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Filmmakers helping get provisions to impacted Israelis, some have signed up to fight.

Israel’s film and TV industry has mobilised in the wake of Saturday’s (October 7) Hamas terror attack in the south of the country that has seen cinemas go dark and productions put on hold as the country reels in shock and grapples with the response.

Theatres have remained closed since the weekend and the Israel Defense Forces’ (Idf) Home Front Command has mandated all local Israeli film and TV productions must cease as the entire film and audiovisual industry shifts to on-the-ground aid and live news coverage.

Rough Diamonds is a new Belgian series for Netflix created by Rotem Shamir and Yuval Yefet starring Casper Knopf and Kevin Janssens.

Netflix takes us this time to Antwerp, in a diamonds and crime thriller that, although it may not seem so from the premise, has little or nothing to do with Guy Ritchie.

A classic crime investigation series with a very tv style rendering in its development (despite its hopeful beginning).

About the Series

Classic, entertaining, with a very TVish development, one of those series that meets the standards almost perfectly and that entertains, but with little much to offer than a more or less coherent development. It does have the grace (enough or not) of delving into the Jewish community settled in Belgium.

The character development is good. It does not pretend to make an intense series on a psychological level, it limits itself to allowing the characters...

Keshet Media Group have unveiled their upcoming slate, which includes a new series starring “Fauda’s” Lior Raz.

Raz is set to star alongside Rotem Sela (“The Baker and the Beauty”) and Yehuda Levi (“Fire Dancer”) plus newcomer Gal Malaka in “A Body That Works.” The eight-part drama, titled “Goof Shlishi” in Hebrew, sees a couple hire a surrogate as they seek to have a child.

“[‘A Body That Works’] is an emotionally charged tale of two women and a man, all connected by a bond so powerful they cannot escape one another, even when there is nothing they’d rather do more,” reads the logline. “This is a drama about relationships and parenthood, whose heroes deal with the conflicting desire to become parents alongside the fear parenthood stirs in them. It is also a tale about the deceptive power dynamics between the haves and the have-nots, between the takers and the givers.”

Shira Hadad...

Keshet Interntional (Ki) has scored a raft of deals across its slate of foreign-language dramas, including the action-packed procedural series “Blue Moon” and the coming-of-age comedy-drama “Dreaming of England.”

Ki closed a multi-title deal with AMC Networks International for its channels in Spain and Portugal for “Blue Moon,” “Dreaming of England” (“Sommaren 85”), as well as “Pørni,” Monster Scripted’s heartwarming Norwegian hit show which was created by and starring Henriette Steenstrup for Viaplay. The pact with AMC Networks International includes pay TV and subscription-based VOD rights on all three seasons of “Blue Moon,” as well as “Dreaming of England” and the first two seasons of “Pørni,” for the group’s channels in Spain and Portugal.

Produced by Aetios Productions and commissioned by the French-Canadian streamer Club Illico, “Blue Moon” was penned by Luc Dionne and stars award-winning actor Karine Vanasse (“Cardinal”).

“Dreaming of England,” is a retro comedy-drama produced by...

Belgian banner De Mensen and Keshet International (Ki) have kicked off the shoot of “Diamonds, ” a family crime thriller series penned by Yuval Yefet and Rotem Shamir, the pair behind “Fauda” and “Line in the Sand.”

Ordered by Netflix and Belgian public broadcaster Eén, the series follows a Jewish Ultra-Orthodox family in Belgium’s Antwerp Diamond Square Mile.

The eight-part series stars Belgian actor Kevin Janssens as Noah Wolfson, who returns to Antwerp where he reconnects with his family and the ultra-orthodox Jewish way of life which he had rebelled against. Noah discovers that his brother has ruined the once powerful family business by trading diamonds with sketchy people. Despite tense relations with his parents, brother and sister, Noah attempts to save the business but gets embroiled in a criminal world.

Janssens stars opposite Dudu Fisher, Yona Elian, Mendy Cahan, Ini Massez, Robbie Cleiren, Jeroen Vander Ven, Marie Vinck and Els Dottermans,...

