International Insider: ‘Dick Turpin’s Demise; Rendez-Vous Review; Polish Problems
Here’s the second Insider of the year, as things grind back into gear. Jesse Whittock here to take you through the top international TV and film news. I’ll also take this time to send out love to friends, colleagues and counterparts in L.A. impacted by the devastating fires.
‘Dick Turpin’s Demise
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Turpin hurtin’: Noel Fielding’s time as the swashbuckling Dick Turpin is over — and the whole adventure has collapsed around him. In an incredibly rare turn of events, Season 2 of Apple TV+ comedy The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin has been shut down around three-quarters of the way through its shoot. Fielding did not return to set after the Christmas break citing ill health, despite producer Big Talk Studios making adjustments to his shooting schedule and support needs. Now, a cast and crew of hundreds are out of work with nothing to show for their efforts. Filmed footage cannot be fashioned into a scaled-back season and there is no hope of getting the show back on the road. Jake walked us through some of the fallout from the demise, revealing that Apple TV+ viewers will be robbed of comedic turns from an all-star British cast that was set to include Jason Isaacs, Dawn French, Miranda Richardson, and Jamie and Natasia Demetriou. It is understood that Big Talk was unable to secure insurance for the issue that shuttered the shoot. Fielding is expected to be paid for services rendered but there are questions over whether he will receive his full Season 2 paycheck. The shutdown is also likely to have a knock-on effect on post-production, with companies like Lola Post Production at risk of losing work.
Fielding questions: Now emerging are questions over whether Fielding will be able to continue with his duties on The Great British Bake Off, the Love Productions series that usually shoots from late April and is Channel 4’s most-watched show (it can be seen around the world on Netflix). A source close to the cooking competition said it is not as yet impacted by the issues on Dick Turpin, but did not respond to questions about Fielding’s future as co-host alongside Alison Hammond on Season 16. Deadline will update as new details emerge.
France’s Annual Rendez-Vous
Complex picture: French films and TV sales companies kicked off their 2025 business year this week with the 27th Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris at which they laid out their French-language wares to close to 500 buyers from 40 countries. On the cinema side, there was a buzz in the air on the back of results for French cinema at the local box office in 2024, in which it took a 44% market share of the 181.3 million admissions, while France was one of the only territories to register a box office rise last year. However, figures released in Unifrance’s Export Day on the eve of the Rendez-Vous revealed a more complex picture at the international box office where French cinema saw an 11% drop in receipts. This data did not dampen the mood at the RDV, however, with sellers pointing to the success of The Count Of Monte Cristo, which continues its career with a big release in Germany this month, as well as upcoming international theatrical launches for awards seasons frontrunner Emilia Pérez and local hits The Marching Band, Beating Hearts and Holy Cow. “The buyers present here in Paris are very happy to participate in this excitement,” Unifrance President Gilles Pélisson told Deadline. “We’re also getting positive feedback about the diversity of French production and there’s lots more coming down the line.”
Venue change: This year’s edition saw the event swap its previous location in the swanky Champs-élysées Avenue eighth arrondissement for the grittier but storied Left Bank neighborhood of Montparnasse. “Buyers are pleased to be discovering another part of Paris. It’s a very lively, very Parisian neighborhood and not far from Saint-Germain-des-Prés,” noted Unifrance’s Daniela Elstner. Other plus points were a bigger market venue in the Espace Pullman and the proximity of the main screening venue, the freshly-renovated 12-screen, state-of-the-art Pathé Parnasse cinema. “From the seats to the quality of the image, it would be hard to top it as a screening experience,” said Elstner. The event’s TV screenings, which are in their third year and now known as the Paris Screenings, also saw an uptick in attendance amid suggestions that they could fill a hole left by MIPTV’s demise. Another question in the backdrop was whether the RDV might shift to November in response to the dearth of a fully-fledged market for European cinema in the autumn, but Elstner said this was unlikely: “Let’s not forget, we’re here for French cinema, for launching French projects. We’re in no way going to become a global market, or even one for all European sellers and for European films.”
