Welcome to your Friday rundown, Insiders. Max Goldbart here to take you through the top international film and TV stories filling your inbox over the past seven days. And don’t forget to sign up to the newsletter here.
WBD & Paramount Forge International Path
End of the exodus?: It doesn’t feel five minutes ago that Gerhard Zeiler was setting his first post-WBD merger international unit, and yet he was at it again on Thursday. This was following a spate of exits that has seen EMEA boss Priya Dogra, international distribution head Robert Blair, Germany lead Hannes Heyelmann and, most recently, France chief Pierre Branco announce departures over the past weeks. This mini-exodus has been the talk of international confabs of late but Zeiler appeared to stem the flow with an all-staff email yesterday announcing another rejig, in which he acknowledged that “change can be unsettling and we have had a lot of changes in these last 18 months.” Additional to the “organisational and personnel changes, we are also experiencing a difficult macroeconomic situation in combination with an acceleration of the transformational industry trends,” he added. We understand no more layoffs or exits are associated with the restructure, which has seen promotions for James Gibbons, who takes on all of APAC; Clement Schwebig, who now has responsibility for GSA, France, Benelux and Africa; and Jamie Cooke, who’s now overseeing unscripted and linear content acquisition in his CEE and MENAT fiefdom.
Period of stability: Zeiler is due to keynote Mipcom Cannes in a fortnight and has now laid down a marker for what WBD staff hope will be a period of stability over the coming months, with big-bet streamer Max rolling out in key European territories soon. While the WB + D merger may feel an age ago, things have been testing for execs inside and outside the business’ U.S. heartland since, and insiders have spoken to us in recent months of feeling like they are in an extended period of limbo. Eyebrows were raised when Dogra’s exit was revealed in early August. She was a high flyer who had risen swiftly to the EMEA President and MD role and was tipped for big things. Zeiler’s email at the time stated that the pair had “mutually agreed” her exit. A period of relative calm will now be desired by all and sundry.
Paramount‘s Priest: Out of the blue, Paramount+ set its first UK boss this week. Chief Marketing Officer Anna Priest has been upped and will oversee the streamer’s “strategic vision” in the nation and identify growth opportunities. Paramount+ has shown a propensity to take gambles in the UK even amidst long-term strife across the pond, with big-money drama projects including Ewan McGregor starrer A Gentleman in Moscow and thriller Insomnia from The Crown maker Left Bank incoming, along with unscripted shows such as Hot Yachts. With Priest’s promotion, Bob Bakish’s outfit is clearly gearing up for more. It feels as though the developments at Paramount and WBD this week were neatly timed with the U.S. labor action almost over. Following a hugely unstable period for the international film and TV community, it will be fascinating to see whether these shifts start clearing some sort of path towards normality.
Busan Is Back
Turmoil over?: It’s no exaggeration to say that Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has been through a fair amount of drama this year. Our Asia editor Liz Shackleton touched down in Korea a few days ago to cover a festival that has felt at times like it may not even take place. But despite much edge-of-the-seat drama surrounding its leadership, Busan has managed to pull together an impressive edition, both in terms of the programing and guest attendance, which includes stars such as Chow Yun-fat, who has been named Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing and Korean actor Song Kang Ho. Liz will be updating updating as the likes of Because I Hate Korea from local filmmaker Jang Kun-jae get their world premieres. She was also present for a fascinating press conference featuring Hong Kong star Yun-Fat, during which he discussed the challenges of making movies in a nation being watched like a hawk by the Chinese. “We have many restrictions now so it’s difficult for Hong Kong filmmakers,” he said. All our Busan coverage can be found here.
Big Week For Indian TV
Two [formats] for joy: Israeli drama Magpie and the evergreen Temptation Island are being remade in India, per Jesse’s reporting this week. SonyLIV‘s Magpie remake barely feels like a gamble, having already aired local versions of Israeli hits Your Honor and Fauda and found success with both. Spotlighting a man in prison for murder who is released early on the condition that he cooperates with the police as their informant – a role known as a magpie – Sony’s version will be a Hindi-language offering and we understand it will be made in house. Banijay’s Temptation Island, meanwhile, will land soon on JioCinema, remade by Banijay Asia. A big-hitting global format over the past two decades, Temptation Island sees several couples agree to live with a group of singles of the opposite sex, in order to test the strength of their relationships. It currently airs on the USA Network across the pond and was originally on Fox. Elsewhere in India, Jesse also revealed that Applause Entertainment and Zee’s Zindagi are taking streaming series The Pink Shirt to SXSW Sydney. Never a dull moment in the world of Indian TV.
