Comment On Lilly Of The Valley: This Week On Breaking Bad (episode 1 / July 15, 2012)

Senna helmer Asif Kapadia will direct Ali And Nino for UK producer PeaPie Films. IM Global is handling worldwide sales with production set for early 2014. Atonement scribe Christopher Hampton adapted the epic WWI love story that’s set in Azerbaijan where Ali Khan Shirvanshir, the male descendant of a royal Muslim family falls in love with Nino Kipiani, a beautiful, Christian, Georgian princess. It’s based on the novel by Kurban Said that was published in 1937. PeaPie’s Kris Thykier (Kick-Ass, One Chance) is producing. Aliyeva is executive producer.

SNL‘s season finale also marked the final show for cast standout Bill Hader, who reprised his beloved character Stefon on Weekend Update. But with Seth Meyers also departing this year for Tonight Show hosting duties, the segment morphed into a filmed Graduate-style gay marriage bit with a few special guests:

The Weinstein Co., TF1 DA and eOne are to partner on Suite Française, the Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts and Kristin Scott Thomas drama directed by Saul Dibb. TWC will handle U.S. rights, along with distribution rights in Latin America, Australia, Russia and Germany. Production starts in June on the 1940s-set film that’s based on Irene Nemirovsky’s novel about a young woman who lives with her controlling mother-in-law in Nazi-occupied France and ends up falling for a German officer. The 15M euro film will shoot in Belgium and Paris. The movie is produced by Qwerty Films’ Michael Kuhn and Andrea Cornwell. Xavier Marchand produces for eOne alongside Romain Brémond who produces for TF1. Harvey Weinstein is exec producer. France’s TF1 DA acquired rights to Nemirovsky’s unfinished novel in 2007. Dibb (The Duchess) adapted it for the screen with Matt Charman. TF1 has French rights to the film and eOne has distribution in the UK, Spain and Canada. TF1 International is selling.

Five-time host Ben Affleck brought out wife Jennifer Garner for his opening SNL monologue, then poked fun at his Oscar cred and his Gigli past in a Argo bit featuring Fred Armisen as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Affleck:

Via its arrangement with David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment, DreamWorks has steadily been adding to its portfolio of offshore partners. Today’s news is that it’s pacted with the Hadida brothers’ indie powerhouse Metropolitan Filmexport in France. It’s also entered a deal with Inter-Film for Ukraine and a multi-picture agreement with MediaPro for Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Here’s the release: CANNES: May 19, 2013 -DreamWorks Studios is pleased to announce that, through their existing collaboration with David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment to represent DreamWorks Studios’ films for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they have concluded additional key partnership deals in Cannes with leading independent distribution companies including Samuel and Victor Hadida’s Metropolitan FilmExport in France. DreamWorks has entered into an output agreement with Metropolitan to distribute the company’s films in all media (theatrical, home entertainment, and TV). “We know Metropolitan to be amongst the strongest independents in Europe, and we are thrilled to be in business with them,” stated Jeff Small, DreamWorks President and COO. Samuel and Victor Hadida added, “For us, this arrangement is a natural progression of our business, and of our handling the best English language films for the French marketplace. We are very excited with the plans that Steven, Stacey, Jeff, and their team have for the coming years, and we are delighted to join them.” As part of the Company’s strategy to create a network of partnerships for their product internationally, two additional deals have been concluded with Inter-Film for the Ukraine, an output deal negotiated by Oleg Golovashkin; and a multi-picture agreement with MediaPro for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary negotiated by Anca Truta. “Seven months ago we began building our network of partners and are very pleased to be enhancing our network with these first class distributors,” Small added. Mister Smith CEO David Garrett commented “We have been enormously gratified by the reception to the DreamWorks presentation and the enthusiasm of all these companies to join with DreamWorks moving forward. We are thrilled now to have Metropolitan join along with Inter-Film and MediaPro.” DreamWorks previously announced partnerships with Constantin Film in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, Entertainment One (eOne) in UK and Benelux , Nordisk Film in Scandinavia, Italia Film in the Middle East, Acme in the Baltics, Blitz for former Yugoslavia and Albania; Odeon in Greece; Sam Film in Iceland; United King in Israel; Andrea Leone Film in Italy; Monolith in Poland; Lusomundo in Portugal; a joint venture with Tri Pictures & DeaPlaneta for Spain; and Fida Film in Turkey. DreamWorks’ domestic distributor, The Walt Disney Company, will continue to handle North America, Latin America, Asia, Russia and Australia. Reliance continues to finance production of DreamWorks’ films and hold distribution rights in India. MSE represents DreamWorks Studios films for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The current slate includes the romantic comedy DELIVERY MAN (Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Scr./Dir. Ken Scott) which is currently in post-production, WikiLeaks drama THE FIFTH ESTATE (Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten, Dir. Bill Condon) which is currently in post-production, and the action packed NEED FOR SPEED (Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Dir. Scott Waugh) which is currently shooting throughout the U.S.