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Ever since its premiere at Sundance, “Wicker” has been generating headlines. Mostly thanks to its erotic scenes featuring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård as her custom-woven lover, with both characters putting an enthusiastic spin on Taylor Swift’s “Wood.”

The film’s raunchiness might have surprised some unsuspecting viewers at Zurich Film Festival. But Colman adored the script.

“I’ve never read anything like it before. It’s in my top three scripts that I’ve loved and I’ve done,” she said at the fest, where it celebrated its European premiere.

“It’s beautiful, funny and original. And yes, the only way you can sell it is by having a picture of Alex as a very sexy basket.”

In “Wicker,” Colman plays a medieval fisherwoman who’s constantly ostracized – until she marries a wicker husband (Skarsgård), created by the basket weaver (Peter Dinklage).

It’s directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, and adapted from “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones.

While no stranger to risqué films thanks to “Pillion,” Skarsgård – better known for darker roles – had to embrace his softer side for a change.

“To be honest, I found it terrifying. I feel way more comfortable playing dark, twisted, demented characters,” he said.

“This was a departure and yeah, I was confused in the beginning about how to approach this. He’s so sweet, so tender and caring, and all those things that I can’t relate to personally.”

The famed Wētā Workshop created his woven body.

“It was extraordinary. It really was,” he said, recalling seeing it for the first time.

“Wētā is behind ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and that whole universe. They wanted practical [effects], which was really exciting. This was not going to be a CGI version.”

He added: “I’ll never forget the first time I saw the wicker husband at the workshop in Budapest, and looked at that version of myself. We’d done a bunch of tests and scans, but I was shooting something else and they were obviously in New Zealand. Then they built it. Stepping into it was also a way of finding the character because it defined his physicality and who he was.”

Learning how to move was tricky, though.

“It was glued to my face! It was crucial that [the mask] would move with my facial movements so that it wouldn’t be completely flattened, but that meant I had to exaggerate them. Al and Elle, our directors, kept saying that normal movements wouldn’t really register. At first, that felt a little strange, like you really had to overact. Luckily, we had a few days to perfect that.”

Obviously, Colman has never acted alongside a similar costar.

“I’ve never done it before, but we’re in that magical world where we’re just talking to each other. We got on very well, and giggled a lot. It was lovely to play those two people. Well, one person and a basket.”

Despite its twisted premise, “Wicker” – whose humor echoes the madness of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” – also takes a look at the institution of marriage and gender roles.

“None of the women [in the film] have their own names, except for the fisherwoman, and she’s shunned and ostracized for being sort of ugly and smelly, and unmarriable. But she shows them,” noted Colman.

“I like the fact that they are the only equals here. They support each other, listen to each other, take care of each other. It was really about these two humans – or, again, a basket – and two souls being kind to each other. We have no same sex marriages in this story, which I just realized and that’s a shame, but they’re kind to each other and that was the important relationship in the film.”

Skarsgård added: “It commented on the patriarchy of our time and on the construct of marriage, but it was done with so much humor. And in a way that didn’t feel preachy or too on the nose.”

“It was so tender, sweet, funny and irreverent, and with a subtlety to it. That’s what really spoke to me.”

After all, it’s all about a girl, standing in front of a boy – or a basket – asking him to love her.

BBC boss Matt Brittin says he was recently sent a fully AI-generated episode of “Doctor Who,” which he deemed “pretty good” – although he was quick to add it was “not going to replace humans.”

“Everyone’s got the ability in their hands — or six billion people have — to create content at the standard of a Hollywood studio,” said Brittin, who was speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in London, U.K.

“Somebody sent me a 50-minute episode of ‘Doctor Who’ that was AI-generated the other day. It’s pretty good,” he continued. “I mean, it’s not going to replace humans, and we’ll come on to that. So everyone’s a creator. Not all the creativity is bad.”

He didn’t give any more details about what the episode contained — for example using existing actors or generating entirely new ones — or who made it.

Brittin joined the BBC as director-general earlier this year after an eighteen-year stint at Google. He confessed at the conference, where he was in conversation with Kirsty Young, that he first turned down the job when he was approached. “They called me, and I said, ‘I can’t do the job, I’m not a program maker. I’m not a journalist.’”

