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Prime Video’s 2024 series, Snakes and Ladders, is an investigative drama about a robbery that goes wrong. It takes inspiration from Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and Famous Five books, in which a group of children set out to investigate crimes. Unlike in those books, the children in this show are in serious trouble and are desperate to find their way out of it.

Spoilers Ahead

Who got robbed in the town of Rettamugadu?

Snakes and Ladders began with a group of preteen children: Gilbert, aka Gilli, Bala, Santosh, aka Sandy, and Iraiyan, aka Irai, who were well known for their antics in the town. Irai’s father was a police officer, and Raagitha, aka Raagi, was their friend in the town who was being homeschooled. She was living with her single mother, Revathy. One fateful night, after the boys left Raagi’s home, she and her mother were brutally...

Exclusive: Another round of layoffs has hit the BBC Children’s & Education department after a revamp to production of the Cbbc Studio.

A consultation in Salford’s Media City has started and 11 roles are set to be closed after a decision was made to outsource the presentation links between shows on the popular kids channel, we are told. These presentation links used to take place in the iconic Broom Cupboard but are now done in the Cbbc Studio, as channel favorites like Hacker T Dog announce shows and take part in mini skits. Production on the CBeebies presentation links, including the famous Bedtime Stories, will remain the same.

The move is the second phase of a set of changes brought in last year following an 18-month structural review into BBC Children’s, the first of which saw around 25 leave the department and was revealed by Deadline in February 2023.

The presentation links...

BBC Heading On More ‘Famous Five’ Adventures

The BBC is heading on a second set of The Famous Five adventures. Nicolas Winding Refn’s version, which is made by The Gentleman co-producer Moonage and byNWR with Mediapro Studio, will roll cameras on two more 90-minute eps, which follows the three that launched earlier this year. The show is a modern adaptation of the Enid Blyton classics. Series two takes the heroes into strange and challenging waters as they face life during wartime – and the hazards of growing up. The new series includes a guest role for Jemima Rooper, who starred as George in the 1990s Famous Five TV series and now takes on the role of Angela Clutterbuck, a guest staying at a mysterious hotel. Winding Refn said: “The excitement I feel for the return of The Famous Five fills my inner child with pure content. It is an adventure...

Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn is hoping to shoot a new film in Tokyo next year – and it seems it won’t be quite as family-friendly as his Famous Five adaptation.

Venice Film Festival is in full swing, and it seems that the entirety of Hollywood has landed in Italy.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is at the Lido too with his short film Beauty Is Not A Sin, but the filmmaker also told Variety that he’s planning his return to feature filmmaking, something we reported on back in February. Winding Refn swore off Hollywood years ago and hasn’t made a feature since 2016’s The Neon Demon.

Variety details that Winding Refn is planning to shoot his new, still-untitled film in Tokyo, which will be in both English and Japanese. Winding Refn also described his return to feature filmmaking as an act of “defiance”.

“It’s a really...

Nicolas Winding Refn, is one of the few directors who deserves the enfant terrible label. The Danish filmmaker, best-known for his neon-drenched tales of sex, violence and revenge — Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon — is at the Venice Film Festival this year with two works that, he says, represents both his “classic past and the future”: A restored version of his 1996 debut Pusher and Beauty Is Not a Sin, a seven-minute commercial for Italian motorcycle company Mv Agusta. “Whoever said a movie can’t be seven minutes long?” is its irreverent, Refn-esque tagline.

In recent years, Refn has pivoted from cinema towards streaming, bringing his acid Day-Glo aesthetic and digressive narrative style — he typically shoots in sequence, not knowing how his stories will end — to series like Too Old to Die Young for Amazon and Copenhagen Cowboy for Netflix. He also, surprisingly, reimagined Enid Blyton’s beloved kids...

Exclusive: An eclectic collection of upcoming projects ranging from Guy Ritchie’s debut TV series to Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Famous Five to an Italian-language series for Netflix are tied together by one constant: Moonage Pictures.

