Category: Entertainment

When new material comes his way, Max Minghella‘s first instinct is resistance. “Normally the way it goes for me is, I get sent a script and immediately think, ‘I don’t want to see myself in this,’ ” he says. “And then I go on this journey of having to admit there is some part of myself there, as much as I don’t want to make the connection.”

That reflex served him well for eight seasons on The Handmaid’s Tale, where he played Nick Blaine, the broody Gilead commander whose loyalties were as compromised as the morally corrupt regime he served. But Industry season four offered him something else entirely. As tech founder Whitney Halberstram, he’s not morally ambiguous so much as openly predatory: a financial criminal who uses an escort service to blackmail his competitors, a man fluent in rapid-fire finance-speak and allergic to shame.

Minghella waited for the familiar moment when the character’s flaws would start to look uncomfortably familiar. It never happened. “I eventually realized,” he says, “that I can’t see any of myself in this person.”

He dove into the part anyway.

Minghella grew up on movie sets — the son of the late Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella — raised in Hampstead and surrounded early on by cameras and call sheets. Acting, he says, felt less like a choice than inevitability. “I really couldn’t do anything else,” he says.

As a teenager he had a small, uncredited role in his father’s Cold Mountain, where he became friends with actor Charlie Hunnam. Soon after, he followed Hunnam to Los Angeles, where he began to audition and try his luck. His early screen work included a small part as George Clooney’s teenage son in Syriana. He later spent time at (but did not graduate from) Columbia University before returning to acting full time, landing his breakout role as Divya Narendra, one of the Harvard students who sued Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.

“I never really meant to build a life outside of London — or in L.A. — but because I’m an only child, I’m a real found-family person,” he says. “All my friends were here, and I felt safe around them. Now, 20 years later, I don’t feel as married to that, but it’s become like a retreat I can return to after filming in more exciting places.”

He was in Toronto, wrapping the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, when Industry‘s co-creators reached out. They were looking for someone enigmatic — a description that tends to follow Minghella, partly because he rarely works in his native accent. “Everybody is surprised that I’m British — but not in a pleasant way,” he says with a laugh. “I had this fantasy growing up that Americans are enamored by a British accent, and maybe I’m the anomaly, but people are often disappointed when they meet me. And I’ve seen stuff online that people much prefer me acting in an American accent.”

He knew he would need something substantial to follow eight years in Gilead, but he wasn’t gaming out a strategy. “I’m not good at that, and my career has just been reacting to whatever people sent my way,” he says. “But it’s not like I’m Brad Pitt; I’m not like, ‘Oh, should I do the Tarantino movie or the PTA movie?’ “

Industry‘s eight-episode commitment appealed to Minghella. The script’s dense, finance-heavy dialogue less so. The actor describes the job as “athletic” and found himself doing three to four hours of homework each night — learning how to say things like, “Add complexity to the jurisdictional fog of who audits us plus the media smokescreen of a turbo bullish headline,” without breaking into a sweat.

To help build his character’s inner isolation, he also decided to separate himself from the rest of the cast while living in Wales, where the series is shot. “I’m not a Method actor at all, but I chose to live in a different neighborhood because there was something alien about the character that I was trying to bring in,” he says. The distance helped him focus.

Working with a mostly Gen Z cast, Minghella, who turned 40 shortly after wrapping, also became newly aware of his age. “I felt old, and I’ve never experienced that on set before,” he says, laughing. But the milestone seems to have shifted something. Being photographed, standing in front of crowds — aspects of the job that once rattled him — feel somehow easier now.

“I had this idea that as an actor, it’s my job to be submissive or subservient, and now I’ve become less polite,” he says. “And I have to say, that’s comfortable.”

This story appeared in the Feb. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

The honorees for this year’s Lexus Uptown Honors Hollywood awards have been announced.

Mario Van Peebles will receive the Icon of Achievement Award, recognizing his nearly 60-year career in Hollywood, from his first screen appearance in the daytime soap opera One Live to Live in 1968 to his feature directorial debut with the 1991 classic New Jack City and the 2003 biographical drama Baadasssss! which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in, portraying his father, legendary independent filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.

Taye Diggs will receive the Impact and Excellence Award in honor of his decadeslong acting career across film, television and theater, from How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Best Man, Chicago and The Wood, to Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Private Practice and All American.

