Red Sea Film Festival & Nicole Kidman: International Insider

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The Future Of TV

Death of cable: Hoards of American execs descended on the English capital for Content London this week. The ensuing debates about the future of global TV were fascinating, with plenty optimism, plenty pessimism and a fair bit of stargazing. Jesse and I were there and one constant was an American equivalent of the “squeezed middle” (covered from a British standpoint in our Edinburgh Insider a few months back). That is mostly manifesting itself in the death of long-running, high-volume cable shows, which is having serious ramifications for the industry across the pond. Coming off the back of his network axing Wicked Tuna and Life Below Zero, Nat Geo acquisitions boss Christian Drobnyk was straight out the blocks with the sentiment, positing: “We need to start to look at how those shows are built and what their price points are.” For Kathleen Finch, retiring Warner Bros. Discovery chair and one of the most senior honchos to make the trip, even the very word is exhausted. She urged the industry to “stop using the word cable” in future as she prepares to hand over the reins to Channing Dungey. One of the punchier keynotes came from ITV America boss David George, who was explicit with his feeling that the decline of cable has killed off high-volume shows and made things tricky for independent producers. “Without volume what does the game look like?,” queried the exec.

Netflix pushes ahead: One of my personal highlights was George’s frank outline of where each of the streaming giants are at. He was broadly dismissive of the commitment to volume from Apple (“not super active”), Amazon (“still trying to figure out how unscripted works”) and Peacock (“not knowing exactly what it has to be yet”), but Netflix got a big tick for consistency. Netflix pushing ahead of the rest was a consistent theme throughout from both on-record panelists and those we were nattering with in the corridors of King’s Place. One didn’t have to read too deeply between the lines of Netflix EMEA boss Larry Tanz’s speech – during which he floated that his biggest challenge is “healthy competition” and a “healthy ecosystem” – to understand that he concurs with said chatter. On cue, HBO boss Casey Bloys arrived in London for a splashy showcase and Q&A while facing questions over competition from Netflix. For Bloys, who spoke at the buzzy showcase alongside Salma Hayek Pinault, Diane Kruger and Harry Potter showrunner Francesca Gardiner, streamer Max will stay in its lane rather than taking on the breadth of what Netflix offers.  “Netflix is big and established and is doing everything,” he said. “We are leaning into what we do well as a company.”

Et tu Casey?: Bloys was speaking a few hours after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) revealed Max will launch in Turkey next spring, switching from its acquired local streamer BluTV. That move had broadly been expected since fully taking over BluTV at the end of last year. There is less clarity on how Max will roll out in the UK, Germany and Italy, where WBD has had well-publicized and long-running content agreements with European satcaster Sky. WBD has twice this week confirmed it will be launching in those territories in 2026 — one while briefing on the Turkey plan and the other yesterday evening when Bloys told reporters a UK debut will happen that year, albeit, “What that looks like is ongoing.” Many have speculated Sky will attempt to carry Max exclusively — despite the current legal issues between the company and HBO — but our Co-Business Ed Dade Hayes wrote an intriguing counterpoint piece this week. While Sky and WBD will likely stay in business, WBD CEO of Streaming and Games JB Perrette said there were “great alternatives,” such as (drumroll…) Amazon, which is “great in those markets and certainly eager to be more and more aggressive in that space.” Perrette said that “time will tell,” but hinted at a willingness to be flexible, coming as Apple TV+ rolled out on Amazon in certain territories outside the U.S. including the UK. Perrette attended the Bloys Q&A alongside international boss Gerhard Zeiler.

Don’t forget AI: Among the most prevalent talking points at Content London was of course the rise of generative AI and what that means for TV production. On Wednesday morning, Louise Holmes from Facebook, Insta and WhatsApp owner Meta used a keynote to extol the virtues of the time-saving tools Mark Zuckerberg’s company is developing. “Don’t be afraid of AI,” she said. “Make a point of understanding it. Embrace it, experiment and make it work for you.” She warned the industry “should be cautious of either deifying or fearing” AI, adding: “Personally, I see AI not as a threat but as an opportunity.” Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT owner OpenAI, told a New York Times DealBook conference crowd that there was a need for “new economic models where creators will have new revenue streams,” while he called for a “new standard deal.” Intriguingly, he said The New York Times itself is “on the wrong side” of a suit the paper is bringing against OpenAI for learnings taken from copyrighted fare. I wonder how well that went down in the room. A group of major publishers in Canada last week launched similar legal action against Altman’s biz. With OpenAI’s text-to-video AI model Sora launching soon, the AI debate is getting even hotter.

Red Sea Buzz

Douglas and Zeta-Jones in town: Speaking of heat, Saudi Arabia’s buzzy Red Sea Film Festival kicked off its fourth edition with a starry opening ceremony on Thursday evening as it returned to the historic Al-Balad neighborhood of its home port city of Jeddah. Among the stars that hit the red carpet were Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones as well as Spike Lee, who is this year’s jury president, Eva Longoria, who flew straight from Content London, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Erivo, Will Smith, Michelle Rodriguez, and career honorees Vin Diesel, Emily Blunt and Aamir Khan. As he received his career award, even Diesel commented on the star wattage in the room: “There might be more familiar faces than some of the awards shows back in America. Am I crazy to say that? There are just so many great people here.” Wow. Running from December 5 to 14, the festival opened with Egyptian director Karim Shenawy’s feel-good drama The Tale Of Daye’s Family and will showcase some 120 features and shorts from 81 territories over the course of the coming nine days. Check back on deadline.com right up till the 14th including vids from our studio.