Frith Tiplady, Matthew Read and Will Gould’s London outfit has been one of the quieter British drama production houses of the past few years but is signaling itself this year with a wealth of long-gestating projects making their way to the screen, and they are buoyant in the face of a tricky market.

Shows incoming include the Miramax and STX Television co-produced Gentlemen TV series spin-off that has seen Moonage work with Snatch auteur Ritchie for the first time, a big-budget BBC adaptation of Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, The Famous Five for the BBC and Zdf, and Netflix Italy’s The Leopard – one of the streamer’s...

Exclusive: The long-gestating modern-day movie adaptation of Enid Blyton’s children’s classic The Magic Faraway Tree has got fresh impetus with new financiers and creatives aboard and a start date lined up for June of this year.

Elysian Film Group and Neal Street Productions are behind the project which is scripted by BAFTA winner Simon Farnaby, riding high off the success of box office hit Wonka, which he co-wrote with Paul King.

Ben Gregor (Britannia) is newly aboard to direct the feature, based on the book series by beloved British author Blyton, also known for creating hit kids properties such as Noddy and Famous Five.

Casting is in process on the film, which will be repped for worldwide sales at next month’s EFM by Tamara Birkemoe’s US and UK-based Palisades Park Pictures. CAA Media Finance is co-repping domestic.

Updated for a contemporary audience, The...

When you think of your favorite children's books, you might fondly recall getting lost in a Dr. Seuss adventure or your parents reading you "Goodnight, Moon." "Treasure Island" might come to mind, or if you're an Brit like myself, perhaps a delightful bedtime adventure with the "Famous Five." Well, it seems the next generation can look forward to something altogether more unsettling because Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 effort "Alien" is now being made into a children's book.

Yes, as per Entertainment Weekly, Ellen Ripley and her fellow Nostromo crew will be the focus of a Little Golden Book — you know, Penguin Random House's compact hardbacks for kids, which have been running since 1942 and seem to have the license to pretty much every IP under the sun. "A is for Alien: An ABC Book," is the latest edition to the extensive lineup, and will, according to EW, "teach young readers...

The Mediapro Studios has boarded Nicolas Winding Refn’s reimaginging of The Famous Five.

The Madrid-based content house has struck a production deal with BBC Studios includes distribution rights to the upcoming kids series in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

The series is a retelling of the bestselling Enid Blyton novels published between 1942 ands 1963, and comes from Winding Refn’s byNWR and BBC Studios-backed indie Moonage Pictures, which is behind The Pursuit of Love and Bodies, with The Mediapro Studio now an associate producer.

Danish auteur Winding Refn co-created the series with Moonage’s Matthew Read, and both are exec producers. It is being made for the BBC in the UK and Zdf in Germany, with BBC Studios already pre-selling it to France’s TF1.

In an exclusive interview with Deadline ahead of Mipcom Cannes in October, where The Famous Five launched, Winding Refn said he...

Exclusive: There is a little-discussed Hollywood rumor, explains Nicolas Winding Refn and his long-time collaborator Matthew Read, that Scooby Doo only came to be because Warners failed to land the rights to adapt The Famous Five.

And when you look at the two properties and their uncanny similarities, this argument does begin to hold some weight. Both have daring female characters from a bygone era, ridiculous story-of-the-week capers that always end neatly, and, of course, those lovable pooches — in the former case Scooby and in the latter, Timmy.

If the rumor is true, Winding Refn is thankful for how things played out, as he credits both generation-traversing works with influencing his career and driving his love for the screen. Now, more than 50 years on from when Warner Bros. allegedly failed to land the rights, the Denmark-born director has become the latest to take on best-selling English children’s writer Enid Blyton’s iconic novel series,...

The man who struck major Channel 4 deals for the likes of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Great is headed to BBC Studios to head up commercial for scripted.

Nick Lee is exiting Channel 4 after a decade to join the BBC’s commercial production and distribution operation as Commercial Director, Drama and Comedy. He replaces Caroline Stone, who was promoted to oversee all scripted at the start of this year, and also takes on most of the responsibilities of recently-departed Commercial Director for Comedy Jonathan Blyth, with some of the existing team taking on added responsibilities.

