Writer-producer John Zaring is returning to narrative filmmaking with his newest screenplay, The Very Thought of You, a jazz-infused romance. After spending much of the last two decades producing celebrity-driven events and sports broadcasts with ESPN and FOX Sports, this will mark his first feature since the 2001 romantic comedy Pursuit of Happiness. Set in Los Angeles’ Eagle Rock neighborhood, the new film follows two wounded musicians finding connection through their shared love of music.

Sundance winner Who Killed Alex Odah? is acquired by Watermelon Pictures (Palestine 36, shortlisted for the Academy Awards). The feature doc won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film tells the true story of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American teacher who was killed by a tripwire bomb explosion in his office.

AF México acquires the remake rights to Follemente (2025, Trailer), one of the highest-grossing Italian films of 2025, with more than $21M. The Mexican adaptation will be titled Love and Mind, following two people as they try to impress each other on their first dates while the different personalities living in their brains fight for control. Imagine Inside Out (2015) for adults.

Warp Films (Prod Co: Netflix’s Adolescence) appointed Peter Balm as their Managing Director. Balm joined the company in 2012 and most recently was the commercial director. In his new role, he will be in charge of Warp Films’ commercial strategy and operations.

Australian sales exec Julie Dowding is retiring after a decade at All3Media (Prod Co: UK Shameless). She was most recently a Senior VP of the company’s Australia and New Zealand division. Micah Hewson, the former ITV Studios exec, will take over the Australian duties.

Global Constellation (sales rep: Jim Queen) picks up international sales on The Long Haul. The film will premiere at Tribeca and stars 3x Emmy winner Margo Martindale as a long-haul trucker who’s been running from a dark truth for decades.

With Randolph attached to the project, we would love to see him take a dark-comedy take on the Muppets that recounts how one of the most silly and popular children’s TV shows made its way into Russia. We would love to see how the production team of Sesame Street had to deal with bombings, political violence, assassinations, and a military takeover of the production office.

Mini Tidbits:

Kino Lorber has locked in North American distribution for The Story of Documentary Film, a 16-part film that looks at the history of nonfiction cinema around the globe. Mark Cousins’ groundbreaking film has been making the festival rounds, earlier this year premiering at Sundance, shortly after at Berlinale, with chapters 6 and 7 most recently playing at Cannes Classics. Dogwoof also sold the film to Madman in Australia, IWonder in Italy, and Filmin in Spain.

Wild Duck Productions (Barcelona-based Distributor) acquires rights to Indian folk horror Bokshi. The film follows a troubled teen who follows a history teacher on a trek to an ancient site called “The Navel”, where strange things start to happen. The film is aiming for a Halloween theatrical release.

French founder of tech company Mirakl, Adrien Nussenbaum, is launching Palatio Films, a new production company making its Cannes debut with WWII title When Night Falls. From actor turned director Daniel Auteuil, the film is the first in a series of history-centered projects a part of Palatio’s upcoming slate.

Hit BBC comedy Black Ops is coming to the US, with the show creator and star Akemnji Ndifornyen confirming a Hollywood remake was in the works. The timing isn’t coincidental with the BBC renewing the original series for a third season yesterday.

UK pay-TV titan Sky (SNL UK) has promoted Shirley Jones to Head of Entertainment Commissioning. First joining back in 2015, Jones most recently worked on Sky’s biggest entertainment launch in five years with reality comedy series The Dyers’ Caravan Park.

Eve Myles (Gone), Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror), Eleanor Tomlinson (One Day), and David Thewlis (Lupin in Harry Potter film franchise) star in Channel 4’s comedy-thriller Wrong Move. The series follows three couples caught in a property-buying chain that collapses overnight.

Dead Man’s Wire producer Robbie Kruithoff has launched Wrong Turn Productions, an indie studio focused on projects that appeal to a global audience. Wrong Turn is currently co-financing Queen of the Falls, starring Pamela Anderson and Guy Pearce, with Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo (Sirat).

London-based sales group Together Films (In Camera) has picked up the international rights to Lisa & Lilly, a Swedish romance drama from Fifth Season’s Nordic Drama Queens. The feature-length debut of Julia Lindström (Netflix’s Young Royals), the film is described as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.

