Welcome to another Insider, your regular Friday fix. Jesse Whittock here with you to run through the big headlines in international film, TV and theater. On we go. Sign up to the newsletter here.
Aussie Quotas
Regulation nation: Australia became the latest country to introduce content quotas on the major streamers this week. Those streamers that have accrued more than a million subscribers in the country will be required to spend a portion of their local revenue or investment on original Australian shows or films after the government introduced a bill outlining new rules. This has been a long-time coming, first announced in 2023 when the Anthony Albanese government unveiled its wider Revive cultural plan. And that came after eight rounds of inquiries into the issue. I reached out across Australia’s production sector to gauge the mood, which I’d call ‘triumphant but measured.’ As one producer puts it, “Some Australian streamers will already be going close to the quota thresholds and others have a long way to go, but at the very least this new regulation will protect the industry somewhat from unpredictable streamer head office strategy changes around sourcing of English-language content for their global platforms.” There are still parliamentary debates to be had on the shape of the law and we won’t know the big question of whether it increases or decreases streamer spend until it is implemented. The streamers, meanwhile, remain of the opinion that they already spend handily in most countries and don’t see the need for, erm, heavy-handed regulation. Despite their protestations, similar rules in place in parts of Europe and discussions in other parts of the world continue – Trump tariffs be damned.
Watch on Deadline
Sinking the competition: Max got a look under the bonnet at Netflix’s Central and Eastern European content plan this week. He interviewed Łukasz Kłuskiewicz, the streamer’s head of TV and film content for the region, as Netflix turned 10 in Poland and launched its biggest original show to date from the territory, Heweliusz. Kłuskiewicz talked about the support of Netflix’s U.S. mothership, his content plan and what role the likes Heweliusz and previous Netflix Poland hit High Water have played in establishing the service locally. He outlined the huge challenge behind making Heweliusz, which is about the 1993 tragic sinking of a Baltic Sea passenger ferry. The production has been costly, so results need to be good for the show, which comes from the same creatives behind High Water – a show about a huge central European flood in 1997. All this leaves me with one unanswered question: When will Netflix Poland make a big-ticket show set on solid ground?
This comes recommended: The 2025 edition of the annual Brit List, which features a selection of unproduced but buzzy scripts, landed this week. At the top of the pile was hiking trip horror Don’t Even Go There from actor, writer and comedian Robert Cawsey, with a cool 24 recommendations. He told Mel the drama had initially been intended as a comedy, but after a disastrous trip to the Brecon Beacons in Wales, UK, the focus changed. We’ve got a series of interviews with those in the upper echelons of the list, highlighting a new generation of talent from Britain. Our analysis revealed a troubling statistic: Only three of the 15 titles were attached to production companies. The previous three years, the number in active development with producers was 10, eight and 14 respectively. Brit List founder Alexandra Arlango said it was “another indication that we’ve gone from boom-time to a very harsh tightening of the belt.”
Paddington In The West End
Marmalade for all: London’s West End was awash with marmalade this week, as Paddington: The Musical previewed at the Savoy Theatre ahead of its gala opening night on November 30. Naturally, Baz was on hand to see the show. Though our man reported director Luke Sheppard will need to be “ruthless in trimming a first act overstuffed with exposition and songs that you can’t hum,” he’s expecting a hit, and for good reason. “You can almost forgive all of that because, as soppy as it sounds, this bear’s adorable,” wrote Baz. Paddington has been everywhere this week in the UK, and the power of the Peruvian bear even sent BBC News clip viral (you can’t often say that), when he had an encounter with journalist David Sillito, who regressed to a sweet child-like state, stammering, “Oh my goodness … it’s Paddington… I don’t really know what to say. I’m having a little moment here.” The clip has been seen millions of times on social media. I’m going to make a bold prediction here and say I think the theater show might be a hit.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Luke Evans will star in ITV thriller The Party, based on podcaster Elizabeth Day’s novel.
🌶️ Another: Former NBCUniversal sales chief Don McGregor is set to become Paramount’s global TV distribution boss, we revealed.
🇺🇸🔥 AFM Hot Ones: Lots of casting scoops and new movies from our film team here.
🪓 Breaking Baz: Tessa Thompson told our International Editor-At-Large about her scorching role in Nia DaCosta’s Hedda.
🤖 TechLine: Mad Max director George Miller on Australia’s first AI film festival features in our second Rendering column.
👻 Phantom menace: Phantom Media Group launched as the latest multi-national player on the VFX stage, as the sector rebuilds.
🌍 Globie: An AI Ed Gein is at the center of our latest Global Breakout.
🎧 Audio: Audible predicted its Harry Potter audiobook would gain billions of listening hours.
🖋️ Signed: Deva Cassel, the daughter of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, and star of Netflix limited series The Leopard, with Artist International Group.
International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart.