John Hopewell: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Oscar winner Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”), “The Secret Life of Words” director Isabel Coixet and “Veneno” writer-director-producers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature among talent behind Spanish titles at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival, the highest profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world.  Coixet will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s main competition with “Un Amor,” a probing village-set tale of emotional dependence starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and “Money Heist’s” Hovik Keuchkerian.    Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal will present as a special screening animated feature “They Shot the Piano Player,” a joyful and finally devastating portrait of the life and fate of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. narrated by Jeff Goldblum. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In a coup for the still growing film-TV event, Rome’s October MIA Market will host the second Spanish Screenings on Tour, Spain’s biggest international industry platform launched last year at Ventana Sur.  Forming part of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), the Screenings mark one testament to governments’ attempts around the world to leverage the world’s content production revolution to help power post-pandemic recovery.  MIA’s Spanish Screenings will pack several dozen Spanish titles and a weighty delegation of Spanish producers and creatives to Rome. If the Screenings play out as they did at their first edition in Argentina’s Ventana Sur, attended by a 100+ Spanish delegation, they should help galvanise proceedings at this year’s MIA Market. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In a broad-based deal, Netflix and Germany’s Constantin Film, one of Europe’s biggest production-distribution companies behind the “Resident Evil” film franchise and TV series “Shadowhunters,” have struck an exclusive long-term partnership.  The powerful alliance sees Netflix acquiring pay distribution rights pay to Constantin Film’s theatrical productions in the German-speaking region. These include national and international original and co-produced films, as well as films acquired for cinema or straight-to-video (STV) release. German and international theatrical productions.  Titles will be made available to Netflix subscribers on an SVOD basis 10-12 months after their theatrical release. In return, Netflix will contribute significantly to the financing of these productions, Constantin Film announced this week. The new agreement grants Netflix licensed access to Constantin Film’s existing film and series catalog, it added. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent A bevy of established auteurs – Joachim Lafosse, Cristi Puiu, Robin Campillo and Martín Rejtman – rub shoulders with the fast-rising figures of Maria Alche and Benjamín Naishtat and new U.S. discovery Raven Jackson among a first batch of directors contending in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.  Also in the mix, announced Friday, is U.S. writer-director Noah Pritzker (“Quitters”) whose “Ex-Husbands” headlines “After Hours” co-stars Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette.  Always open under director José Luis Rebordinos to a broader gamut of movies than many other “A” fests, the first features confirmed Friday include four comedies with notably a change of register to lighter comedy for both Naishtat and Alche, who triumphed at 2017’s San Sebastián with “Rojo” and “A Family Submerged,” best director and Horizontes winners respectively. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent O2 Play, the distribution-sales arm of Brazil’s O2 Filmes group, co-owned by “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles, has boarded “Broken” (“Partido”), which is co-directed by Oscar-nominated “City of God” DP César Charlone. O2 Play has acquired Brazilian and world sales rights to the doc feature. O2 Play founder Igor Kupstas will introduce “Broken” to buyers at Locarno Pro, which runs Aug.3-9. Charlone, also “The Two Popes” DP and director of “3%,” South America’s first Netflix series, has directed alongside Sebastián Bednarik (“Maracaná,” “Sangre de Campeones”) and Joaquim Castro (“Máquina do Desejo – 60 Anos do Teatro Oficina”).

