roll in.

A TV Oscar?

Let’s waste time, chasing Cuarón: Our roving International Editor-at-Large chased Alfonso Cuarón across a lawn this week in Colorado. And yes, you read that correctly. Mr Baz has been in the rocky surroundings of Telluride for the annual festival and when he spotted the five-time Academy Award winner he couldn’t help but give chase. Baz wanted to put a thesis to the Mexican auteur: could his starry seven-hour TV drama The Disclaimer somehow be adapted for Oscar consideration? Cuarón was quick to correct Baz. “It’s a seven-hour film,” he stressed, before adding: “It’s a good question, an interesting question and it’s something that I have thought about and considered but I don’t know the answer.” The notion landed on by our very own lawn-chaser is an intriguing one and reared its head again when I chatted to Rebecca Hall about her new BBC series The Listeners, which world premieres at TIFF and was described by Hall as a “four-hour movie” that was “shot like a movie” and has the “aesthetic ambitions” of a movie. With these growing murmurs, could we be moving towards a place where TV has come so far it is worth a shot at the big time? See more of our Telluride coverage over here, including Pete Hammond’s review of Robbie Williams movie Better Man and more on controversial Trump pic The Apprentice.

The Morgan & Murdoch Marriage

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Waiving Anonymity

Creating not reacting: Big exclusive interview this week as Anonymous Content’s David Levine and Nick Shumaker stuck heads above parapets to take Diana inside their strategic minds at Venice. Anonymous bods have tended to let the content do the talking down the years, but with plenty coming up it felt like high time to take a closer inspection. The Disclaimer is, as mentioned, making a big splash, but there is also Liz Lo’s documentary Mistress Dispeller, which Anonymous exec produced, and Vermiglio, an Italian World War II film that it is co-selling with Charades.Telluride also saw the debut of The Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. “We’re creating a path of how we work in the movie business as opposed to just trying to react to it,” said Chief Content Officer Levine, a man always thinking about the shifting sands of the industry. The chat came after a tumultuous few years for Anonymous, which experienced the death of former trailblazing CEO Steve Golin in 2019, who left an indelible mark on the management, production and commercial powerhouse, and subsequently the resignation of Dawn Olmstead and public dispute with former employee Keith Redmon. Dive deeper here.

Layoffs At Fremantle

Sad day: Big news in the drama world this week with Fremantle laying of all staff at Euston Films, the Baghdad Central and Wreck (pictured) producer that has been in and out of operation for more than 50 years. Joint MDs Kate Harwood and Noemi Spanos are out, along with several others, while all staff at Mandy Chang’s docs label Undeniable have also been made redundant. Fremantle sources pointed to the global economic headwinds and market contraction that has seen labels shuttered at rivals Banijay and All3Media, while broadcasters have fired hundreds of staff. Euston and Undeniable remain dormant, but have not technically been closed. The news is a sad development for the industry, given that it impacts a popular label like Euston, which had secured seven greenlights in its decade in operation under Harwood and then Spanos — not bad going (the latest, Nightsleeper, launches on the BBC next Sunday). Strategic shifts continue to be mulled from on high at RTL-owned super-indie Fremantle, we hear from insiders, as the outfit ponders its film-versus-TV strategy, having struck a number of splashy deals of late and had several movies at Venice. Jesse also revealed Thursday that Fremantle’s German sales chief Maximilian Bolenius is leaving after 14 years. Succession plans are still being figured out.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: BBC plans for a spin-off of The Split have snagged, with preparations to shoot The Split Up paused indefinitely.

🌶️ Also hot: Tilda Swinton’s The End sold to Mubi for the UK, Germany and Austria.

🌎 Global Breakouts: Mel profiled French viral animated series Samuel — well worth a gander.

🏕️ Festival latest: Noé Debré received the inaugural French TV Disruptor Award from Deadline at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous market in Le Havre.

🏕️ More festivals: The Busan International Film Festival will open with Park Chan-wook’s Netflix title Uprising.

⚖️ Legal: Former CNN journo Saima Mohsin spoke to us about stalling efforts in her unfair dismissal suit against her ex-employer.

🖼️ Slate: Netflix unveiled movies and shows at MIP Africa including Love Never Dies.

🛸 Doctor Who?: UK Conservative Party leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch’s version of bravado was telling the world she’s “not afraid of Doctor Who” following her David Tennant spat.

🪓 Axed: Buying London, after one season at Netflix.

🍸 Bond, James Bond: Producer Barbara Broccoli attended a gala dinner hosted by the Doha Film Institute, sparking more chatter that 007 could be headed to the Middle East.

🍿 Box office: Cult comedy Shaun of the Dead was infectious in a 20th anniversary re-release, per Jill Goldsmith’s round up.

🎥 Trail: The world got a first look at Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s controversial biopic.

Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s International Insider