Royals

“The Wedding of the Century,” a documentary about the wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles, will bow on BBC and ITV’s streamer BritBox in July in time for the event’s 40th anniversary.

On July 29, 1981, a record 750 million people in 74 countries tuned in to see the couple exchange vows at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Video technology then couldn’t quite capture the details in all their glory, and all except for one media outlet captured the event on poor quality standard definition video tape.

British Movietone shot the ceremony on 35mm film, which has now been upgraded to 4K resolution. The restored footage is the centerpiece of the documentary from Touchdown Films, which also includes unheard anecdotes from the day and interviews with key insiders involved in planning the event.

Appointments

BBC Studios – Americas has promoted Chris Cole to executive VP, strategic partnerships, and...

Netflix and Belgium’s Flemish community public service broadcaster Vrt have commissioned eight-part crime drama “Diamonds.”

Co-created by Yuval Yefet and Rotem Shamir, who also directs, the series with mafia-style undertones, is set within Antwerp’s diamond district and follows the struggles of one of the city’s most influential diamond-dealing families.

“Diamonds,” to be shot in Dutch, English and Yiddish, will be co-produced by Keshet International and Belgium’s De Mensen. It was commissioned by Netflix alongside Vrt’s head of scripted, Wim Janssen, and is supported by Screen Flanders.

The series will be executive produced by De Mensen’s head of scripted Pieter Van Huyck and Ivy Vanhaecke (“Undercover”), alongside Keshet International VP of global drama Atar Dekel and CEO Alon Shtruzman and Keshet Media Group CEO Avi Nir.

“We are excited to join forces with the fantastic teams at De Mensen, Keshet International and Vrt to bring...

Yuval Yefet and Rotem Shamir, the creators of hit Israeli drama Line in the Sand, have secured their latest drama – a diamond dealing thriller for Netflix and Belgium’s Vrt.

The streamer and the Belgian public broadcaster, have ordered eight-part drama Diamonds.

Set in the world’s largest diamond district, the series follows the struggles and strife of one of Antwerp’s most influential diamond-dealing families, The Wagners. When their youngest son commits suicide, his long-estranged brother Noah returns to take charge of the family business, using methods that are anything but orthodox in a desperate bid to save himself and his family.

Produced by Keshet International and Belgian production company De Mensen, the series will be shot in Dutch, English and Yiddish. Filming is set to begin later this summer for a 2022 premiere.

Exec producers are Van Huyck, Ivy Vanhaecke, Atar Dekel, Alon Shtruzman and Avi Nir. Shamir directs.

Keshet Studios, the company behind series including ABC’s The Baker and the Beauty and NBC’s The Brave, has extended its first-look deal with Universal Television.

It marks the third term for the deal between the NBCU studio and the LA-based production arm of the Israeli media giant.

As part of the deal, the two companies are developing a TV adaptation of sci-fi comedy feature Save Yourselves! The film, which premiered at Sundance last year, comes from writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.

It follows Jack, played by Search Party’s John Reynolds, and Su, played by Glow’s Sunita Mani, a hip Brooklyn couple who like many of their friends find themselves dependent on technology and unable to put down their phones. Fearing their mindless scrolling may impact their connection with each other, they seize the chance to head to an isolated cabin in the woods, vowing...

Exclusive: Netflix has set an April premiere date for Season 3 of Israeli thriller series Fauda. The third season bows April 16 in all territories where Netflix is available, excluding France and French-speaking territories (June 4) and Israel (June 25).

The 12-episode series is presented bilingually in Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles.

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Created by Lior Raz, who also stars, and Avi Issacharoff, Fauda (Arabic for “chaos”) tells the story of an undercover unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, focusing on top Israeli agent, Doron Kavillio (Raz). In Season 3, Kavillio is deep undercover in the West Bank, posing as an Israeli Arab boxing instructor in a sports club belonging to a low-level Hamas member. Following numerous, deadly clashes...