Kristen Stewart is EPing Sundance doc Barbara Forever. It is an exploration of the life, work, and cultural impact of filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Strand Releasing just acquired North American rights. Christine Vachon EPs. Wide release Sept 4.

Magenta Light Studios (California Schemin) picks up Lice starring Emile Hirsch, Justin Long, and Kevin Connolly, about a parasitic lice outbreak that sends a high school into military lockdown. First look: frying oil. Releasing Q1 2027.

Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures (White Noise) has secured the film rights to In the Blue with writing-directing duo Delilah Napier and Lucy Powers (Floating Carousel) attached. The film follows a struggling actress hired to tutor a wealthy student abroad on his family’s luxury yacht trip, yet the glamorous gig quickly turns into a dangerous nightmare.

Country singer Jana Kramer (One Tree Hill) is making her directorial debut with the music drama Love Song for My Texas Ranger, in which she will also star. The film will follow a struggling singer (Kramer) returning to her Texas hometown and falling in love with a Texas Ranger (Ryan Rottman).

Some of Europe’s biggest names are speaking out. Francis Ford Coppola, Joachim Trier (dir. Sentimental Value), Sandra Hüller (Project Hail Mary), and almost 5,000 more make up an open letter urging the EU to reconsider proposed funding changes that would consolidate all media spending into a single umbrella, which could have negative effects on the European indie film industry.

Variance Films (Distributed RRR) to oversee theatrical distribution of Orlando von Einsiedel’s (Netflix’s Evelyn) next film The Cycle of Love. EPed by Priyanka Chopra-Jonas (The Bluff), the film documents the romantic journey of PK Mahanandia, a Delhi street artist who trekked 6,000 miles by bicycle in 1977, to reunite with the woman he loved.

Disney+ makes a content alliance with Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca (Mexico’s second-largest mass media company). The upcoming season of TV Azteca’s Masterchef 24/7 will be available on Disney+.

Amazon MX Player (Indian AVOD and streamer service) is integrating into Prime Video in India, creating the country’s largest selection of titles. This merger puts Prime Video ahead of the current market leader, JioHotstar (Disney-run Streamer).

Singapore’s Mokster Films and Taiwanese D-Day Pictures team up for Taiwanese horror film Revive. The film follows a Taiwanese artist whose life is transformed by a mysterious presence that reignites her career, until a series of tragedies forces her to question if the spirit is evil.

WWII U-boat drama Das Boot is coming to streamer MHz Choice. All four seasons of this classic series were available previously on Hulu. The show follows the crew of a German U-boat during World War II as they navigate the psychological and physical horrors of war, both at sea and on land.

Mubi picks up worldwide rights to Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize Doc winner Nuisance Bear. This is interesting because A24 served as the production company. There’s nothing really offbeat about this film, other than it’s just very profound.

My full deep dive after watching:

Synopsis:

A polar bear’s traditional migration path leads it into populated areas, sparking conflict between human interests and wild nature as the animal struggles to survive in a changing world.

It is one of the best POVs I’ve ever seen in documentary filmmaking. We’re taken to Churchill, Manitoba, where we see how the town coexists with polar bears that increasingly encroach upon their habitat.

But this is not a story told from the town’s perspective, the mayor’s, the folks who trap the bears, or even the tourist trucks that bus people across the rock to see the animals. Nor is it told from the polar bear’s perspective.

It’s told from a third POV, that of the Inuit people who have coexisted with the bears. And this lens allows us to see more purely the effects that the bears have on the people and the people have on the bears.

It is a perspective removed and yet able to capture the entire situation with a beautiful balance.

Strand Releasing picks up North American rights for Diamond Diplomacy. This is Yuriko Gamo Romer’s baseball doc tracing U.S.-Japan relations from 1872 to Shohei Ohtani, with a fall theatrical rollout after festivals and awards attention in North America. Trailer here.

Paris Hilton’s production company 11:11 Media (Infinite Icon) is joining forces with Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman for Road To Reality. Set inside the world of a long-running reality television franchise, the horror film is set to start production this July.

StudioCanal (How To Make a Killing) and France’s biggest publisher, Hachette Livre, are launching On Screen, a joint venture set to develop film and TV based on Hachette’s extensive catalog. Jumping on the international book-to-screen adaptation bandwagon, StudioCanal now gets first look at thousands of titles ranging from the Astérix comic book series to James Patterson novels.

