Category: Entertainment

Ryan Serhant, the star realtor captured in Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” claims his company produces about 2,200 social posts a month. It’s a hefty amount for a man who oversees a sprawling real estate empire across 19 U.S. regions, an in-house production studio that employs roughly 100 people and millions of followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Producing so much content, however, is a tough ask for someone trying to do their day job: managing a brokerage. Enter AI.

Serhant has partnered with HeyGen, a company that lets users create personalized AI avatars, to build a new social media presence featuring an AI persona modeled after his likeness. The avatar will appear across Instagram, TikTok and X under the handle @HeySerhant, an extension of his main presence that will share lessons learned from decades in real estate.

“I’ve accumulated years of lessons that I don’t always have time to turn into content,” he tells Variety. “I do my best, but I don’t always have time anymore. As I run the businesses and I still sell and we still do the TV shows, this gives us a way to make more of that accessible to the people that want to watch it.”

Serhant’s decision follows a wave of high-profile figures opting to license their images to AI companies, allowing for new forms of content featuring their likeness while potentially creating a new revenue stream for those who opt in. “The View” host Sunny Hostin licensed her image to the AI studio Fountain 0 to appear in movies based on her books, while Higgsfield paid a coterie of streaming and sports stars to use their likenesses in a recent AI-generated film.

The relationship with HeyGen came about “organically,” Serhant says, after witnessing the types of content the company was creating. His content arm — of the 100 people, roughly 30 are based with Serhant in New York — has tried to figure out ways to balance building content around the broker’s image as he’s traveling the country for showings.

“I get very, very interested in how we can add accelerant to what we do and how to scale the one asset that is really, really hard to scale, which is ourselves,” he says. “It’s an age-old problem: If you have a brand built around a face, if you have a brand built around a voice, how do you scale that?”

“With his HeyGen avatar, his audience can now hear from him every day without Ryan having to be on camera every day,” Andrew Mok, HeyGen’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “We believe in a future where everyone can scale their presence — sharing what they know and showing up wherever their audience is, without being limited by their own time.”

What the @HeySerhant account won’t produce is some of the personalized content Serhant is known for, including “day in the life of a CEO” videos and clips featuring his daughter Zena. “The connection to me and my brand and my life, and people along the ride on my journey — none of that changes,” he says. “This is in addition to, which is awesome and highly helpful.”

The account will produce at least one video a day for at least 12 months (though Serhant expects the arrangement to extend well beyond that), with Serhant and members of his team working on each one to make sure they accurately reflect his sentiments and image. Those videos will exclusively feature the avatar, though Serhant expects clips to pop up where his actual persona will engage with it.

“Ny wife always told me, ‘You just need to replicate yourself, you’re the only one who can understand what you say,” he jokes. “Well, look, guess what? Welcome to the future.”

Xbox is launching a new division that will house its film and television, consumer products, strategic partnerships and live experiences businesses.

Named XP (a play on “experience points” in gamer lingo), the entertainment division will be led by Kayleen Walters, the current president of Xbox’s “Minecraft” studio Mojang and executive producer of “A Minecraft Movie,” who will now shift into the role of president of XP.

Per Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, at XP, Walters will lead a team focused on building out entertainment and experiences based on Xbox’s video game franchises, including “Minecraft,” “Call of Duty,” “Fallout,” “Warcraft,” “Gears of War,” “Candy Crush,” “Diablo,” “Forza,” “The Elder Scrolls” and “Halo.”

According to Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball, the new vision “brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at Xbox for years and aligns them behind a shared mission: helping our franchises reach more people, create deeper connections with players and new fans, and unlock new opportunities for these fandoms to grow around the world.”

As outlined by Ball in a memo to staff Thursday, XP’s four investment areas include:

“XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world’s most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself. Fans don’t just play our franchises,” Walters said in a memo Thursday. “They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping Xbox franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways.”

