News

There’s a great beating heart at the center of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin, making its American debut after an ill-timed January 2020 premiere at London’s National Theatre. Fans of Sandra Oh’s masterful work on Killing Eve and Grey’s Anatomy won’t be surprised to find her bringing the same kind of acerbic warmth and casually razor-sharp intelligence that Eve Polastri and Dr. Cristina Yang shared to Elizabeth Luke, an 18th-century English midwife who finds herself wrapped up in a murder trial. Even churning butter, which Oh approaches with a ferocious purposefulness, Lizzy still has lots of bite.

The accused is Sally Poppy (Haley Wong), a maid who skipped town with a ruffian only to come back home to her husband drenched in the blood of the young rich girl she used to serve. She’s already been found guilty of murder, but she’s “pled the belly.

Grey’s Anatomy and Quiz Lady actor Sandra Oh will star in the Off Broadway American premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin this summer.

The Atlantic Theater Company production begins previews Thursday, May 16, and will open Wednesday, June 12 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 30.

Directed by Sarah Benson, The Welkin is set in Rural Suffolk, England, 1759, as the country waits for Halley’s Comet. A young woman is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder, and when she claims to be pregnant, a jury of twelve matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she’s telling the truth or simply trying to escape the noose. Only midwife Lizzy Luke (Oh) is prepared to defend the girl against a mob baying for blood, matrons wrestling with their new authority and the devil in their midst.

Atlantic describes the work as a “dark, fierce,...

Sandra Oh will appear in the Off-Broadway premiere of The Welkin, written by Lucy Kirkwood at Atlantic Theater Company this spring.

Oh, known for her starring roles in Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve, among many others, has previously appeared on the New York stage in Off-Broadway productions including Satellites, Stop Kiss and Wild Goose Dreams. She will also appear in HBO/A24’s limited series adaptation of The Sympathizer, airing in April.

She is joined by a cast that also includes Dale Soules (Orange Is The New Black), Danny Wolohan (To Kill a Mockingbird), b (American (Tele)visions), Tilly Botsford (Off-Broadway debut), Paige Gilbert (Skin of Our Teeth), Ann Harada (Avenue Q), Jenn Kidwell (Underground Railroad Game), Mary McCann (Harper Regan), Emily Cass McDonnell (I’m Revolting), MacKenzie Mercer (Frozen national tour) and Haley Wong (Mary Gets Hers at McC).

Directed by Sarah Benson, an Obie Award winner for her direction of Fairview,...

Exclusive: Starring an electrifying Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard ends its limited run at London’s Savoy Theatre on January 6. However, Deadline can reveal in its 2024 West End look ahead that the singer will lead the Andrew Lloyd Webber show to Broadway in November, according to insiders connected with the production.

Scherzinger, who won the Evening Standard’s best musical performance prize for her show-stopping turn as Norma Desmond, has indicated to producers that she will commit to a six-month season in New York, we understand. The Es also recently named the show’s helmer Jamie Lloyd as Best Director [Disclosure: this writer is a member of the Es judging panel].

Nicole Scherzinger in ‘Sunset Boulevard’

Meanwhile, another Es winner, Jack Thorne’s glorious drama The Motive and the Cue, staged by Sam Mendes, has transferred from London’s National Theatre to the Noël Coward, and we can also reveal The Motive and the Cue is in the early stages of discussions for a run in NYC.

UK agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates has named former Meta and Film4 exec Anna Higgs as Managing Director.

She will join in August, having most recently been Director of Entertainment Partnerships at Meta, which has been cutting staff as it seeks to reshape its business amid economic uncertainty.

Higgs is also the Chair of the BAFTA Film Committee, having been recently reelected. She was also The Night Manager producer The Ink Factory’s digital lead, Film4’s Head of Digital and worked at online channel Nowness. Further back she founded Quark Films.

Higgs joins a team of over 60 staff, who look after a client roster that includes Academy Award winning directors Steve McQueen, Edward Berger and Lenny Abrahamson; Academy Award winning writer Christopher Hampton; Mood creator Nicôle Lecky; Enola Holmes and His Dark Materials scribe Jack Thorne; playwrights such as Sir David Hare and Lucy Kirkwood; and several others. It...

Caledonia Productions, the banner of Patrick Daly, the theater and film director whose feature credits include August: Osage County, Una and Galveston, has signed a first-look deal with Passenger, headed by its founder Richard Brown (This England, True Detective, Catch-22).

The two-year deal with Passenger, which now sits within Fremantle’s Global Drama division, will see Daly and Brown collaborate on select existing Passenger and Caledonia film and television projects in addition to building a new slate of projects to co-produce. Fremantle will handle global distribution.

