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Elvis Duran, one of terrestrial radio’s biggest talk-show hosts, has formed a new partnership to develop, produce and monetize creators’ video podcasts — providing what he claims are Hollywood-level production facilities in New York City.

Duran already oversees a slate of more than a dozen podcasts under the Elvis Duran Podcast Network, which is operated by iHeartMedia. The company is home to “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” which has aired on iHeart’s Z100 station for more than three decades and is syndicated nationwide.

But Duran says the time is ripe for a new approach to producing podcasts and vodcasts. “We are seeing the need for a different level of production quality for new video podcasts,” he told Variety.

Duran is one of the partners behind Podrophenia, touted as a “next-generation podcast, vodcast and creator development company.” The venture brings together the Elvis Duran Group; Looking4Larry, a creative marketing agency co-founded by WWE personality Paul Heyman and producer Mitchell Stuart; and production company MCM Studios, headed by Michael Canzoniero.

“We felt there had to be a place to take our talent for these shows,” Duran said. “You need more than a microphone and booth” to make a breakthrough podcast show today.

Podrophenia’s inaugural flagship series is “Hello Randy,” hosted by Randy Fenoli, longtime host of TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress.” Fenoli’s show is expected to premiere later this year through iHeartMedia and the Elvis Duran Podcast Network; details about the podcast are being kept under wraps for now. Additional original programming announcements are expected throughout 2026, according to the company. Duran said he’ll use his daily radio show to promote the Podrophenia shows and podcasts.

In its deals with creators, Podrophenia will provide upfront compensation as well as profit-sharing terms. Some of the shows will be distributed via iHeart, but Podrophenia also is eyeing other platforms, according to Duran.

The partners behind Podrophenia say their key differentiator is that they can provide an array of services, spanning show development, premium production, post-production, audience growth strategy, marketing support, sponsorship opportunities and strategic distribution.

“In looking at today’s landscape, we’ve seen so many studios that are turnkey and therefore built on the premise of minimal alterations” to their sets, said Heyman, who performs for WWE as a villainous wrestling manager. “Podrophenia is the first studio specifically customized to the host’s personality and also the concept. We’re not just building a content hub for creators — we’re building a creator hub for the content.”

Podrophenia’s partners are looking at all kinds of creators for potential shows, Heyman said. “It’s a matter of, Is there an audience for this? Is there a lure for advertisers and sponsors to come on board? The lens I’m scouting for is ‘uninhibited’ — if a hot dog vendor on Lexington Avenue has a compelling story to tell, I want that person in Podrophenia’s studios.”

Podrophenia will operate from MCM Studios’ production facility located in Chelsea, which features sound-controlled studios, customizable sets, broadcast-quality audio infrastructure, cinematic lighting systems, creator green rooms, post-production capabilities and collaborative production spaces. MCM Studios has hosted productions including those associated with Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO,” wing-eating talk show “Hot Ones,” Keke Palmer and more.

Stuart, of Looking4Larry, said that podcasting has “evolved far beyond simply recording conversations.” Podrophenia’s ambitions are to build creator-led content brands that extend beyond podcasts, into films, merchandise and more, he said. “We are going to look at people who, yes, have a big fanbase. But it’s not the Instagram version of them,” he said. “We’re looking at authentic storytelling.”

Meanwhile, Duran said he’s interested in hosting his own show for Podrophenia at some point. On his daily radio show, he typically sits alongside three co-hosts. “I would like to go to a place of doing one-on-one interviews,” Duran said. Heyman also said he’s been “toying with the idea of a podcast” since 2011: “When the time is right, and the marketplace is ready, I’ll come out of the gates blasting.”

The Podrophenia name is a play on “Quadrophenia,” The Who’s classic double album released in 1973. More info is available on the Podrophenia website.

Fandango Sales has boarded Sergio Castro-San Martín’s “The Chilean” ahead of its world premiere at Locarno.  

Set in 1976, the film follows Chilean miner Aldo Marín as he flees Chile’s regime for Turin, where he meets Luciana, a doctor who performs illegal abortions. But his attempt to rebuild his life is threatened by a talent that is also his curse: building bombs.

“The 1970s were a defining decade for both Italy and Chile. Although the outcomes were very different, the motivations behind the social and political movements in both countries shared important similarities,” Sergio Castro-San Martín told Variety. 

“To speak about that period means, in many ways, revisiting the beginning of the massive waves of migration in Chile and Latin America triggered by forced exile. Today, that same feeling seems to be resurfacing. Not necessarily through demonstrations in the streets, but in the digital sphere.”

The greatest challenge of “The Chilean” was to make a period film that felt “deeply rooted in the present,” he noted. 

“When you make films set in the past – especially in such a politically charged era – it’s very easy to fall into propaganda or didactic political discourse. That’s precisely what ‘The Chilean’ tries to avoid.”