Pathé (Prod Co: Emilia Pérez) and Vendôme Pictures (Prod Co: Coda) launch Emotion Pictures – a production company that specializes in English-language films. Under this new banner, Emotion Pictures will develop, acquire, fully finance, and produce a slate of films that will be theatrically released in Europe.

N Lite (U.S. and Tokyo-based anime studio) is making a manga series based on their upcoming animated feature film Mfinda. The manga follows a 13-year-old Congolese girl who is transported to the Mfinda, a magical forest of spirits, gods, and ancestors.

Shudder acquires post-apocalyptic thriller Hallowarrior – the feature debut of writer-director Ben Sottak. The film follows Pumpkin, the sole survivor of a world-ending plague, as she scavenges the wasteland on the eve of Halloween.

Milly Shapiro (Hereditary) stars as the lead, with AJ Bowen (You’re Next) and Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight’s Tale). Hallowarrior will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 10.

It will be great to see Shapiro once again in a horror film, following her amazing Hereditary (2018) debut, where she showed how a clicking noise can be so terrifying.

Electric Entertainment (Prod. Comp: Geostorm starring Gerard Butler) acquires the worldwide distribution rights for the feature O Horizon. The film follows a young neuroscientist navigating through a new romance and a career discovery. Maria Bakalova (The Apprentice) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) star in the film. Variance (film distribution company) will release the film in the U.S. on June 12.

QWGmire (Prod. Comp: The Life of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston) makes a development pact with Japanese horror producer Taka Ichise. Ichise played a crucial role in bringing J-horror to its global popularity in the 1990s with films like Ringu (1998) and The Grudge (2004). The new contract will have QWGmire and Ichise develop and finance a new slate of horror films in the U.S. market.

The Paris-based Banijay is bringing the BBC’s The Northumbria Mysteries to the international market. The detective drama is set up like a crime version of The Odd Couple, set in North East England, starring Grantchester actor Robson Green. Casting is still underway with production beginning shortly in the UK.

Kacie Fagan promoted to L.A. Director of Development for Constantin Film (Prod. Comp: The NeverEnding Story).

Zombie horror-comedy Shoot Around is getting a film adaptation. Based on a webtoon of the same name, the film will follow a high school basketball coach who must lead his team to survive a zombie apocalypse. Aiyana K. White (Wri: Netflix’s The Night Agent) will write the feature of the comic that has over 28M views.

Germany’s Beta Film (Hudson & Rex, Amrum) has inked a deal with Canal+ and HBO Max across its European slate. France’s leading broadcaster now owns both seasons of the widely popular crime series Bookish (S1 trailer) and the four-part German film series Death in Denmark, following a Danish police duo. HBO Max France will premiere the second season of Beta original Maxima as part of its multi-territory deal.

French producer Marco Cherqui (prod. A Prophet) is attached to a new four-part drama La Petite. Centered on a police detective investigating the murder of a young woman in Northern France, Cherqui will produce through his CPB Films (Canal+’s Savages), with filming beginning next month.

Actor and producer Will Jeffs (Channel 5’s Suspects) and producer John Hauber (Producer: The Cut starring Orlando Bloom) launch production company Red Imp Films. The outfit will focus on developing film and TV projects for the global market, based in Toronto and London.

First-time filmmaker Shubhangi Shekhar is making Hoop Like This, a doc on the world’s first professional Indian Basketball team. NBA Champion Jeremy Lin, ESPN reporter Shams Charania, and Indian rapper and actor Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts) will all appear in the new feature documentary.

The UK’s Royal Television Society (the UK’s premier forum for television) hires Sophie Jones as CEO. Jones previously worked for ITV (the UK's oldest commercial network) and ITN (a UK-based independent production company) before joining Channel 4 as Head of Corporate Relations for 12 years.

Signature Entertainment (Terrifier 3) has secured U.K. and Irish rights to its next project, Kraken. From TrustNordisk (Late Shift), this take on the mythical Norwegian creature follows a marine biologist who uncovers a deadly mystery, only to find the answer in a monstrous presence lurking in Norway’s deepest fjord.

The Canada-based Pink Parrot Media (SuperClaus) is feeling like a Winner after picking up sales rights to the animated feature, following a young girl determined to become one of the best tennis players in history. Pink Parrot is bringing Winner to the upcoming Cannes Market.

