UCP and Universal Television, divisions of Universal Studio Group, have each brought in an SVP-level development executive. Lee Daniels Entertainment President Marc Velez has been named SVP, Head of Development, for UCP, reporting to Jennifer Gwartz, EVP of UCP. Former Netflix executive Naketha Mattocks joins Universal Television as SVP Drama Development reporting to Vivian Cannon, […]
ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will team to televise the 2022 MLB Wild Card Series beginning Friday with four games, marking the debut of the reformatted and expanded baseball postseason. Four best-of-3 series will be on tap in the first year of the wild card round, which will feature each league’s third- through sixth-best teams recordwise. […]
Production has wrapped on The Blind, a biopic of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson with a theatrical release date slated for Sept. 22, 2023 as distribution plans are being finalized. Set in the 1960s Deep South and shot on location in Louisiana, The Blind shares never-before-revealed aspects of Robertson’s life as he seeks to conquer […]
Bruno Heller (Gotham, Rome) has a funny way — quite literally — of describing the move of Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler from Epix to HBO Max. First, imagine you’re in a grocery store and on the hunt for, ahem, something tasty to enjoy. “Years ago, people had very few choices. Now it’s much […]
The settlement Wednesday between Alec Baldwin and Rust producers with the family of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and the resurrection of the indie Western won’t stop possible criminal charges, the Santa Fe District Attorney says “The proposed settlement announced today in Matthew Hutchins’ wrongful death case against Rust movie producers, including Alec Baldwin, in the death […]
Veteran TV producer and writer Eric Weinberg has been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault by Los Angeles County prosecutors, Deadline has confirmed. Weinberg, the long-serving Scrubs co-executive producer, who initially was arrested in July and released on $3.225 million bond, was re-arrested Tuesday and later released on $5 million bond. Los Angeles County District Attorney […]
Janet Pierson, the longtime VP and director of the SXSW Film & TV Festival, is stepping down from her role running the annual Austin festival, the organization said Wednesday. Her longtime deputy Claudette Godfrey, the Film Festival Programming Director, will take over beginning with the 2023 edition. Pierson, who was head of SXSW’s film and […]
There are stories so good they can withstand any amount of retelling. Matilda began life as Roald Dahl’s rollicking tale of an outrageously spirited, clever little girl who defeats the bullying headmistress whose vocation is to make children miserable. The Royal Shakespeare Company turned it into a Christmas musical that burst the banks of the […]
Drama procedural franchises have proven resilient amid declining linear ratings, with CBS’ FBI series and NBC’s Chicago and Law & Order dramas topping Live+Same Day ratings during premiere week. ABC has had a lot of success with flagship drama Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff Station 19, which have built an integrated universe with characters, most […]
Year-round development for the broadcast networks became something of a buzz phrase during Covid as the likes of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC battled the pandemic to get new shows on the air. But plans were afoot at a number of these linear networks before the world changed in March 2020 to try and become […]
Greys Anatomy is heading into a transformational season. Star Ellen Pompeo is scaling back her on-screen presence to eight episodes, signaling a potential departure of her character Meredith which has been the heart of the medical drama since the start. Meanwhile, five new actors are joining as interns in one of the show’s biggest cast infusions ever, […]
A Million Little Things‘ upcoming fifth season is expected to be the final one for ABC’s serialized ensemble drama. While that has been an open secret, the network is yet to confirm it. That may change soon. “Stay tuned in the next few weeks for discussion of that and our other midseason shows,” Simran Sethi, […]
Netflix’s Obliterated has added 11 new actors to its cast including Carl Lumbly (The Fall of the House of Usher), David Costabile (Billions), and Virginia Madsen (Joy). Recurring stars and their respective roles are as follows: Lumbly will play CIA Director “Langdon”, Ava’s (Shelley Hennig) boss and longtime mentor, as well as her government liaison […]
Emma Caulfield Ford will be returning as Dottie, the Queen Bee neighbor caught up in Wanda Maximoff’s spell on WandaVision, in the upcoming Disney+/Marvel spinoff series Agatha : Coven of Chaos. That series stars Kathryn Hahn reprising her role as WandaVision bad gal Agatha. Caulfield Ford played demon Anya for 85 episodes on Buffy the Vampire […]
This, as one of the surprised bad guys says in this new Violent Night trailer, is not your typical mall Santa. Universal just dropped the trailer for the “coal-dark” action-comedy starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the very real Santa Claus who gets very, very real with a team of mercenaries holding a family hostage […]
Welcome back to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast, I am your host Valerie Complex — assistant editor and film writer at Deadline. Had some technical difficulties so that’s why this latest episode didn’t publish Tuesday, but it’s a new day, and here we are. On today’s episode, I chat with native New Zealanders actor Cliff […]
EXCLUSIVE: Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to SXSW road-trip drama The Unknown Country starring Certain Women and Killers of the Flower Moon actress Lily Gladstone and Raymond Lee (Top Gun: Maverick). In director Morrisa Maltz’s indie pic, an unexpected invitation rushes a grieving young woman into a road trip through the American Midwest towards the border […]
EXCLUSIVE: John De Mol is bringing his latest entertainment format to the U.S. The Big Brother and The Voice creator has teamed up with Holey Moley producer Eureka Productions for a U.S. version of The Floor, which is described as a Risk-esque entertainment show. The Floor is a physical quiz show that sees 100 contestants […]
German powerhouse Constantin Film and Frank Spotnitz’s Big Light Productions have teamed to make a high-end drama series about the events surrounding the Nuremberg Trials. The drama, currently unnamed, follows the prosecution of Nazi officials after World War II, the first time in history that people were held accountable for war crimes, exploring characters from […]
France’s CNC Sets Carbon Footprint Stipulations In Return For Support France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) is set to become one of the first state film and TV bodies to attach green stipulations to its funding. As of March 31, 2023, producers applying for funds across all genres and formats will have to include provisional and […]
Phil Oppenheim, who has held senior exec posts at Epix, Lionsgate and Turner, has been named chief content officer at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. In the newly created position, Oppenheim will lead physical and streaming platform content strategy across all brands for the company, which owns streaming services like Crackle and also just […]
EXCLUSIVE: Ireland’s Lighthouse Studios is developing its first original series, Savage Town. The 2D-animated crime drama is based on a graphic novel co-authored by Marvel comic book artist Declan Shalvey (Injection, All Star Batman, MoonKnight) and Philip Barrett (Matter, Where’s Larry), along with colorist Jordie Bellaire (Injection, Pretty Deadly). Marcus Fleming, who wrote Dominion Creek […]
A close-knit Danish family struggles with loss in Forever, Frelle Petersen’s drama that debuted at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Shortlisted by Denmark as its submission for the International Feature Oscar (Holy Spider was ultimately selected as the entry), it’s a quiet, thoughtful charmer that observes its characters with affection and respect. Jette Søndergaard puts in a […]
EXCLUSIVE: Former MGM and Sony Pictures exec Eric Paquette’s film and TV company Meridian Pictures has struck a partnership deal with Saudi Arabian production house and literary management company Hakawati Entertainment. The exclusive partnership aims to bring Hollywood talent to the Saudi entertainment sector and develop stories for regional and international audiences, in alignment with […]
Netflix Among Buyers Of Doc On Dutch Soccer Manager Louis Van Gaal A feature doc about fiery Dutch soccer coach Louis Van Gaal is head to Netflix. The streamer has acquired German rights to Van Gaal: The Man Behind the Legend from distributor DFW International, the sales arm of Studiocanal-owned Benelux film distributor Dutch FilmWorks. Spain’s Telefonica […]
