International Insider: Emmy Noms; ‘Doctor Who’ Dilemma; Tales From Taormina

Hello again, it’s Insider time. Jesse Whittock here with the latest news and views from the international TV and film worlds. Let’s begin. Sign up here.

Emmys: Noms & Numbers

Om, nom nom: It was another excellent Emmys nomination day for acting and producing talent outside of the U.S. on Wednesday. Shōgun, via an American production, topped the overall program chart with 25. The hit series was largely shot in Japan and mainly in the Japanese language with Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Anna Sawai and Vasco Rodrigues all up for acting awards at the ceremony in September. Netflix’s UK breakout hit Baby Reindeer shrugged off controversy around its safeguarding processes and authenticity to bag 11 noms, including one for Richard Gadd in the Lead Actor In A Limited Series or Anthology category. The Crown‘s final season landed a total of 18 nominations — making the Netflix royal saga the most-nominated show in Emmy history. This included a first ever nod for Dominic West. Given he’s starred in The Wire and The Affair, that stat seems unbelievable, but true it is. Apple TV+ drama Slow Horses also got its first taste of Emmys success by accruing nine nominations for its third season, including a Best Actor In A Drama Series nom for Gary Oldman. Jack Lowden and Jonathan Pryce also had their names read out for the series, with the pair ironically going up against each other in a supporting actor clash due to Pryce’s role as Prince Philip in The Crown. Idris Elba will challenge West and Oldman in the Lead Actor (Drama Series) category. Other shows with an overseas flavor that picked up noms include Disney+ docs Welcome to Wrexham and Beckham, BBC natural history hit Planet Earth III, Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, Apple TV+ travelog The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy, Sky/Peacock drama The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas, which provided a little sprinkling of Emmy fave Ted Lasso now that comedy-drama is over. Notable international snubs included David Oyelowo being passed over for his role in Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Netflix comedy-drama series The Gentlemen (though he did get a directing nod) and the Tom Hiddleston-starring final season of Loki. A full list of Emmy noms can be found here.

Reax: Baz was able to track down Slow Horses‘ Jackson Lamb (aka Gary Oldman) for a chat about the glacial but inextricable rise of the Apple TV+ spy drama. Oldman, whose only other Emmy nom was for a famous guest starring role as a drunken actor in Friends back in the early 2000s, called it “the little show that could.” He was also delighted other members of Slough House had been acknowledged. Meanwhile, Oldman’s co-star Lowden sent me a statement yesterday morning paying tribute to “an immeasurably brilliant cast and crew,” describing the show’s nine overall noms as “the icing on the cake.” With Baz reporting that early stage planning is underway on seasons seven and eight (it’s currently just gearing up for season four’s launch), a bigger cake might be needed in future. We also heard from Nava Mau, who played Teri in Baby Reindeer, becoming the first trans woman to be recognized in the Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series category. She told Jake the nom was “a celebration” of the transformation the Gadd show had brought to her life. Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria later told Peter White of her joy, saying: “When you can really try to help make history or have somebody new who hasn’t been nominated and breaks into a category to have their first nomination, this is really an acknowledgement and celebration of the creative process.” Notably, Mau is not the first trans woman to be nominated for an Emmy: That honor falls on Laverne Cox, who was recognized in 2014 for her turn in Orange is the New Black.

Overall numbers: Baby Reindeer certainly helped Netflix take the prize as the most-nominated player, with the streaming giant landing 107 in total a day before some better-than-expected financials. FX surprisingly jumped ahead of HBO / Max to claim second spot with 93, a basic cable record. Prior to 2024, its record haul was 56 back in 2016. Slow Horses‘ nine noms played a key role in Apple TV+ gathering a very respectable 70, well up on last year’s 50. Find all our Emmys coverage right here and here. And while we’re at it, there is a brilliant amount of awards content on deadline.com for you to peruse right now — props to the entire Deadline TV editorial team, easily the best in the biz. The Emmys 2024 ceremony will be held on September 15 at the Peacock Theater in LA. The 2023 edition was only held in January this year, delayed due to the Hollywood labor strikes.

Disney’s ‘Doctor Who‘ Dilemma

A classic Whodunnit: Doctor Who wrapped its first season under the new BBC-Disney deal last month, so it felt as good a time as any for us to take a bit of a deep dive into the Tardis. What Max found won’t necessarily thrill fans of the Russell T Davies regeneration, with the critical reception to the first season under new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa best summed up as a mixed bag, while ratings paint a complex picture but are not exactly going gangbusters. Combined with a mighty budget boost, the rebooted series was given a hell of a lot of fanfare prior to launch but many feel it fell a tad flat — some episodes were considered underwhelming and many felt they wanted more Gatwa (no surprise there, really… who doesn’t?). The landmark BBC-Disney deal will last another season for sure, but one source close to the production tells us that its longer term future hangs in the balance, with the potential for Disney to pull the plug. Speaking volumes about where negotiations may currently be at, neither Disney, the BBC, BBC Studios or co-producer Bad Wolf chose to speak to us for the deep dive. Here it is without them.

San Diego Doctor: A marquee Doctor Who panel has been set for next week’s San Diego Comic-Con, and who knows, perhaps some of the bigger questions posed by Max’s piece will be addressed on stage at the San Diego Conference Center. The mega fan confab will also include events devoted to Deadpool & Wolverine, the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, Transformers One, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Star Trek and The Walking Dead. Anthony D’Alessandro and Patrick Hipes had more for you here.

