Latest in Toronto

Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, is shutting down movie theaters and other businesses for 28 days amid an uptick in COVID-19 infections. The move, which takes effect at 12:01AM local time, sidelines a major driver of North American box office at the same time that theaters in New York and LA remain closed…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix wasn’t alone in cooking up a storm at the recent Toronto film market. STX International, now known as ErosSTX International as a result of the merger between Indian major Eros and U.S. studio STX, says it has secured cumulative international deals worth north of $100M during and after the virtual…

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures Content Group is set to land international rights to Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia following the concert film’s opening-night screening at the Toronto Film Festival. HBO has domestic rights to the filmed version of the former Talking Heads frontman’s acclaimed Broadway show…

EXCLUSIVE: Colson Baker (The Dirt), aka Machine Gun Kelly, and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) are set to star in action-thriller One Way, which will be directed by Andrew Baird (Zone 414) from a script by Ben Conway. Principal photography is planned to begin in January 2021. Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is getting the Toronto International Film Festival off to a strong start with a figurative and literal punch in the face. Deadline hears the streamer is firming an 8-figure sum for world rights to Bruised, the mixed martial arts drama that marks the directorial debut of Halle Berry. It’s the first…

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman and The Meg and Batwoman star Ruby Rose are leading cast in George Gallo’s (The Comeback Trail) action-thriller Vanquish, which is currently filming on location in Biloxi, Mississippi. In the movie, Freeman plays a retired police commissioner who blackmails his caretaker (Ruby…

EXCLUSIVE: LA-based Film Bridge International has boarded international sales rights to crime series Big Dogs, which it will begin selling during the Toronto virtual market. The eight-part series premiered domestically on Amazon Prime in July and stars Brett Cullen (Joker), Manny Perez (The Night Of), Michael Rabe (Hom…

Welcome to the latest edition of International Insider. This week we’re looking forward to Toronto International Film Festival, which began yesterday, and closing the book on Venice, which ends tomorrow. We also cover a serious incident on the set of Geechee in the Dominican Republic, and remember Diana Rigg, who died…

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, German major Leonine has won rights to recently announced Jason Statham-Guy Ritchie spy thriller Five Eyes, marking the first major deal to go down during Toronto’s virtual market. The splashy pre-sale, in the high seven figures, marks one of Leonine’s most lucrative acquisitions…

EXCLUSIVE: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) and Riverdale's Cole Sprouse are attached to star in Blood Ties, a drama based on a Nathan Heller article in the New Yorker. Aaron Katz (Gemini) wrote the script and will direct. Automatik's Fred Berger (La La Land) is producing. Mbatha-Raw plays…

EXCLUSIVE: As a most unusual Toronto Film Festival in memory gets underway today with the usual acquisitions and media crowd unable to make it across the Canadian border for gala premieres, Endeavor Content has come up with an inventive alternative for three acquisitions titles its sales agents will attempt to sell…

EXCLUSIVE: Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) and Aksel Hennie (The Martian) have been set to co-star in director Tommy Wirkola's Norwegian-language thriller The Trip, which XYZ will launch world sales on during the Toronto Film Festival. The film will follow a dysfunctional husband (Hennie) and wife (Rapace) who head to a…