International Insider: Glastonbury Firestorm In Focus

Hello, all. It’s Insider time. Jesse Whittock here from a cooling London that was earlier this week among the hottest places on Earth. All the big international TV and film news to follow. Let’s begin. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Glastonbury Firestorm

Fast-moving story: To quote fictional news man Ron Burgundy… that escalated quickly. All the lead up to this week’s Glastonbury Festival in the UK concerned whether the BBC would broadcast or stream controversial Irish rap group Kneecap following the arrest and bail of group member Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh for a terror offense. In the end, the carnage came from little-known punk duo Bob Vylan. In a set directly before Kneecap on the same stage, the British band led thousands of crowd members in chants of “Death, death to the IDF” (Israeli Defence Forces) and “Free, free Palestine,” before repeating the controversial slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, free.” The BBC called the set “deeply offensive,” but the reputational damage was done, and things went from bad to worse when it emerged Director General Tim Davie had been at the festival on the day this all happened and that Bob Vylan had been deemed “high risk” prior to the fest. The eye of the storm was open, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanding answers. The BBC later said it had “regrets” over playing the stream, which has flummoxed many in the live and music broadcasting production space, who say tried-and-tested systems are in place to stop such mistakes. Does the BBC now have a “problem of leadership,” as suggested by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy? Calls are growing for Davie’s resignation from some insiders we spoke with for our Friday morning deep dive, and more controversy is on the horizon concerning two documentaries about Gaza. As for Bob Vylan, they have been dropped by UTA per Jake’s scoop, are being investigated by UK police and have had their U.S. visas revoked. The Corporation’s board has thrown its support behind Davie, at least for now.

Paramount Pays Out

Trump gets his way: Fair to say the media community hasn’t taken Paramount Global’s settlement with President Donald Trump well. The President had sued the U.S. giant for $20B over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that CBS News conducted before the election. The announcement of a $16M payout, which did not come with an apology, was met with dismay from sources within CBS News and has been likened to “bribery in plain sight” by Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren. Coincidentally, the figure is the same amount Disney paid the President’s team in a defamation case in December, with both payments going on Trump’s future presidential library. What the critics are getting at is the idea Paramount has paid off Trump so that the protracted merger with Skydance can finally go ahead. The agreement, which given the lack of crossover between the companies in most cases would be waved through by the FCC with little concern, has been with regulators for months, creating huge uncertainty within the company. Paramount has categorically denied the two issues are linked, and that the agreement came with a sweetener to provide Trump with more public service announcements across its networks. CBS bosses have been urging their staff to see the payout as a fresh start, but it feels like a hard sell. There remains much concern over the impact on the news room. Numerous press freedom orgs have blasted the agreement, and it’s expected that new lawsuits contesting it will be filed. As we revealed a week ago from the UK, layoffs continue at Paramount in the run-up to the Skydance deal closing and this new deal won’t help morale at an under-fire entertainment giant. Our Political Editor Ted Johnson had more on the Paramount-Skydance saga in the wake of the Trump deal here.

Corden’s Campus Loses Backer

Cain not able: Bad news for Fulwell Entertainment. The northeast England studio that Fulwell has been championing, Crown Works Studios, this week lost its main backer. Cain International has pulled out of the £450M ($620M) project without providing a reason. Given Fulwell’s dedication to the Sunderland region – remember the Netflix doc series and that its name is a homage to a stand at Sunderland AFC’s former home – this one will hurt, especially for a number of the original Fulwell partners who hail from the region and want to see it become a key production hub in the UK. A cool £300M will be required in private investment now that Cain has dropped out, throwing doubt on the project unless another party comes forward. Fulwell itself isn’t short of cash following the mega-merger between Fulwell 73 and basketball legend LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment, with news the pair had raised $40M from existing investors to build scale emerging this past November. They’ll need a little more if they want Crown Studios to assume the mantle of the northeast’s leading production venue, although Fulwell has stressed it is pushing on and the council is seeking private investment. There’s plenty of competition in the UK, with Ulster Studios among the most recent to open its doors. A government decision on the James Cameron-backed Marlow Film Studios is also nearing, with a major report expected to be submitted midway through this month.

Gillian’s German Moment

Missives from Munich: Gillian Anderson was emotional as she picked up her CineMerit Award at the Munich Film Festival this week. Calling herself “a bit of a hermit” who has been in “a little bit of a hole,” she said she felt “unbelievably honored” to collect the prize. As Stewart reported, people were certainly paying attention at the Deutsches Theater, where Anderson’s movie The Salt Path was screening. Several X-Files fans were delighted when she addressed how the passage of time had changed her view on her iconic role as FBI agent Dana Scully. “It does… because it was such a whirlwind for me,” she said. “It felt like too big of a responsibility to take ownership of at the time.” Elsewhere, the Festival’s Artistic Directors clued us into how things have gone this year and where things are headed — and Uta Briesewitz, director of Severance, The Wheel Of Time, Black Mirror and more, gave the Munich crowd a masterclass and clued them into how to break into Hollywood. Deadline hosted that one. More Munich coverage here.

Turkish Breakout

I’m so ‘dizi’: This week’s Global Breakout took us to Turkey, where Stewart interviewed the team behind Valley of Hearts, the latest drama from prolific producers TIMS&B. Set in the otherworldly landscapes of Cappadocia, famous for the hundreds of hot air balloons that routinely take to its skies, the TV series follows a mother (Ece Uslu), who is confronted by her adult twin children, played by Aras Aydın and Hafsanur Sancaktutan, after she abandoned them at a young age and later married a wealthy businessman (Burak Sergen). Several other factors complicate matters, helping wrier Yıldız Tunç to create a new spin on the Turkish drama subgenre ‘dizi.’ International sales will no doubt follow for distributor Inter Medya, with Turkish drama among the surest bets on the market right now. “Magically, the Turkish TV industry somehow manages to pull through all these hurdles,” Selin Arat, Chief Global Officer at TIMS Group told us. I feel so dizi that I need to sit down. Full story here.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Breaking Baz had the news that Jamie Lloyd is looking to take his electrifying West End production of Evita, which stars Rachel Zegler, to Broadway “straight away.“

🌶️ Another One: Bella Ramsey has landed the title role in darkly comedic Channel 4 thriller Maya, with creator and co-star Daisy Haggard set to for her directorial debut.

🌶️ Go on, a third One: Thai dark comedy A Useful Ghost, which won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes, has been picked up by Cineverse for North America.

🖋️ Poison Pen: Ben Stephenson told Max in an exclusive interview about how crime stories would act as a “fulcrum” for his shows.

🤖 Digital demands: Influencers and online creators such as Amelia Dimoldenberg have put their names to a huge report with backing from YouTube that demands the UK government recognize their contribution.

💼 Back to work: Under-fire BBC Breakfast editor Richard Frediani returned to the Beeb amid allegations over his behavior in the news room.

🏪 New shop: Peaky Blinders and Alex Rider exec Nicole Finnan launched a production consultancy, Jaeger Media.

🎭 Treading the boards: Susan Saranon will make her London stage debut this fall at London’s Old Vic Theatre opposite Academy Award nominee Andrea Riseborough in the UK premiere of Tracy Letts’ play Mary Page Marlowe.

⛺ Fest: The SCAD Lacoste Film Festival wrapped in the Provence region of France.

🍿 Box Office: Apple Original Films’ F1 launched with a global bow of $146.3M, up $2.3M on Sunday’s estimates. 

International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart.