EXCLUSIVE: David Heyman and StudioCanal are reteaming for a feature film adaptation of the classic family book The Secret Garden. Heyman will produce with Rosie Alison through his Heyday Films banner. They have tapped Jack Thorne, arguably the UK’s most in-demand writer, to adapt Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved…

Studio Canal COO Romain Bessi has exited the company, Deadline has confirmed. Bessi’s exit is the latest exec shuffle to take place at the pan-Euro film and TV giant. The past year has seen much change at the Vivendi-owned company as Vivendi chairman Vincent Bollore has consolidated his control over proceedings. Last…

EXCLUSIVE: Didier Lupfer might just have been the busiest man in Cannes. The well-respected Lupfer is chairman and chief exec of Studio Canal, by some measure Europe’s biggest film company with distribution in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux (as well as Australia and New Zealand) and a thriving multi-lingual…

EXCLUSIVE– Ol Parker, who wrote both instalments of the hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, has been tapped by Studio Canal and Blueprint Pictures to adapt Matt Haig’s acclaimed novel A Boy Called Christmas. The book follows the early life of Father Christmas. Frequent partners Studio Canal and Blueprint…

Eddie Redmayne has joined Nick Park’s eagerly anticipated Early Man, which Studio Canal is financing, selling and distributing in its core markets. Early Man is a stop-frame feature film that sees Park going behind the camera for the first time since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Park also…

EXCLUSIVE: When Vivendi finally closes its deal with Mediaset, described by insiders as an “industrial alliance,” in what should be the next few days, the result will be a media giant right in the heart of Europe. The deal as currently envisaged will see the companies swap a 3.5% stake in the other, each get a member…

EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Weisz (The Light Between Oceans) is in talks to star opposite Colin Firth in director James Marsh’s untitled Donald Crowhurst biopic. The story is based on the true story of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst and his attempt to win the first round of the World Yacht Race in 1968. The film is produced by…

Vivendi chairman Vincent Bollore is being urged to sell off the company’s Universal Music Group by activist shareholder P Schoenfeld Asset Management to boost the company’s profitability and share price. Universal Media Group, which is currently 100% owned by Vivendi, is the world’s largest music group. Bollore…

Euro major Studio Canal has announced that it will now handle the TV sales and marketing for all of the studio’s television production companies, including any output created by German-based Tandem Productions. Tandem’s former sales and marketing team will now operate under the Studio Canal banner and report to…

French media and telcos giant Vivendi has received a binding $4.4 billion offer from Altice for its 20% stake in French cable co. Numericable-SFR.  Vivendi retained the 20% stake following a deal last April with Altice founder Patrick Drahi to sell him its phone unit SFR for $23 billion and enable him to merge it with…

EXCLUSIVE– StudioCanal is in advanced discussions with Sebastien Raybaud’s Anton Capital Entertainment to re-up its slate financing in a deal that could exceed the € 150 million ($194 million) pact originally agreed in 2011. That three-year deal, which was itself extended in 2012 to continue until the beginning of…

BREAKING NEWS– European major Studio Canal has acquired all UK rights to Emirati director Ali F. Mostafa’s road movie From A to B. The deal, announced during Berlin’s EFM, was negotiated by Arianne Fraser’s Highland Film Group. From A to B, which world premiered last October at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, was…