CASTING
Evanna Lynch, the actor best known for portraying Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter franchise, will star in “Influenced!,” a black comedy set in the world of social media influencers that has been inspired by Oscar Wilde’s classic 1891 novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Lynch will play Dora, a makeup sales assistant who goes on to become one of the world’s biggest influencers. But the more ruthless Dora becomes in her pursuit of insta-fame the more grotesque and distorted her social media profile photo also becomes. Nick Wild wrote and will direct.
The film will shoot in Q1 2024 in the U.K. and Italy and is to be produced by Silent D pictures’ Djonny Chen and Alchemy’s Lamia Nayeb St Hilaire, with casting by Nicci Topping. “Influenced!” will be Chen’s 26th film in the last three years and part of a repertoire that includes Indonesian box-office hit “Before Night Falls” and “Parallel,” which is currently in production.
The project has particular resonance for Lynch who, in addition to her acting work, is also a writer and activist and promotes mental wellness and positive body image in young people after her own experiences with an eating disorder.
Lynch said: “Nick has written a hilarious script that vividly illustrates the slow mental and moral degradation that befalls a person who loses sight of the line between reality and a filtered imaginary life. With the algorithm always ten steps ahead, intuiting our next thought, ‘Influenced!’ is the story of an everyday trap that none of us can seem to avoid. I’m so excited to be playing Dora and to help bring this dark, interesting and ominous story to life.”
Wild added: “Developing this project has been a passion project of mine for the last few years and we are really excited to be working with Evanna to deliver a contemporary spin on this classic story. Oscar Wilde’s themes of identity and self-image are still so relevant and, if anything, have been amplified by the current cultural obsession to show our validation and worth by how many followers you have and the face-filtered Instagram posts of your #bestlife.”
Publicist Philippe Ashfield at Instant Entertainment is handling PR for the project.
STREAMING
Netflix India has set a creative partnership with Neeraj Pandey’s Friday Storytellers LLP, the digital content production arm of Friday Filmworks. Following the success of cop-criminal chase saga “Khakee: The Bihar Chapter,” the partnership will include multiple projects across films and series. The second season of “Khakee” will be the first series arising from the deal.
MEGASTAR’S NEXT
India’s Telugu-language cinema actor Chiranjeevi, known to his fans as Megastar, has announced his next film, a fantasy with the working title Mega157, signifying the actor’s 157th film. It will be directed by Vassishta (“Bimbisara”) and produced by V. Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati and Vikram Reddy under the UV Creations banner. Chiranjeevi’s last film “Bhola Shankar” released earlier this month and underperformed at the box office.
PARTNERSHIPS
Netherlands TV provider Ziggo and SkyShowtime are extending their partnership. Starting this fall, SkyShowtime will be provided to TV Max subscribers replacing the Movies and Series XL package and as an extra benefit for customers who combine their Ziggo and Vodafone subscriptions replacing Movies and Series L. Subscribers will have full access to the entire SkyShowtime service and will be notified by Ziggo when they can set up their accounts.
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India’s Reliance Content Studios (RCS), a division of Reliance Entertainment Studios Pvt Ltd, has expanded its reseller partnership with American stock photography, stock footage, stock music and editing tools provider Shutterstock Inc. With this enhanced partnership, RCS will offer a wider range of assets from Shutterstock. In addition to its bank of images, videos, illustrations, music tracks and vectors, Shutterstock also provides AI-generated images, which are created using AI technology trained on millions of real content assets, descriptions and keywords. This feature is offered with indemnification for the license and use of generative AI images for RCS’ enterprise customers. Additionally, the partnership will provide Indian customers with access to Shutterstock’s library of over one million ready-to-use 3D models. Indian clients can now pay in local currency.
FREELANCERS
U.K. broadcasters Channel 4 and the BBC have revealed plans for a free, two-week online program to support the freelance community, delivered in partnership with the National Film and Television School. Starting in October, the initiative will include masterclasses, workshops, training and wellbeing sessions for the U.K.’s scripted and unscripted freelance production community. It will offer practical knowledge, skills and support on topics including financial planning, networking and development and will be open to all TV industry freelancers.