Reporting to Scripted Productions COO Saul Venit, Lee will be responsible for developing the commercial strategy for BBC Studios’ overall portfolio, which includes the likes of prison drama Time, Daisy May Cooper’s Am I Being Unreasonable? and Nicolas Winding Refn’s upcoming Famous Five reboot. He will lead on key partnership deals and drive new business.

Casting

Casting for the beloved “Famous Five” stories of Enid Blyton, which are being reimagined for the BBC and Zdf by Nicolas Winding Refn, has been revealed.

Diaana Babnicova is playing the role of George, alongside Elliott Rose as Julian, Kit Rakusen as Dick, Flora Jacoby Richardson as Anne, playing George’s cousins who come to stay at Kirrin Cottage.

Making up the fifth member of the “Famous Five” is Kip, the Bearded Collie Cross playing Timmy the dog. The cast also includes Jack Gleeson (“Game of Thrones”), Ann Akinjirin (“Moon Knight”), James Lance (“Ted Lasso”) and Diana Quick (“Father Brown”).

The 3 x 90′ series is based on the 21 “Famous Five” novels and short stories Blyton wrote between 1942 and 1963. The series follows five daring young explorers as they encounter treacherous, action-packed adventures, remarkable mysteries, unparalleled danger and astounding secrets. It is created for television and executive produced by Winding Refn (byNWR...

Nicholas Winding Refn’s ‘Famous Five’ Adaptation Sets Cast

The BBC’s upcoming Famous Five adaptation from Nicholas Winding Refn has set cast and unveiled first look images. Diaana Babnicova will play the role of George, alongside Elliott Rose as Julian, Kit Rakusen as Dick, Flora Jacoby Richardson as Anne playing George’s cousins who come to stay at Kirrin Cottage. Joining the five are Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones) as Wentworth, Ann Akinjirin (Moon Knight) as Fanny, James Lance (Ted Lasso) as Quentin and Diana Quick (Father Brown) as Mrs Wentworth. The series is being co-produced for Zdf and comes from Drive creator Winding Refn’s byNWR along with Moonage Pictures. The show will be based on Enid Blyton’s iconic 21 stories with filming set to take place shortly across the south west of the UK. Famous Five is one of the highest-profile series to come out of the...

Bet you weren’t expecting the eyebrow-raising TV news of the day to involve a new adaptation of beloved children’s author Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series. But the surprising twist in the BBC’s announcement today didn’t concern the bestselling series of whimsical, jolly-hockey-sticks children’s adventure novels from the 1940s-1960s – rather the creator behind this new series: Nicolas Winding Refn.

Considering this Danish director is famous for stylish but graphically violent films like The Neon Demon, Only God Forgives and Drive, The Famous Five will be somewhat of a left turn for him.

The series will have three 90-minute episodes drawing on Blyton’s 21 Famous Five novels, which detailed the adventures of five daring young explorers – Julian, Dick, Anne, George and their dog Timmy – as they spend their school holidays gallivanting around the English countryside and coastline, solving mysteries, finding treasure and catching criminals. Filming...

The Danish director of Bronson and Pusher is to ‘reimagine’ Enid Blyton’s stories for a ‘progressive new audience’. Does this mean Anne will vomit up an eyeball?

There is a thread on the Enid Blyton Society’s online forum, in which various members of the society attempt to explain the appeal of the Famous Five books. For the most part, they do a wonderful job, pointing out the spirit of adventure that runs through them, the complexity of George, the moral clarity of the characters and the sense of escapism that must have seemed even more abundant when they were read during the bleak postwar years. The books, the thread claims, are good clean old-fashioned wholesome fun.

But what of the rest of us? The readers who aren’t members of the Enid Blyton Society, who aren’t automatically predisposed to love the Famous Five books? Those of us...

Series is billed as ”modern, timely and irreverent” take on classic childrens’ books.

