News

In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right Here) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. Last year, they proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise. And now the project has a cast member: Deadline reports that Souheila Yacoub, a Swiss former rhythmic gymnast who won the Miss Suisse Romande beauty pageant before getting her acting career started, has signed on to star in the film. We had previously heard that this movie would be...

Newen Studios, a French media group wholly owned by TF1, is entering a new era in which theatrical movies and the international world will play a bigger role.

After welcoming in April Pierre Branco, former country manager for Warner Bros Discovery in France, Benelux and Africa, as its new CEO in April, the company is rebranding as Studio TF1, reflecting its expanded global reach and ambition. The company, which was previously involved in distribution in cinemas via its partnership with French studio Ugc, will now be fully moving into theatrical distribution starting in 2026 as part of its mandate to ramp up film production and distribution.

“In this market which is undergoing radical transformation and consolidation, we’re convinced that it’s important to emerge, to have an image that speaks for itself, a name that speaks for itself, and also to be associated with solidity, with a partner with whom we want to work,...

French commercial broadcast giant TF1 is taking its streaming service international. CEO Rodolphe Belmer told Series Mania on Thursday that TF1+ will start rolling out in the middle of this year before a wider series of launches in 2025.

“We will roll out TF1+ in the French-speaking world,” Belmer said during a keynote, the first of several from the leaders of French broadcasters on the final day of the Series Mania Forum. “We’ll launch in Belgium and Luxembourg in June and then Switzerland a few months later. Then in 2025 we will launch in the [wider] French-speaking world.”

Belmer talked up TF1+, the free streaming service that the net launched in January. Outgoing M6 boss Nicolas de Tavernost similarly used his keynote to detail plans for M6+.

“The internet does not have borders and that has allowed international players to develop – Netflix, Disney+ et cetera – there is no reason for us not...

As CEO of Canal+ for more than a decade, Rodolphe Belmer pushed the pay TV giant to make original scripted content — a bet that paid off with award-winning shows such “Spiral” and “The Returned.” So what does he have planned at TF1, the French television company he took over last year?

From his office on the top floor of a 14-level skyscraper, with a panoramic view that includes the Eiffel Tower and La Defénse in the distance, Belmer reveals that TF1 hopes to expand its reach into other European countries, while launching an ad-supported streaming service on Jan. 8.

“We want to penetrate all French-speaking markets, including Belgium,” he says. “Let’s not forget that French is the fifth-most-spoken language in the world.”

And Belmer recognizes that TF1 has suffered some setbacks. Its planned merger with M6, the country’s second-biggest private TV network, failed to gain antitrust approval in 2022. TF1 also pulled out of Salto,...

French commercial network Tf1 has unveiled fresh details of its new free streaming platform TF1+, which launches on January 8.

The launch comes just over a year after the calling-off of a planned merger between TF1 and rival commercial network M6 and just months after the shuttering of Salto, TF1’s failed joint streaming platform with M6 and France Télévisions.

TF1 Managing Director Rodolphe Belmer told a news conference in Paris on Wednesday that the network wanted TF1+ to become the biggest free streaming platform in France.

“It’s a big moment for the group and a major launch,” he said.

A key aim behind its creation, he added, was to increase TF1’s advertising revenue in the digital domain.

Noting that 35 of every 100 hours of TV viewing in France are now consumed on an on-demand basis, Belmer said TF1 needed to be more proactive in the digital space.

“Our share...

While artificial intelligence has been one of the biggest points of contention in the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA strikes, back in France, Newen Studios has taken a deep dive into AI to deliver daily soaps, as well as source talent and pitch projects in their own metaverse space.

During Mipcom, Newen’s head of innovation, Marianne Carpentier, launched the second edition of the banner’s Meta Pitch Contest. Supported by the Creative Europe Program, the event will see creators pitching their series through an avatar in Newen’s metaverse space before a jury of international producers, distributors, acquisition executives and media professionals. The two finalists will then be invited to Series Mania in Lille for an in-person finale, vying for an audience award. The winner will receive development support.

