Channel 4 Shares First Look at Russell T Davies’ ‘It’s a Sin’ – Global Bulletin

Jamie Lang
·6 min read

In today’s Global Bulletin, Channel 4 releases a first look trailer and still for Russell T Davies’ “It’s a Sin,” Acorn TV commissions a “Whitstable Pearl” series adaptation, “Two Buddies and a Badger 2 – The Great Big Beast” posts Norway’s best opening weekend box office, and Jackson Wild announces 2020 award winners.

FIRST LOOK

Channel 4 in the U.K. has dropped a first-look teaser and still image for Russell T Davies’ highly anticipated upcoming series “It’s a Sin.”

A fictionalized look bat at the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the series features a superstar cast led by Olly Alexander (“God Help the Girl”) and featuring Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Tracy Ann Oberman, Shaun Dooley, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells, Nathaniel Curtis and Lydia West.

Starting at the beginning of the decade, “It’s a Sin” follows Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin, three new arrivals to London looking to start a new life. The series follows the three fast friends through the decade as they mature together with the AIDS pandemic looming in the background.

Alexander will play Ritchie, his family’s favorite child who keeps his sexuality closeted from his parents, Douglas plays party boy Roscoe and Scott Howells plays Colin, the quiet one of the three, about to become an apprentice on Savile Row.

“I lived through those times, and it’s taken me decades to build up to this,” says Davies. “And as time marches on, there’s a danger the story will be forgotten. So it’s an honor to write this for the ones we lost, and the ones who survived.”

The series is produced by RED Production Company, a StudioCanal company, and executive produced by Nicola Shindler (“Years and Years”) and Davies, with Peter Hoar (“Umbrella Academy”) directing.

COMMISSION

Acorn TV’s Acorn Media Enterprises, an AMC Networks company, has commissioned Buccaneer Media to produce a new British crime drama, “Whitstable Pearl,” based on the novels “The Whitstable Pearl Mystery” and “Disappearance at Oare” by Julie Wassmer.

Norwegian filmmaker Øystein Karlsen (“Exit,” “Lilyhammer”) will adapt the new six-hour series, starring “After Life” alum Kerry Godliman as the series’ main character Pearl Nolan, the chef-owner of the Whitstable Pearl restaurant, which she runs with her son, Charlie. A multitasker, she also heads a newly formed detective agency where she employs long-dormant skills picked up during formal police-training years before.

Cineflix Rights is lined up to handle international distribution, with the series premiering exclusively on Acorn TV in North America, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. Production is set to begin Oct. 26 in Whitstable.

BOX OFFICE

Norwegian animated feature “Two Buddies and a Badger 2 – The Great Big Beast” has posted the best weekend take of any film this year, pre- or post-COVID.

More than half of Norwegian cinemagoers last weekend picked “Two Buddies” as their film of choice, resulting in 43,408 admissions from just 176 screens and limited seating, according to the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. This year’s pre-COVID blockbuster release, “1917,” sold 38,457 admissions in January, while “Tenet” managed just 32,955.

Perhaps more impressive, “Two Buddies” surpassed the opening weekend take of the franchise’s first film, which pulled in 41,603 admissions in September 2015. According to Filmweb.no, Norwegian cinemas had three times the seating capacity of today under COVID-19 regulations.

“Two Buddies and a Badger 2” is co-directed by Rune Spaans and Gunhild Enger and produced by Tordenfilm in association with Qvisten Animation. Sola Media sells internationally.

FESTIVALS

Jackson Wild, formerly the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, announced its winners this week, with Netflix Original “My Octopus Teacher,” from Sea Change Project and ZDFE’s Off the Fence, taking a festival-best four prizes, including the Grand Teton Award for the event’s best film.

The awards are billed as a celebration to excellence and innovation in nature, science and conservation storytelling. More than 30 awards were announced at a streaming awards ceremony, a result of COVID-19 forcing the event online for its first ever Jackson Wild Virtual Summit.