Latest London Protest
“Like The Hunger Games”: The end may be in sight. As SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP sat down once again to thrash out a deal that could be signed as soon as next week, below-the-line workers in the UK gathered in their dozens to call for swift resolution. London’s Leicester Square once again played host to the rally, which featured a range of speeches from officials at broadcasting union Bectu. “It’s like The Hunger Games — the AMPTP thinks they can starve us back to work,” said National Secretary Spencer MacDonald (pictured with microphone), who was bullish in the face of resolution, adding: “Every single time, we win these disputes.” But MacDonald and VFX official Pia Josephson both pointed out that the difficulties won’t end with the immediate cessation of the labor action. In the longer term, MacDonald said Bectu plans to “campaign and lobby to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” The UK has had a tough strike and a recent Bectu survey found that four-in-five below-the-line workers had been impacted. As U.S. strife continues to ripple on the other side of the pond, these everyday workers who repeatedly deliver the goods for the industry are hopeful of soon being able to put this all behind them.
Iberseries Spotlights Latin Content
From slaughterhouse to content house: The great and the good of the Spanish and Latin American TV sectors descended on Madrid’s Matadero complex for the third edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria this week. Jesse was in town for the event, which took place under an unseasonably hot 30C sun. In a previous life, the venue was an abattoir — ‘matadero’ means ‘slaughterhouse’ in Spanish — but things have changed and the industrial plot is now a media workspace dream. Shows such as Disney’s How to be a Carioca from Ice Age director Carlos Saldanha, screened, while key regional studio execs such from Paramount Global, Disney, Prime Video and Warner Bros Discover outlined their strategies to an engaged audience. Jesse hosted a panel yesterday afternoon in which top execs from TelevisaUnivision, Brazil’s Globo, Italy’s Rai and Iberian movie streamer Filmin revealed buying trends. The takeaway: expect more co-production and innovative dealmaking.
International flavor: It wasn’t all focused on the Latin market, however. The likes of Erik Barmack, Ran Tellem and Ron Leshem all spoke on stage, addressing content trends and market developments. On Wednesday during a panel hosted by The Gersh Agency partner Roy Ashton, Euphoria co-creator Leshem recalled how his HBO show was initially passed up by many networks due to his insistence it had teenage lead characters. “Everyone told us we needed to be more like Skins,” he said. “We didn’t want to do Skins.” HBO ultimately took the risk, paired Leshem’s team with Sam Levinson, and it worked — it’s now one of the cable network’s biggest ratings shows ever. Then yesterday, Argentina, 1985 producer Axel Kuschevatzky took to stage to talk about his career and ended up addressing the conditions in which streamers might openly share viewing data — his mucho calor take? They will when ad money forces them to do it.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Johnny Depp’s animated movie has sold to a wealth of territories around the world.
🌶️ Another One: Amazon is eying a UK version of LOL: Last One Laughing.
🌶️ Heat at the theater: Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis are to star in stage comedy Ulster American.
🎥 Contenders!: Ridley Scott, Emerald Fennell, Todd Haynes and Michael Mann are set for our very own event in London this coming weekend.
📈 Ratings: Netflix’s Sex Education is now the streamer’s most watched 2023 launch in the UK.
⏸️ Paused: Ross Kemp’s Channel 5 series about dangerous prisons, which finds itself in limbo.
👁️ Big Brother UK: It’s back this weekend, and execs spoke to us about casting, welfare and Russell Brand.
🤖 Robots are coming latest: A group of 200 writers, directors and producers signed an open letter sounding the AI alarm.
☠️ Vey bad week: Firebrand Brit Laurence Fox was arrested by police and fired from GB News within the space of a few hours.
🧔 New role: For Channel 4 acquisitions boss Nick Lee, who is moving to BBC Studios.
🍿 Box office: Paw Patrol was standing Mighty with $46M WW at the start of the week.
🌎 Global Breakout: Nancy wrote about how Italy’s Oscar submission Io Capitano is turning the migrant gaze on its head.
⛺ Festival latest: Breaking Baz chatted to Emerald Fennell at London Film Festival about opener Saltburn.
👀 First look: At Steven Knight’s This Town, the Peaky Blinders auteur’s latest for the BBC.
Jesse Whittock contributed to this week’s International Insider
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