“Since we created our metaverse in May 2022, we’ve done many things and this Meta Pitch Contest is one of our highlights,...

French film producer Juliette Favreul Renaud, a former committee member of France’s Collectif 50/50 gender equality group, was acquitted by a Paris court on Tuesday of charges of sexually assaulting an actress.

Nadège Beausson-Diagne (Plus Belle La Vie) accused Favreul Renaud of trying to touch her intimately under her skirt while drunk during a dinner party organized on the fringes of a Collectif 50/50 board meeting in March 2022.

There were no witnesses to Beausson-Diagne’s accusation but other guests at the dinner reported seeing the actress in a state of shock.

Favreul-Renaud, whose credits include Virginie Despentes series Vernon Subutex, was tried in mid-March of this year on charges of “sexual assault while intoxicated.”

The accusations against her led to the near implosion of the Le Collectif 50/50 in April 2022, after the entire administrative board quit amid infighting over the best way to deal with the incident.

The organization, which has played...

Catching up on news from and beyond NATPE Miami, ITV Studios and Hot begin shooting on “Jerusalem,” while Disney Plus starts production on its first originals in Spain and Argentina, Newen ropes its French production companies together as Newen France, Beyond Rights sells 250 hours of content in Spain and Portugal and Onza Distribution gets the global rights to new Spanish game show “The Celebrity Challenge.”

Production

Drama Team, in association with ITV Studios and Hot, have kicked off shooting on their new thriller series “Jerusalem,” created by “Blank Bullet’s” David Ackerman.

Inspired by Ackerman’s previous career in national security and the multicultural nature of the city, “Jerusalem” unspools in the lead up to the Jewish fast of Tisha Be’av and the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha. It turns on Superintendent Amir, a well educated and culturally literate lawman who too often puts his work ahead of his own family,...

After being caught in successive regulatory delays for nearly two years, France’s new streaming service Salto finally launched at the start of November, right in time for a second national lockdown due to the pandemic.

In an ironic twist of fate, Salto, a joint initiative between TF1, France Télévisions and M6, came out in France right when Netflix chose the country to test a new linear channel. So, how will Salto carve itself a niche in a competitive market like France where Netflix boasts about 9 million subscribers, and where a string of other streamers, and pay TV channels co-exist? Thomas Follin, general director of Salto, spoke to Variety about the positioning, strategy and ambitions of Salto. Follin declined, however, to disclose the service’s yearly budget for acquisitions and originals.

First off, how would you describe Salto as a service?

It’s a subscription-based service priced at €6.99 [$8.27] per month that offers 10,000 hours of programs,...

Euro financier and co-producer Anton has struck a co-fi deal with major French production and distribution group Newen, whose subsidiaries have produced shows including period drama Versailles and hit French soap Plus Belle La Vie.

The strategic agreement, worth up to $40M (€35M), will see Anton become a co-investor in Newen’s distribution rights for both group productions and third-party programs across all genres. As we hear it, Anton will take “a meaningful share (of around 40%) in each program in which Newen Distribution gets involved”.

Paris-based Newen, a subsidiary of French studio TF1, is one of the biggest producers in France. The Group owns production companies including Telfrance, Capa, Be Aware, 17 juin Me, and Blue Spirit in France, and Tuvalu, Pupkin, Nimbus and De Mensen in northern Europe. It has been on an international growth path for more than a year now and recently acquired a...

The confluence of eager international buyers on the hunt for scripted dramas and strict local statutes that prioritize standalone production houses has had a galvanizing effect on the French television business.

New actors have jumped into the fray, while other deep-rooted entities have refocused their attention toward series development. The landscape has significantly expanded, causing many longstanding players to recalibrate their place within it.

“The market will see a surplus of series and producers, especially as more film outlets move towards series production,” says Romain Bessi, managing director of French media company Newen. “The challenge in the years to come is to figure out how to distinguish ourselves and our offerings from every other option.”

