International Insider: Saudi Retreat; Scaling Up In Spain; Lunch With Jeff Pope

Good afternoon Insiders, welcome welcome. Busy week and we’ve got the rundown for you below. Max Goldbart here penning the newsletter. Sign up here.

Saudi Retreat

Less washing: The actions of nations like Saudi Arabia led terms such as “sportswashing” and “culturewashing” to enter the lexicon, but now the Gulf state appears to be in something of a funding retreat. Reports that Saudi Arabia‘s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will stop financing the LIV Golf Tour shook up the world of sport earlier this week, and these reports were effectively confirmed yesterday afternoon. For those unfamiliar, LIV was a controversial, multi-billion dollar rival to the established PGA tour, featuring famous players including Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson. Saudi Arabia’s removal of funds has unsurprisingly thrown its future into doubt, although organizers insist they can find new backing and are seeking “secure long-term financial partners.” Fox and TNT Sports, the U.S. and European rights holders respectively, will certainly hope so. The move feels reflective of the state of things. There was a time when Saudi was shelling big bucks on major cultural projects and institutions. One noteworthy example was the $150M epic Desert Warrior, which finally landed in cinemas last week. Desert Warrior has suffered bruising headlines based on its performance in America, where it has grossed $596,000 to date, and been billed as one of the biggest box office flops in history. These struggles will likely do nothing to restore Saudi faith in cultural investment. We wrote 18 months ago about Desert Warrior’s journey to the big screen, which began right at the start of this decade. We may not be seeing another of its ilk for a little while.

Scaling Up In Spain

Fast AF: Always worth keeping an eye on our International Disruptors column and this week we featured Frank Ariza’s AF Films, an indie production house scaling up in Spain. Ariza is busy. Across the last five years he has built up his Madrid banner from indie studio behind internationally-driven projects to a distribution label plus soundstage owner in the tax-friendly Canary Islands. The international portfolio includes Eva Victor’s Sundance-winning directorial debut Sorry, Baby, Antonio Banderas shark thriller Above and Below with Capstone Pictures and upcoming dystopian thriller No Man’s Land with Millicent Simmonds. It even has an upcoming doc about St.Peter’s tomb with Chris Pratt. Spain is an attractive place to film and Ariza knows what this means. “Incentives are a big driver for international productions,” he explains. “There are so many production services where people are not as hands on, but what we bring to the table is that we’re involved early on and we take risk.” Tempted by a Banderas shark thriller? Dive in here.

Lunch With Jeff Pope

What’s in a number?: UK press were given rare, unfettered access to one of the nation’s top creatives this week at a 90-minute on-record natter with Jeff Pope. Pope was Oscar nominated for Philomena, which he co-wrote with Steve Coogan, but has also been behind tonnes of hard-hitting factual TV drama, his latest being ITV’s Believe Me about British serial rapist John Worboys. Pope, who has been making programs for decades but only made his first for a streamer last year, has been scratching his head of late about the entrance of the American streaming giants into his factual drama heartland. He spoke candidly about how this has muddied the waters in terms of defining a show’s success, with reviews now mattering even more than they used to and ratings declining in importance. While he used to wait with bated breath for the overnight ratings to be published, Pope said he would “struggle to tell you” how well his Disney+ show Suspect, about the police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, rated. Elsewhere, Pope took journalists behind the scenes of the making of Believe Me – “I never thought this was a story about Worboys or was really interested in Worboys’ motivations,” he said – and claimed that despite many of his projects taking on the cops, he “does not have an anti-police agenda.” More here from this particular Pope.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson are starring in a London stage adaptation of Oscar-winning German movie The Lives of Others, per Baz.

🌶️ Another One: A24 UK’s busy year continues with a TV adaptation of Alexis Hall’s BookTok sensation Boyfriend Material.

🔥 A third: Damián Szifron is helming classical music movie El Sobrino for Netflix.

👩‍⚖️ Legal: Jake has been keeping an eye trained on the twists and turns of the Rebel Wilson courtroom drama.

🌎 Global Breakout: Jesse explored Still Breathing, Norway’s answer to The Pitt.

🇫🇷 Cannes roundup: The festival is nearly upon us. Check out all the big stories here including a new Jason Statham project and many more.

🧍 New gig: Nippon TV has boosted its U.S. hub with the hire of former ITV America exec Nick Ower.

⛺ Fest latest: Minions & Monsters will open the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which unveiled a buzzy lineup featuring Ricky Gervais and Mike Judge.

🗓️ Calendar shift: Canneseries is moving. Next year’s fest will take place in early February, putting it ahead of rival Series Mania.

🏪 Setting up shop: Screenwriter, actor and producer Will Jeffs and producer John Hauber launched Red Imp Films in Toronto and London.

🤖 Robots are coming: Some UK film and TV industry organizations are imposing “strict internal controls” around artificial intelligence, according to a new report.

🍿 Box office: Michael has been boogieing in theaters worldwide.

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