A 13 year veteran of Lucasfilm, Walters helped grow and relaunch one of the most influential franchises in history. During her time at Mojang, “Minecraft” has grown from 350 million units sold to over 425 million and Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” had the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation and hit No. 1 at the domestic box offices. On the heels of that success, Walters’ team at Mojang secured a deal for the first of several planned Minecraft theme parks.

As Walters moves into her new role as president of Xbox’s XP division, Sharma has named Meta alum Maria Angelidou-Smith as Walters successor as CEO of “Minecraft” studio Mojang. Angelidou-Smith most recently served as chief product officer at Reddit.

“Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment,” Sharma said. “Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around ‘Minecraft.’ The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.”

Along with Xbox’s TV and film adaptations like “A Minecraft Movie” and Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series, and upcoming projects including the “Diablo” animated series, the “Call of Duty” movie in the works at Paramount, and the film and TV rights for Hideo Kojima’s next game, “Physint,” Sharma says Xbox is focused on expanding its entertainment business beyond the capabilities of a traditional Hollywood studio into off-screen entertainment.

Xbox recently hosted an expanded version of BlizzCon (a longtime Blizzard Entertainment fan convention), marking the return of that event after three years off, and launched a WWE takeover themed around new game “Gears of War: E-Day.”

See below for Sharma’s full memo announcing the XP division to Xbox staff, which was published on the Xbox Wire Thursday.

Team,

At Town Hall on Tuesday, I talked about the four Cs and the choices we are making to put them into practice. You’ve seen a lot of our work on Core and Content. Today I want to share two leadership appointments supporting Creator and Connection. Kayleen Walters will transition from her role as President of Mojang to President of XP, a new XBOX division focused on how people experience our franchises beyond the games themselves, and Maria Angelidou-Smith will join XBOX as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft.

Kayleen has spent her career building entertainment franchises. Before XBOX, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm helping guide Star Wars across films, products, and partnerships. At Minecraft, she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees and was Executive Producer of A Minecraft Movie, the biggest film in the U.S. last year and a top-five release worldwide. She is also a producer of the sequel.

XP is a play on “Experience Points” and formalizes four investment areas for us: XBOX PICTURES for film and television adaptations; XBOX PRODUCTS for licensing and merchandise; XBOX PARTNERSHIPS for sponsors and brand partners; and XBOX PLACES for our marquee broadcast and in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences. Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences with the industry without losing what made people care about the franchise in the first place.

Kayleen’s move also gave us time to think carefully about what Mojang needs in its next leader.

Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment. Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around Minecraft. The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.

Maria brings a rare combination of those experiences. She spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, as well as Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio and served as Chief Product Officer at Reddit, another of the world’s largest community platforms. She has built products used by billions of people and led product and engineering organizations through significant growth and change.

She will bring that experience to Mojang while learning from the people who know Minecraft best. Her first order of business is for her to learn from the teams and communities that make Minecraft so special.

I’ll be in Stockholm next week to spend time with the team and talk through the transition in person. Maria starts Monday, October 19, at the Bear Creek office.

Please join me in congratulating Kayleen and welcoming Maria to XBOX!

Asha

Louis Garrel is set to play John Elkann — heir to Italy’s Agnelli family, behind car giant Fiat — in Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio‘s “Falcon.” The biopic centers on charismatic auto industry executive Sergio Marchionne, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, who saved Fiat from the brink of bankruptcy.

The high-end production is currently shooting in Toronto. Additional “Falcon” cast members include Benedetta Cimatti, Barbara Ronchi and a cameo by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

Marchionne, who was Italian and Canadian, died in 2018 at 66. He was hired by Italy’s Agnelli family to run Fiat in 2004 when, due to previous mismanagement and the recession, few in the auto industry believed it could be saved.