Gregg Wallace Week Two

Allegations flooding in: Following a series of talent scandals, the BBC would have been hoping it could run with a clean bill of health until Xmas. Instead, presenter behavior is once again in the spotlight. In a year of talent being outed for behaving poorly, the Gregg Wallace saga is still bedecking front pages (ironically driven by multiple scoops from BBC News) and is posing wider questions. Wallace accusers have been flooding in all week. They started with more than a dozen women alleging the MasterChef presenter behaved inappropriately and repeatedly made sexualized remarks. More are now coming forwards to accuse him of inappropriate touching. In a devastating interview with Newsnight, Wallace’s former ghostwriter Shannon Kyle said he answered the door to her wearing a towel which he later dropped, and touched her inappropriately while she was in his car. Wallace’s “handful of middle class women of a certain age” remark went down like a cup of cold sick as an allegation responder – with the UK government even getting involved – and he has since delivered a more sincere apology. Wallace’s lawyers deny he engaged in behavior of a “sexually harassing nature” and “specifically denies any sexual misconduct with Ms. Kyle.”

BBC inquiry clamor: But the questions keep coming and it is the BBC which is having to field them. With Jermaine Jenas, Jay Blades, Huw Edwards and two Strictly Come Dancing pros having all stepped back under dark clouds this year, there are now clamors for the BBC to launch its own investigation into Wallace (producer Banijay is already probing). I’ve been speaking with connected people all week who acknowledge the industry has been aware of Wallace’s behavior for some time but maybe didn’t know the extent, although it is understood he has been given at least one BBC dressing down over the years. One floated to me that the issue in part is a lack of joined-up knowledge when presenters exhibit bad behavior. The incidents have taken place on different shows at different times over a lengthy time period and there is not enough of a record, they said. With the MasterChef Christmas specials featuring Wallace now no longer airing following sustained pressure, BBC bosses will be pondering what to do next.

Baz On ‘Babygirl’

“The yearning, the existential crisis”: I can’t lie I’ve been looking forward to reading our Baz’s interview with Babygirl star Nicole Kidman for some time. It certainly doesn’t disappoint. One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Babygirl sees the Aussie star play Romy, the ground-breaking, high-powered CEO of a packaging company that uses an AI system she designed. She seems to have it all, but soon her relationship with an intern (played by the fantastically smouldering Harris Dickinson) leads to the pair becoming the object of each other’s desire. Baz’s interview needs to be read in its entirety but can be seen as a serious exploration of how the 57-year-old star approached a role opposite a man 30 years her junior. Kidman explains, “I think in terms of the exploration of a woman in the height of her power, and then the yearning, the existential crisis that she’s having, that she’s almost unaware that she’s having, the patterns in her life, and the way in which she she’s formed her life — and she’s going, ‘Oh, this it. This is now my life.’” Dive deeper and satiate your desires.

Deadline International On Tour

Talking ‘Hard Truths’: We’re going on tour! Deadline’s inaugural International Grand Tour kicks off next week with a series of continent-hopping screenings of Mike Leigh’s latest feature Hard Truths. The film, which sees Leigh reunite with his Secrets & Lies lead Marianne Jean-Baptiste, will screen across four European cities – London, Paris, Rome, and Copenhagen – followed by Q&As with Jean-Baptiste hosted by us. (Leigh will also join the Q&A for the London edition). The tour will kick off on December 9 in London at the Curzon Bloomsbury before moving to Le Royal Monceau – Raffles in Paris on December 10, the Cinema Quattro Fontaine in Rome on December 11, and the Empire Cinema in Copenhagen on December 13. To attend the screenings, please email [email protected].

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: The Crown producer Left Bank landed its next royal project, telling the story of aide turned convicted murdered Jane Andrews for ITV and BritBox.

🌶️ Very Hot: Gomorrah star Salvatore Esposito joined sports car biopic Maserati: The Brothers.

🌶️ Hot still: Legendary conservationist Jane Goodall is being given the movie treatment.

🌎 Global Breakout: Latvia’s Soviet Jeans was in the spotlight this week.

🏪 Setting up shop: Gangs of London producer Thomas Benski with Lumina.

📽️ Studios: Stewart dove into Sky Elstree, home of Wicked and Paddington in Peru.

🎤 The big interview: Stars of Light Shop and its creator talked about one of Disney+’s first Korean tentpoles of the year.

🖊️ Agencies: Magnolia signed Harriet Herbig-Matten, star of Prime Video’s record breaking YA series Maxton Hall – The World Between Us.

📖 Reviewed: Kneecap, the tale of Belfast’s hip-hop upstarts.

🤡 Hollywood on Trump latest: Ava DuVernay dug out the POTUS as Marrakech drew to a close.

🖼️ Slate: For Prime Video Poland – Jesse with the deets that included skiing, singers and soccer.

🍿 Box office: Moana 2 sailed to a worldwide high for an animated movie.

🎥 First look: Of Netflix and Working Title’s Harry Hole. Dive deeper for Zac’s interview with Jo Nesbø and Eric Fellner.

This week’s International Insider was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Jesse Whittock. Jesse Whittock and Zac Ntim contributed.