Both Passenger and Caledonia are based in New York and London.

“I have known and admired, Richard Brown and Fremantle’s Christian Vesper for many years, so when this partnership opportunity arose, it really was an easy decision to make,” said Daly, whose 15 years’ experience in producing theatre in the U.S. and U.K. has included productions of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica, Katori Hall...

Exclusive: There’s some seriously scary stuff going on at London’s National Theatre as the venue prepares for a musical version of Roald Dahl’s The Witches that will feature book and lyrics by playwright Lucy Kirkwood, who’s also an executive consultant on Succession.

Music and lyrics are by Dave Malloy, who won acclaim for the book and score he wrote for Broadway show Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.

The show is a co-production between the National and the Roald Dahl Story Company.

Katherine Kingsley (The Larkins) will play the Grand High Witch, whose only objective is to eliminate all children from the planet and turn them into mice. “She’s a tyrannical narcissist, truly she’s really evil. There’s no escaping the fact that she’s a bad person,” Kingsley told us.

“It’s a great role,” she laughed. “There’s a lot of fun to be had with her,...

Eve Best and Stockard Channing are adding more star quality to the cast of Suranne Jones’ upcoming three-part Itvx drama Maryland.

Created by Jones and Trollied creator Anne-Marie O’Connor, Maryland focuses on the relationship between two sisters, down-to-earth mother of two Becca (Jones) and disciplined high-flyer Rosaline (Best) who have been driven apart by complex family dynamics.

They travel to the Isle of Man to repatriate the body of their mother, Mary, leaving their father Richard at home in Manchester. Confined on the island, they discover shocking information about their mother and find it impossible to escape the ripple effect of her secrets and lies.

Best is currently enjoying strong reviews for her role as dragon rider Rhaenys Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon.

Becca...

After garnering international acclaim for his on-screen performances in “Get Out,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Black Panther,” Daniel Kaluuya is now behind the camera to produce the satirical comedy “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.”

The Focus Features film, which premieres Sept. 2 in theaters and on Peacock, follows the comeback journey of Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs, played by Sterling K. Brown, and his wife, Trinitie, played by Regina Hall, after a scandal threatens their elite status.

Kaluuya, who produced the film through his company 59, sees the comedy as elevating the mockumentary genre and was involved in the project when writer and directed Adamma Ebo floated the idea of having “a Regina Hall type” play Trinitie.

For Kaluuya, who was giving script notes to the likes of British playwriting royalty Jack Thorne and Lucy Kirkwood by the time he was a teenager, producing comes naturally — and is something that he plans to continue.

News

The BBC is marking the 30 anniversary of its Ukrainian-speaking service as the Russian invasion of the country continues. On June 1, 1992, the BBC started short- and medium-wave radio broadcasts for then newly independent Ukraine. Today, BBC News Ukraine operates via website bbc.ua, its YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok and Viber. The BBC News Ukraine Monday to Friday TV news program is rebroadcast by Ukraine’s national TV channels Espreso, Priamyj and 5 Kanal.

The Ukrainian service was the BBC’s first non-Russian language service for the post-Soviet states. Initially based in London, with correspondents in Ukraine, the service then moved to digital platforms, primarily delivered from Kyiv. Its TV news program is produced in and presented from London. Since Feb. 24, when Russia invaded, the BBC News Ukraine TV news bulletin has been extended from 15 to 30 minutes.

Senior controller of BBC News international services and director of BBC World Service,...

Zawe Ashton, Hayley Squires And Daniel Mays Land Leads In BBC Adaptation Of ‘Maryland’

Lucy Kirkwood’s play Maryland is being adapted for the BBC and Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat), Hayley Squires and Daniel Mays have landed the lead roles. The 30-minute adaptation of the Royal Court play will be called Mary and air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on July 20. Kirkwood and doc director Brian Hill are co-directors on the story, which is billed as a “artistic response to recent real-life events” such as the murders of British women Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman and Sabina Nessa, grappling with the violence facing women in their everyday lives. Ashton and Squires play women both called Mary who meet at a police station in the aftermath of their respective sexual assaults. Kirkwood said: “I wrote the original play as a howl against...

