EXCLUSIVE: What would happen if you took the “visual reference” of the Coen brothers and transported this vibe to the UK’s port town of Grimsby.

That question is posed in Shy & Lola, a BBC drama starring Harry Potter’s Bel Powley and The Night Manager’s Hayley Squires, which will be taken to buyers at MIPCOM next week before launching on the BBC.

In an interview with Deadline, Powley and Squires stressed the highly original nature of the Amanda Coe-penned series from Baby Reindeer maker Clerkenwell Films, but they did say the work of the Coen brothers influenced its look and tone.

“The Coen brothers often explore incredibly dark subjects, such as murder, death, blood and guns, but they shoot them in a way that gives the material a sense of levity and lightness,” said Powley. “I think that’s what the cinematographer was looking for visually.”

Squires said the “Coen brothers’ influence probably comes through in the humor” of Shy & Lola, which also “comes out in the geography where the stories take place and the things that are specific to that place.”

Revealed by Deadline several months back, Shy & Lola spotlights its protagonists, two very different women who are forced to become allies when a murder entangles them in the criminal underworld operating in Grimsby. Shy is a cleaner, scraping by and dreaming of a new life in Portugal. Lola is an ex-model-turned-grifter who arrives in town with trouble at her heels. The unlikely pair build an operation that threatens to blow the local bad guys out of the water, as opposing futures beckon.

Coe, whose credits include Apple TV’s Dior series The New Look and the BBC’s Apple Tree Yard, was inspired by Fargo.

“I love the idea that you can create a world of its own that resonates with the real world but is very heightened and blackly comic,” added Coe. “We use violence sparingly but in an interesting way. There’s a theme of violence going through the show without glorifying it.”

Shy & Lola is based on the French show Cheyenne & Lola starring Charlotte Le Bon and Veerle Baetens. BBC Studios approached Clerkenwell with the idea to adapt the French show and the indie immediately saw an opportunity to add its own twist. “It has that mix we love at Clerkenwell,” said Petra Fried, who runs the indie and is an EP on Shy & Lola. “It’s a darkly comic, propulsive story with real emotional depth underneath it. It’s funny and entertaining, but the stakes are very real, so you never stop caring about these women.”

Coe, who said she has a track record of making “female-led shows,” noted that there are major distinctions between Cheyenne & Lola and her version. “The French version starts with a character in their underwear looking amazing,” she added. “That is not the vibe of our show.”

“I’ve never witnessed that in a chemistry read before”

In order for this “vibe” to work, the chemistry between the leads had to impeccable. Luckily, they matched perfectly. Powley and Squires are two actors at the top of their game, with BAFTA nominee Powley about to be seen as Aunt Petunia in HBO’s eye-catching Harry Potter, and Squires, who wowed in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake a decade ago, playing a big role in the BBC and Prime Video’s The Night Manager.

“I’ve never witnessed that in a chemisty read before where you just go ‘wow’ after 10 seconds,” said Coe. “Together they were more than the sum of their parts.”

Squires admired Powley from when she had a small part in one of her breakout hits, Julia Jarrold’s rom-com A Royal Night Out. She said the pair quickly made a “silent pact to find the best version” of the characters they were playing. “We are quite different people but have a real understanding of each other,” she added. “That mirrors the characters of Shy and Lola. They essentially fall platonically in love with each other on screen, which was a beautiful relationship to play out.”

Powley also spoke to Shy and Lola’s “unlikely charm” and praised Squires for bringing “such gravity and being so grounded in her performances.”

Another “character” in Shy & Lola, according to Powley, is the port town of Grimsby, a place rarely represented in British TV or movies, although it is the home of Sacha Baron Cohen’s ill-fated 2016 comedy that bears its name.

Squires, who joked that when she first read the scripts she simply thought to herself, “How am I going to master the Grimsby accent,?” something she eventually did with the help of Grimsby-born Shy & Lola co-star Thomas Turgoose, said the setting brings with it a “sense of community.”

“There’s an ensemble of characters who make up the community where they work and live, and it has a real richness to it,” she added. “These aren’t people who despise where they come from or hate where they live. The majority of working-class people actually don’t [hate where they live].”