“Ruthless and visionary, he axes the top management, teaches John Elkann (Garrel), the young heir suddenly burdened with the family’s legacy, the art of command, and conquers the American market by fighting General Motors and Chrysler, saving FIAT from bankruptcy,” the film’s synopsis says.

Then, in 2009, when Chrysler was guided into a U.S. government-led bankruptcy, Marchionne offered to take control of the company essentially for free. With no other option, the U.S. Treasury Department accepted his offer. By merging the two failing car companies, Marchionne created the seventh-largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, increasing Fiat’s value more than tenfold.

“Marchionne became very important and famous overseas,” promotional materials note. “But the miracle exacted a devastating price. Blending the razor-sharp tension of a financial thriller with deep psychological insight, ‘Falcon’ explores the heights of capitalism and the fatal, profound isolation of a tragic victor swallowed by the very machine he saved.”

The project is written by Bellocchio with Ludovica Rampoldi, Andrea di Stefano, Stefano Rulli and the collaboration of Oliviero Del Papa. “Falcon” is being produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, Mattia Mor for Emotion Network and RAI Cinema and in collaboration with Stla Europe.

The prolific – and still very active – Bellocchio, who is 86, is considered the greatest living Italian director of the country’s old guard that came of age during the 1960s. His recent works comprise “The Traitor” — starring Favino — about the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, which was released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics in 2020. In 2023, he shot “Kidnapped,” which reconstructs the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy who was kidnapped and forcibly raised as a Christian in 19th-century Italy. His six-episode “Portobello” TV series, which reconstructs one of Italy’s most clamorous travesties of justice, was the first HBO Original Italian production to launch on the HBO Max streaming platform where it dropped to positive response in 2026.

“Falcon” reunites Bellocchio with longtime creative collaborators, including production designer Andrea Castorina, costume designer Daria Calvelli and editor Francesca Calvelli. The director is joined for the first time by Berlin-based Italian cinematographer Matteo Cocco, winner of Italy’s David di Donatello prize for lensing Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”

Charlotte Gainsbourg had one artist to recommend to the crowd at her Busan International Film Festival masterclass, and it was not a safe pick.

“I’m not good for recommendation. I have one artist that I listen to, very controversial artist, but I listen to everything he does, and it’s Kanye West,” Gainsbourg said, to laughter from the audience. “I know, it’s very easy.”

She followed up with a tamer pick. If it has to tie back to cinema, she said, film scores are what she listens to most.

Gainsbourg, who is on her first visit to Korea, is in Busan with “Melancholia,” one of four films she made with Lars von Trier. The choice, she explained, came down partly to elimination. “Antichrist,” their first collaboration, won her best actress at Cannes, but “Nymphomaniac” would have meant showing two films.

“I guess it was the easiest choice, ‘Melancholia,’ and also because selfishly, I want to see it again,” Gainsbourg said, laughing. “I haven’t seen it in 15 years.”

The screening followed straight after the session, and the moderator warned the audience they would lose about five minutes so Gainsbourg could catch it.

Then the conversation turned to von Trier himself. “Well, I can’t say he’s a friend, but he’s a dear friend,” she said. “I don’t know him that well, but we exchange text messages.”

The moderator pointed out that film fans and the wider public hold plenty of preconceptions about the director. “As a human being, he’s very tortured. And that touches me. And in his films, he gives a lot of himself. He’s extremely vulnerable,” Gainsbourg said. “I’ve never learned as much as with him about myself, about the film, about being an actress.”

An audience member wanted to know how she plays von Trier’s women, who are at once powerful and powerless. “People exactly think that I am only one side. They think I’m fragile and soft and kind and respectful. I like to show the other side of me, and with Lars’s films, I’m able to,” Gainsbourg said.

When the interpreter described her as having a filmography of more than 80 titles and began to call her prolific, Gainsbourg cut in. “Prolific? No, not prolific,” she said, laughing.