One Battle After Another star Wood Harris will receive the Fearless Trailblazer Award, recognizing his performances in TV and film, from HBO’s The Wire Remember the Titans, and the Creed movies, to his latest role in Mara Brock Akil’s breakout Netflix series Forever.

Finally, Omar Benson Miller will receive the Amplified Impact Award, also in recognition of his screen performances, from 8 Mile to Miracle at St. Anna and HBO’s Ballers, as well as his latest turn as Cornbread in Ryan Coogler’s Oscar record-breaking horror film Sinners.

“For over 16 years, Uptown has been committed to elevating or celebrating Black excellence in Hollywood because our stories and images deserve to be seen, valued and celebrated with intention,” Len Burnett, founder of Uptown magazine, said in a news release. “This Oscar Week event was created to address the ongoing gap in recognition by honoring Black creatives and executives — both in front of and behind the camera — whose work shapes the industry and culture at large. This year, we proudly spotlight Black men whose vision, influence and leadership are building lasting legacies for future generations.”

Lexus Uptown Honors Hollywood will be held on March 11 in Los Angeles. Actor, comedian, writer and producer Chris Spencer and media personality Tai Beauchamp will serve as hosts.

Dave Burd — or Lil Dicky, as he’s known in music circles — would prefer we not refer to his latest project as a podcast.

“It’s not that it’s not a podcast,” explains his wife and co-host, Kristin Batalucco, “it’s that it’s a podcast and more.”

Friends Keep Secrets, which is the title of the non-podcast podcast, is a collaboration with Batalucco and Burd’s other best friend and Dave co-star, Benny Blanco. As they explain it, they’ve rigged Burd and Batalucco’s home with a dizzying number of cameras, and the trio and their weekly guest — a rotation of bold-faced names like Ed Sheeran, Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Rudd — will move through the space as wide-ranging conversations occur. In the case of Sheeran, for instance, new music is made in one room, while discussions of parenting amid fame, his former legal battles and his personal collection of famous movie props (i.e. the hands from Edward Scissorhands) take place in others. 

The multimedia show, which dropped its first episode Tuesday, marks the first public outing for Batalucco, whose background is in advertising and production. She married the viral rapper-turned-FX star in 2025 but has remained strictly behind the scenes until now. “I’ve always been fearful of putting myself out there,” she says in her first-ever interview. “So this is me doing exactly the thing I’ve always been scared of, and it’s been an interesting exercise in just letting go.”

Friends Keep Secrets is produced in partnership with Jay Shetty’s newly launched media network, Perfect Strangers, and is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and, well, anywhere podcasts are found. Blanco, an acclaimed music producer/songwriter and husband to Selena Gomez, is hopeful that people will watch as well as listen. They all jumped on a Zoom in mid-February to discuss the new foray along with their other projects, their desire to start families and, ideally, to move culture.

Let’s start with the genesis of this project. What did you want to do and say with it?

BURD I think we’ve all had independent thoughts as time has gone on about entertainment and what we love doing, and one of those things is just hanging out with each other and joking around. Those are the best times in my life. And the whole origin of me even wanting to be an entertainer started with me just being the guy who was entertaining his friends when we were hanging out on a Friday night. The only reason I had the confidence to even go for [the career that I have now is] because my friend group laughed at my dumb jokes. 

BLANCO And for all the Andrew Tates and terrible people in this world, I saw an opening because I love hanging out with my friends, and it just so happens that my two best friends are the funniest people that I know and maybe the funniest people in the world. I was just like, “Why isn’t there something like this that you can have on in the background or in the foreground, instead of some dude talking about taking steroids and being a shitty guy to women?” And we have such an eclectic group of friends, so sometimes the person that we’re talking to is going to be my mother and sometimes it’s going to be Selena Gomez. Or we might be talking to a guy that’s at the forefront of A.I. and then talking to a man who created the fart machine.

Highs and lows.

BLANCO Yeah, and Chuck [Editor’s note: for those who didn’t watch Dave, Blanco often refers to Burd as Chuck], what’s the thing you say every time about sitcoms?

BURD [Hesitates.] Look, I don’t want you to think that I’m saying we’re making the next Seinfeld. But I think in today’s day and age, for a show about a group of friends that’s kind of living in a show about nothing, to have the same cultural impact that those sitcoms of the nineties had, I really honestly feel like it might be better served in this new multimedia format than even a show like Dave. Kristin talks all the time about reaching people, so I’ll let her say it…

BATALUCCO I just feel like I spend more time on TikTok or the Internet, and I really crave authenticity from people, and I think that there’s such an appetite for people being more real and themselves, even if it is celebrities. And we saw that as an opening for us because we love to just hang out and laugh and not take ourselves seriously and it’s good to put that stuff out there.

