‘The Salt Path’ Scandal: Deadline International Insider

Good afternoon Insiders, welcome back to another edition of our weekly newsletter to cap off what’s been a busy week. I’m Max Goldbart. Do sign up here.

‘Salt Path’ Scandal

What’s in a story?: Up until last Sunday, Gillian Anderson pic The Salt Path, a true-to-life underdog film about a couple made homeless who walk along a South England coastal path, was a local box office hit. Then, The Observer dropped a bombshell investigation, questioning multiple elements of the couple’s story and revealing that the author of the source material, Raynor Winn, was once arrested after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of pounds from her employer. What’s followed has been an almost nationwide debate around truth, fiction and just how far Raynor Winn was able to push the believability of her story. Given that it is supposed to be a raw, honest re-telling of a couple finding light amid disaster, The Observer report called the very essence of the book into question. Having spoken to multiple experts, it also queried Raynor’s husband Moth Winn’s CBD, a debilitating disorder that has an average life expectancy of 6-8 years, and which he has been living with for more than double that period. Both the book’s publisher Penguin and the movie’s producer Number 9 Films said they had undertaken “all due diligence,” yet the messy affair raises interesting questions over just how far these efforts should stretch, and just how far Raynor Winn had been stretching her story. She hit back furiously Wednesday, issuing a lengthy statement partnered with hard medical evidence of Moth Winn’s CBD, while calling The Observer’s report “grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and [seeking] to systematically pick apart my life.” 

Disney & ITV Deal

‘Love Island’ meets ‘The Bear’: It’s been a summer of streamer-broadcaster co-operation. The latest American SVoD to land a bedfellow is Disney+, which has struck a landmark deal with ITV that will see a “Taste of Disney+” rail feature on ITVX and vice versa. Content heading to ITV includes The Bear, Andor and The Kardashians, while Love Island, Mr Bates vs the Post Office and Vera head the other way. Karl Holmes, Disney+’s boss in EMEA, told us the secret of the deal’s success will be in its complementary nature, (Less than 10% of Disney+’s audience is over the age of 55, while for ITV the figure is around 40%) while ITV content chief Kevin Lygo labeled the tie-up a “mutually beneficial alliance.” Free-to-air VoD players and U.S. streamers will “come closer in the future,” Holmes said, as he teased more Disney partnerships of this ilk to come. Disney hasn’t been the only big player looking to collaborate. Netflix and France’s TF1 struck a “new kind of partnership” last month that will see the former carry channels from the latter, while Amazon and France Télévisions did similarly for France Télévisions’ streaming service a couple weeks later. The new age is upon us and collaboration between old and new is the name of the game.

Britain & France Team On Cinema Pact

‘Plein’ sailing: More collaboration, this time between nations, was revealed after French President Emmanuel Macron visited the UK this week. Macron was in Britain to try and strike a UK-France illegal migration deal but his trip offered an opportunity for the two nations’ movie industries to deepen ties. As Macron hob-nobbed with King Charles, Kate Middleton and the Prime Minister, the BFI and France’s CNC signed a Moving Image Co-operation Agreement aimed at fostering closer collaboration between the UK and French film industries. Given the strength of their respective movie sectors, Mel’s dispatch from the BFI Southbank, where the deal was revealed, notes that co-operation of this ilk has not always been straightforward. The two have vastly different financing systems and legislation, while Brexit has been an impediment to collaboration. Never one to miss an opportunity to address a crowd of culture vultures, UK Minister Chris Bryant, who speaks fluent French, waxed lyrical about French cinema, citing Plein Soleil and Les Enfants du Paradis as personal faves.

Czeching Out Karlovy Vary

Soft power “depleting”: There was some serious star power in town at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), with Dakota Johnson, Michael Douglas and Peter Sarsgaard making the journey to the Czech Republic for what is always a lively event. But in one of the more intriguing sessions, Hollywood’s very status as a titan of global cinema was called into question. The latest Nostradamus report from the Göteborg Film Festival, which was unveiled during the Karlovy industry sidebar, found that Hollywood is losing its “symbolic value” in mainstream culture, as it went on to posit that America’s soft power is being depleted despite the appearance of the A-list stars. “The concept of Americanization has been quite challenged for some time,” Göteborg boss Josef Kullengärd told an audience at the KVIFF industry headquarters. This session came after one where more local concerns were aired, as figureheads made impassioned speeches about how far-right purges are threatening cultural sectors in Hungary and Slovakia. Elsewhere, there remained plenty of glitz and glamor. One of the most popular sessions was Fifty Shades star Johnson’s, who had two films at the fest, Celine Song’s sleeper Materialists and Michael Angelo Corvino’s Cannes hit Splitsville. The two modern dating films got Johnson thinking that “dating sucks,” she told an engaged audience. Karlovy coverage can be found here.

Terry Gilliam Reflects

No more fights: Nancy sat down with the weird and wacky Terry Gilliam on Monday as he headed to the Umbria Film Festival in Italy, where a screening next weekend of his iconic 1985 dystopian black comedy Brazil will celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary. The Oscar-nominated icon, a former member of the Monty Python troupe, is always happy to speak with honesty and purpose but appears to be mellowing with age. He told us that while he has often courted controversy during a lengthy career, he doesn’t want “any more fights.” His views on the current state of cinema are rather depressing. “It just feels like it’s not a very interesting time,” he added. “I watch movies now, and I see very technically skilled films, but they are not doing anything to make my view of the world different.” That is certainly a thought to ponder. The director has lined up the likes of Johnny Depp, Adam Driver, Jeff Bridges, Jason Momoa and Tom Waits for his next project, Carnival at the End of Days, but financing is proving a challenge. Dive deeper.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have exited their Netflix-owned prodco Broke & Bones.

🌶️ Another One: Kenya’s Oscar entry Nawi: Dear Future Me landed a North American deal.

🌶️ A third: Netflix promoted Łukasz Kłuskiewicz to run TV and movies out of the growing Central and Eastern Europe hub.

📈 Analysis: Jake examined how the frequency of UK Culture Sec Lisa Nandy’s interventions with the BBC are sparking concern.

🏆 Awards latest: Juliette Binoche surprised Brazilian star Wagner Moura with a gong at the Cinéma Paradiso Louvre Festival in Paris.

📕 Novel ideas: Frankfurt Book Fair is in talks to launch a network of book-to-screen markets at Venice, Busan and Toronto.

🖊️ Agents: Stalwart UK lit agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates has appointed leading agent Jodi Shields as Chairwoman.

🎮 Gaming: The highly-anticipated Esports World Cup kicked off in Riyadh and unveiled a partnership with IMG.

🏕️ Fest latest: Former BBC News chief James Harding will deliver the prestigious MacTaggart lecture at the 50th Edinburgh TV Festival.

📣 New voice: Michelle Yeoh will voice the English-language version of Chinese breakout blockbuster Ne Zha 2.

🍿 Box Office: Saudi action-comedy Alzarfa: Escape from Hanhounia Hell topped the local box office at home in its opening weekend, beating Jurassic World Rebirth.

🎥 Trail: For 2000 Meters to Andriivka, an intimate depiction of the Ukraine War from Oscar winner Mstyslav Chernov.

International Insider was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Stewart Clarke.