2020 JACKSON WILD WINNERS

GRAND TETON AWARD FOR BEST FILM

“My Octopus Teacher,” (Sea Change Project, Off the Fence)

CONTENT CATEGORIES

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR – LONG FORM

“The Octopus in My House,” (Passion Planet)

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR – SHORT FORM

“This Killer Fungus Turns Flies into Zombies | Deep Look” (KQED, PBS Digital Studios)

ECOSYSTEM – LONG FORM

“Okavango – River of Dreams: Divine Journey,” (Terra Mater Factual Studios, Wildlife Films)

ECOSYSTEM – SHORT FORM

“Chasing Ghosts” (Grizzly Creek Films, bioGraphic)

EARTH & SKY – LONG FORM

“The Edge of All We Know” (Collapsar films)

CONSERVATION – LONG FORM

“Reef Rescue,” (Merit Motion Pictures, Capa Presse, Films à Cinq, ARTE France)

CONSERVATION – SHORT FORM

“Akashinga: The Braves Ones,” (Avatar Alliance Foundation)

PEOPLE AND NATURE – LONG FORM

“My Octopus Teacher,” (Sea Change Project, Off the Fence)

PEOPLE AND NATURE – SHORT FORM

“Akashinga: The Braves Ones,” (Avatar Alliance Foundation)

CHANGING PLANET – LONG FORM

“On Thin Ice,” (Altayfilm Production)

CHANGING PLANET – SHORT FORM

“Mermaids Against Plastic: TAMARA,” (Free Roaming Studios, National Geographic Society, Conservation Media Group, Stuyvesant-Bard Films)

SCIENCE IN NATURE – LONG FORM

“My Octopus Teacher,” (Sea Change Project, Off the Fence)

PEOPLE AND NATURE – SHORT FORM

“Akashinga: The Braves Ones,” (Avatar Alliance Foundation)

SCIENCE IN NATURE – SHORT FORM

“Chasing Ghosts” (Grizzly Creek Films, bioGraphic)

PROGRAM CATEGORIES

IMPACT CAMPAIGN

“Sea of Shadows,” (Terra Mater Factual Studios)

NON-BROADCAST

“Entangled,” (David Abel, Andy Laub)

LIMITED SERIES – LONG FORM

“H2O The Molecule That Made Us,” (WGBH, Passion Pictures)

LIMITED SERIES – SHORT FORM

“Last Call for the Bayou,” (​Encompass Films, Smithsonian Channel)

ENGAGING YOUTH & FAMILY

“The Elephant Queen,” (Deeble, Stone, Oliff Production)

PRESENTER-LED

“Wild Cuba: A Caribbean Journey,” (Crossing the Line Productions)

MICRO-MOVIE

“African Parks: Protected Area Management,” (Esri)

“#NatureNow,” (@tommustill Film)

FEATURE

“The Elephant Queen,” (A Deeble, Stone, Oliff Production)

EMERGING FILMMAKER

“Life on the Rocks,” (George Pretty, National Film and Television School)

360° STORYTELLING

“ecosphere: Kenya,” (Phoria, Oculus, WWF, Silverback Films)

GLOBAL VOICES

“Flying Elephants – A Mother’s Hope,” (Prakash Matada, Dr. Krithi Karanth, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Saving Nature)

CRAFT CATEGORIES

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mark Deeble, (“The Elephant Queen”)

EDITING

Pippa Ehrlich, Dan Schwalm, (“My Octopus Teacher”)

ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE

Haz Zimmer, Jacob Shea, Russel Emanuel, John W. Chapman, (“Seven Worlds One Planet: Australia”)

WRITING

David Allen, Anna Fitch, (“The Octopus in My House”)

AUDIOSCAPE

Wounded Buffalo (“The Elephant Queen”)

SPECIAL JURY AWARDS

“Great Green Wall,” (Make Waves)

“Peng Yu Sai,” (Malaika Vaz, Nitye Sood, Untamed Planet Films)

“Corona – The Pandemic and the Pangolin,” (Terra Mater Factual Studios)

“The Tiger Mafia,” (Karl Ammann, Laurin Merz, HOOK Film)

“Pumas – Legends of the Ice Mountains,” (Terra Mater Factual Studios, Wildlife Films)

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