Uma Thurman’s Apple TV Plus Series ‘Suspicion’ Sets 2022 Streaming Date – Global Bulletin
STREAMING
Apple TV Plus has set a Feb. 4, 2022 streaming date for thriller series “Suspicion,” starring Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill”). The eight-episode series will premiere with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday.
When the son of a prominent American businesswoman (Thurman) is kidnapped from a New York hotel, the eye of suspicion quickly falls on four seemingly ordinary British citizens who were at the hotel on the night in question. They find themselves in a trans-Atlantic race to evade the combined forces of the National Crime Agency and the FBI to prove their innocence.
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The cast also includes Kunal Nayyar (“The Big Bang Theory”), Noah Emmerich (“The Americans”), Georgina Campbell (“Black Mirror”), Elyes Gabel (“Scorpion”), Elizabeth Henstridge (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Tom Rhys-Harries (“White Lines”) and Angel Coulby (“Dancing on the Edge”).
“Suspicion” is based on the award-winning Israeli series “False Flag,” the third season of which is set to premiere in Israel on Keshet 12 in March 2022.
BAFTA Award nominee Rob Williams (“Man in the High Castle”) is serving as showrunner and executive producer on “Suspicion,” which is produced out of the U.K. by Keshet Productions, Keshet International’s U.K. production arm. Executive producers include Emmy Award nominee Chris Long (“The Americans”), who also directs, Howard Burch for Keshet Productions, Avi Nir for Keshet Media Group and Anna Winger, alongside Alon Shtruzman (Keshet International), Karni Ziv (Keshet Broadcasting), Amit Cohen, Maria Feldman and Liat Benasuly. The series is produced by Darin McLeod (“Watchmen”).
Zindagi
Elsewhere, top Pakistani stars Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed are starring in an as-yet-untitled series for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5. The series helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first original “Churails.”
The show blends together magical realism and supernatural fantasy within a family reunion setting, and deals with themes of love, loss and reconciliation. The series is in production and a large part of it has been shot in the picturesque Hunza valley.
Discovery
Meanwhile, Discovery Plus is now available on Roku streaming players and Roku TV models in the U.K. and Ireland. The launch is part of an international rollout, with Roku customers already able to access the service in the U.S., Canada and Brazil.
Century 21 Films
SERIES
The U.K.’s Century 21 Films has licensed the Japanese rights for its puppet animation series “Nebula-75” to Japanese distributor Tohokushinsha Film Corporation. The show, partly made in an apartment under lockdown conditions, will be broadcast on Japan’s Star Channel from the first quarter of 2022. Century 21 is the corporate successor to AP Films, which produced the iconic “Thunderbirds” series from the 1960s and employed a super-marionette-animation or ‘supermarionation’ production style. The new show’s first episode will be shown in theaters, along with three 2015 episodes of “Thunderbirds: The Anniversary Episodes,” and a broadcast of the documentary “Century 21 Slough.” – Patrick Frater
BBC Studios
FORMAT
BBC Studios has licensed entertainment format “Fact or Fake” to German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), ARD’s free-to-air channel for Bavaria. The 6×45 version for BR started production last month and will be entitled “Fakt oder Fake,” and will premiere in 2022.
The format created by Sandrats Media Company and originally broadcast on ORF 1 in Austria, sees celebrities filter out facts from fake news. Three guest comedians are shown viral videos and social media posts, sensational newspaper headlines and urban legends by the show’s poker-faced host and must determine whether they are fact or fake.
The original series launched in Austria in 2019 and is now returning for a third series in Jan. 2022.
Tower Productions
APPOINTMENTS
Kirstin Benthaus-Gebauer will join Tower Productions GmbH, a part of All3Media Deutschland, as managing director from April, 2022. She will work closely with Taco Rijssemus, CEO All3Media Deutschland. She joins from Imago TV Film and Fernsehproduktion where she was most recently creative director.
From 2011 to 2014, she worked as chief executive producer at Storyhouse. Her programs have won awards including an International Emmy for “Berlin und Wir!” (ZDF tivi), “Deutscher Fernsehpreis” (German Television Award) as well as nominations for the Prix Europe, the Grimme Award and the Television Prize from the European Broadcasting Union.
Firebird Pictures
After securing commissions for “Wahala” from BBC One and “Wilderness” from Amazon Prime Video, BBC Studios backed Firebird Pictures has hired Nikki Saunders, joining from BBC Studios, as director of production, and “The Rig” and “Riches” script editor Andin Ngwa as development executive.
Firebird has also acquired the rights to two books: journalist Gavanndra Hodge’s memoir “The Consequences of Love” and novelist Hannah King’s “She and I” – a Northern Ireland set crime thriller about the power of female relationships.
PITCHING
Animation pitching event Cartoon Springboard is moving within Spain from Valencia to Madrid, where it will take place Oct. 25-27, 2022.
Meanwhile industry confab CartoonNext will take place at Marseille, France, Apr. 12-15. Topics discussed at the event include the consequences of the last two years on the animation ecosystem (creation, production, distribution); how these consequences push for more synergies with other industries (video games, publishing, live-action cinema); why new technologies shape the way of working from creation to distribution; how new business structures influence the growth of companies; how sustainability can drive the development of studio; and how emerging voices challenge habits.
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