Camilo Arancibia stars as Aldo alongside Sara Serraiocco, Gaetano Bruno, Andrew Bargsted and Lorenzo Richelmy. “The Chilean” is produced by Dispàrte, Equeco and Cinédokké in association with Redibis Film.

While inspired by Juan Cristóbal Guarello’s book “Aldo Marín, Carne de Cañón,” the film is its own beast. 

“[In the book], the protagonist dreams of returning to Chile to assassinate Pinochet. In ‘The Chilean,’ Aldo’s dream is much simpler and, I believe, more universal: he wants to reunite with his wife and son. To do that, he must earn enough money.” 

He added: “By shifting the focus in this way, the story transcends ideological boundaries and becomes a profoundly human. In that sense, exile naturally leads us to one of today’s most pressing social issues: immigration. This is a theme that permeates every layer of the film.”

Recreating a historical period requires an “understanding of the society that inhabited that world and the people who gave it life.” 

“I wanted the language of ‘The Chilean’ to be inherently dual. Chileans speak Italian and Italians speak Spanish. Police officers and militants are both forced to learn each other’s language – a fundamental principle of guerrilla warfare is to know your enemy as well as you know yourself.”

Aldo’s “heart remains in Chile while his body is in Italy.” But he’s not the only orphan in the story, as Luciana is also scarred by a painful past. 

“Together, they embody a militant left, driven by revolutionary ideals, that ultimately found itself orphaned. Abandoned by its parties and leaders, and eventually by its own utopias. The characters drift through the streets alone, like ghosts, unable to come together, defeated and forced to reinvent themselves.” 

Today, many of our political concepts have been turned upside down, he argued. 

“Words that once belonged to the language of the left have been appropriated by the right, and we now live in a landscape where ideological meanings have become blurred.” 

However, Aldo’s struggle is not only political: “It is deeply personal.” 

“That’s why ‘The Chilean’ brings the idea of the revolutionary back into the domestic sphere. ‘I don’t plant the bombs. I only build them.’ This line defines Aldo as someone who sees himself as an active observer of both his own life and the world around him. His burden is one of accumulation: accumulated anger, accumulated grief over exile, accumulated betrayal. It is within this shared anger – reflected also in Luciana – that he ultimately breaks the promise he made to himself.” 

Aldo Marín Piñones is a “ticking time bomb,” said Castro-San Martín. And so is his film.

“Every scene moves quietly towards an inevitable explosion, like a spark slowly traveling along a fuse. Everything is on the verge of detonation. We know something is going to happen – we just don’t know when or how.”

Icelandic producer Glassriver is teaming with ZDF Studios-owned Network Movie on “Áróra,” a crime drama series based on Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s internationally bestselling “An Áróra Investigation” novels.

Network Movie has optioned all five books in the series — “Cold as Hell,” “Red as Blood,” “White as Snow,” “Dark as Night” and “Deep as Death” — and is developing the adaptation with Glassriver.

The partnership brings together one of Iceland’s most active scripted producers and a German company with extensive experience in crime drama, literary adaptations and international co-productions.

Network Movie’s credits include the long-running procedural franchises “Murder Up North,” “In Other Circumstances,” “Helen Dorn” and “The Trace,” as well as the pan-European crime series “The Team” and the feature adaptation “The German Lesson.”

Set across Iceland and London, the series follows Áróra, a tough fraud investigator with Icelandic roots who returns home to search for her missing sister. What begins as a family mission soon expands into a wider criminal investigation as she teams with Daniel, an Icelandic police detective and potential love interest, exposing corruption, betrayal and violence beneath Iceland’s rugged landscape.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Network Movie to bring ‘Áróra’ from the page to screen,” said Glassriver CEO Andri Ómarsson. “This series is truly an international project, with a story that unfolds across Iceland and the U.K. while bringing together the best talent from across Europe.”

Ómarsson said Sigurðardóttir’s ability to combine “compelling characters, suspense and a strong sense of place” gives “Áróra” “unique international appeal.”

Network Movie managing director Bernd von Fehrn and executive producer Moritz Mihm described the character of Áróra as an “irresistible heroine” and praised the novels for “interweaving intricate criminal cases with the complex private lines of the protagonist and her family.”

“The novels are ripe material for adaptation,” they added. “We are delighted to have found the ideal partner for this very special project in the Glassriver team.”

Sigurðardóttir is also working with Glassriver on an adaptation of her “Reykjavik Noir” trilogy and previously co-wrote episodes of Netflix’s Icelandic supernatural drama “Katla.”

According to the producers, the “An Áróra Investigation” novels have sold more than 800,000 copies and have secured publishing deals across English-, French-, German- and Arabic-language markets as well as Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

“Áróra” joins Glassriver’s expanding slate of literary crime adaptations, which also includes “Elma,” based on Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s novels, and “Konrad,” drawn from Arnaldur Indriðason’s detective series. Its development lineup also features “Manifesto” and “Reykjavik Noir.”