Mini Tidbits:

Indie producer Tomik Mansoori is launching Revival Films. Former Silver Sail Entertainment (SXSW’s Family Movie) exec, the Texas-based company’s first film, Blood Behind Us, is premiering at the Dallas International Film Festival.

Legion M, the world’s first fan-owned entertainment company, is partnering with FilmFrog (marketing agency) to launch Theater Alliance. This new network of movie theaters will sponsor loyalty screenings and promote participating theaters to its investors.

Fauzan Zidni is elected chair of the Indonesian Film Agency and aims to make its first international appearance at Cannes 2026. Zidni led original production at The Walt Disney Company Indonesia.

Former Netflix exec Sara May launches her production banner Sonderworld. The company will have backing from Goodfellas (Previously Wild Bunch AG, Int Distribution: Pan’s Labyrinth, Spirited Away, Oldboy). Sonderwold will focus on creating action & genre projects.

Sweden’s SVT is developing Shadow of Guilt, a series adaptation featuring characters from bestselling crime author Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka Murders novels. In the realm of Big Little Lies or Sharp Objects, the six-part series follows a woman’s search for truth when the remains of her childhood best friend are unexpectedly discovered more than twenty years after she went missing.

Bollywood action star Sanjay Dutt is rebooting Khal Nayak (1993) – an iconic action cult classic of Indian cinema (First Look). Dutt’s production company, Three Dimension Motion Pictures, is teaming up with Jio Studios (Production Company: Dhurandhar franchise) for the reboot. The original film follows an undercover female police officer falling in love with the criminal she was supposed to capture.

Producer Molly Conners’ indie production company Phiphen (Netflix’s Like Father) has optioned the rights to the bestselling thriller novel Tell Me What You Did. It follows a crime podcaster whose show is built on anonymous confessions, until one caller admits to a murder incredibly close to home.

Greg Vrotsos’ (Orange is the New Black) feature directorial debut Situations gets picked up by Circle Collective (film distribution agency). The film follows a photographer in L.A., drifting through Silver Lake after a painful breakup. Vrotsos will also star in the film that he called his “ love letter to Los Angeles”.

You Had To Be There: How The Toronto Godspell Ignited The Comedy Revolution…, a documentary on the iconic 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell, is acquired by Greenwich Entertainment (Coup!). The film will examine how the Toronto production came to be and how every performer went on to have a huge career in entertainment: Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, and Victor Garber.

Brent Pella, an American stand-up comedian, is making his feature directorial debut with Peaking. Also written by Pella, the film will follow a couple’s attempts to reignite their relationship by searching for a threesome at a music festival. Pella will star in the film alongside Nikki Howard (American Crime Story) and Lil Rel Howery (Get Out).

American Doctor is acquired by Watermelon Pictures (From Ground Zero). The feature documentary follows three U.S. doctors who volunteered to treat wounded Palestinian children in Gaza. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary section at Sundance.

For Canal+ Kim, The Diamond, and the Grandpa Robbers is a new crime doc recounting the Kardashians’ terrifying robbery during Paris Fashion Week. From Pernel Media (The Au Pair), the four-part doc will look at how the robbers pulled off a multimillion-dollar heist during the busiest time of the fashion year.

Iconic French Chef Bernard Loiseau, the inspiration for Chef Auguste Gusteau in Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007), is getting a biopic. The untitled film will be written and directed by Thomas Lilti (Dir: Canal+’s Hippocrate) and will follow Loiseau’s career as he became one of the most famous chefs in the world.

Canada’s CBC and BBC Northern Ireland greenlight comedy series Committed. Starring Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek) and Diona Doherty (Derry Girls), the ten-part comedy series will follow a divorced accountant, Peter (Milligan), who falls in love with a Northern Irish woman, Julie (Doherty).

Graham Norton’s new game show, The Neighborhood, will launch in April. The beloved UK host has a brand-new 11-episode gameshow series on ITV (UK’s oldest and largest commercial TV network). The show will feature six households moving into a street, where they will compete in various challenges to win £250,000 ($336,000).

James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay (2025) is to have a French theatrical run. The film bombed at the U.S. box office, grossing only $4 M against a $35 M budget. However, the overwhelming love from French critics nationwide prompted 20th Century Studios to announce that Ella McCay would have a theatrical release in 100 theaters across France for 2 days.