Polish Problems
Institutionalized: The Polish Film Institute (PISF) has been embroiled in chaos since the departure of Karolina Rozwód late last year, we wrote this week. The director had only been in post for five months before a dispute around the allocation of production funds led to her exit. Zac dove deep, revealing the PISF was beginning its search for a successor, with local sources hoping it will end in a renewed focus on long-term policy. Rozwód has set out her version of events in an open letter, stating she had resigned, un-resigned and was then forced out by Poland’s Culture Minister, Hanna Wróblewska. Rozwód’s attorney says she’ll launch legal action. Wróblewska claims by awarding funds to Aurum Film’s indie pic Altar Boys while an investigation is ongoing into PISF’s former boss Rados?aw ?migulski’s financing of the same production company, Rozwód has broken Polish law. For its part, Aurum has pled innocent to the knowledge of any wrongdoing. Intriguing story, well told, and there’s certainly more to come. Here it is.
‘Traitors’ Accused
To be or Scot to be: A huge row broke out over exactly how Scottish the Scotland-produced BBC hit The Traitors really is, after a LinkedIn post from freelance director Peter Strachan began drumming up debate. The argument is based on rules that dictate UK broadcasters must make a certain portion of their programs outside London. The Traitors is filmed in Ardross Castle in the far north of Scotland, but is made by Studio Lambert — a London-headquartered producer with an office in the Scottish city, Glasgow. Without getting too technical, Strachan’s argument is that while the show complies with Ofcom’s out-of-London production rules, the show is essentially mostly made by people based much further south, and therefore isn’t within the spirit of the rules. This isn’t new in British TV production (it even has it’s own term, ‘lift and shift’), but the success of The Traitors has brought the issue starkly under the microscope. The debate even reached the political sphere, after our original exclusive was picked up by a Scottish politician. Max followed up with a story digging further into the rules, while Strachan went on Justin Crosby’s TellyCast podcast this week to accuse the BBC and Studio Lambert of cheating the system, and question why more local producers and directors have not worked on the show. For their part, the BBC and Studio Lambert insist they have broken no rules and are bringing money and opportunity to Scotland. The episode has been a fascinating example of how success sometimes comes with scrutiny.
Box Office Unpacked
People went to ‘the movies,’ not to a ‘movie’: As Nancy wrote in her look back at the international box office in 2024, “at the end of the day, it wasn’t that bad.” Broadly that was the view of the distributors and industry watchers in the article, who were pleasantly surprised that while it wasn’t a bumper year by any means, it could have been so much worse. The I.B.O. was down 10% and the global B.O. down 11.5%, but given the gaps in the calendar resulting from the dual labor strikes, that’s not bad going. Nancy crunched the numbers by studio (no spoilers, but one beginning with a ‘D’ and ending with a ‘Y’ did pretty well), and assessed why simply making “a good movie” isn’t enough anymore. Fill your box office boots right here.
The Essentials
??? Hot One: Breaking Baz was first with news that Mia McKenna-Bruce will replace Riley Keough in Clare Denis’ The Cry of the Guards.
??? Very Hot: Sara got face time with Squid Game Season 2 stars Park Gyu-Young, Lee Seo-Hwan and Wi Ha-jun, as the show continued to deliver monster numbers.
??? More spice: Jean-Pierre Jeunet will adapt Valérie Perrin’s bestseller ‘Changer l’eau des Feurs’, with Le?la Bekhti in the lead role.
??? Theroux the keyhole: Louis Theroux told me about his Elon Musk ambitions in an exclusive interview.
?? Layoffs: News Studios staff in the UK have been told their jobs are at risk after Piers Morgan unveiled his plan to extricate himself from the Rupert Murdoch business.
?? BAFTA snubs and surprises: All the analysis on the nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards can be found here.
?? Second term: For Iris Knobloch as President of the Cannes Film Festival.
?? New job: For The Traitors co-creator Jasper Hoogendoorn at Talpa Studios.
?? Comedy search: Max revealed the five companies the BBC is backing to create its next comedy series hit.
?? Box office: Wicked passed $700M at the global box office.
??? Trailer: For bare-knuckle boxing brawl-fest A Thousand Blows, upcomin g on Disney+ and Hulu.
??? Fond farewell: To visionary filmmaker David Lynch, who died aged 78. Read Baz’s touching tribute to him here and much more about the Mulholland Drive director here.
This week’s International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart. Jake Kanter and Melanie Goodfellow contributed.
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