Series gossip girl

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is delving into the history of Soho’s criminal underworld for its next big-budget drama series. Dope Girls will be a six-part series from His Dark Materials producer Bad Wolf for BBC One. Our sources say the BBC sees Dope Girls as a spiritual successor to Peaky Blinders , and Bad Wolf is understood to be in early stage discussions with U.S. co-production partners and global streaming services. Polly Stenham ( The Face , The Neon Demon ) and Alex Warren ( Eleanor ) are writing Dope Girls , which is inspired by Marek Kohn’s non-fiction book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground . Full plot details haven’t been revealed but we understand it follows the birth of the nightclub scene in London’s Soho. The series will mix elements of the fact-based research of Kohn’s book with fictional characters and storylines, exploring all aspects of the criminal world of Soho in the early 20th Century. We hear it’s partly based … [Read more...] about ‘Dope Girls’: BBC Lines Up Bad Wolf Drama About Female Crime Boss In Soho’s Criminal Underworld

EXCLUSIVE : Paramount Pictures ‘ new Mean Girls film, based on the Tony-nominated Broadway show and the classic film comedy that inspired it, has found its Kevin G. in up-and-comer Mahi Alam ( American Born Chinese ), with veteran comedic actor Connor Ratliff ( Search Party ) also coming on for a role. Alam’s character Kevin, portrayed in the original movie by Rajiv Surendra, is the Mathlete friend of protagonist Cady, who harbors a crush on her new friend Janis at North Shore High. Ratliff will play teacher Mr. Rapp. The pair join an ensemble that also includes Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, Avantika, Christopher Briney, Ashley Park and Bebe Wood, as previously announced. The 2004 Mean Girls film, adapted by Fey from the Rosalind Wiseman book Queen Bees and Wannabes , follows high school new girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) in her attempt to fit in with A-list girl clique, The … [Read more...] about ‘Mean Girls’ Movie Musical From Paramount Finds Its Kevin G. In Mahi Alam; Connor Ratliff Also Set

EXCLUSIVE : Rising comedian, writer and actor Mary Beth Barone is set to exec produce and star in Good Girl , an indie erotic thriller to be directed by Lauren Garroni , in her feature debut. The feature scheduled to launch production in April watches as an enterprising Sugar Baby, offered ten grand to move in with her Sugar Daddy, comes to discover the dark secrets trapped within his home. Pic is described as part biting dark comedy, part erotic thriller — but above all, a story about sex work through a feminist and queer lens. Bree Essirig and Garroni penned the script, with Kelly Parker’s Mary Ellen Moffat to produce. Additional exec producers will include Garroni, Essrig, Simon Brook and Brook Productions. The New York-based Barone landed her feature script You’re My Best Friend on the 2022 edition of The Black List and is currently developing a half-hour comedy series titled Dicks with Jax Media and Fox. She has appeared on That Damn Michael Che for … [Read more...] about Mary Beth Barone To Exec Produce & Star In Indie Erotic Thriller ‘Good Girl’

Lamia Chraibi is one of Morocco’s best-known indie film producers whose credits include Mica , about a boy from the slums who is discovered to have a talent for tennis, and Sitges prize-winning horror Achoura as well as co-producing 2016 Cannes Critics’ Week winner Las Mimosas . The Franco-Moroccan producer, who works under the banner of La Prod in Casablanca and Moons a Deal in Paris, is now attempting to break into drama series. It is a transition that has been tried and tested by indie film producers in Europe and North America but is less common in the Middle East and North Africa . Chraibi is giving it a shot in the belief that North African drama could eventually enjoy the same popularity as the non-English language shows out of Scandinavia, Turkey or South Korea. “I’m convinced that they could seduce audiences in the same way,” she says. “Language and origin of a series is no longer an issue, if anything, there’s an appetite to see stories set in … [Read more...] about Doha Film Institute Pioneers Series Lab As MENA Indie Film Producers Push Into Drama In Untapped Region

Lille’s Series Mania Forum is kicking off today with a packed schedule of talks, screenings and competitions. Fighting it out in International Competition are the likes of Prime Video’s Toni Collette starrer The Power , Haven of Grace from Magnetic Beats director Vincent Maël Cardona, and Quoc Dang Tran’s Apple TV+ series Drops of God . They compete against Greek series Milky Way , which opened the festival, Viaplay’s futuristic Russell Tovey drama The Fortress , Red Skies from Israel, The Actor from Iran and Fleeting Lies from Spain. Each will have its world premiere at the event. The Power is a fantasy series set in a world where the physical balance of power between men and women switches when electric arcs emerge from the fingers of teenage girls all around the world. Debuting later this month, it comes from Sister, the UK producer behind Chernobyl and is based on Naomi Alderman’s sci-fi novel. Drops of God is the latest series from Call … [Read more...] about Series Mania Kicks Off With ‘The Power’, ‘Drops Of God’ & ‘Haven Of Grace’ In Competition