Nicolas Winding Refn has teamed with the UK’s Moonage Pictures on a “modern, timely and irreverent” series adaptation of Edith Blyton’s classic children’s book The Famous Five for the BBC in co-production with Germany’s Zdf. TF1 has pre-bought the series for France.

The 3x90-minute series has begun filming and has been created and is executive produced by Winding Refn through Nwr Originals and Matthew Read through Moonage Pictures, based on Blyton’s 21 stories. Filming takes place across the South West of the UK.

Who doesn’t love a creepy novel once in a while, eh? I mean, I know I do. Horror is in my blood and has been for a long, long time, and so it’s only natural that I’m a fan of horror fiction too. I’ve read it for decades, beginning with my childhood, spent reading Point Horror books with titles like The Babysitter, Trick or Treat and The Funhouse. As I’ve gotten older (and older) I’ve sought out horror books that had something unique about them, or that sounded up my alley. I tend to like horror novels with a cinematic and comic style, books that I can almost See on a screen as I read. That’s the sweet spot.

So, I thought it might be cool to highlight ten horror novels, most of them fairly recent, that you should check out if you haven’t yet.

Netflix The four children, who are the prime protagonists, unravel the mystery and prove to be the biggest strength of the series.Geetika MantriAn almost forgotten childhood trauma. An old family home. A new family moving into it, setting off spooky, inexplicable incidents. A string of deaths. Sound familiar? It would be, if you have watched enough horror films. The story arc, no doubt, isn’t new. But if you are a fan of the genre, you’d know that more often than not, it’s the treatment of the combination of the same elements that can make all the difference between a nail-biting watch and a dud. However, Netflix’s newest Indian horror offering, Typewriter, doesn’t fall neatly into either category. Directed by Sujoy Ghosh of Kahaani fame, the series maintains the suspense for the most part, but fails to leave you with scares that you haven’t experienced before.

2Nd Update, Tuesday 4 Am Pt: Actuals are in for the international weekend with no major discrepancies save for a big drop on Taken 3. After Sunday’s report of a $57.2M total in non-Fox markets, the confirmed total came in at $39.8M. The difference was down to an incorrect cume provided to Fox by EuropaCorp for those territories. The overseas total is now a corrected $134M. In new pics, both JLo-starrer The Boy Next Door and Johnny Depp’s Mortdecai saw small bumps (up a respective $23K and $70K). American Sniper reloaded to $18M from a previously projected $17.6M.

Updated below are final numbers on those films along with: The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb, Penguins Of Madagascar, The Theory Of Everything, Unbroken, Seventh Son, Exodus: Gods And Kings, Into The Woods, Ouija, The Imitation Game, Birdman, Ex Machina,...

Deadline reports that Working Title Films has acquired the theatrical rights to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, paving the way for a possible family-friendly film franchise. The deal was settled through the publisher Holder, a subsidiary of Hachette.

In the pre-j.K. Rowling days, Enid Blyton was the great British children’s novelist; her series, which began with Five on a Treasure Island in 1942 and followed the adventures of five kids of various school holidays, ran through 21 novels and received immense critical success.

There have been several film and television adaptations of the Famous Five series, including two British...

At a ceremony held yesterday at Tiff Bell Lightbox, the award winners for the 15th annual Tiff Kids International Film Festival were announced. In addition to Audience Choice Awards, three Young People.s Juries weighed in on the recipients of the coveted Golden Sprocket Awards. Winners of the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase were also announced, as determined by a jury of film industry professionals. Tiff Kids is committed to involving children in the critical assessment of films, in support of the Tiff mission to transform the way people see the world through film. The Festival continues to provide a forum where young voices can be heard, a life-long love of cinema is formed, and media literacy skills are strengthened.<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tiff Kids Audience Choice Award . Best Feature Film</span><br style="font-weight: bold;" />Cool Kids Don.t Cry (Achtste Groepers Huilen Niet), director: Dennis Bots, The NetherlandsGrade eight student Akkie has only two concerns: going...