She was more expansive about her few days in Seoul. The Leeum museum opened its doors to her and her friends on a day it was closed, giving her the run of the place. She also ate what she called “a very special barbecue, Korean barbecue, that was incredible.”

“Yesterday was fun, because I got to go to a bar, a restaurant bar with a lot of actors and directors, and it was just so friendly to see people from the industry here just gathering, drinking a lot of alcohol,” she said, drawing more laughs. “It was fun.”

Gainsbourg’s mother, the late Jane Birkin, appeared in Hong Sang-soo’s “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” during a visit to Korea, so the moderator asked whether her daughter had any Korean directors in mind. Gainsbourg said she would be very open to working here, and that she is fond of Korean cinema and talent, having already met a few members of the local industry. “I’m superstitious,” she said. “So I won’t say any names or anything, but I hope so.”

When an audience member asked about her two most recent releases, Gainsbourg laughed. “What has been released? Nothing!” she said. The film in question turned out to be “L’Affaire Marie-Claire,” Lauriane Escaffre and Yvo Muller’s drama in which she plays real-life lawyer and women’s rights campaigner Gisèle Halimi. The film, which centers on the fight for abortion rights, played in Cannes’ Special Screenings section and opens in France on Nov. 4.

She is also finishing an album she has been working on for years and hopes to make a few music videos for it. She directed her own on her last record. A feature of her own is on her mind, but she said she would need a story so personal “that only me can do it” before she felt she had the legitimacy.

Gainsbourg also looked back on how her acting career began. Her first audition, for “Paroles et Musique,” came via a note her mother left her: “They’re looking for a girl your age. If you want to try, here is the address.” She got the part after a long casting process that came down to two girls, and “The Impudent Girl” followed. For years afterward, she said, she felt she had “stolen the right to be there” because she never trained as an actor.

Her parents have been a big part of her recent work. Gainsbourg spent 35 years trying to turn her father Serge Gainsbourg’s house into a museum, and it finally came together over the past three years. Before it opened, she photographed the house for herself while it was still private, and those pictures ended up as an exhibition in Arles last summer. “It was very emotional for me,” she said.

The 2021 documentary she made about her mother, “Jane by Charlotte,” took about four years to shoot, including a two-year break. “I think she was happy about it,” Gainsbourg said.

Birkin died in 2023. “She was happy knowing how much I loved her, I think,” Gainsbourg added.

Wim Wenders has boarded “Truth:Beauty,” a feature documentary about legendary German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, as executive producer.

The project, produced by Maja Hoffmann and Human Humans, will mark the feature directorial debut of French novelist Alexandra Matine, whose books include “Scopophilia” and “La Pire Amie du monde.”

Matine is also writing the film, which is being developed in partnership with the Peter Lindbergh Foundation, giving the filmmakers full access to the photographer’s archives.

The announcement comes on the heels of the world premiere of Wenders’ latest documentary, “From Inside Out,” at the Venice Film Festival.

Principal photography on “Truth:Beauty” is expected to kick off before the end of the year.

One of the most influential fashion photographers of his generation, Lindbergh, who died in 2019 at the age of 74, helped usher in the era of the supermodel with his striking black-and-white portraits. Over a career spanning four decades, he became known for bringing a more natural and realistic approach to fashion photography, moving away from the heavily stylized images that had dominated the industry.

Wenders and Lindbergh, who belonged to the same generation of German artists, shared a friendship spanning several decades. Their work also influenced one another. Lindbergh’s 1993 Harper’s Bazaar editorial “City of Angels” was directly inspired by Wenders’ “Wings of Desire.”

One of Germany’s most celebrated filmmakers, Wenders won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for “Paris, Texas,” the Golden Lion at Venice for “The State of Things,” and the best director prize at Cannes for “Wings of Desire.” He has also earned four Oscar nominations, including three in the documentary feature category for “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Pina” and “The Salt of the Earth.”

