Good afternoon Insiders. Max Goldbart here and as the world prepares for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, which has dominated headlines this week, I’ll take you through the past few days in international TV and film.
Period Of Mourning
A week like no other: As Insider writes, queues lasting at least several hours are snaking their way around the centre of London as thousands of people from up and down the country wait patiently to see Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin. The world’s second longest-serving monarch, who died Thursday September 8, is currently lying-in-state for four days until Monday’s funeral, and the nation remains in mourning. It has been a week like no other. Disruption has continued to daily life apace, protesters have been arrested and events have continued to be cancelled including a string of Premier League football matches due to the funeral preparations. Meanwhile, tributes from around the world have continued to pour in as a monarch is remembered, and successor King Charles III has been traveling the country going about his new duties.
Schedules uprooted: On TV, schedules have been heavily disrupted, with news bulletins and tribute programing mostly replacing what you would expect to air in the middle of September, normally a good time for ratings as family’s return from holiday and kids go back to school. I wrote Monday about how the broadcasters have been taking a day-to-day approach to their schedules, issuing updates every 24 hours. The BBC, which delayed Strictly Come Dancing by a week, has had surprisingly few complaints for its schedule changes, according to reports that came out Tuesday, with one insider telling Deadline they had actually been pleasantly surprised at how normal the schedules had been, and that this may account for the lack of grumpy viewers. “It could have been much worse,” they said. ITV has followed the BBC’s lead in uprooting schedules, while irreverent network Channel 4 has returned juggernauts such as Gogglebox and The Great British Bake Off, although the latter’s audience was quite a way down. Concerning question marks over censorship have also arisen, with Deadline breaking the news Tuesday that tongue-in-cheek comments about Queen Elizabeth II had been cut from the UK version of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver on Sky.
The funeral: Funeral prep has dominated all aspects of public life and the major broadcasters have been perhaps one of the more important elements of this. The BBC, ITV and Sky News will all show uninterrupted coverage of the event, which starts in earnest at 11AM BST (3AM PT) Monday. Each will utilize their top news presenters to talk viewers through goings-on at Westminster Abbey, as the 96-year-old monarch is laid to rest. Other tribute programing is set to sandwich the coverage, and it is not until Tuesday that things are expected to return to some semblance of normality following a mammoth effort that has mainly been overseen by the BBC. Across the pond, major U.S. news networks have been preparing their coverage in minute detail, with fleets of journalists on the ground in Britain. Joe Biden will be in attendance, along with a wealth of major world leaders including Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern. The coverage is expected to be one of the most-watched TV broadcasts of all time. Princess Diana’s funeral was watched by more than 30M people in the UK in 1997. In the past couple of hours, I revealed a rift between the British broadcasters and newspapers over the live feed of the funeral. Industry sources told Deadline this Royal events-wrangling dispute has been a long time coming, and goes back further than the funeral.
TIFF Roars Back To Life
Soaking up the atmosphere: Mel Goodfellow on the ground here and it felt like pre-pandemic times (almost) along the Toronto International Film Festival’s King Street hub as the event returned to full strength for the first time in three years, with balmy weather encouraging Torontonians downtown to soak up the atmosphere over the first weekend. The busy streets were at odds with the mood in the market which saw fewer packages launched than normal, leading Mike Fleming Junior to question what business would be done. A handful of big deals did drop eventually, however, topped by Focus Features’ $30m acquisition of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. At the festival, the focus was on big U.S. prestige productions as TIFF sought to reclaim its crown as the fall’s premiere awards season launchpad, in the face of growing competition from Venice.
Expected contenders: A slew of expected contenders were showcased, topped by Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographic The Fabelmans and also including Viola Davis’s The Woman King, Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever and North American premieres for Venice titles The Banshees Of Inisherin and The Whale, for which Colin Farrell and Brendon Fraser are respectively being tipped for a Best Actor run. Farrell, who won best actor at Venice, was absent, but Fraser had the awards season bit between his teeth and was out and about at the festival, including at its revamped Tribute Awards on Sunday evening. Outside of film, other highlights included Taylor Swift’s 35mm premiere of her short film All Too Well: The Short Film, accompanied by an hour-long In Conversation event with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, and preview screenings in the presence of the writers and cast of the Handmaids Tale’s first two season five episodes accompanied by news that a sixth and final season had been greenlit.
Controversy: More controversial talking points included the pulling of Austrian director Ulrich Siedl’s new film Sparta following an investigative report in German magazine Der Spiegel raising concerns over the treatment of the young cast, and All The Beauty And The Bloodshed director and Venice 2022 Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras laying into festivals such as Venice and Toronto for inviting Hillary Clinton onto their red carpets. Filmfest Hamburg will no longer present Seidl with its prestigious Douglas Sirk Award following the reports, news that also broke this week.