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent New Europe Film Sales is set to launch international sales on “Stepne,”the debut feature of Ukraine’s Maryna Vroda, a best short Cannes Palme d’Or winner, which was announced this July 5 morning as part of Locarno’s main International Competition.  Born in Kyiv, Vroda won a Palme d’Or in 2011 for her short “Cross Country” (“Kross”), a seemingly allegorical psychological drama about a boy who is forced to run, then does so willingly, ending up watching his classmates running a senseless cross-country race as a boy rolls in a transparent ball in a river. “Kross” was inspired by Vroda’s memories of physical education lessons. “Stepne” is equally personal, coming to Vroda when her grandparents died. In it, a middle-aged man travels to his family home to care for his dying mother. He meets his brother and a woman he loves and thinks back to his life choices such as leaving to live in a big city. Then, just before dying, her mother tells her about a treasure she’s buried in the shed.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Carmen Machi (“Piggy,” “30 Coins”), one of the foremost performers of her generation in Spain, is attached to play legendary Barcelona agent Carmen Balcells, prime architect of the Latin American Boom and a key figure in the break out of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa to worldwide renown.  Chile’s Invercine, producer of “News of a Kidnapping” which swept April’s Platino Awards, is teaming with Spain’s Abacus, Pausoka and Grupo Lavinia to develop and produce “Boom Agency” (“La Agencia del Boom”) which turns on Balcells extraordinary life, achievement and personality. The deal was confirmed to Variety at Conecta Fiction.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Japan’s Hiroshi Teshigahara, who seemed on track for greatness after winning two Oscar nominations for “Woman in the Sands,” will be the subject of a San Sebastian Festival retrospective.  Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.  Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara would find a niche on the same pantheon as contemporaries Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Adding to its bullish line-up of primetime dramas, Spain’s Atresmedia TV is set to adapt “Angela Black,” its second ITV drama makeover from “The Missing” creators, Harry and Jack Williams, after the Spanish commercial broadcaster’s reversion of “Liar.” Currently casting and set to go into production this fall in Bizkaia’s Bilbao, “Angela,” as the Spanish redo is known, is produced by Buendía Estudios Vizcaya with the participation of Atresmedia TV. An original idea of the Williams’ Two Brothers Pictures, “Angela Black’s” international distribution is handled by All3Media International.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Warner Bros. Discovery has announced the greenlight and start of production of its first new Spanish series for Max, crime thriller  “When Nobody Sees Us,” whose eight episodes will be directed by Spain’s Enrique Urbizu (“No Rest for the Wicked”). The produced by “Elite” producer Zeta Studios.   Based on the same title novel by Sergio Sarria, “When Nobody Sees Us” has been written by lead writer Daniel Corpas (“The Ministry of Time,” “Malaka”) heading a writing team with the collaboration of Arturo Ruiz and Isa Sánchez. Set against Spain’s 2023 Holy Week celebrations, “When Nobody Sees Us,” is set in Morón de la Frontera, south east of Seville in Andalusia’s deep Spain, next to a U.S. Army Air Force base. There, Lucía Gutiérrez,  a Spanish Civil Guard sergeant, investigates the bizarre suicide of a neighbour and strange events at the first Holy Week float processions.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent TOLEDO, Spain — Global producer-distributor Fremantle has dropped an international trailer for “Negotiator,” a sleek, slick and chic eight-part  São Paulo crime thriller produced by two prominent players on the Latino and Latin-American TV scene – Miami-based Spiral International and Brazil’s Boutique Filmes.  Acquiring world rights outside Latin America and Portugal, Fremantle will use Conecta Fiction in Toledo, Spain to introduce “Negotiator,” which underscores building market trends coursing through the international TV scene. The busy trailer begins with a desperate kidnapper bursting through big church doors, revolver in hand pointing to a victim’s head. “I’m going to kill him,” he shouts hysterically. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Marking its first corporate step in international expansion outside Spain, Madrid-based Zeta Studios, producer of “Elite” and “García!” has named Marcelo Tamburri, one of Latin America’s preeminent TV execs, to the newly-created position of director of international content. Spun off from the sale of publishing house Grupo Zeta to Prensa Ibérica in 2019, and rebranded from Zeta Audiovisual, when it comes to individual titles., Zeta Studios boasts one of the biggest international reaches of any production house in Spain.   The appointment comes as Netflix preps the bow of “Elite” Season 7 on Oct. 20, making “Elite” one of the longest-running of streamer series and one of the most successful from outside the U.S., its Seasons 3 and 4 ranking in Netflix’s Top 10 of most-viewed non-English series ever on the OTT service with 334.8 million and 302.2 million hours viewed.   

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent India looks to be moving closer to hiking its recently inaugurated cash rebates on international shoot spend in the country, including on animation and VXF works. The confirmation came at last week’s Animation Film Festival, as India showed further signs of expansion in animation on various fronts: “Heirloom,” an Annecy Residency project from India’s Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, bowed at MIFA feature film pitches, the strongest in memory, and though it didn’t take a prize, it was regarded as one of the section’s standouts; Annecy-backed, AniMela, India’s first international festival for animation, VFX, XR, gaming and comics (AVGC-XR), revealed dates for its first edition in 2024.    

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY — Bathed by gorgeous sun, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and MIFA market came of age as a major industry and artistic event last week at the fairy-tale looking town nestling in the laps of the French Alps.  Takeaways from this year’s extraordinary edition, which ran June 11-17: Annecy Blasts Attendance Records The Annecy Festival and MIFA market smashed prior attendance figures to smithereens, recording 15,820 accreditations, 20% up on last year’s then all-time record of 13,200. That reflects “the extraordinary dynamism of the animation industry; more and more countries producing: our support of a lot of talents in emerging countries who want to come, of course; the [year-round outreach] in terms of meetings, and the official selection,” Mickaël Marin, CEO of the Festival and MIFA organizer CITIA, told Variety. “The festival was a great success, in its record numbers of attendance, exhibition booths and companies and dynamism and sensation of an extraordinary energy,” agrees Olivier Lelardoux, Blue Spirit Studio.  