“And actually, I was persuaded that being an outsider, I might be able to do the job, but only with all of you,” he said, gesturing to the audience, which was made up of senior television producers, commissioners and executives.

AI has been the dominant topic of conversation at the convention, which is this year hosted by Amazon and themed “United in change, if not now when?”

At the opening of the convention, Prime Video international boss Kelly Day also urged the industry to embrace AI, saying “AI doesn’t replace imagination, it amplifies it.”

Rome’s MIA Market is launching a new initiative called European Investment Hub, which aims to help European industry professionals navigate the wide range of financial tools — in both the soft money and equity financing spheres — that are currently at their disposal.

MIA (which stands for Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) will run Oct. 19-23. Roeg Sutherland, who is co-head of CAA’s media finance department and its international film group, and U.S. specialty finance company Media Capital Technologies principals Raj Singh and Christopher Woodrow are expected to make the trek to the Eternal City to attend this new MIA strand.

The Rome market’s new project — which is conceived in collaboration with the European Commission, the European Investment Fund (EIF), the CineRegio network of regional film funds in Europe and pan-European fund Eurimages, along with leading private equity players — will unfold during the event’s first two days. There will be panels, roundtables and advisory one-to-one meetings dedicated to stimulating dialogue between producers and the myriad funding sources available to them just as the amount of private equity money they can tap into is on the rise.

MIA’s European Investment Hub will focus on exploring and explaining financial tools such as European co-production funds, equity funds dedicated to content creation and completion bonds and risk-mitigation mechanisms, including those developed in synergy with European and national institutions.

“The idea is to foster direct contact between producers and representatives from these various entities who can provide guidance,” MIA chief Gaia Tridente tells Variety.

“I am truly pleased that this new edition of MIA is opening with such an in-depth focus spanning two days on the subject of investments and financial tools tailored to companies in our sector,” Alessandro Usai, head of Italy’s motion picture association ANICA, said in a statement.

“In recent years, it has become clear to everyone that access to finance is the true game-changer for the industry, and that we must work together to remove remaining barriers and obstacles, better understand best practices and implement new ones,” Usai added. “In particular, delving into public-private partnerships, guarantee systems and the interplay between national, European and international tools is crucial for the growth of the entire sector— and not just in Italy.”

Commented Chiara Sbarigia, head of Italian TV producers’ association APA: “There was a need for a new space dedicated to audiovisual financing to address the challenges faced by producers, particularly small and medium-sized ones.”

“A few months ago, APA presented a proposal to the relevant institutions for a public-private fund, which we will showcase to industry professionals during the market. MIA will provide domestic and international players with a clear overview of available tools through a practical approach: while competing in international markets certainly requires ideas, talent, and production capacity, understanding where to invest in development — and how and where to secure resources — remains crucial,” Sbarigia went on to point out.

Dedicated panels will comprise “Unlocking Italy’s Potential,” during which Raj Singh, Roeg Sutherland and prominent U.S. entertainment lawyer Steve Saltzman, head of the International Entertainment Group at London-based law firm Fieldfisher, will delve into the range of opportunities the Italian industry ecosystem has to offer.

Singh, during a separate session, will launch a new venture that aims to expand content creation financing opportunities.

Christopher Woodrow, founder and chairman of Media Capital Technologies (MCT); Celine Dornier, content executive at Finland-U.K. based film investment fund IPR.VC; and Alexandra Lebret, who is a partner in Together Fund that was recently launched in partnership with Paris-based investment firm Axio Capital, will be among participants in a panel titled “Equity and Growth Capital: Investing in Creativity, IP and Long-Term Value.”

“Clearly, there will be funds supporting very high-budget films or series — projects on a massive scale —alongside others that operate within the indie circuit, dedicated to auteur cinema, or more modestly scaled serial productions,” Tridente said.

“We are talking about funds accessible to projects with budgets of €50 million and up, as well as others with lower budgets that are more typical for European cinema and television,” she added.

Teps from 35 European co-production funds will be making the trek to Rome to explain their various national mechanisms. For instance, Spain will be repped by three different funds, “ensuring that those at the table can understand exactly how to access specific tax credits or funding within the Spanish or French systems,” the MIA market chief specified.

The 12th edition of MIA will run Oct. 19-23 in the Eternal City.