Prebble, Davies And Kirkwood Up For Wggb Awards

Lucy Prebble’s I Hate Suzie, Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin and Lucy Kirkwood’s Adult Material will battle it out for the Best Long Form TV Drama gong in February’s Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (Wggb) Awards, which is honoring two years’ worth of shows due to last year’s Covid-induced cancellation. Other prominent nominees include Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, up against Remi Weekes’ His House and Theresa Ikoko/Claire Wilson’s Rocks for Best Screenplay, while female creators are recognized in the Best TV Situation Comedy category as Mae Martin, Sarah Kendall and Aisling Bea are all nominated. The awards will take place on 14 February in Central London. “What a fitting day to celebrate the cream of British writers – who have kept us entertained on page, stage, screen and across the airwaves, through such dark times,...

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (Wggb) has unveiled the shortlist for its annual awards, with nominees including “Promising Young Woman” scribe Emerald Fennell and “Succession” writer Lucy Prebble, who’s been nominated for her Billie Piper series “I Hate Suzie.”

The awards, which will be handed out on Feb. 14 in central London, will cover two years of British writing, after last year’s awards were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Wggb President and former “The Great British Bake-Off” host Sandi Toksvig said: “What a fitting day to celebrate the cream of British writers – who have kept us entertained on page, stage, screen and across the airwaves, through such dark times.

“Our creative industries play such an important role, as do all those who work within them and we hope our awards ceremony on Valentine’s Day will send this message – you matter, we care, and thank you for your words,...

The U.K. edition of “The Masked Singer,” comedy “Call My Agent” and drama “Tehran” were among the top winners Monday at the 49th annual International Emmy Awards in New York.

David Tennant took the trophy for best actor for his work as a deceptively meek serial killer in ITV’s “Des.” Hayley Squires won for actress for her role as a happily well-adjusted porn star in “Adult Material.”

Israeli drama “Tehran,” about a female Mossad agent who goes undercover in Iran, won the top drama series prize. Season 4 of “Call My Agent,” set among agents at a Paris talent rep firm, took the prize for comedy.

The ITV rendition of “Masked Singer” prevailed in the nonscripted entertainment category. Netflix’s “Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice” took the documentary award, marking the first International Emmy honor for a program from Thailand.

“Insecure” star Yvonne Orji hosted the ceremony at Casa Cipriani.

Having penned hits such as “Shame” and “The Iron Lady,” Abi Morgan is undoubtedly one of the U.K.’s best-known screenwriters. Now the creator of shows including “The Hours” and “The Split” is turning her hand to filmmaking.

Morgan, a BAFTA and Emmy-award winning writer, will make her directorial debut with an upcoming episode of “The Split,” which she also executive produces alongside Jane Featherstone (“Chernobyl”), Lucy Dyke (“Black Mirror”) and Lucy Richer (“Small Axe”).

Season 3 of the hit show, about a family of divorce lawyers working through their own personal problems, is set to air in the U.K. on the BBC and in the U.S. on BBC America in 2022, and will be available to stream on iPlayer in the U.K. and Sundance Now in the U.S.

Morgan’s pivot to directing has been a long time coming. She has spent almost three decades behind the scenes,...

Steve McQueen’s anthology series leads the pack with 15 nominations.

Small Axe leads the nominations for this year’s Bafta Television and Bafta Craft awards, which take place on June 6 and May 24, respectively.

The BBC mini-series, created and directed by Steve McQueen, is up for 15 awards (six television and three craft), including best mini-series, John Boyega and Shaun Parkes for leading actor, Letitia Wright for leading actress, and Malachi Kirby and Michael Ward for supporting actor.

Small Axe was produced by Turbine Studios and Lammas Park alongside the BBC and Amazon Studios. Two episodes – Mangrove and Lovers Rock – were picked...

Banijay Rights sells porn drama to streaming service.

HBO Max has acquired Channel 4/ Fifty Fathom’s pornography drama Adult Material from Banijay Rights.

The four-part drama, which debuted in the UK at the beginning of October, will head to the WarnerMedia streamer in December, following a deal brokered by Matt Creasey, executive vice-president of sales, co-productions and acquisitions, rest of world at Banijay Rights.

Adult Material is written by Lucy Kirkwood and stars Hayley Squires (Collateral) as a leading adult actress who juggles her work with being a single mother of three. It explores themes of sex in the age of the internet,...

WarnerMedia streamer HBO Max has taken the rights to Channel 4’s sex worker series Adult Material in a deal with Banijay Rights.

Produced by Banijay production outfit Fifty Fathoms, the series stars Hayley Squires (Collateral) as British pornstar Jolene Dollar who is juggling her on-screen sex work with the reality of motherhood at home. Rupert Everett also features as Dollar’s producer Carroll.

Written by Lucy Kirkwood (The Smoke), Adult Material tells a funny and erotic story about sex in the age of the internet, the blurring of fantasy and reality, and economic choices for women.

