MUMBAI: Next month?s television trade event Mipcom 2011 that will take place in Cannes is preparing to welcome a galaxy of  internationally-recognised actors, directors, writers, producers and show business personalities.

Holding a Mipcom World Premiere Television Screening of its new thriller TV series Missing in the Palais des Festivals? Grand Auditorium, ABC Studios is bringing stellar cast members of the show to Cannes.

American film and television star Ashley Judd portrays Becca Winstone, a mother and former CIA agent struggling across Europe to rescue her kidnapped son. Ashley Judd is known internationally for her numerous leading roles in major Hollywood productions including Heat (co-starring Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Val Kilmer), A Time To Kill (Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock), High Crimes (Morgan Freeman), Crossing Over (Harrison Ford), Double Jeopardy (Tommy Lee Jones), De-Lovely (Kevin Kline) and Bug (directed by William Friedkin).

New Zealand?s Cliff Curtis gained his fame in Hollywood while portraying characters of many ethnic origins in blockbusters like Live Free Or Die Hard (with Bruce Willis), Training Day (Denzel Washington), Three Kings (George Clooney), The Insider (Al Pacino and Russel Crowe) and Bringing Out The Dead (Nicolas Cage, directed by Martin Scorsese).

The son of Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini and Italian director Livia Giampalmo, Adriano Giannini co-starred with Madonna in the 2002 Swept Away, directed by Guy Ritchie. Giannini became a huge name in Italy with The Consequences Of Love, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and appeared in Steven Soderbergh?s Ocean?s Twelve.

Creator and executive producer of Missing, Gregory Poirier, previously wrote the screenplay of the John Singleton film Rosewood in 1997, for which he won the Writers Guild of America?s Paul Selvin Award. Poirier also gained professional recognition in writing National Treasure: Book of Secrets (starring Nicolas Cage), Gossip (Kate Hudson), A Sound Of Thunder (Ben Kingsley), The Lion King II: Simba?s Pride and in writing and directing the spirited and energetic comedy Tomcats (2001).

?Missing? executive producers, Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo, are joining the ABC Studios entourage in Cannes along with Mipcom 2011 Personality of the Year Anne Sweeney, Disney/ABC Television Group President and Disney Media Networks Co-chair.

Dutch director of major blockbusters Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven is flying to Mipcom to promote FCCE?s Hollywood-style format and cross-media event called The Entertainment Experience, the world?s first multi-platform format based on a user-generated movie. All aspects of movie making, including acting and filming, are produced by new talent ? anybody can sign up ? guided by an established director who will also make the final cut of the movie. FCCE is in talks with several major international directors for a worldwide rollout of The Entertainment Experience.

Emmy Award winner Eddie Izzard is sailing into Mipcom to promote his appearance as legendary pirate Long John Silver in RHI Entertainment?s new miniseries event adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson?s ?Treasure Island?. Eddie will be accompanied by Treasure Island?s director Steve Barron. The classic tome, which has been given an edgier tone to appeal to the modern viewer, also stars Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings) and Donald Sutherland (Pride & Prejudice).The adrenaline-charged adventure was filmed earlier this year in Puerto Rico and Ireland and is due to premiere on Sky1 HD in the UK.

Entertainment One and Endemol are bringing the eagerly-awaited new western show Hell On Wheels to MIPCOM, along with cast members Anson Mount (City By The Sea, In Her Shoes, Last Night), Grammy Award-winning hip hop artist and actor Common (Terminator Salvation, American Gangster, Date Night, Wanted), Dominique McElligott (Moon, The Philanthropist, Blackthorn) and Colm Meaney (Dick Tracy, Die Hard 2, The Commitments, Con Air). Hell On Wheels will debut in November on AMC in the US.

Endemol is jetting to Mipcom with two other shows. Fran Drescher (The Nanny), writer, producer and star of hit sitcom Happily Divorced will appear alongside co-writer and Executive Producer Peter Marc Jacobson. Renewed for a second season on TV Land, the show is inspired by the real life story of Fran Drescher and her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson. After 18 years of marriage, Drescher is shocked to discover that her husband Peter (John Michael Higgins) is gay. The LA-based florist must deal with this bombshell and learn to juggle her new relationships and her ex-husband, who remains in the same house post-divorce. Emmy Award-winning actress Kristen Johnston (Third Rock From The Sun, ER, Ugly Betty, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) leads the cast of brand new TV Land sitcom The Exes, focusing on the lives of three men whose landlord also happens to be their female divorce attorney and avoids her own relationship and commitment issues by becoming immersed in the men?s affairs.