Jean-Luc Godard Remembered
“A national treasure”: The world paid tribute to Jean-Luc Godard this week, the pioneering French-Swiss auteur of the New Wave era who died aged 91. French President Emmanuel Macron called the Breathless, Le Petit Soldat and A Woman is a Woman director a “national treasure.” Others talked up Godard’s contribution to global cinema: a “giant who ripped up the rule book,” according to the BFI, and an “inspiration,” per Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian. The tributes came in from far and wide and, if you want to hear more, this special episode of Take Two from Deadline’s Todd McCarthy and Pete Hammond is well worth a watch in full. Ditto this piece from Todd, who writes “ever impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do.” Our thoughts go out to Jean-Luc’s family and friends.
San Sebastian Rolls Around
Getting creative (with investment): The San Sebastian Film Festival opens today with Prison 77 (Modelo 77), the latest film from Spanish filmmaker Alberto Rodríguez. This year is the festival’s 70th anniversary and organizers have compiled a bumper schedule of events and screenings to celebrate. As always, the festival’s popular Perlak section screens many of the buzzier titles, including Ruben Östlund’s Triangle Of Sadness. There are also hits like Sebastián Lelio’s latest The Wonder in the festival’s official selection. All eyes, however, will be on the festival’s industry section, which debuts its new creative investor’s conference featuring keynote sessions by CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland, Benjamin Kramer, and Sarah Schweitzman. One person who won’t be present is Glenn Close, who has had to step down from her jury president role due to a family emergency, replaced by Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín. The creative investor conference runs September 19-20 and the festival 16-24. Our very own Zac Ntim will be on the ground next week, sending regular dispatches, so do tune in for the latest coverage. And Zac and Diana’s previews can be read here and here.
The French Selection
Diop leads the pack: In the same week as Godard’s passing, one of the biggest annual events in French cinema took place in the shape of the pre-selection for the International Oscar submission. Five films were picked: Eric Gravel’s Full Time, Lise Asoka and Romane Gueret’s The Worst Ones, Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Alice Diop’s Saint-Omer and Mia Hansen-Love’s One Fine Morning. Some serious heavy hitters. This year also marks the first selection round since the overhaul of France’s selection committee to end the automatic involvement of the heads of the Cannes Film Festival, export agency Unifrance and the César Academy. Diop’s Saint-Omer is a hot favorite following Cannes and Venice gongs, and French cinephiles will be hoping the pic can become the first French film since 1992’s Indochine to win the coveted prize.
Essentials
🌶️ Hot one: Amazon and Constantin Film are teaming on YA fantasy movie Silver based on the popular novel series.
🌶️ Another one: Jesse brought news of The Gone, an Irish mystery drama for RTÉ and New Zealand’s TVNZ featuring Richard Flood, Acushla-Tara Kupe and Game of Thrones star Michelle Fairley.
🌶️ Another one: Lionsgate pre-bought UK rights to feature romance Late in Summer.
🖊️ Signed up: Gangs Of Lagos creator Jáde Osiberu, who inked an overall deal with Prime Video.
🎬 Slate: Prime Video Germany unveiled its latest All or Nothing, a comedy from LOL: Last One Laughing Germany ensemble star Joko Winterscheidt and sketch show HILLarious. Country manager Philip Pratt told Jesse he is plotting a non-scripted push.
🍿 Box office: Universal’s George Clooney/Julia Roberts-starrer Ticket to Paradise‘s launch was pushed back a week due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Nancy had the news.
⛺ Festival latest: Check this fantastic exclusive interview by Mike with writer-director Allen Hughes at TIFF, who unveiled the first of five-part FX Tupac Shakur docuseries Dear Mama.
⛺ Festival latest: Iranian auteur Asgar Farhadi will preside over the jury for the International Feature Film Competition at this year’s Zurich Film Festival.
🤝 Done deal: New drama and comedy pact between Lionsgate and Canada’s Bell Media, per Jesse’s scoop.
🧑💼 New job: Range Media Partners hired Thomas Daley as Co-President of its international division.
🚪Exiting: Keshet International CEO Alon Shtruzman, who leaves after a decade. Keshet Media’s Avi Nir said people will be “talking around the campfires” about Shtruzman’s tenure for many years to come.
🏏 Howzaaaat?: Australia’s Nine Network ordered a drama series based on the life of the late, great Aussie cricketing master Shane Warne.
💰 Fined: A cool $4.1B recommended fine for Google from the European Court of Justice, following the Android mobile network debacle.
🎥 Trailer: Here’s a teaser for MaXXXIne from A24.
And finally: Fresh from his trip to Telluride, International Editor-At-Large Baz Bamigboye sat down with Sam Mendes to talk Olivia Colman-starring Empire of Light, one of the James Bond director’s most personal movies that looks set to light up awards season. Go deeper.
Mel Goodfellow and Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s International Insider.