Tales From Taormina

Saints and cinemas: The movie world headed back to Sicily for the Taormina Film Festival this week. Nancy was there for us on the Italian island and has since heard from the likes of Bella Throne, Abel Ferrara and Rebecca De Mornay. Thorne was in feisty form as she introduced the world premiere of Mitzi Peirone’s indie flick Saint Clare, praising the director’s “hardcore f*ck you I’m not gonna take no” attitude. She revealed she had worked with Peirone on the final cut of the film after a previous version didn’t work out for anybody, and gave insight into Color Your Hurt, her feature directorial debut, which will incorporate footage from her Taormina short Unsettled. In a separate interview with Deadline, Peirone revealed she had brought elements of the Joan of Arc story and famous Italian tropes to Saint Clare, which follows a solitary woman (Thorne) in a small town who is haunted by voices that lead her to assassinate ill-intended people. “The Italian in me had to bring… history, had to bring Renaissance paintings and chiaroscuro,” she said. 

“All the crazy shit in this business”: Peirone wasn’t the only one bringing some history to Taormina. The veteran filmmaker Abel Ferrara told Nancy he is working on a book entitled ‘Scene’ that isn’t exactly a memoir, but does incorporate tales of “the people I’ve met and all the crazy shit in this business and around this business… I got some crazy shit that’s happened to me, for sure.” Ferrara should have plenty of material to go on with a resumé that includes The Driller, King of New York and a remake of The Body Snatchers. Book deals are in place in Italy and the U.S. Next up for Ferrara is American Nails, starring Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento. He calls it a “gangster film” that’s also a modern take on the Greek mythology tragedy of Phaedra, who fell in love with her stepson. Crazy shit, indeed.

Faith In ‘Faithless‘

Breaking Baz (no, not that one): To Ireland we went for out latest Global Breakout, which shone a spotlight on Faithless, a dramedy about grief, family and mixed race identity. I sat down with creator Baz Ashmawy and producer Michael Garland to hear how the Virgin Media Television series had been developed, what it says about Irish production and why reviews had been so positive (“As good as Derry Girls,” was how one national newspaper review put it). Ireland has great comedy pedigree on both sides of the north/south border, with everything from the wonderful Father Ted to the modern classic Derry Girls hailing from its shores, and Faithless will be hoping to claim a seat at that table. As for the show’s premise — about an Irish-Egyptian father raising three daughters after his wife is killed in an ice cream van accident — Ashmawy put it like this: “Everyone has been in a really dark moment and something funny has happened. You know that one day you will laugh, but right now you’re heartbroken. That’s what I’m trying to show in Faithless.” The full interview is here.

The Camden Quarter

London eyed: The week began with Stewart’s exclusive that the trendy London borough of Camden is set to get a film-focused make-over. Plans have been unveiled to build a new film and TV studio as part of a development called the Camden Film Quarter. Sound stages, a National Film & TV School campus, homes and workspaces will be part of the development, in an area that will have entertainment production at its core. Our report gave insight into the company spearheading the development, Yoo Capital. The real estate firm is behind the £1.3B ($1.7B) redevelopment of London’s Olympia and the Saville Theatre in central London, which will become Cirque du Soleil’s first permanent UK home. Consultations with local residents have been happening after Yoo began buying land for the proposed site. Should the project get the greenlight, work could begin in H2 next year. There are still dozens of new studio sites planned in the UK, despite the volume of high-end TV productions tapering off in light of the U.S. labor strikes, streamers refocusing on U.S. content and UK budgets falling. With a strong tax credit and new help for indie films incoming, along with well-trained workers and overall attractiveness as a destination, the sense remains the UK will keep its place at the international production top table. The Camden Film Quarter is another sign of that optimism. More here.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Bridgerton star Harriet Cains and Jojo Rabbit‘s Luke Brandon Field will lead indie horror flick Video Killed the Radio Star.

🌶️ Also Hot: Squid Game: The Challenge co-producer The Garden is making blue-light access doc Critical (working title) for Netflix.

🌶️ More heat: Keshet Studios’ U.S. unscripted arm has projects in development with Chrissy Teigen, Seth MacFarlane and Howie Mandel. More here from Max.

🧛‍♂️ Get your teeth into this: Luc Besson took Melanie on a set tour of Dracula: A Love Tale in Paris.

🤝 New job: For Moving producer Jang Kyung-Ik as CEO of K-drama maker Studio Dragon.

🍿 Box office: Sci-fi film Kalki 2898 AD was the largest B.O. hit in India in the first half of 2024, Ormax Media analysis shows.

🇨🇳 China: The country’s entertainment biz growth will be double that of the U.S. over the next four year, per PWC’s Global Outlook report.

🖋️ Signed: Indian filmmaker and actor Farhan Akhtar by Crimson Media and The SB Initiative.

🧙‍♂️ Wizards of Oz: Fox and Australia’s Foxtel will co-produce scripted properties together.

💂 London calling: The London TV Screenings has added an extra day to its schedule next February.

🎥 Trailer: For season 2 of CBC’s time-travel anthology drama Plan B.

Max Goldbart contributed to this week’s Insider