A man of many talents, Bruce Springsteen?s E Street Band?s guitar player and singer Stevie van Zandt is also a radio show producer and a versatile film songwriter. In 1999, Van Zandt became a TV series face when portraying mob consigliere Silvio Dante in the show ?The Sopranos?. At Mipcom this year, Stevie van Zandt is promoting his new ?dramedy? mafia series Lilyhammer, the story of a reformed criminal who testified against his mafia boss in New York and entered the Witness Protection Programme in the Norwegian countryside. The show is produced by Rubicon and distributed by SevenOne International.

After the recent success of his 3D hit feature length documentary ?Cave Of Forgotten Dreams?, German filmmaker Werner Herzog will attend Mipcom to present his documentary film on the fate of American convicts on death row ?Into The Abyss - A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life?, presented by ZDF Enterprises.

Distributed by BBC Worldwide, ?Death In Paradise? is a fish-out-of-water story about a quintessential English cop posted to the Caribbean island of Sainte-Marie. British comedian, actor and director Ben Miller and French actress Sara Martins will be accompanied at Mipcom by executive producer Anthony Jordan of Red Planet Pictures. ?Death In Paradise? is the first drama partnership between the BBC and France Televisions.

One of America?s leading stand-up comics and American Comedy Award winner Margaret Cho will electrify the red carpet and the Mipcom Opening Night Party, promoting her new concert film release Cho Dependent, that is represented internationally by Beyond Distribution.

French star photographer, filmmaker and Goodplanet Foundation President Yann Arthus-Bertrand, French production companies Robin & Co and Calt Productions president Jean-Yves Robin and Robin & Co MD Nicolas Coppermann are attending Mipcom to present their new film and television production joint venture Hope Production, dedicated to addressing international environmental questions.

Reed Midem?s television division director Laurine Garaude said, "We are delighted to welcome such a rich line-up of international talent at Mipcom this year. This reflects the fact that some truly big cinema names are increasingly involved in television projects and that producers and distributors recognise the importance of bringing this talent to Mipcom to meet the international entertainment community and promote their shows."

MUMBAI: Why is our planet filled with such a bewildering diversity of mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, insects and plants?

Animal Planet?s new series, Mutant Planet, reveals how nature has shaped the eccentric animals together with the forces of nature and the magic of evolution. Mutant Planet reveals why nature allows existence of strange and bizarre animals and their patterns of behaviour to flourish through the miracle of natural selection. The series is the celebration of the power of evolution, an exploration of the forces that shape life in all in its unexpected glory.

The six-part series will air from 12- 17 September at 8 pm. The show combines traditional natural history filming with science programming. Viewers are transported to six strange worlds, where it seems as if nature has thrown the rule book out of the window. Each episode focuses on key animals in six very special regions of our planet and takes audiences on a journey of detection and discovery to understand the powerful forces that create the mysteries of evolution.

The show takes animal lovers through the fairytale archipelago with a turbulent geological past of New Zealand to the floating laboratory of Australia where the changing climate has triggered mutations in the animals. It explores Brazil?s ancient Cerrado grassland, Africa?s freshwater Great lakes, Madagascar - the land of lemurs and the bizarre Islands of Japan.

This series experiences and encodes the behaviour and genetic evolution of different creatures and tries to solve the jigsaw puzzle highlighting the power of evolution driving the exceptional adaptations. These animals keep the entire ecosystem in balance. The cast of characters is diverse and none behave as expected. It is interesting to see how animals find innovative ways to overcome periods of starvation.

One episode visits New Zealand. The country is a fairytale archipelago with a turbulent geological past. A land with creatures: flightless birds, night dwellers and even living fossils. Evolution has run wild on this isolated land, producing some of the world?s most unusual animals. It is home to misfits and marvels found nowhere else on the planet. Without the influence of land mammals, birds reign supreme, dominating every habitat. The massive mountain fortresses are ruled by alpine parrots, the rugged coastline teems with bizarre seabirds, and the primeval forests are home to birds that no longer fly.

Another episode looks at Australia which is a floating laboratory whose ancient geological past and changing climate have triggered mutations in the animals here, culminating in over 200 species of bizarre pouched marsupials, which are all equipped with astounding survival features. Almost half of Australia is desert. Few animals can survive here, but one marsupial calls it home - the iconic Red
Kangaroo. This creature is a pinnacle of evolution among marsupials, equipped with an arsenal of adaptations to survive the desert. From its giant hop to its unique reproductive strategy, Australia?s Red Kangaroo demonstrates the power of evolution to drive exceptional adaptations.