Canal+ has launched its new series only streaming service in France as it looks to claw back some of the online market being devoured by Netflix and other streamers. Canal+ Series, available for €6.99 a month, launches today with hundreds of shows including Canal+ originals such as Spiral, Versailles and Hippocrate…

In the name of the father, son and holy Jude Law — HBO has released the first official image of The New Pope featuring two-time Academy Award nominees Law and John Malkovich serving some fierce papacy realness. The premium cabler also announced returning and new cast members for the limited series. Joining Law and…

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Kinnear is in talks to star in Fox Networks Group's European remake of War of the Worlds. I hear that the actor, who was most recently in the sixth season of Netflix's House of Cards, has been circling the script, which was written by Misfits' Howard Overman, but that a deal has not yet been…

Paramount has sold anticipated six-part mini Catch-22 to Canal+ in France. Based on the celebrated novel of the same name written by Joseph Heller, the series is executive produced and directed by George Clooney who will also co-star alongside Kyle Chandler, Hugh Laurie, Giancarlo Giannini and Christopher Abbott. As…

Fox Networks Group Europe and Africa is taking on a reboot of War of the Worlds as its second original commission. The international arm of the U.S. broadcaster has partnered with France's Canal+ and Atlantis producer Urban Myth Films on the eight-part remake, which will be set in the present day and tell the story of…

EXCLUSIVE: Jim Reeve and Robert Halmi Jr.’s London-based Great Point Media (GPM) has made three additions to its film and TV sales team. Jordan Allwood joins as Sales Executive after working most recently at Altitude Film Sales as International Sales Co-ordinator. Joining as Sales Assistant are both Lucas Meurin…

Apple has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to an English adaptation of the popular French short-form series Calls, which will be co-produced by Canal+. It marks Apple’s first greenlighted international series and its first international co-production. Created by Timothée Hochet, Calls takes storytelling…

In the same week as French pay-TV broadcaster Canal+ lost the lucrative rights to the country's top soccer league, the Vivendi-owned network is ending one of its most influential shows – the Spitting Image-esque Guignols De L’info. The broadcaster has cancelled the latex puppet comedy show, which has been on air for…

The team behind hit Euro crime-drama Gomorrah are underway on new series ZeroZeroZero, which will star Andrea Riseborough (Battle Of The Sexes) — as we broke last month — Dane DeHaan (Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets) and Gabryel Byrne (The Usual Suspects). The Cattleya epic for Sky, Canal+ and Amazon will…

Canal+ Group General Manager Maxime Saada has been appointed Chairman of the Managing Board, henceforth heading all of the pay-TV giant's operations. Saada, who joined Canal in 2004, succeeds Jean-Christophe Thiery who becomes Chairman of the Supervisory Board. That last move is significant in that Thiery will replace…

European biggie StudioCanal is launching a new TV production unit in France, with an aim to develop and produce series for the market. It will be headed by Arielle Saracco, who will remain in her position as head odf CANAL+ Création Originale. Executive Creative VP of StudioCanal’s TV unit Dominique Jubin will be…

French entertainment and media giant Vivendi is bringing its film and TV divisions closer together with a personnel restructure that hands new titles to Maxime Saada and Didier Lupfer. Saada, who is Chief Executive of Canal Plus Group, which owns Studiocanal, becomes Chairman of Studiocanal, while Lupfer, who is Chief…