A project from Finland and a Belgium-Uruguay co-production have won the Seriesmaker initiative here at Series Mania . The projects, Yours, Margot and The Invisible Ink , both bag €50,000 ($54,000) each after winning the Beta Development Awards. They were announced minutes ago at Lille’s Series Mania Forum event, which is into its second day. Yours, Margot is an eight-part drama from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen and producer Jussi Rantamäki. The logline is: “After discovering her father’s letters to an unknown lover, Vilja unearths her family’s traumatic past in 1980s East Berlin.” Kuosmanen’s 2021 road movie Compartment No 6 won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival official competition, and his biographical film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki won Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival. The Invisible Ink comes from director César Díaz and producer Fernando Epstein, and also runs to eight parts. It follows a former Uruguayan … [Read more...] about Finland’s ‘Yours, Margot’ And Belgium-Uruguay Co-Pro ‘The Invisible Ink’ Win Beta And Series Mania Seriesmakers Initiative

This morning’s Tony Award nominations favored the familiar, with Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants leading the field with 12 nods apiece. The American debut of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child paced new plays with 10 nominations, and the revival of Angels in America had a strong showing with 11 nominations, most in Tony history for a play. (See the full list below.) Other shows posting impressive tallies included The Band’s Visit , with 11 nominations going to the original musical based on a 2007 Israeli film. An acclaimed revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel also scored 11 nominations, including one for Renée Fleming, who is better known for her career as one of the opera world’s most venerable stars. Lincoln Center’s posh reboot of My Fair Lady garnered 10 nominations, and the Denzel Washington-starring revival of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh received eight. Frozen , the latest Disney adaptation to head to Broadway , joining The … [Read more...] about Tony Award Nominations: ‘Mean Girls,’ ‘SpongeBob’ And ‘Harry Potter’ Lead New Crop; ‘Angels,’ ‘Carousel’ Top Revivals

EXCLUSIVE : The story of the murder of six Black girls in the Washington, D.C. area in the 1970s is to be turned into a podcast and scripted series. Jay Ellis , who starred in Top Gun: Maverick and HBO’s Insecure , is behind both projects. The podcast series, Freeway Phantom , will launch May 17. It comes from Ellis’ Black Bar Mitzvah, Tenderfoot TV and iHeartPodcasts and is hosted by public radio veteran Celeste Headlee. It will tell the story of how Carol Spinks, Darlenia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia Yates, Brenda Woodard and Diane Williams were murdered between 1971-1972 and discarded alongside D.C. highways. The killer taunted police with a chilling note claiming responsibility, and terrorized victims’ families with calls to their homes. Five decades later, their killer has never been brought to justice. Freeway Phantom will share the stories of the six victims and explore new evidence that could crack the cold cases wide open. Headlee has … [Read more...] about Jay Ellis Sets True-Crime Podcast ‘Freeway Phantom’ & Plans Scripted Series

Universal Television is developing a series adaptation of Diane Marie Brown’s debut novel Black Candle Women with Jenna Bush Hager , who has a first-look deal with Universal Studio Group, under her production banner Thousand Voices. Hager is teaming with Bel-Air showrunner Carla Banks Waddles and Good Girls creator Jenna Bans , both of whom have overall deals with UTV, for the project. Waddles is set to write and executive produce the adaptation. Bans will executive produce through her production banner Minnesota Logging Company, along with the company’s Head of Television Casey Kyber. Hager will also executive produce with President of Thousand Voices, Ben Spector. Black Candle Women introduces four generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—who have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond … [Read more...] about Universal TV & Jenna Bush Hager To Adapt ‘Black Candle Women’ Series With Carla Banks Waddles

UK director Lynne Ramsay enjoyed international recognition early on in her career after short films Small Deaths and Gasman were invited to the Cannes and won the Jury Prize in its short film competition in 1996 and 1998 respectively. “That was the first film festival I went to. It was so overwhelming,” Ramsay told a masterclass for the Doha Film Institute this week . “When Gasman won a prize and [Francis Ford] Coppola gave me the prize, that opened the way for me to make other films.” The film’s reception in L.A., when Ramsay showed them there as part of a British Film Institute talent showcase in the late 1990s, was less enthusiastic. Revolving around a young girl who slowly discovers a puzzling side to her father’s life during an outing to a Christmas party, Gasman shows the protagonist and other characters from the waist down only in the opening scene and other parts of the film. “The Hollywood producers who saw it said, ‘Did the camera slip because you … [Read more...] about Lynne Ramsay Talks Love Of Shorts, The Art Of Adaptation & Why She Has No Plans To Make A Series – Qumra Masterclass