Squires thinks this “richness” has been lost somewhat in the recent depiction of working class communities, as she harks back to successful, multi-faceted 1990s shows like Our Friends in the North. “I feel as though that trend might have changed,” she added. “It’s the same with anything to do with class or culture; if your writer has knowledge of that community then it comes through.”

She is enthused by the success of shows like the BBC’s Sherwood, however, and throws her weight behind the national broadcaster as an “organization that has had to battle to hold its ground, and I think it has.”

BBC Studios will be selling Shy & Lola at MIPCOM this week.

Is the world ready for a giant worm going to work on the subway? Korean director Kim Sung-soo thinks so and is making a film on this very subject, Worm Train, inspired by Franz Kafka’s short story Metamorphosis.

Kim, whose credits include major Korean blockbusters such as Asura: The City Of Madness and 12.12: The Day, talked about how he’s using Kling AI tools to make the short film on a panel at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) today.

Kling AI, which recently released its 4.0 image generation model, also invited Chinese animation filmmaker Li Wei (Big Fish & Begonia); Harry Hyun, a director and CEO of Korea’s MooAm Co; and Lee Sang-wook, a producer and team manager at Korea’s MBC C&I AI Contents Lab, to present recent projects made using Kling AI tools, as well as discuss the latest trends in this new mode of filmmaking.

After presenting a teaser for Worm Train, Kim said AI has changed the way he thinks about filmmaking, but that “one thing never changes, which is what makes a film cinematic”.

“Now everyone has similar tools and anyone can access Kling, but while some will make a masterpiece, others will make a film that is mediocre,” Kim said. “Initially, I thought AI would destroy the industry, but I don’t think so any more, because technology does not replace creativity. The value of images still comes from human intervention.”

Hyun, who has made AI films including Crypto Man and Genfluencer, expanded on this topic. “I don’t think AI production compared to traditional production is really that different – the difference is efficiency and simplicity – but if you don’t have experienced filmmakers on set, everything can end up looking the same.

“That’s why AI images may look impressive at first, but not later, because everyone is using the same lighting, same everything,” Hyun continued. “You need an art director who can do the fine tuning, a director and cinematographer who have really studied and learned when to use a close shot, wide shot, how to frame an image. These are long discussions we have on set, they’re not random decisions. Only when you’re working with experts will you be able to create something different with AI – not just cookie cutter deliverables.”

Li Wei, who is making animated feature Born Of The Tide with Kling AI tools, said one useful aspect of AI filmmaking is that results can be seen right away, so it’s easier to get feedback from multiple people on the crew. “There’s going to be a lot of trial and error in AI filmmaking, but effective communication can be used between the various production members, so everyone has a chance to feed back into the production,” Li said.

Lee presented a teaser of upcoming series Rendering Love, produced by MBC C&I and Barunson E&A, which combines live-action scenes filmed the traditional way with AI generated characters to tell the story of a virtual K-pop group. He observed that different roles and ways of working are emerging in AI production crews.

“All staff members working on a project must fully understand the technology. That’s the only way to have high quality content. If you’re updating to a new model, the team leaders need to analyse the new features and share that understanding so all staff members are on the same page. The technology is changing constantly and if anyone is lagging behind, overall quality can decrease.”

The speakers also discussed whether there was a need to introduce industry standards in AI filmmaking, but Kim suggested it was still too early, at least in South Korea. “Creators in Korea have their own ideas and imagination and want to unleash that using AI tools. We need to see where all this is heading before we start talking about regulations and standards.

“But one thing I’m very aware of as a filmmaker is thinking about whether you’re infringing somebody’s rights. That’s something we need to be conscious of from the early stages.”

The panel, entitled New Cinematic Possibilities: Reimagining Filmmaking with Kling AI, took place as part of the InnoAsia track at Asian Contents & Market (ACFM), which is running until October 13.

Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, who received the Camellia Award at the opening of Busan International Film Festival, shared her experiences of being a woman filmmaker in a male-dominated industry at a festival press conference, along with her thoughts on how Hong Kong cinema has evolved.