Hoffmann, who serves as president of the Locarno Film Festival, has a track record of backing documentaries about major figures in the art world, notably “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present,” “Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict” and “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.”

“Truth:Beauty” is produced by Human Humans in association with Composite Films.

“You Can See Everything,” Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s highly anticipated documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, has set a release date in the U.K. and Ireland.

The doc, which offers an intimate look at the Theranos founder’s life a month before she began an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, will hit cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland on Nov. 20. A24 is self-releasing the film.

“You Can See Everything” first premiered as a surprise screening at Telluride Film Festival in September — earning rave reviews and sparking Oscar buzz — before heading to New York Film Festival, and is set to hit U.S. theaters on Oct. 16.

“Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move,” the doc’s official synopsis reads. “What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.”

During a Q&A at New York Film Festival last week, “The Rehearsal” and “Nathan for You” creator Fielder explained how he ended up co-helming the project with Oppenheim, who just made his narrative directorial debut with “Primetime” starring Robert Pattinson. After befriending Fielder, Oppenheim remembered that Holmes had reached out to A24 — the studio behind “Primetime” and “The Rehearsal” — about someone documenting her final days before prison. Fielder had already been fascinated by her, and they set up a meeting with Holmes and A24.

“When I met her, I remember having this weird experience where she seems so genuine at times,” Fielder said. “But then I’m like, ‘no,’ and clocking and tracking my thoughts and being like, ‘Okay, I know she’s a liar.’ It was a weird mental thing. From there, we were like, ‘Can we roll the dice on something if they were open to having cameras in?’”

Roll the dice they did, and it resulted in Fielder fully moving into Holmes’ house that she shares with her partner, Billy Evans, and their two young children.

“I cannot tell you how weird it was that we were there,” Fielder said. “Truly, to this day, we’re still like — anyways, sorry. I wouldn’t think I’d be the person you would want for your final period. I’m a nice person, I do believe, but I’m not the most comforting. You know what I mean? I think you know.”

Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ “Nina Roza,” Nyla Innuksuk’s “In the Heart of the South” and Marie Clements’ “How We Stand” are among the films taking top honors at the 45th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

The festival announced its 2026 juried awards winners on Wednesday night, recognizing films across its Summit, Horizon, Tides, Arbutus, Vanguard and Short Forum competitions.

The Summit Award went to “Nina Roza,” directed by Dulude-De Celles, which the jury praised for its compassionate exploration of the immigrant experience, identity and belonging. The film follows a protagonist returning to his hometown for the first time in 28 years, drawn back by the mystery surrounding a young artistic prodigy. “We all know what it’s like to long for home,” said the jury, “We were all enamored by this film’s direction, authentic performances, stunning cinematography, and evocative music.”

Ian Bawa’s “Strong Son” snagged a special mention.

For the Horizon Award, the jury selected Nyla Innuksuk’s “In the Heart of the South,” describing the film as a “strong example of Canadian cinema.” The jury praised its performances by Anna Lambe and Zorga Qaunaq and “polished cinematic approach.”

Nathan Donovan’s “Clubfoot” received the Horizon jury’s special mention.

Banchi Hanuse’s “Ceremony” scooped the The Tides Award for a feature about the disappearance of ooligan fish from Bella Coola and the Nuxalk Nation’s efforts to protect and preserve its lands and waters. “Through beautiful cinematography and inventive storytelling, the film documents the strengths of community members consistently challenging the boundaries of imposed systems while drawing upon the resilience and generosity of their ancestors,” the jury said.

A special mention went to Carol Nguyen’s “Still Night, Burning House.”

The Arbutus Award, which recognizes British Columbia filmmaking, went to Marie Clements’ “How We Stand,” a story of sisters separated by tragedy. The film confronts “difficult and traumatic history by bringing it into vivid, real, human focus. Its surrealist style, deft storytelling, heart, and powerful heroines at once entertain, educate and demand self-reflection—as individuals, and as a society,” the jury noted.

