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Exclusive: Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories has teamed with producer Monica Saunders-Weinberg to adapt Fiona McIntosh’s novel The Pearl Thief as a feature film. One Life screenwriter Nick Drake is attached to write.

The Pearl Thief is billed as a sweeping, epic story love and betrayal set between 1939 and the early 1960s. Saunders-Weinberg acquired the rights and took the project to Nine Perfect Strangers maker Made Up Stories, which then attached Drake to the project.

Synopsis reads: “The stakes are high in this gripping novel set between the city of Prague and its snowy woodlands on the cusp of World War II, and later in the streets of Paris, London, and the heather-covered moors of Yorkshire in 1963.”

The plot will follow Katerina, a museum curator determined to overcome the trauma of her past and avenge the pain inflicted upon those she loved and those she’ll never know.

Eric Bana, known for his role as Nero in Star Trek (2009), has had a successful movie career with both leading and supporting roles. Since Star Trek (2009), Bana has starred in various films, including The Time Traveler's Wife, Hanna, The Finest Hours, and The Dry, showcasing his acting range and growth in the industry. Bana's portrayal of Nero in Star Trek established him as one of the franchise's most intense and vicious villains, with lasting effects on the universe.

Award-winning actor Eric Bana starred as Nero, the revenge-driven Romulan from the future in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009). At the time of casting, Bana was an already-recognizable actor and earned a range of award nominations for his revenging Romulan role. Bana began his career with comedy sketch shows on Australian television, making his 1997 movie debut in The Castle. Establishing his name with roles in Black Hawk Down, Hulk, Troy, Munich, Lucky You,...

A striking number of Oscar-nominated acting talent from 2021 got their start at a young age, with the power and excitement of performing for the screen grabbing them early and never letting go. Kristen Stewart began acting at age 8, and just received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Princess Diana in “Spencer.” She recently spoke to Nicole Kidman, who landed her fifth nomination with her portrayal of Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos” for Variety’s “Actors on Actors,” about their youthful careers. Stewart spoke of discovering fame with “Twilight.” “When I started doing that movie, I was 17 and I was just a little inside-out person,” Stewart said. “I was walking around with all my blood on the outside of my body.”

Kidman replied: “I was 14. I remember Anthony Minghella saying to me, ‘You are skinless.’ I think that’s what you’re describing. Vulnerable, exposed, everything you are going through is for consumption.

Despite the presence of an unusually menacing Benedict Cumberbatch unnerving all on set, it’s this young Australian actor’s otherworldly stillness that lights up Jane Campion’s western psychodrama

Jane Campion’s psycho-sexual western The Power of the Dog is a tremendous film but it is the power of Kodi Smit-McPhee that really adds bite to its bark. The 25-year-old Australian actor has been a fragile, hypnotic presence, with an eerie knack for stillness and intensity, ever since his earliest performances. At the age of 10, he played a boy coping with the desertion of one parent and the breakdown of the other in Romulus, My Father. At 12, he trudged through a post-apocalyptic hell-scape in The Road, then fell in love with a vampire at 13 in Let Me In, the US remake of the Swedish horror hit Let the Right One In. Even his multiplex movies, such as the X-Men...

Back in 2000, Eric Bana captured Hollywood’s attention with his role as a homicidal thug in Chopper, a breakout hit in his native Australia. Soon after, the actor was being courted by the likes of Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down and Steven Spielberg for Munich. Despite leading tentpoles such as Ang Lee’s Hulk and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, he longed to return to his gritty Aussie indie roots.

Enter director-producer Robert Connolly, who first met Bana on Richard Roxburgh’s 2007 film Romulus, My Father. They’ve now teamed on four projects, and their latest — the crime drama The Dry, which Connolly directed, Bana toplines and they both produced — ...

Back in 2000, Eric Bana captured Hollywood’s attention with his role as a homicidal thug in Chopper, a breakout hit in his native Australia. Soon after, the actor was being courted by the likes of Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down and Steven Spielberg for Munich. Despite leading tentpoles such as Ang Lee’s Hulk and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, he longed to return to his gritty Aussie indie roots.

Enter director-producer Robert Connolly, who first met Bana on Richard Roxburgh’s 2007 film Romulus, My Father. They’ve now teamed on four projects, and their latest — the crime drama The Dry, which Connolly directed, Bana toplines and they both produced — ...

The barren earth surrounding a drought-stricken Aussie town provides fertile ground for mystery, suspense and punchy emotional drama in “The Dry.” This enthralling adaptation of Jane Harper’s international bestseller stars a spot-on Eric Bana as a city detective whose investigation of an apparent murder-suicide in his hometown triggers renewed suspicion about his involvement in a mysterious death that’s haunted the community for two decades. Expertly directed and co-written by respected filmmaker Robert Connolly, “The Dry” has all the character intrigue, clever plot twists and red herrings to keep viewers guessing. It should become a sizeable summer hit when released in local cinemas on Jan. 1. Broad international streaming exposure is assured.

Headlining his first Aussie feature since 2007’s “Romulus, My Father,” Bana is perfectly cast as Federal Agent Aaron Falk. A dedicated detective based in Melbourne, Aaron hasn’t set foot in hometown Kiewarra since departing abruptly following the...

The rise of global streamers in Europe, new opportunities for third-party producers and improvements in off-screen parity were among the hot topics at Variety and the European Film Market’s TV Summit, which took place as part of the Berlinale Series Market & Conference.

The 20-plus speakers at the Feb. 26 event at Berlin’s Zoo Palast included Oscar-winning “Mrs. America” actor Cate Blanchett; Netflix’s director of international originals Rachel Eggebeen; HBO Europe Evp of original programming and production Antony Root; ITV Studios’ Evp of global content Julie Meldal-Johnsen; Sky Germany’s Svp of original production Marcus Ammon; and “Deutschland 83” writer-producer Anna Winger.