HBO Max will stream the series in December after it launched on Channel 4 this month. The deal was brokered by Matt Creasey, Banijay Rights’ EVP of sales, co-productions and acquisitions, rest of world.

Adult Material is directed by Dawn Shadforth and written by Kirkwood, who is also an executive producer along with Patrick Spence.

On top of the many British dramas returning this year, below are the many, many, many new UK TV series we can expect to see arrive in 2020 and beyond. Almost all of them starring David Tennant, by the looks of it – no bad thing.

You’ll find original drama from Russell T. Davies, a new space-set sci-fi from Sky, true crime series, contemporary thrillers and the usual hefty number of literary adaptations and period dramas coming your way. Here’s the same for all the new British comedy on its way in 2020.

We’ll keep this list updated as new commissions, casting news, broadcast details and release dates arrive. Obviously, with Covid-19 halting production on all continuing and new dramas since mid-March, there will now be serious delays, but we’ll keep you posted as news arrives.

All Creatures Great and Small (Tbc) All Creatures Great And Small (Audible)

Filmed...

Wild Bunch TV-sold “Albatros,” Turner Latin America’s banner title “Amarres” and REInvent Studios’ globe-trotting “Peacemaker” will feature at a 54 series-strong Buyers Showcase, which launches today March 25 as a backbone of Series Mania’s online Digital Forum, Europe’s first big festival experiment in a virtual marketplace.

Also featuring a powerful Co-Pro Pitching lineup, packed by pedigree producers and creatives, the Digital Forum’s industry audience, such as the number of accredited distributors, still has to be confirmed.

Some high-profile titles are missing: Opener “The Luminaries,” for example, from Fremantle and Working Title, and HBO closer “Run.” That said, the Buyer’s Showcase looks set to include five of Series Mania’s original 10 main competition entries and 13 of its 15 International Panorama titles, the festival’s two main sections.

Looking to the long-haul, as it also address urgent financial fall-out from Covid-19, the industry needs festival selection more than ever.

“Series...

UK projects are Channel 4’s Adult Material and Sky’s Little Birds.

The line-up for the 2020 edition of Series Mania, which runs March 20-28 in Lille, has been unveiled.

The competition features the world premieres of two UK series’; Channel 4’s Adult Material, created by Lucy Kirkwood and starring Haley Squires; and Sophia Al-Maria’s Little Birds, which is based on the short story by Anais Nin, broadcast on Sky and starring Juno Temple.

Other highlights in the competition include Israel’s biggest budget drama series Valley Of Tears starring Lior Ashkenazi; German Netflix series Unorthodox from Anna Winger,...

Paris — “Narcos” showrunner Chris Brancato and “Godfather of Harlem” star Giancarlo Esposito, actors Carole Bouquet and Zabou Breitman, and the cast and crew behind the Canal Plus series “The Bureau” will be among the many guest of honor at this year’s Series Mania, which will kick off its 11th edition on March 20.

Returning to the north-eastern French city of Lille, Series Mania will once again offer a broad cross-section of international scripted dramas, with a selection culled from 25 different countries including Chile, Peru, Niger, Senegal and South Korea, alongside high profile productions from the U.S., the U.K. and France.

Among the 38 productions world premiering in Lille, the BBC/Tvnz literary adaption “The Luminaries,” with Eva Green, will play as opening series while the closer remains unannounced.

Once again, Netflix makes a strong showing this year. Beyond bringing the cast and crew of their Paris-set drama “The Eddy,...

American Animals and Three Identical Strangers outfit Raw has hired Sara Murray from UK producer Studio Lambert to serve in the newly created role of head of scripted TV.

Murray will be tasked with growing the company’s TV scripted division. At Studio Lambert, which like Raw is owned by All3Media, she was an executive producer on upcoming ten-part Amazon/Virgin Media series The Feed by Channing Powell

(The Walking Dead), and worked on shows including Girl On A Wire by Thomas Martin (Tin Star).

Raw’s TV scripted development slate includes projects with Clio Barnard, Lucy Kirkwood, Tom Edge and Juliette Towhidi, alongside Bart Layton’s first scripted TV commission. The firm is also currently in production on factual series for Netflix, CNN and Discovery.

Murray was previously script editor on Andrew Davies’ ITV drama Dr Zhivago, TV development producer on hit Channel4 series Top Boy by Ronan Bennett...

Hayley Squires, who starred in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake and Netflix/BBC co-pro Collateral, is to star in Channel 4 porn drama Adult Material. Rupert Everett of My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Happy Prince also stars.