Hayley Gray and Kaayla Whachell’s “Send the Rain” won a special mention.

“Hear the Yellow,” directed by Banu Sıvacı, took the Vanguard Award kudos, praised for its “remarkable depth,” “originality,” “singular cinematic language” and “emotional precision,” said the jury, stating that through “bold character work and intelligent use of metaphor, it transports us into a vividly specific landscape while creating a powerful dialogue between rural and urban, and a family separated by time.”

Samuel Urbina’s “That Shadow Fading” received the Vanguard special mention.

The Short Forum Award was adjudicated to “Pre-Parenting,” an animated film by Taiwan-based filmmaker Yu Yu, with a special mention scored by Kamal Aljafari’s “Going Home.”

The juried awards come as VIFF wraps its 45th edition on Oct. 11.

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) 2026 Juries

Summit Award: Rhia Aden, Nach Dudsdeemaytha, Caitlyn Sponheimer

Horizon Award: Arjun Ayillath, Madeleine Davis, Michael Mann

Tides Award: Selwyn Jacob, Lyana Patrick, Jeff Lee Petry

Arbitus Award Jury: Josephine Anderson, Brenda Lieberman, David Taylor

Vanguard Award Jury: Joaquin Cardoner, Caroline Monnet, Sarah Shamash

Short Film Award Jury: Tanvi Bhatia, Ariel Bond, Thanh Lieu

The oceans’ vastness can feel ominous, and though scientists have studied what lurks beneath, so much remains unknown. In Netflix’s new limited series “Below,” creator Jesse McKeown introduces viewers to a tiny town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, a man still haunted by his past and a family desperate to look ahead toward the future. Deeply intriguing and at times terrifying, “Below” is a perfectly paced thriller. The series masterfully blends genres, looking beyond the mythos of sea creatures to take a hard look at human nature, especially as we continue down the harrowing road of an irreparable climate crisis.

“Below” opens in 1986 in Newfoundland. Nine-year-old Calvin Penney (Azriel Dalman) and his family are relocating from Little Pot Rock to a slightly larger island, Snook’s Arm. Sitting in a boat, tugging their house behind them, the journey initially appears to be going smoothly. But, after a mysterious incident, Calvin is forced to cut the tow between the boat and the house, leaving his father to drown. Forty years later, adult Calvin (Josh Hartnett) is still haunted by the event.

Though his father’s death torments him, Calvin is an affable, hardworking widower. Fishing has long dried up in Snook’s Arm, so Calvin and his son Wade (Charlie Heaton) make a living by collecting ice for a local vodka brewery and running an Airbnb out of their home. Calvin is especially pleased to celebrate Come Home Year because his other children, Mary (Ruby Stokes) and Jay (Rohan Campbell), are back to the island for a week-long stay. Unfortunately, the visit doesn’t go as smoothly as Calvin expects. The brewery rejects his latest ice haul due to its stench, which leads him to Dr. Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis), who runs the local science center. Soon, after Wade, who loves to self-medicate his ADHD with alcohol and mushrooms, is involved in a horrific accident, and Snook’s Cove residents begin acting oddly, Calvin and Fonda realize something is amiss in the water.

Save for Hartnett’s hilarious attempt at a Newfoundland accent, “Below” is a gripping watch. McKeown offers audiences a beautiful snapshot of an eroding but close-knit community and a man determined to save it. Though Calvin’s children and sister Ruth (Willow Kean), who works as Snook’s Arms Harbor Master, realize there are very few resources left to hold on to, Calvin digs in his heels, determined to find a way forward. As the town and its residents descend into chaos after a massive iceberg emerges from the water, Calvin realizes it might all be connected to his father’s accident.

