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Another week down, Insiders. Jesse Whittock is with you again to guide you through the biggest and most important TV and film news. |
AI-gatha: Though her works have been the basis of tonnes of TV shows and films, the life of Agatha Christie was shrouded in mystery. Budding screenwriters are now about to come face to face – or should I say AI to AI – with her for the first time. BBC Studios is working with Agatha Christie Limited to create a writing course for the BBC Maestro platform that will led by an artificially-generated Christie
. The Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple creator's great grandson James Pritchard, who looks after her estate, attended a posh event at London's Claridge's hotel, where the project was announced. It's the latest example of how AI is changing content, and will have Christie superfans booking spots to interact with 'her' for the first time. The news was just one of a series of AI-related developments this week as Deadline unveils its twice-monthly AI newsletter TechLine (subscribe over here). Stewart took a trip over to Once Upon A Time's studio in East London to hear how the agency is
using the likes of the revolutionary heatmap tool Dragonfly AI to inform the work it does on trailers, promos and materials for The Crown and Venom. “It has enabled us to algorithmically unpick the human eye,” explained Toby Richards, Once Upon A Time’s Strategy and Planning Director. Sounds both innovative and a bit painful. German TV crime staple Tatort is also employing AI
to attract younger fans to a series that broadly attracts over-50s, with an AI-driven game in which players interact with characters using Respeak chatbot tech to solve a case as a rookie cop. While AI remains among the most challenging concepts for the worlds of TV and film, and many still expect the downsides to outweigh the up, there is also a growing enthusiasm for its possibilities. Natasha Lyonne this week told Glenn Garner she's planning to utilize artificial intelligence in her directorial debut Uncanny Valley
using what she called the "first clean foundational model that is copyright-clean" and would not "omit any department heads or production designers or cinematographers." She was at the same time among the 400+ Hollywooders who signed an open letter urging the Trump administration not to prioritize global AI leadership over the country's prized creative industries. You can therefore see how complicated this remains. Of course, the main proponent of 'AI gone wrong' in the creative world is Netflix's Black Mirror, which returned recently for its seventh season. The BBC has now gone and commissioned a "real-life
Black Mirror"-style doc, AI Confidential, in which uber-brain presenter Hannah Fry will “investigate extraordinary tales from the front lines of the AI revolution." BBC specialist factual chief Jack Bootle, who ordered the doc, told Max about red lines in terms of AI usage
in shows for the Beeb, saying, "I would only ever use it in a situation when the real thing can never be photographed." Taken together, this week's developments highlight how AI is only becoming a bigger friend and/or enemy of creativity. As Christie's great creation Poirot once said, "The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances." Read all of our AI coverage here.
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Going, going, Mahon: I'm going to use a cliché here and you can't stop me: It's the end of an era over at Horseferry Road, known to most as the head office of Channel 4. Alex Mahon is leaving the UK network after eight years as CEO, as some suspected might happen. It's too early to say if her tenure will be looked back on fondly, but the former Shine exec has certainly had some big wins: establishing a national office in Leeds,
staving off Tory government attempts at privatizing the public service broadcaster and setting a digital-first agenda that could keep Channel 4 relevant in the streaming-dominated eras to come. There were also bad times: producers turned against Channel 4
after the pandemic as programming budgets were slashed and communication became fractured, to be generous. She oversaw a restructure last January that left 250 roles redundant and confirmed the broadcaster would leave the iconic Horseferry Road in central London, while also overseeing the biggest ever financial deficit in the network's history last year. With Mahon now set for a new gig as CEO of festival biz Superstruct and Channel 4 Chairman Ian Cheshire leaving after one term, it's a time of change, and there might be more to come: the day after Mahon announced her exit to staff, Channel 4 Chief Content Officer Ian Katz gathered his team and
said he is unsure if he'd be part of the new Chief Exec's plans, whoever that person might be. Katz, whose time at Channel 4 still divides the UK industry, has been in post since unexpectedly landing the role in 2017.
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Cannestenders, ready: Canneseries ended Tuesday evening with an awards ceremony on the Cote D'Azur that saw Norway emerge as the big winner
, with its shows taking home Best Series and Best Performance trophies among others. Norwegian series had actually flown relatively quietly under the radar during a week that saw Josh Holloway, Beau Willimon, Jane Tranter and several other big names stopping on the Croisette beach for photo ops and moments on the pink carpet. In honesty, it often felt quiet around the streets and few producers could be seen engaged in those intense meetings outside New York New York or Caffé Roma that are a hallmark of MIPCOM and the Cannes Film Festival. The week started in tricky fashion for the Canneseries organizers, as Jury President Norman Reedus pulled out at the last minute due to a filming commitment, which Andreas later
reported was an indie horror lensing in New Mexico. Over the weekend, the new industry track had some great speakers, but rooms appeared quiet. Amid overcast and muggy weather, things improved with the likes of Pachinko creator Soo Hugh telling us her opinion on the studios and Nicola Coughlan
talking about advocacy
among the highlights, and we brought you scoops from the likes of Bad Sisters co-creator Malin-Sarah Gozin, a new Norwegian streaming service and
the team behind out-of-competition series The Big Fuck Up.
All our coverage from Cannes can be found here.
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Nearly that time again: Away from the small screen, the movie packages are starting to roll in for this year’s Cannes Market, and there’s some heat on the auction blocks. This week, we broke that Florian Zeller has locked Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz for his next feature, Bunker. The film is described as “a thriller that delves into the emotional and moral challenges a couple faces amid the tensions of the world around them, exploring the fears, doubts, and dilemmas that define our era.” Filmnation is bringing that to market. Nicholas Galitzine and Marisa Abela have
signed on to lead The Return of Stanley Atwell, a feature written and directed by Brian Welsh (Black Mirror) and based on a story by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh. Protagonist is leading sales on that pic. Lionsgate has the biggest project of the market so far with franchise returner The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Market sources tell us the film’s budget is being pegged north of $150M. The film stars Jesse Plemons, Joseph Zada, Whitney Peak, and McKenna Grace. Our guys having been dropping scoop after scoop, as excitement for this year's Cannes builds, and you can check out all of the market coverage here. |
Anime-ted conversation: Crunchyroll, the Sony-owned anime streamer, has been Solo Leveling up, its President, Rahul Purini, told Stewart earlier this week. The subscription service, which has 15 million paying customers, was in London for a content showcase that gave Purini the chance to explain the anime phenomenon to a select group of interested parties. Solo Leveling, based on a manhwa (Korean comic), was Crunchyroll's most popular show last year, and Purini put this down to the gaming-style elements. He didn't completely commit to a third season, however. When Stew pushed him for an update, the answer was, "We have to find the right time to get started." Gaming IP from parent Sony is clearly vital for the streamer, with the likes of
Ghosts of Tsushima among the big bets for coming years, alongside new Demon Slayer movies. All the news is here.
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