French-Senegalese actor and producer Seydina Baldé has worn many hats across his career including World Karate Champion and stuntman on films such as Brian de Palma’s Femme Fatale and Bond movie Casino Royale, but his dream since childhood has been to be an actor.

After a dozen small parts, Baldé engineered his first starring role with the self-produced, English-language action thriller Covert Operation (aka The Borderland). The North Korean-set movie, about a bounty hunter on a mission to break prisoners out of high-security military compound, sold to Lionsgate for the U.S. and won praise from action movie fans.

A decade later, Baldé is appearing in the most ambitious production of his career, six-part show Lex Africana, which is being billed as the first martial arts-based action thriller to come out of West Africa.

Baldé plays brilliant architect and martial arts expert Gabriel Aliou Thiam who returns after a...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled two new European series with A-list stars, announcing the Dutch crime drama Amsterdam Empire to star X-Men alum Famke Janssen and an unnamed French thriller series toplined by gallic veteran Isabelle Adjani (Camille Claudel, The Story of Adele H.).

Janssen will star and executive produce Amsterdam Empire, about a big-time cannabis dealer whose personal betrayal of his wife threatens the future of his pot imperium. Nico Moolenaar, Bart Uytdenhouwen and Piet Matthys, creators of Netflix Dutch crime series Undercover, created the new show, which Jonas Govaerts (H4Z4RD) will direct. The plot follows Jack van Doorn, the rich and notorious founder of the Jackal coffee shop empire in Amsterdam, who has an affair with a well-known journalist, drawing the ire of his wife Betty, who is looking for payback and knows all Jack’s dirty secrets. Pupkin Film will produce Amsterdam Empire together with A Team Productions.

French commercial network Tf1 has unveiled fresh details of its new free streaming platform TF1+, which launches on January 8.

The launch comes just over a year after the calling-off of a planned merger between TF1 and rival commercial network M6 and just months after the shuttering of Salto, TF1’s failed joint streaming platform with M6 and France Télévisions.

TF1 Managing Director Rodolphe Belmer told a news conference in Paris on Wednesday that the network wanted TF1+ to become the biggest free streaming platform in France.

“It’s a big moment for the group and a major launch,” he said.

A key aim behind its creation, he added, was to increase TF1’s advertising revenue in the digital domain.

Noting that 35 of every 100 hours of TV viewing in France are now consumed on an on-demand basis, Belmer said TF1 needed to be more proactive in the digital space.

“Our share...

Federation Studios Taps TF1 Head Of Drama

Former TF1 Head of Drama Anne Viau has joined Paris-based film and TV company Federation Studios, as she launches her own production company, Quelle Aventure!. Her fledgling banner joins another 20 labels, also including Bonne Pioche, Cottonwood Media, Fabula Pictures and Picture Perfect Federation, a joint venture between Patrick Wachsberger and Federation Studio co-heads Pascal Breton and Lionel Uzan. Viau was Head Of Drama at TF1 from 2018 until this month, overseeing series such as The Bonfire of Destiny or Women at War, Hpi, Balthazar, One of Us, Tomorrow is Ours and Ici Tout Commence. Viau said Quelle Aventure! marked a new chapter in her professional life. “This venture also allows me to return to my first love, which is writing and which is central to my new role as a producer, alongside attracting key talent and sourcing great stories,” she said. The partnership will...

Exclusive: Prime Video will tomorrow add Gallic streaming service France Channel to its offer.

France Channel’s owners say the service provides the largest offer of French titles in the market, the majority of which will be available in the U.S. for the first time.

France Channel was founded and developed by French businessman, entrepreneur and entertainment exec Julien Verley, who has spent two decades in the media and television industry. He has had spells as Canal+’s CFO and France Televisions’ CEO for commercial activities.

His service champions and celebrates French lifestyle, history and culture. It will provide original series, films and documentaries in genres such as arts, travel, food and wine, French language, fashion, children’s programming and more.

Shows include daily series Demain Nous Appartient (Tomorrow is Ours), drama series such as Chefs and films including Dr. Knock. Each show will have English subtitles to encourage “U.

Baby Ruby is a horror movie written and directed by Bess Wohl starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington.

This is a suprise in her debut as a suspense and horror film director that makes one thing clear: She knows how to direct.

Excellent rhythm and tension.

Storyline

A mother experiences her worst nightmare when, after her daughter Ruby arrives, her world starts turning into a nightmare after she has visions and episodes where she loses her mind, which are all related to her baby.