What’s your allergy to the word “podcast,” Dave?

BURD As an individual, I’ve never really consumed podcasts, so for me to go all in on something that is something I’m not even necessarily listening to or absorbing on my own [doesn’t make sense]. Also, when I think of the word “podcast,” I really think of audio. I know that it’s transformed over time…

BLANCO And you think of the thing that you didn’t want — you’re in front of a microphone with headphones on.

BATALUCCO Yeah, you expect to see two people sitting across from each other with microphones, and this whole idea was more like, one, how do we make people, including ourselves, feel comfortable in a space where everybody’s used to letting their guard down? And then two, how do we invite people in, not just the guests, who are participants in this world, but how do we invite an audience in to feel that relaxed vibe?

BLANCO And yeah, most of these people are our friends, but occasionally there are people who aren’t our friends, and by the end of the interview, we’re, like, dinner with them. We become friends with these people, and so I really think it’s going to be just as fun for us as it is for the listener. I look at Dave and Kristin at the end of every week and I’m like, “This is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”

BURD By far the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my career. Also, a lot of the stuff that I’ve done takes a ton of planning, just such disciplined execution, the opposite of living in the moment, whereas this is living in the moment with my two favorite people on earth, and inviting other people to come and share this space. So, I don’t think it’s necessarily that I have an allergy to the word “podcast” or really anything against podcasts at all; I just think that what we’re doing is kind of…

BLANCO Better.

BURD I’m not saying that.

BLANCO I’m saying it. And you know why I’m saying it? Because I think every industry needs a moment where it gets shaken up, and I really think that what we’re doing. And if we do it right and everyone agrees with us, this will be the new standard of how these things are put out and shot.

BATALUCCO It just seems obvious to us. You can get so much more creative with how you show up for people on video, and the most energizing and exciting part to us was how do we take this thing that people really do connect with and make it more dynamic for the video platform.

How do you ideally want people to consume or experience it?

BLANCO I’ll take audio, but video is where we shine because it’s something that I feel like hasn’t been done. We’re kind of blurring the line of, is it streaming? Is it a podcast? Is it an interview series? Is it a TV show? Is it NPR’s Tiny Desk? You see Ed [Sheeran] come on and we’re making a song from scratch. 

BURD For me, the thing that I love maybe the most about it is that it really can be consumed wherever people consume media. For example, I said that I don’t listen to podcasts, but let me tell you, I’m sure as hell on Instagram and TikTok all the time, consuming bite-size pieces of content the same way that every single human being age, like, 13 to 50 is consuming media, and half those clips that I’m seeing are from podcasts.

I’m curious to hear what role you think you each play here?

BLANCO In my life and in Dave’s, we’re put in situations that a lot of people aren’t put in. It’s like, I was hanging out with the Obamas the other day. That just doesn’t happen. But what I love about Kristin is sometimes someone really famous will be about to come over and Kristin’s like, “Do you think they’re going to like me?”  She brings the most human element to this show because it’s like she is in the rooms and she does know these people but sometimes it feels like she’s where the listener is in that moment.

She’s the audience proxy?

BLANCO Yeah, and it just feels so magical to me. But if we’re having on a guy who’s a monk, I’m not scared to be the one who’s like, “Do you have to be bald to be a monk?” “And if you’re not bald, do you have to shave your head?” “And are you allowed to masturbate?” There’s so many things I want to know, and I’m not afraid to sound completely [absurd].

BURD For me, 75 percent of the podcasts that I’ve been a guest on, I’m being asked the same questions and telling the same origin story over and over again. So, I’m not particularly interested in the origin story. We haven’t had Mark Zuckerberg on yet, but I’d be interested in just seeing how Mark Zuckerberg leans on a counter and then talking about that choice of leaning. Of course, we’ll get into other stuff too. But I also don’t want to look up a lot about the guest before.

BLANCO Yeah, I don’t care where the person grew up, unless it has a great story that naturally comes up.

I’ve only seen a rough cut of the Ed Sheeran episode, which was an hour and 45 minutes. Obviously, that’s not what listeners are going to hear, so I’m curious, in the editing process, which will you lean into: the making of music together or the discussions about things like film and fame? Which one speaks more to what you want to do with this?