Squires is to play Jolene Dollar, a mum of three and one of the top porn performers in the UK, in the Lucy Kirkwood-penned series.

Siena Kelly (Vanity Fair), Kerry Godliman (Afterlife), Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones), Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey) and Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia) also star.

The four-part series, which is produced by Fortitude and The Eddy producer Fifty Fathoms, looks at the porn industry in modern Britain from the perspective of a woman who has been working in it her entire adult life and has seen it grow from an illegitimate backroom enterprise to a mainstream and highly profitable arm of the telecommunications industry.

It follows the...

The American actor on playing a rabbi, jet ski racing with Robert De Niro and exploring his Italian-American heritage

Alessandro Nivola was born in Boston in 1972. Graduating from Yale, he made his Broadway debut in 1995 opposite Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country. Two years later he played Nicholas Cage’s villainous younger brother in Face/Off, before decamping to Britain to star in a series of independent films including Love’s Labour’s Lost. Last year he played a London rabbi in Sebastian Lelio’s Disobedience and, in the forthcoming Channel 4 adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s play Chimerica, he stars as a war photographer haunted by his image of a Tiananmen Square protester in 1989. Nivola lives in Brooklyn, New York, with Mortimer and their two children.

Where are you right now?

I’m in a car in Manhattan, going home from a rehearsal for the Sopranos prequel film [tt8110232 autoThe...

Channel 4 has unveiled the first look at the Alessandro Nivola-fronted series adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s critically acclaimed play Chimerica.

The broadcaster is set to launch the four-part series, from Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment, this spring.

Chimerica, written by Kirkwood, examines the changing fortunes of the U.S. and China. Nivola plays the lead, an American photojournalist who tries to discover the truth behind the iconic, career-making image he took of a lone man defying the tanks that rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Chimerica starts in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 as young American photojournalist captures a piece of history as tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door. Twenty years later, he is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labor and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. He subsequently becomes obsessed with a cryptic message left...

‘Lambs of God’ (Photo: Mark Rogers)

Lingo Pictures’ Foxtel-commissioned comedic drama Lambs of God will have its world premiere in official competition at Series Mania next month.

Created by Sarah Lambert and directed by Jeffrey Walker, the show adapted from Marele Day’s novel will compete with nine series from the UK, the Us, Israel, Norway, France and Russia.

Glendyn Ivin’s BBC/ABC psychological drama The Cry, adapted by Jacquelin Perske from the Helen FitzGerald novel, will screen in the International Panorama section of the event which runs from March 22-30 in Lille, northern France.

Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon will serve as president of the competition jury with The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot, French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.

Starring Essie Davis, Ann Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid, Lambs of God follows three nuns,...

The 10th edition of Series Mania in Lille runs March 22-30.

The line-up for the 10th edition of Series Mania, which runs March 22-30 in Lille, has been revealed.

The competition features the world premieres of three Channel 4 dramas, including the Warp Films-produced The Virtues, which is written and directed by Shane Meadows and starring Stephen Graham as a troubled man who returns to Ireland to confront his childhood in the care system. Jack Thorne co-wrote the project.

The other C4 series are Iraq-set crime thriller Baghdad Central, from House Of Sadam creator Stephen Butchard, and Chimerica, created...

Ever-growing international TV event Series Mania has unveiled an impressive 2019 lineup including new dramas from Netflix, HBO and the UK’s Channel4. Scroll down for the lineups in full.

Taking place in Lille, northern France, this year’s event (March 22-30) will include masterclasses from Uma Thurman, Freddie Highmore, Charlie Brooker and Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon who will also serve as president of the Official Competition jury. Also on the jury are The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot (Spiral), French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.

Thurman will be in town for the international premiere of Netflix Original Series Chambers, a Ya supernatural drama thriller from Stephen Gaghan (Syriana). HBO’s Folklore, an Asian horror anthology, plays in International Competition, as does HBO Europe’s Success, directed by Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land). Amazon-Arte project Une...

Graced by Uma Thurman, “The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore and “Black Mirror” creators Charlie Brooker and Anabel Jones, the 10th edition of Series Mania will kick off March 22 with a prominent Netflix presence, a broader geographical reach and a strong showing of women writers and directors.

Thurman will make the trek to Lille, in northeast France, for the international premiere of Netflix Original Series “Chambers,” which looks like one of the hottest tickets in this year’s 10-title Official Competition. “Chambers” is a Ya supernatural drama thriller from Stephen Gaghan and Turner’s multi-platform Super Deluxe. In it a young heart attack victim begins to take on the sinister characteristics of her deceased heart donor. Thurman plays the donor’s mother.