At just six episodes, each running 45 minutes or less, “Below” is engrossing because it’s more than it appears. Although a horrifying sea creature sits at the center of the show, this story is about a man desperate to cling to a decaying past, a grieving family and how greed can create monsters. Episode 4, “The Ocean Will Have Us All,” is particularly riveting. The episode centers around the creature, but it also showcases how far people are willing to go and who they will sacrifice — no matter the cost — for their own selfish gains. The final minutes of the episode show some gutting displays of inhumanity, which only begin to make sense in the penultimate episode, titled “Little Pot Rock.”

In the end, “Below” is a captivating ride blending horror and suspense while centering our very real climate crisis. As a result, McKeown delivers a truly unique story in a well-worn genre. By examining the Penney family and the place they call home, the show addresses the fragility of life, the impermanence of place and how small we are in the universe. Moreover, the series reminds audiences that change is inevitable, and the only way to deal with it is to shift and adjust when it comes.

“Below” is now streaming on Netflix.

Kavita Gupta’s U.S.-based Cineroost has boarded Prateek Vats’ second feature, “Chronicles of a Confession,” as producer, joining Payal Kapadia and Anurag Kashyap on the project, which starts shooting in early November.

Cineroost stepped in to handle global representation and U.S. markets, and to help get the film into production. It is the company’s next feature after Vir Das’ “Baara Number.”

Penned by Vidur Nauriyal, Vats and Shubham, the drama centers on a Kashmiri shawl seller who admits to a crime he didn’t commit, kicking off a series of events nobody saw coming. The script was chosen for the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Cinema Fund, under its script development strand.

Vats broke through with “Eeb Allay Ooo!,” which world premiered at the Pingyao Film Festival in 2019 and took the Golden Gateway award at the Mumbai Film Festival that year. The film went on to screen at the Berlinale in 2020 and at Tribeca’s first online edition.

Ranjan Singh of Flip Films (“Songs of Forgotten Trees,” “Vagachipaani”) produces alongside Dubai’s Action Filmz, India’s Etched Films and Khan & Kumar Productions (“Lovers in the Blue Night”). The project’s producing and creative base stretches across India, the U.S. and the U.A.E. Kashyap and Kapadia serve as executive producers.

Kashyap, who was involved in Vats’ first film, said the director had spent a long time on a script he envies. “I almost want to steal it. And since I can’t, I have jumped on board as an executive producer,” Kashyap said. “It is an honor to associate with someone as great as Payal Kapadia who I have seen sticking to her voice and her ground as a filmmaker and then there is my own producer Ranjan Singh. What was there in this to not want to be part of it.”

Anand Bansal (“Dhuin,” “Gamak Ghar,” “The Elephant Whisperers”) is behind the camera, with Rajesh Thanickan (“Santosh,” “Homebound”) as supervising producer. Devika Dave (“Boong,” “Sherni”) handles production design, Himani Dehalvi (“Trial by Fire”) costumes and Bigyna Dahal (“The Fable,” “Khauff”) sound design.

“Prateek’s films mix humor and political commentary in a unique way which I have always admired. And this new project takes this to an even higher level,” Kapadia said.

“‘Chronicles of a Confession’ has been brewing for some years and I am thrilled that it is going on floor now,” Vats said. “The film solidifies my collaboration with producer Ranjan Singh, who has been with me since my debut feature, ‘Eeb Allay Ooo!’”

Gupta’s earliest film projects, 13 years ago, were with Kashyap, and the two have remained close. “Strong writing, the best creators and a stellar global creative team, everything about this film aligned with my vision for Cineroost – rare, global and rooted,” Gupta said.

The film marks the second major step in building out Cineroost’s slate.

“Business from films is not for my sustenance but really for my soul and passion,” Gupta said. “I find that to be a strength in the work I do in the creative world. I have the privilege of flirting with risk more than others.”

“A lot of my work for South Asian talent and projects has been under the radar,” she added. “I felt time has come for me to take bigger steps and come out from being in the shadows to do what I love, nurturing creative voices, enabling stories that matter and building bridges between divergent worlds.”