BURD You saw the unfinished version, but the finished version is not going to go from an hour 45 to, like, 50 minutes. It’s probably going to end up being…

BLANCO Like, an hour 42.

BURD Yeah. And not every episode. Some episodes are best served [shorter], which we’re learning as we’re making this. I just don’t want people ever to feel bored.

What’s the pitch to guests? 

BURD We probably each have different pitches.

BLANCO I send out a lot of things to friends and these are my exact words. Dave might not like this, but I say, “We’re making a podcast,” and then I say, “I’m embarrassed to even call it a podcast because it’s so much more.” Then I usually say, “We rigged up Dave and Kristin’s home with like a gajillion cameras, and you’re not going to be asked any of the questions you’d normally be asked — you’re just coming to hang out with us and everyone else is going to have a fly-on-the-wall experience of how it actually is to hang out with you.” Like, I’m not sure anyone’s ever seen Selena Gomez get on the ground and have her back cracked during an interview. So, I usually just pitch it like that and then I end every single one by saying, “No pressure, we don’t want anyone to feel like they’re coming on because they have to. I only want people to come on that want to have a fun time with us because the only way it’s going to work is if you come on and let go.” And only one person I asked was noncommittal, but I’m not going to tell you who it was. Everyone else said yes.

Dave, is your pitch different?

BURD My pitch varies per individual. But I don’t think this is the type of thing where people are going to come on and talk about the book that they’re putting out that week. I don’t think we’re even going to let people dictate necessarily where [the episode] comes out in the order.

BATALUCCO It’s not really set up as a place to stop on your PR thing. Not that it can’t be. 

Ideally, your guests will forget the cameras are there and open up. What happens if and when they come back to you, asking you to cut whatever it is that they just revealed?

BURD We would say, “Absolutely, we’ll cut it. No problem.”

BATALUCCO I feel like one thing that’s important about our [show] is we’re really not out to get, I don’t know what the word is…

BURD Clicks for drama?

BATALUCCO Yeah.

You’ve had a who’s who of major stars come through already. What’s been the biggest surprise thus far?

BATALUCCO I would say the connection after.

BURD But I’m not surprised by that. Honestly. I’ve felt this way my whole life, and I’m sure you and Benny have too. We’re such natural connectors with people. Our whole lives, the feedback we’ve always gotten has been like, “Wow, you’re so warm and sweet and fun to be with.” So when I meet someone, I’m used to them having a positive experience.

BLANCO The biggest surprise to me is that I forget that there are cameras, and we have a lot of cameras. They literally have to blink a light to tell us we’ve been going for too long. But it’s so fun and interesting because you’re sitting there, mostly with people who are our friends, but you get to ask them questions you normally wouldn’t ask. I’m not normally sitting with Ed asking, like, “Hey Ed, would you say that raising children as a famous person is hard?” Or with Gwyneth Paltrow, I was like, “What’s it like waking up when you’re 20-something and you look to your right and Brad Pitt is in bed with you?” I mean, we’re all thinking the same thing…

But this is a format in which you can ask that.

BLANCO Yeah. The last time I went out to dinner with Gwyneth Paltrow, we were at sushi with her husband. I’m not like, “Hey, so, when you were 20, what were you thinking about Brad Pitt?”

Who’s left on the list of dream guests?

BURD All three of us want the Obamas.

Well, Benny’s been hanging with them…

BLANO I have not been hanging. It was one time. One very short experience. It probably felt so minimal to them but it felt very maximal to me.

In one of the episodes I watched, you talked about the freedom you’re afforded when you’re making something like this outside the system. That said, if a Netflix or a Hulu or FX came to you and said this is something they’d want to air as a TV show, would that be appealing?  

BURD I think entertainment is shifting so rapidly that this is the type of stuff that Netflix is going to end up wanting to put on their platform, and so I fully anticipate all of those companies coming to us at some point and talking to us, and I look forward to it. 

Outside of this, what’s left on your collective bucket lists?

BURD I think all three of us have individual bucket lists and often there’s overlaps where we can work together. For example, I think on my bucket list and Kristin’s is children at some point, and I think, even though independently it’s on our bucket list, the overlap will work out beautifully.

It would be awkward if it didn’t.