Thurman, Highmore, and Brooker and Jones will deliver Series Mania masterclasses, as will writer-producer-director Marti Noxon, who is president of the Official Competition jury. Other members of the...

Exclusive: Jason Wong is joining Guy Ritchie’s Toff Guys gang which already includes Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Hugh Grant, Henry Golding, and Jeremy Strong.

In the Miramax movie Wong will play Phuc, a dangerous and conniving Chinese gangster, who is a member of Golding’s charter’s illicit crime outfit. The pic explores the collision between old-money European wealth and the modern marijuana industrial complex with new gang entrants swarming, and it’s a throwback to Ritchie’s hyper-action British gangster pics.

Wong recently appeared in the ITV mystery crime drama series Strangers (formerly known as White Dragon) which will be streaming on Amazon in February. He can next be seen in the upcoming Channel 4 series Chimerica, which is written by Lucy Kirkwood and stars Alessandro Nivola. The series follows Nivola as an American photojournalist who tries to discover the truth behind the iconic, career-making image he took...

Hulu has landed Tender Is The Night, a limited series adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, sources said. The project, from Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment, which had optioned the rights earlier this year, is in early stages in development.

Tender Is The Night, which was published in 1934, was Fitzgerald’s fourth and final completed novel. It tells the story of promising young psychiatrist Dick Diver. He meets 16-year old Nicole Warren, who suffers from schizophrenia, before marrying her and moving to the French Riviera, where they start a glamorous life of partying with friends.

However, Diver’s life soon takes a turn after investing in a clinic in Switzerland, being accused of seducing the 15-year daughter of one of his patients and driving his wife to jealousy (and a car accident). He moves to Berlin, when he finds out his father dies, and on his way back from America,...

The First and Electric Dreams commissioner Simon Maxwell is set to leave his role as Head of International Drama at UK network Channel 4 to set up an Endeavor Content-backed production company.

The company, as yet unnamed, marks Endeavor Content’s first scripted TV partnership in the UK. It will focus on focus on producing premium drama series for the UK, U.S. and international markets.

Maxwell will leave his position at the end of the year, having overseen a number of global dramas orchestrated by Channel 4 including AMC co-pro Humans, Hulu’s Beau Willimon space drama The First, which was co-financed by Endeavor Content, Philip K Dick Amazon co-pro Electric Dreams as well as forthcoming titles such as Bathsheba Doran’s Traitors, Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica and George Clooney’s Catch 22.

Most recently a network executive, but Maxwell is also a creative; having created, written and exec produced Fox International drama Deep State,...

Exclusive: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night is heading to the small screen after Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment optioned the rights.

The deal is the latest literary adaptation for the Wolf Hall producer, following the launch of Little Women earlier this year, The White Princess on Starz and BBC and Amazon’s King Lear. It also marks the latest Fitzgerald novel to head to the small screen following the launch of The Last Tycoon, based on Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Love of the Last Tycoon on Amazon.

I understand that Callender’s firm struck the deal with Don Laventhall at Harold Ober and Associates, who brokered the deal on behalf of Fitzgerald’s estate. Playground will produce a TV series in association with David A. Stern at Sleeping Giant Films. Stern was previously Head of Scripted Programming at Sofia Vergara’s Raze and recently exec produced...

“The Band’s Visit” emerged as the big winner at the 72nd Annual Tony Awards, winning 10 prizes, including Best Musical.

The show, based on a 2007 movie about an Egyptian band that mistakenly finds itself in an isolated village in Israel, also earned prizes for its lead performers, “Monk” star Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk, as well as supporting player Itamar Moses.

Director David Cromer, composer David Yazbek, book writer Itamar Moses were recognized in addition to the show’s orchestrations, sound and lighting design.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the two-part drama that extended J.K. Rowling’s beloved wizard franchise to Broadway, won six awards, including Best Play. The hit show, which broke the record in its London run by winning nine Olivier Awards, also won prizes for director John Tiffany, as well as for scenic, costume, lighting and sound design.

Also Read: All 12 Egot Winners, From Audrey Hepburn...

Line Of Duty director Michael Keillor boards project; filming underway.

Filming is now underway on Chimerica, Channel 4’s four-part adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s Olivier Award-winning stage play.

Show Fullscreen

Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle) will lead the cast as Lee Berger, an American photojournalist and idealist who has lost his way after years working in war zones. Joining him in the project are Cherry Jones (Transparent), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), F. Murray Abraham (Homeland), Terry Chen (Jessica Jones) and Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World).