Movie Review Baby Ruby (2022)

This is a movie that stands out more in the directing than in the screenplay, both of these are by the same person. An excellent movie as far as rhythm is concerned and knowing how to keep the tension up, with a balanced editing, filming, good photography and… on top of this, the director manages to get good acting from the main actress Noémie Merlant,...

Noémie Merlant is a French actress best known for her roles in films such as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019) and “A Good Man” (2021). She has also appeared in various TV series, including “Call My Agent!” (2015) and “The Eddy” (2020). She is currently filming the French film “Tomorrow Is Ours”. Merlant has won several awards, including a César Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”.

Happy (almost) December, everyone! While the holidays may be underway, that doesn’t mean horror is taking a break, as we have a lot of great genre movies headed to VOD, Digital, and On Demand over the next few weeks. Things kick off tomorrow with The Last Matinee on Arrow (this writer enjoyed it immensely) and throughout December, films like Dune (2021), Antlers, and Halloween Kills (with extra footage) will be headed to the small screen along with a ton of indie horror, including Silent Night, The Advent Calendar, Agnes, Benedetta from Paul Verhoeven, and Red Snow. Also, Joe Bob and Darcy return to Shudder on December 17th for an all-new holiday special.

Happy Streaming and Happy Holidays!

The Last Matinee (Arrow) - Exclusively on Arrow December 1st

A cold, wet day. A declining cinema. All you want is to get out of the rain and watch a good film. But who else is in there,...

The Advent Calendar Trailer: "Shudder, AMC Networks’ streamer for horror, thrillers and the supernatural will premiere writer/director Patrick Ridremont’s ornate and elegant French horror fantasy The Advent Calendar exclusively on Thursday, December 9th. Combining Faustian themes and allusions with European folklore and tense, chilling terror, the Shudder Original film provides some highly original holiday season horror.

Eva, an ex-dancer, is now using a wheelchair, unable to walk. When her friend Sophie gives her an old wooden antique advent calendar before Christmas, she realizes each window contains a surprise that triggers repercussions in real life. Some of them are good, but most of them are bad, really bad. Now Eva will have to choose between getting rid of the calendar or walking again – even if it causes death and destruction to everyone she holds dear around her.

The Advent Calendar world premiered earlier this year at London’s Frightfest...

Lotus Entertainment and Roar have boarded “French Touch,” a music-filled coming-of-age movie set in New York, starring French singer-songwriter David Hallyday and his real-life daughter Emma Smet.

The film will be directed by Shirley Monsarrat, who most recently helmed season 7 of the French teen hit series “Skam.” Jay Froberg at Roar and Jeremie Guiraud at Lotus Entertainment are producing, alongside Otto Eckstein, who also penned the original screenplay.

“French Touch” takes place in 2007 in Brooklyn, and follows Elle Leclerq (Smet) who clashes with her father Matthieu (Hallyday), a Parisian DJ and 70’s disco icon, as she discovers French house music and experiences an epic summer of musical exploration, parties and romance.

“We are thrilled to have David and Emma play father and daughter in ‘French Touch,'” said Eckstein. “Music is essential to the film and is a world David and Emma are certainly familiar with,” added the writer-producer. Eckstein...

After being caught in successive regulatory delays for nearly two years, France’s new streaming service Salto finally launched at the start of November, right in time for a second national lockdown due to the pandemic.

In an ironic twist of fate, Salto, a joint initiative between TF1, France Télévisions and M6, came out in France right when Netflix chose the country to test a new linear channel. So, how will Salto carve itself a niche in a competitive market like France where Netflix boasts about 9 million subscribers, and where a string of other streamers, and pay TV channels co-exist? Thomas Follin, general director of Salto, spoke to Variety about the positioning, strategy and ambitions of Salto. Follin declined, however, to disclose the service’s yearly budget for acquisitions and originals.

First off, how would you describe Salto as a service?

It’s a subscription-based service priced at €6.99 [$8.27] per month that offers 10,000 hours of programs,...

Rolling off “Versailles” and “Thanksgiving,” which is competing at Series Mania in Lille, Newen-owned Capa Drama is developing a raft of internationally-driven series with French and U.S. partners, including “The 10 O’Clock People” and “L’Infiltré.”

Headed by Claude Chelli, Capa Drama has partnered up with U.S. company Fabrik Entertainment to co-develop “The 10 O’Clock People,” a series adapted from a short novel by Stephen King which was published in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. The story revolves around a Boston bank employee who discovers that many people, including some powerful ones, are inhuman monsters disguised as people. Pearson finds allies who, like him, have the ability to see these creatures through their disguises and forms a new resistance group. The series will shoot in English and is being developed by Arnaud Figaret and Aude Albano at Capa Drama.

Albano described “The 10 O’Clock People” as a “urban noir...