BURD It would be awkward. But for me, there are so many things that I want to do creatively that I’ve had the chance to start doing, like movies. I’ve got several different movies in the works right now. One of them is that hard R comedy that I talked about on the Ed Sheeran episode. That is my baby amongst all babies. And then musically, I feel like, honestly, I’ve only scratched the surface and I’ve got more music to release than I’ve ever had in my entire career and then there are also other TV shows that I’m working on and there’s the DreamWorks animated movie.

BATALUCCO I don’t know if I’m allowed to say where, but I have a show in development. And I’m hoping this opens more doors.

How about you, Benny?

BLANCO I feel like I’ve been so lucky to accomplish all these things that I’ve gotten to in my life, and honestly I feel like I’ve just stumbled into all of them. I’m not necessarily good at anything, so I’m just hoping nobody pulls the veil off anytime soon. But, yeah, for me, the thing I definitely want to achieve the most is having a family. I guess mine are more like the normalcy moments. But I’m also just stoked to be alive and in the conversation.

Before I lose you three, you’d asked Ed Sheeran to come up with an ideal headline for his career. So, I’m asking you, what’s your ideal headline for this story?

BURD I think this is just a tremendous question.

So, give it to me…

BURD You’re putting me on the spot.

BATALUCCO I feel like this is where you shine, Dave.

BURD Well, here’s what I’m thinking about: I know when I’m bullish how it can read in text. Sometimes I read the articles back and I just can tell how it looks, so that’s always on my mind whenever I do any interview. Especially when I’m asked to provide the headline. What do you think the headline should be?

I’m not there yet, and I’m much more interested in your take.

BLANCO I don’t know if it’s the headline, but I want this [show] to come out and move culture in a really cool, interesting way and I want people my mother’s age to be talking about it, and I also want 13-year-old kids at school being like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe they did that thing last week.” I want it to have an impact.

BATALUCCO Maybe the headline could just be, “We like them!”

BURD Who’s we? The Hollywood Reporter?

BLANCO That’s a pretty cool headline. “We like them.” Do you think that’s going to be the headline?

I don’t know yet, you guys.

BLANCO I got stung by a bee and my leg is a little swollen, maybe that could be part of the headline? I don’t know.

BURD I should have said this earlier but what’s also really fun about this is that it comes back every week. It’s consistent. A lot of my passion projects like the movie or my show or an album, these things take years to come to fruition and it can be hard. I started my career being a child of the Internet and every week I was coming back and building a connection with people. And then once I made it, the tasks at hand required so much of my bandwidth that I wasn’t able to do that anymore and I think my hardcore fans would be like, “I love him, but he disappears for years.”  

BATALUCCO Yeah, this is a much more consistent world.

BLANCO “Brutal consistency.” Maybe that’s the headline. 

BURD That doesn’t make sense. 

BATALUCCO Or maybe it’s I — like, from you — “I Love Them.”

BLANCO I like “We love them.” Or what about “We Love We”? Or just, “Big?” 

BURD Okay. Bye guys.

BAFTA has launched a “comprehensive review” of its 2026 Film Awards ceremony, the British Academy has said in a letter to its members, after the N-word was shouted while Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage.

The big news out of Sunday night was the outburst from Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, who has said he is “deeply mortified” if anyone thought his tics were “intentional.” The I Swear executive producer has a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, such as loud swearing, and also said in his statement that he has campaigned for most of his life to bring awareness and education to Tourette’s. His life inspired I Swear, and members of the Tourette syndrome community got candid with The Hollywood Reporter about the widespread misunderstanding around the condition here.

BAFTA released a full apology to the wider public on Monday explaining they apologized “unreservedly” to the Sinners actors, and thanking Davidson for making the decision to leave the ceremony halfway through.

THR understands that Warner Bros. executives immediately requested the slur not be broadcast on the BBC, which aired on a two-hour delay. Questions have arisen over the broadcaster’s decision to include the slur. They have since apologized and removed the ceremony from streaming service iPlayer. BAFTA jury member Jonte Richardson even announced his decision to quit his role after the “utterly unforgivable” handling of the incident by BAFTA and the BBC.

On Tuesday, a letter was sent to BAFTA members addressing the situation that arose, stating that they take the duty of care to all our guests “very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room.”

“We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony,” BAFTA said in the letter, referring to the preshow warning and disclaimers from host Alan Cumming. “We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.”

“It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions,” the letter concluded. “Please rest assured how seriously we are taking this.”

Read the letter to BAFTA members in full below.

