An English: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is on the verge of greenlighting French and German versions of reality format Surviving Paradise from Squid Game: The Challenge producer Studio Lambert and Raw TV, as it steps up its strategy in the premium unscripted space.

Emiliano De Pablos Red Arrow International and leading Spanish indie producer-distributor Vértice360 have taken a co-production stake in real-life inspired series project “Lucio’s Treasure,” set up at Barcelona-based Friki Films. Also handling international sales rights, Red Arrow co-produces the project. An English-language shoot is scheduled by 2025.

Guy Lodge Film Critic You have to admire the moxie of authors and filmmakers who set their science-fiction spectaculars in the very near future, essentially confronting viewers with what may seem a pretty outlandish forecast for their own lives. Those that pull it off present us with possibilities resonant enough to ponder, even when they’re too far-fetched to actively fear: So it proves in “Restore Point,” a sharp, high-shine sci-fi outing from the Czech Republic, in which earthly life after death is routine, a cellular rather than spiritual matter. Set in an unspecified (though Czech-speaking) central Europe in the year 2041, director Robert Hloz’s whopper of a calling-card debut may offer a more credibly subdued, budget-constrained visual of the mid-21st century than the lavishly built “Blade Runner 2049” — unless we’re in for a drastic design (r)evolution over the course of the 2040s — but its ideas are sky-high in concept. Marrying glossy mainstream genre aesthetics to probing, elaborately conceived speculative storytelling, this is a notably ambitious and auspiciously well-realized first feature for Hloz: the kind that appears to be flaunting his capabilities for even bigger international and Hollywood assignments.

EXCLUSIVE: Lana Condor (To All The Boys franchise), Andrew Koji (Bullet Train), Ross Butler (Shazam! franchise), Sung Kang (Fast & Furious franchise) and Elodie Yung (The Cleaning Lady) are among those set to star in Worth the Wait, a romantic comedy marking the U.S. directorial debut of award-winning Taiwanese filmmaker Tom Shu-Yu Lin (The Garden of Evening Mists), which has wrapped production in Vancouver and Kuala Lumpur.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent An English-language reimagining of the world of Sergio Corbucci’s cult 1966 spaghetti western “Django,” which launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is set to launch from the Rome Film Festival in October. The high–concept TV series, titled “Django,” will play in 2023 exclusively on Sky and its streaming service NOW in all countries where Sky operates, including the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It will also air on Canal+ in France, Switzerland, Benelux and Africa. The Rome Film Festival runs from Oct. 13-23. The 10-episode “Django” show stars Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone,” “Bullhead”) as the iconic gunman who is the title character, alongside Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”) as John Ellis, described as the “visionary founder” of the town of New Babylon. Lisa Vicari (“Dark”) plays Django’s daughter Sarah and Noomi Rapace (Millennium Trilogy) has the adversarial role of John’s powerful and ruthless enemy Elizabeth Thurman. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent France’s broadcasting group, France Televisions, launched Slash, a niche platform skewing millennials, as part of its efforts to keep its brand relevant among younger viewers. In five years, the service has become one of France’s biggest showcases of daring scripted content created by and starring diverse talents. Slash, which is accessible on the pubcaster’s streaming service France.tv and is headed by former screenwriter Sened Dhab, has been consistently delivering hit shows. Recent examples include Noé Debré’s Brexit-themed political satire “The Parliament,” Simon Bouisson’s “Stalk,” a thriller about cyber bullying, and “Skam,” the local adaptation of the Norwegian series about troubles teenagers.

Zack Sharf “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk has shared a surprising reaction to this week’s news that China censored the ending of David Fincher’s 1999 movie, which is based on Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name. As reported by Variety, “Fight Club” was uploaded to Tencent Video, China’s largest video streamer, with an entirely new ending that is the exact opposite of Fincher’s finale.In the 1999 original, Edward Norton’s narrator character kills off his alter ego Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) before watching the city burst into flames in apparent confirmation that his plan to destroy civilization has worked. The new ending in China cuts the film to black before the city erupts in films.