Among the country’s top creators and distributors of TV content, Newen has produced such shows as “Versailles” and the popular local soap “Plus Belle la Vie.” In April 2018, it became a 100% subsidiary of TF1 Group,...

Vertical Entertainment has released the first trailer from their upcoming action-thriller Lady Bloodfight, which is set for a theatrical release on May 5. The studio has also provided us with the first poster that takes us closer into the action, showcasing the characters who square off against each other in a brutal fighting tournament known as The Kumite. While this tournament bears the same name as the tournament portrayed in the 1988 classic Bloodsport, this upcoming action-thriller showcases an all-female tournament.

Lady Bloodfight centers on Jane (Amy Johnston), a beautiful but troubled American girl backpacking her way through Hong Kong. When she successfully fends off three thugs trying to rob her, she draws the attention of Shu (Muriel Hofmann), a Wudang champion, who is impressed by her raw street fighting abilities. Shu recruits Jane and trains her to fight in the vicious, all-female, underground martial arts tournament known as "The Kumite" in...

The Marseille Web Fest, a five-year-old international digital film festival to be held next month in France’s second largest city, has announced the eight-person jury that will preside over the 25 series slated to be screened at this year’s event.

The jury will include: international bestselling author C.J Daugherty, the actress Elodie Varlet of French soap opera Plus Belle La Vie, novelist and screenwriter Dan Franck, Ryme Wehbi of the French production company White Panama Films, Australian communications and media studies professor Sue Turnbull, Fullscreen exec Adam Dunlap, and Dailymotion’s director of entertainment and original content Alba Gautier.

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

Photos: Fans get chance to meet Days Of Our Lives stars in Suwanee

“We went to the Peachtree International Film Festival last night, then made an appearance on the NBC (11 Alive) news, then visited the Va Hospital,” Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) said. “It was a wonderful experience,” she said of the trip to the hospital.

“I just kind of fell into the role,” said Chandler Massey (Will), who said that he will complete his college career as his acting career permits. “It may take a while, but I will finish.”

Photo by Jason Braverman

Digest/Weekly editorial director Lynn Leahey believes soap genre will live on

“The genre will survive, but not necessarily in its current format. The problem isn’t so much that viewers stopped liking their shows, they stopped being at home to watch them,” Leahy says. “Soaps started as 15-minute episodes, and we may see them go back to that,...

PARIS -- French public TV group France Televisions was the big winner at the 9th annual Festival of TV Fiction, taking 13 of 16 prizes as the fest wrapped in La Rochelle over the weekend.

The 5-day event gave its grand prize to France 3's telefilm Maman est Folle (Mom is Crazy), which also took home awards for best screenplay, kid's choice and best actress -- for Isabelle Carre, who shared the prize with Marthe Keller of the network's Le Lien.

The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Ameris and written by Ameris and Olivier Adam, was produced by Escazal Films with the participation of France 3. It follows a young mother who forges an unlikely friendship with an illegal immigrant and helps him escape to London at the expense of her own family.

Daniel Prevost won the Best Actor award for France 2 telefilm Monsieur Joseph, which will air on the network on Wednesday during primetime.

The jury prize went to Le Lien. Popular Gallic soap Plus Belle la Vie took home the audience award for best TV series.

MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- The 2006 Monte Carlo Television Festival got off to a low-key start under balmy skies Monday night at the seaside Grimaldi Forum, as the public walked the red carpet elbow-to-elbow with some of their favorite French TV stars from the popular primetime soap, Plus Belle la Vie. A brief opening ceremony featuring a speech by Prince Albert II of Monaco, the festival's honorary president since 1988, preceded a screening of German-made Three Sisters, one of the 100 programs in competition from 23 different countries. Now in its 46th year, the six-day festival and showcase attracts a high-profile list of international TV celebrities, who will jet in for the annual celebration of programming that culminates with a black-tie awards ceremony.