We would like to address the situation that arose during the EE BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night, in which highly offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many was heard. We issued a statement last night, and we want members to hear from us directly, too. Please find our public statement here.

We recognise this has impacted members in a multitude of ways – we want to acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.

One of our guests, John Davidson MBE has Tourette Syndrome and has devoted his life to educating and campaigning for better understanding of the condition. John is an executive producer of one of the nominated films, I Swear. The film highlights that Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, that the individual has no control over. Such tics are in no way a reflection of an individual’s beliefs and are not intentional.

We take the duty of care to all our guests very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room. We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony. We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.

Early in the ceremony loud and involuntary tics, including one in the form of a profoundly offensive term, were heard by many people in the room. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time, and we have apologised unreservedly to them, and to all those impacted. We have also thanked Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism – and regret they were put in this position in the first place.

During the ceremony, John chose to leave the auditorium and watch the rest of the ceremony from a screen, and we have also thanked him for his dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him.

We are in contact with the studios involved and conversations are ongoing. We want to assure all our members that a comprehensive review is underway. You may have also seen the BBC have issued their own apology for the broadcast.

It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions – please rest assured how seriously we are taking this. If you’d like to contact us, please email membership@bafta.org.

We take full responsibility for putting our guests and members of the academy in a very difficult situation and we will learn from this.

We will keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy – as firmly demonstrated by this year’s nominated and winning films.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, an eccentric visionary known as the “Fairy Tale King” and also sometimes as the “Mad King,” and his mysterious death are the subjects of a high-end fiction crime drama with the working title Ludwig, which is currently in the works from W&B Television (Pagan Peak, Dark, 4 Blocks). And Beta Cinema unveiled at a London TV Screenings event on Tuesday that it has boarded the series as international partner.

“His death became a famous cold case,” Beta said about the drama about the royal. “But who was he really? Ludwig is a cinematic journey into the king’s fantastical world, rich with pomp and gold. Yet behind all the splendor and spectacle stood a deeply enigmatic man — as mysterious in life as he was in death. Set in the late 1800s in Bavaria, Ludwig is a fascinating and tragic tale of life and queer love, infused with a captivating crime story at its heart.”

The series follows psychologist Gustav Zimmermann who is tasked with reviewing a psychiatric report on King Ludwig II, a document that was designed to determine whether the king was incompetent to rule. “The more he invests in discovering the reasons that led to Ludwig’s removal from power, the closer he gets to revealing the secrets of the king: his struggles with power, his longing for freedom and his profound forbidden love,” according to a synopsis of the drama.

Filming on the series has wrapped at historical locations, including the famous Castle Neuschwanstein and the Residenz, the former royal palace in the heart of Munich. Filming also took place in the Czech Republic.

Up-and-coming talent Luis Pintsch (22 Lengths) stars as King Ludwig II, alongside Felix Mayr (Unorthodox, Senna), who plays psychologist Zimmermann, Aaron Friesz (Corsage, Franz K.), Carlotta Bähre (Ku’damm 77), Jonathan Kriener (Chabos), Tom Wlaschiha (Stranger Things, The Boat), Francis Fulton-Smith (Empire Oktoberfest), and Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters, Babylon Berlin), among others.

Ludwig is directed by Nina Vukovic (Kleo season 2) and Sebastian Ko (Tatort), who both also served as writers. Head writers are Dominik Kempf and Marianne Wendt. Jan Prahl (The Signal) is the director of photography.

Oliver Vogel, Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, and Dominik Kempf serve as executive producers, Stefan Mütherich as co-executive producer, and Gretha Heisig as associate producer.

“The global fascination with Ludwig is no coincidence,” said Ferdinand Dohna, head of content at Beta Film. “He was a romantic dreamer with rock-star allures, who accepted no compromises when the realization of his visions and dreams was at stake, most notably Neuschwanstein Castle, which famously inspired Disney’s iconic castle logo.”

He added: “Like every good romantic hero, he failed in the end and died under mysterious circumstances at a young age. These are the ingredients for larger-than-life characters, brought to life in this miniseries by an outstanding creative team and magnetic cast that will resonate with audiences around the world.”

Ludwig is produced by W&B Television for ARD Degeto, BR, ServusTV and SRF. The series is supported by the German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF), the Bavarian Film and Television Fund (FFF Bayern), with the support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund’s Production Incentive. Beta Film is handling international sales.