Strand Films picks up North American rights to Trial of Hein, Berlinale’s Teddy Jury Award-winning film, which opened the Perspectives section.

Synopsis:

After 14 years, Hein returns to his island village, but the community doesn’t recognize him and demands a trial to prove his identity.

Props go to Sales Rep: Heretic (prod co: Triangle of Sadness), who also sold the film to France, Germany, and Israel. Here is the trailer.

Shudder acquires three films set to debut at this year’s Overlook Film Festival. All three titles will be released by the streamer by the end of the year. The three films include:

• Parasomnia (directed by James Ross II), which follows a young woman tortured by nightmares who begins to suspect that a demonic presence is lurking in her sleep.

• Goody, Goody (starring Colleen Foy), which follows expecting parents and a midwife trapped in a house due to a blizzard, who get tangled in sinister circumstances.

• New Group (directed by Yûta Shimotsu, trailer), which follows a Japanese high schooler, Ai, as her friends fall into a cult of nightmarish dance of death.

Tidbits:

Vertical picks up The Magic Faraway Tree starring Andrew Garfield alongside Claire Foy (All of Us Strangers, 2023). The children’s book series features trees reaching the clouds and gnomes stealing from elves and chocolate houses (trailer). It’s minted $11M so far in UK theaters alone after less than 2 weeks at the box office. Vertical has set a release date for August 21st.

Abramorama picks up North American Rights for doc American Agitators. The film follows activist Fred Ross, who helped invent modern organizing. He and his son, Fred Ross, Jr. Left a legacy and a set of techniques that are still used today. No word on release date.

Trinity CineAsia has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to Zhang Yimou’s contemporary counter-espionage thriller Scare Out theatrically Feb. 20 alongside China, with preview screenings beginning Feb. 17. Trailer.

Losange Films (Out of This World) boards mystery drama The Meltdown for international sales ahead of its presence at the European Film Market. Set at a remote ski resort in post-dictatorship Chile, the film is the follow-up to director Manuela Martelli’s acclaimed Cannes title Chile ‘76 (2022).

Amazon MGM Studios names Gino Munari (former Village Cinemas COO) as its head of its budding Australia-New Zealand theatrical team. Amy Dickman has been added to expand local film distribution and marketing operations for ANZ and the Southeast Asia region.

Bravo exec Ian Gelfand (prod. Summer House) and Warner Horizon’s former head of unscripted talent Matt Nagorner are joining forces on a new venture. IM Trying Productions will develop and produce unscripted content with a home design show and a pop culture docu-series in the works.

Producer Nathan Kahane (Knives Out) is launching True North, a new indie film company backed by Entertainment 360. The banner will produce and finance artist-driven commercial films at modest budgets, rolling over projects from Kahane’s Lionsgate slate (John Wick, Hunger Games).

Malcon Pierce’s Disney animated short Versa is a beautiful non-verbal exploration of the intense experience of losing their baby, and the grief that followed, expressed through cosmic imagery and stars. It made a huge impact at the Animation Film Festival in October, and will hopefully appear on Disney+, though no formal plans have been announced.

Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher) is now an EP on the provocative short Two People Exchanging Saliva from filmmaking duo Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh (2019’s The Appointment). The live-action Telluride premiering title is now streaming on The New Yorker. Full short here.

Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) joins the cast of Pink Desert, a film about a young trans woman in 1970s Chile who discovers her identity while traveling with a theater troupe. Vega will also EP.

Saudi Arabia has opened PlayMaker Studios in Qiddiya City, a major new production hub spanning over 50 acres. The complex will launch alongside preproduction on Game of Thrones director Alik Sakharov’s new historical action feature Unbroken Sword.

Mexico’s Sin Sentido Films is remaking The Last Laugh (Muerto de risa), a hit 2023 Peruvian comedy for Mexican audiences. The critical and box office success follows a lost talk show host who refines himself with the help of an alcoholic comedian.

Veteran filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory) is tackling a dark chapter of colonial history with Reggane, a feature‑length drama centered on France’s 60s nuclear tests in the Sahara. The story follows an Algerian shepherd thrust into the toxic fallout. With Reggane, Bouchareb returns to familiar territory, blending overlooked history with deeply human experiences.