Lady Macbeth director William Oldroyd had been set to direct the series but has now left the project,...

Transparent and The Handmaid’s Tale star Cherry Jones and Homeland’s F. Murray Abraham will be among the actors starring alongside Alessandro Nivola in Lucy Kirkwood’s TV adaptation of Chimerica.

The pair will join the American Hustle star, as exclusively reported earlier this year by Deadline, and Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Terry Chen (Jessica Jones) and Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World) in the four-part drama for UK’s Channel 4.

Chimerica, written by Kirkwood, examines the changing fortunes of the U.S. and China. Nivola will play the lead, American photojournalist Lee Berger who tries to discover the truth behind the iconic, career-making image he took of a lone man defying the tanks that rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Jones will play Mel Kincaid, Lee’s old friend and colleague, fiercely intellectual and recently sober; Okonedo will be Tessa Kendrick, a corporate-minded market researcher who crosses Lee...

The Huntman: Winter’s War star Sheridan Smith is to front a Deuce-esque drama for UK broadcaster Channel 4. The British actor is to star in Adult Material, written by Chimerica playwright Lucy Kirkwood and produced by The Eddy and Guerilla producer Fifty Fathoms.

The show is set in the modern porn industry from the perspective of someone who has seen it grow from a seedy backroom enterprise to a legitimate and highly profitable arm of the telecommunications business. It will explore the myriad of ways that sex, power and consent are intrinsically connected and how it is now worth almost $100B per year.

Smith plays Jolene Dollar, a porn star and mum of three who has been working for twenty years. One day on set, Jolene is introduced to Amy, a 19-year old recovering dancer new on set. Jolene looks after Amy the way that she looks after every new girl on set.

Exclusive: Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle, Selma) is in final negotiations to star in Channel 4’s four-part limited series adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s critically acclaimed play Chimerica, from Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment.

Titled Foreign Skies, the U.K. series, written by Kirkwood, examines the changing fortunes of the U.S. and China. Nivola will play the lead, an American photojournalist who tries to discover the truth behind the iconic, career-making image he took of a lone man defying the tanks that rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Foreign Skies starts in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 as young American photojournalist captures a piece of history as tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door. Twenty years later, he is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labour and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. He subsequently becomes obsessed with a...

Sophie Gardiner hired as managing director.

Us production and management outfit Anonymous Content is teaming with UK talent agencies Casarotto Ramsay and United Agents to launch London-based production company Chapter One.

Sophie Gardiner has been named managing director of Chapter One, which will look to produce high-end film and TV content. She will join the company in June and will oversee the building of the company’s initial team.

Gardiner was previously head of drama at Playground Television where she executive produced adaptations of Howards End and Little Women. She is currently serving as executive producer on Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood...

76 women sign open letter to commissioners that claims British drama is “overwhelmingly written by men”.

A group of more than 70 female writers has accused UK drama bosses of failing to give them opportunities to ‘graduate’ from soaps to flagship primetime shows (reports Broadcast).

In an open letter to TV drama commissioners, 76 women, whose work ranges from EastEnders and Casualty to Midsomer Murders, Hollyoaks and Us series How To Get Away With Murder, claimed British drama is “overwhelmingly written by men”.

The letter was prompted by a recent ITV drama release that set out 10 upcoming shows for 2018, but featured just one written by a woman – Gwyneth Hughes’ adaptation of Vanity Fair. The broadcaster has since announced a second series of Kate Brooke’s detective drama Bancroft.

The signatories, who include The Coroner creator Sally Abbott, writer and actress Sarah Solemani and Debbie Moon, who devised Cbbc’s Wolfblood, said there is an “untapped resource” of female writers who have cut...

These days, the path for a breakout indie filmmaker has many forks. You can leap right to a blockbuster, stay in your lane with more auteur arthouse movies, or pivot to television and take your storytelling talents to a bigger canvas. William Oldroyd is taking the latter path.

The director behind last year’s sensational and icy “Lady Macbeth,” has inked a deal to helm “Chimerica.” The four-part miniseries will adapt Lucy Kirkwood’s critically acclaimed play that unfolds a drama about U.S/China relations, kicking off with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Continue reading ‘Lady Macbeth’ Helmer William Oldroyd To Direct Miniseries ‘Chimerica’ at The Playlist.

William Oldroyd to direct Lucy Kirkwood adaptation.

Lady Macbeth breakout filmmaker William Oldroyd will direct Chimerica, a four-part TV adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s critically lauded play.

Source: Daniel Foeldes

William Oldroyd

The series is from Wolf Hall outfit Playground Entertainment and is being set up at broadcaster Channel 4, a source confirmed to Screen.