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY — London-based Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe is set to initiate production next week on “Beast Boy: Lone Wolf,” the first time than a DC title that will be made out of the U.K. The announcement was made at a studio focus for Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, whose fan favourites had a student/exec audience hollering in approval.  Introduced by Sam Register, president of all three companies, the focus must rate at the fastest-paced of all big studio unveils at Annecy, packed by never-seen-before footage of multiple shows. Register didn’t talk strategy: The audience wanted to see shows, and studio execs were excited to show them. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Netflix, the world’s preeminent animation producer by production volume, outlay and awards, has set out a roadmap at Annecy for how it is looking to invest in the future of animation. Sketched by John Derderian and Karen Toliver, Netflix animation heads of series and film respectively, the gameplan takes in building on Netflix’s strengths, in adult animation, and genre and anime in series; maintaining a vast diversity of shows and movies; and looking in every project for a creator’s vision which Netflix will seek to connect with the right audience, at the right price. Derderian and Toliver talked to Variety at France’s Annecy Animation Festival whose Netflix’s panel this Wednesday June 14, From Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget to Blue Eye Samurai – See What’s Next @ Netflix, promises to be one of Annecy’s most talked-about highlights.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY —  In what looks like one of the biggest announcements at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, Disney Branded Television has greenlit a new animated series for preschoolers, “Disney Junior’s Ariel,” inspired by the hugely popular story of “The Little Mermaid.”  The announcement is set to be made today by Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, during the Annecy Animation Festival, at a new project and sneak peak picked presentation across the upcoming slate of Disney Branded Television and Disney EMEA titles. The new series follows a young Ariel and features fan-favorite characters, including King Triton, Ursula, Sebastian and Flounder, as well as exciting new additions. “Disney Junior’s Ariel” is set to debut on Disney platforms worldwide in 2024.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY —  In major news for Mexican animation as it comes under the spotlight at Annecy, director Sofia Carrillo (“The Sad House,” “Cerulia”) is teaming with “Roma” producer Nicolas Celis and  ‘Dance of the 41’ writer Monika Revilla to make “Insectario,” which bids fair to become one of the first stop motion features from Mexico. Targeting family audiences, and written by Revilla, “Insectario” is set up at Celis’ Pimienta Films.  Carrillo, who worked on the Mexican second unit on “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” based out of Guadalajara’s El Taller del Chucho, told Variety that “Insectario” will build on the same aesthetic universe of “Cerulia” using the same puppets and sometimes the same sets. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY — Opening under the pall of Thursday’s knife attack, – which prompted a spirited show of solidarity and communal defiance at its opening ceremony on Sunday – this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival has never been bigger. Creativity is exploding, from “Spider-Verse” and beyond.  Animation is flowering in India and Africa.  Yet studio work, much courtesy of streamer orders, may rebound, but never return to the halcyon levels of the last few years. Theatrical for most animation titles has yet to return, moreover – save for extraordinary mega-blockbusters such as “Across the Spider-Verse” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” 10 takes on this year’s Annecy, the biggest animation festival on the world:  

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent French CGI studio TeamTO, one of the biggest animation studios in Europe, has initiated development on “Jade Armor” Season Two. The move comes as TeamTO has produced on a service basis third party IPs ranging from “Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes” to Netflix hit “The Creature Cases.”  Progress on “Jade Armor” TeamTO is made in the wake of its moving last December into a brand new 2,700 square-meter (29,063 square-foot) studio facility in the Bastille district in Paris, as, in its busiest year ever, TeamTO is producing five third-party shows. Five more, all TeamTO original series, are airing around the globe.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent At Annecy with four features, including buzzy main competition entry “Mars Express,” Strasbourg-based Amopix will create a second studio, Amopix Annecy, located in the Route des Creuses to the west of Annecy.  The move comes as Amopix, the animation studio behind Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight title “Margarethe 89,” produced by Eddy, is embarking on some 10 new titles, either as an animation studio or producer or both, including Louis Clichy’s “Le Corset” and “Shalotte, an Onion for All Cases,” a TV series produced in international co-production, a potential growth axis, Amopix founder Mathieu Rolin told Variety.