When asked how other women had helped shape her career, Hui said she’d had five women bosses when she entered the industry back in the ‘70s who had welcomed her and helped her to become established as a filmmaker.

“I was lucky because my first five bosses really supported me, gave me freedom and support, and allowed me to do what I wanted with the TV programs I was making. They were only criticizing me to make my work better,” Hui said.

“Afterwards I met people who were not so nice, so I really want to talk about these five women in my masterclass. Some were company bosses and there were some actresses as well. It’s true that I seem to learn much less from men. I don’t know why because I’m not unfriendly with them, but perhaps it’s like karma in Buddhism, I don’t work with them as well.”

Hui started her career working for Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, back then an incubator for Hong Kong’s new wave of pioneering filmmakers, before moving into features, many of which have won awards at major festivals, spanning the ‘80s to the present day.

Her body of work includes an early trilogy about the Vietnamese boat people – Below The Lion Rock, The Story Of Woo Viet and Boat People – which was followed by films in a variety of genres including The Romance Of Book And Sword, Eighteen Springs, All About Love, A Simple Life, which won best actress in Venice, and The Golden Era, which won best director at Taiwan’s Golden Horse. Her most recent work, Elegies (2023), a documentary about Hong Kong poetry, opened Hong Kong International Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Horse Awards.

Looking back at developments in the Hong Kong film industry since the ‘70s, Hui also talked about the changing status of female filmmakers. “When I worked in TV in the ‘70s, and later when I made my first film, I tried my best to work on subjects like cops and robbers that men do,” Hui remembered. “I wanted to prove that women can do what men do.”

“But once I’d fulfilled that intention, I got back to subjects that really interest me; about the predicament of people in modern-day society, which is also quite a lot about women. It wasn’t intentional to make women’s stories, that’s just the way it turned out.”

She also observed that when she started her career, there were many women directors in television, but only two or three in the film industry. Now there are about 10-20 women directors actively working in the Hong Kong industry, she observed (including many that have had films screen in Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo film festivals, including Norris Wong, Oliver Chan, Heiward Mak, Jessey Tsang and Cheuk Wan-chi).

“Nowadays their position has become much better,” she continued. “Back in the ‘70s, I felt under pressure to have very masculine habits and dress like a man. It was almost like pretending to be a man when I’m on set. But nowadays, the female directors do not hide their gender when they’re working, and don’t mind coming across as quite feminine. They’re also much more conscious in the way they’re trying to make films telling women’s stories, which I think is totally legitimate.”

While saying that she felt “very jealous” of developments in Korean cinema, Hui said she’s also encouraged by the new generation of Hong Kong filmmakers, who have a different approach to the freewheeling and commercially driven filmmakers of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“Despite the lack of investment, the young filmmakers in Hong Kong are still very dedicated, hardworking, and talented. I feel that if they have an opening, they will be able to make better films than we did, because in the ‘80s and ‘90s it was all about entertainment. There was a lot of volume but very little content.

“But now the filmmakers are trying their best, perhaps because it’s so difficult to raise investment, they put a lot of effort into the planning and some of the film are really good.”

She also mentioned the big improvements in acting in Hong Kong cinema. “Back in our era, most of the actors and actresses came from soap operas or beauty pageants. Now they all come from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, so they have a really solid foundation in acting. They also have really professional ethics.”

While accepting the Camellia Award at Busan’s opening ceremony, Hui mentioned that it was getting “more difficult for her to make films” as she turns eighty next year. She joked in the press conference about being worried that she’s trip on the red carpet because she’s not so steady on her feet these days.

But she also said that she’s still enjoys making movies and is currently developing some ideas, so she’s not ready to announce her retirement just yet. “My judgment and understanding has not been reduced, in fact experience gives you a deeper understanding. So I still want to make films because I want to convey this new understanding that I have now in my films.”

Jointly presented by BIFF and Chanel, the festival’s Camellia Award honors pioneering women filmmakers who advance the role of women in Asian cinema. Previous recipients have included Korean production designer Ryu Seong-hie (Decision To Leave) and Taiwanese filmmaker and actress Sylvia Chang (Love Education, Daughter’s Daughter).