Kirkwood is adapating her own play for the series. Oldroyd will direct all four episodes.

Chimerica debuted in London’s West End in 2013. The play was inspired by the famous image of a man facing down a tank during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The project is the second collaboration between Playground and Channel 4 announced this month following the news that Peter Kosminsky will direct cyber warfare series The Undeclared War.

Exclusive: The next twelve months could be a defining year for the relationship between the U.S. and China as President Trump and President Xi circle each other on a range of issues. Perfect timing for Playground Entertainment's high-end drama Chimerica, an adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood's critically acclaimed play, that is on the verge of a deal with UK broadcaster Channel 4. The broadcaster is in the final stages of development with the series expected to shortly receive a…...

“The Cows” would have made a better title. The poster for Lucy Kirkwood’s new play features its three actors suited up for what looks like a tour of a nuclear power plant, and emblazoned across their bundled-up bodies is her chosen title, “The Children.” This very scary, cautionary drama opened Tuesday at Mtc’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and there’s no doubt about it. Splashed across all that protective gear, “The Cows” would have been more provocative. In “The Children,” Robin (Ron Cook) and Hazel (Deborah Findlay) talk about their cows as much as they do their four adult children.

Manhattan Theatre Club's American premiere of The Royal Court Theatre's production of The Children, the new play by Olivier Award winner Lucy Kirkwood Chimerica, directed by James MacDonald Top Girls at Mtc, opens tonight, December 12, at Mtc's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre 261 West 47th Street. Scroll down to learn more about the company, plus hear from the stars in the video below...

A friendly reminder that performances begin tomorrow Tuesday, November 28 for the Manhattan Theatre Club's American premiere of The Royal Court Theatre's production of The Children, the new play by Olivier Award winner Lucy Kirkwood Chimerica, directed by James Macdonald Top Girls at Mtc starring acclaimed London cast members BAFTA Award winner Francesca Annis BBC's Cranford , Olivier Award nominee Ron Cook Juno and the Paycock at The Donmar, and Olivier Award winner Deborah Findlay The National Theatre's Stanley.

Hello and welcome back to the Backstage weekly roundup of the most important news from across the industry. Covering stage and screen, it’s everything you need to know and all you can’t afford to miss! The Old Vic has received 20 complaints about Kevin Spacey.In the findings of an investigation with an external law firm, the theatre found that Spacey’s “star status” and uncertainty that allegations would be taken seriously contributed to the lack of action whilst the Hollywood actor was the theater’s artistic director. Read more here. The Evening Standard published its Theatre Awards shortlist.Yes, it really is that time of year again! Andrew Scott’s Danish prince was heralded by the paper as the likely contender for Best Actor along with Bertie Carvell for James Graham’s newspaper drama “Ink”, and Andrew Garfield for the National Theatre’s epic revival of “Angels in America...

By now you’ll have realised that there’s an awful lot going on in old London Town. Let us help you sort the Tony winners from the Tony Danzas with our weekly guide to the events every London actor should know about. Join the fash pack at the London Fashion Week Festival.Fancy hobnobbing with Cara, Kate, and Gigi? London Fashion Week is in full swing and you can be part of it by joining in with the Lfw Festival which is open to the public. Take in a catwalk show, get career guidance from industry insiders—or maybe just hair and makeup tips. Clearly, it’s going to be absolutely fabulous, darling! (Tickets from £20) Get some tips from two great actors.Playing to packed houses at the National is Lucy Kirkwood’s new play ‘Mosquitos’, starring Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams. On Monday 18 September, the two lead actresses...

Exclusive: UK broadcaster joins finance of Jean Doumanian, WestEnd drama.

UK broadcaster Film4 has boarded finance on director Benedict Andrews’ anticipated drama Blackbird, which is set to star Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Carol) and Ben Mendelsohn (Starred Up, Animal Kingdom).

The script is adapted by playwright David Harrower from his celebrated and controversial Olivier Award-winning play of the same name, and will mark the feature directorial debut of acclaimed theatre director Benedict Andrews.

Currently in pre-production, the film will see Mendelsohn play Ray, a mid-level manager in his early 50s, who is confronted by angry 20-something Una (Mara). The two had a passionate affair 15 years earlier when Una was barely a teenager, for which Ray was arrested and imprisoned.

Like a wrecking ball from his past, Una’s unexpected arrival threatens to destroy Ray’s new identity.

WestEnd Films is handling international sales and will co-produce alongside August: Osage County producer Jean Doumanian and Patrick Daly...