Read on for Variety’s key takeaways from the summit:

Netflix is adapting its fast-paced working models to European standards

Appearing in conversation with a group of its TV creators to discuss the realities of producing for Netflix, Rachel Eggebeen, director of international originals, was upfront about...

Julie Meldal-Johnsen, executive VP of global content at ITV Studios, said Wednesday that the company’s continuing move into European drama through its various subsidiaries was creating unique opportunities across the continent.

Presenting the group’s upcoming new series at the Berlinale Series Market and Conference, Meldal-Johnsen spoke to Variety about local productions that are aimed at global auds.

“It’s so exciting to have the infrastructure and the ambition and the experimental risk taking that our studio allows us to do,” Meldal-Johnsen said, pointing to the ambitious historical drama “Romulus” as an example. The series, produced by Italy’s Cattleya and Groenlandia, explores the origin of Rome and will be shot in Latin.

“That’s crazy but brilliant,” Meldal-Johnsen quipped. “It’ll be subbed and dubbed into all sorts of different languages and no one will understand it, but it just gives it that sort of flavor and from...

Berlin — ITV Studios push into European drama has been boosted by pre-sales on “Romulus” and a slew of deals across a burgeoning slate of non-English language productions as ITV Studios aims to position as a world-class player in global content production.

Announced at this week’s Berlinale Series Market, the sales play off ITV Studios acquisition of stakes in European companies – such as France’s Beaubourg Stories, a label at ITV majority-owned “Profilages” producer Tetra Media Studio, and its minority stake in Italy’s high-flying Cattleya (“ZeroZeroZero”) – as well as early partnerships on single titles from fast-escalating production forces in Europe, such as Telefonica’s Movistar Plus.

Produced by Cattleya, Groenlandia and Sky, shot in archaic Latin, and reworking Rome’s creation story into ambitious high-end drama, “Romulus” has been acquired by HBO Europe and Sbs in Australia.

The Sbs deal takes in two further crime procedurals from Cattleya, one...

Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee is hitting the post-apocalyptic road with Viggo Mortensen in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winner The Road.

Smit-McPhee, 11, will play Mortensen's son in the tale of a monthslong journey across a barren U.S. landscape after a cataclysmic event destroyed most of life on Earth. Charlize Theron co-stars in the Dimension Films drama.

2929 Prods., Nick Wechsler Prods. and Chockstone Pictures are producing.

The Melbourne native recently starred opposite Eric Bana, Marton Csokas and Franka Potente in Romulus, My Father. The Australian Film Institute nominated Smit-McPhee for best lead actor in Romulus and honored him with the Young Actor Award.

Smit-McPhee is repped by WMA, Active Artists Management in Australia and Goodmanagement.

SYDNEY -- Two films that deal with Australian immigrant stories -- Romulus, My Father, set in the postwar era, and The Home Song Stories, set in the 1970s -- shared the spoils with three awards apiece at Thursday's Australian Film Institute Awards.

Romulus, Richard Roxburgh's directorial debut, took home best film, though Roxburgh couldn't beat out Tony Ayres for best director for Home Song. Ayres also won best screenplay, and Joan Chen -- who reportedly came out of semi-retirement to play Shanghai nightclub signer Rose as she struggles to deal with two children in 1970s Australia -- won best actress. The wins gave Home Song eight AFI Awards; it received five craft awards in a separate ceremony Wednesday.

Romulus' other wins includes best actor for Eric Bana and best supporting actor to Martin Csokas.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, 10, who played Romulus' son Raymond, won the AFI Young Actor Award.

The best supporting actress nod went to Emma Booth for playing the feisty vixen Jill in Cherie Nowlan's Clubland.

With Geoffrey Rush hosting and stars including Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana and Anthony La Paglia presenting, the awards are billed as a celebration of Australian film.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to the Australian family drama Romulus, My Father from Arclight Films. Eric Bana and Franka Potente play a Yugoslavian father and German mother trying to raise their son amidst a troubled homelife. Director Richard Roxburgh's film will hit TV screens before it hits theaters as part of the new HDNet Ultra Video On Demand platform, offering films for purchase up to three weeks before their theatrical release. Another Todd Wagner/Mark Cuban-owned outlet, the HDNet Movies channel, will show the film as part of its free "Sneak Preview" program two days before its theatrical bow.

SYDNEY -- Following a board meeting Wednesday, Australia's principal production funding agency, the Film Finance Corporation Australia, started its new financial year with proposed investment and direct funding to back one of its biggest and most ambitious slates in recent years. The slate, which provides a much-needed boost to the production section here, includes six films, most with key talent attached, as well as 10 adult and children's television drama series that alone are collectively budgeted at AUS$37.8 million ($28 million), in addition to numerous documentaries. The FFC board's decisions includes a letter of intent to invest in Moulin Rouge and Van Helsing actor Richard Roxburgh's directorial debut Romulus, My Father, set to headline another major Australian talent, Eric Bana, most recently seen in Troy.

SYDNEY -- After a board meeting Wednesday, the Film Finance Corporation Australia is kicking off the new financial year by backing one of its biggest and most ambitious slates in recent years, with Australia's principal production funding agency providing a much-needed boost to the production sector here. The slate includes six films, most with key talent attached, as well as 10 drama series -- which alone are collectively budgeted at AUS$37.8 million ($28 million) -- in addition to numerous documentaries. The FFC board's decision includes a letter of intent to invest in actor Richard Roxburgh's (Moulin Rouge) directorial debut, Romulus, My Father. The film will be headlined by another major Australian talent, Troy star Eric Bana.