A+E Networks Invests in Range Media Partners With Expansive Production Pact

EXCLUSIVE: While most Covid restrictions have been lifted around the country, we get daily reminders that the pandemic has not gone away, with Kenneth Branagh, Hillary Clinton and Jen Psaki among the big names who have announced infections in the past few days.

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime ICM Partners agent Matt Sorger has left to join A3 Artists Agency as senior agent in the Alternative Programming, Digital Media, Licensing and Branding division. He is the latest ICM agent to depart for another agency or management company ahead of company’s pending acquisition by CAA.

Eman Redwan, most recently a Digital Talent Agent at UTA focusing on the beauty and lifestyle space, has joined Range Media Partners and will become a partner. In the new role, she will manage digital clients and working across Range’s full roster of clients on brand partnerships.

husband of RHONY Aviva and cousin of Fran Drescher, star of “The Nanny.”Reid Drescher claimed to have access to gobs of cash to invest in Los Angeles-based marijuana grower P&S Ventures LLC, according to P&S’s suit, filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.“Drescher bragged that he was a cousin of Fran Drescher, who played The Nanny in the television series of that name, and that his wife, Aviva Drescher, was on Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York, claiming to have many celebrity contacts as a result,” the suit said.Aviva Drescher — famous for throwing her prosthetic leg at another housewife onscreen — was cut from the hit show in 2014. Believing his “numerous materially false representations,” P&S agreed to accept a $5.4 million investment from Drescher’s fund in exchange for stock.But Reid Drescher was soon “forced” to admit that his fund didn’t have the promised money, the suit said.The fund had raised just $1 million of a planned $120 million as of 2019, according to its most recent securities filing.Gateway ultimately only kicked $1.35 million into P&S.

Marta Balaga Finland has responded to a spike in demand for its content with a slew of new series. As revealed by Laura Kuulasmaa, executive director at Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI), over 30 will be released this year alone, a 20% uptick on 2018.“Compared to eight, ten years ago, when there were maybe only five scripted series per year, the increase has been huge,” she tells Variety ahead of French TV festival Series Mania’s “Focus on Finland” showcase. The Film in Finland cash rebate has facilitated international investments and growth of the budgets, she notes. Matti Paunio, head of production at the Finnish Film Foundation, adds:“I think the biggest trend overall is the diversification of subjects and points of view.

EXCLUSIVE: David Steward II’s Lion Forge Animation studio, known for its Academy Award winning short Hair Love from director Matthew A. Cherry, has expanded its leadership team while continuing to scale production and development activity in its third year, promoting two-time Emmy-winning animation director Saxton Moore to Vice President of Production, and hiring Neely Shamam to serve as Vice President of Development.

League of Legends publisher and developer Riot Games will deepen its relationship with Fortiche Production, the studio behind its breakout Netflix animated series Arcane. Announced on Monday, Riot closed an equity investment under which the gaming company now holds a non-controlling stake in Fortiche.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorIn today’s podcast news roundup, Vince Vaughn teams up with two former NFL pros to launch podcast production firm Audiorama; media startup Puck is launching podcasts with Spotify’s The Ringer and Audacy’s Cadence13; Spotify’s 2022 Sound Up accelerator program is geared toward family podcasters; and more.Vince Vaughn (“Wedding Crashers,” “Brawl in Cellblock 99”), along with former Carolina Panthers players Greg Olsen and Ryan Kalil and venture fund Powerhouse Capital, this week launched Audiorama, a podcast network and production company centered on “transformative podcasts” that enlighten, entertain and inform. Mikey Fowler, formerly with Barstool Sports, is VP and GM of the newly founded venture.

Naman Ramachandran Comcast’s NBC News Now is live on Sky U.K. this week and will launch on Virgin Media later this month, making the U.K. the first European territory to have the service on linear programming.

Andrew Barker Senior Features WriterThe documentary short competition has long been a prime stage for nonfiction talent, and thanks to the renewed interest of streamers and new platforms, the format is as lively as ever. This year’s nominees encompass a wide range of subjects, from female sports pioneers to homelessness, love in a warzone and childhood bullying.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorProducer Heather Kadin has joined Range Media Partners as president of scripted television.Kadin, most recently teamed with Alex Kurtzman in overseeing the “Star Trek” TV universe for Paramount, will oversee all of Range’s scripted development and production. She’ll serve as an executive producer on Range projects, help create new series and build brands through scripted content.“I am beyond thrilled,” Kadin said. “After many years of producing mostly genre television, I had a strong desire to be more entrepreneurial and work with a wider array of talent.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Secret Hideout President Heather Kadin has been tapped as President of Scripted Television for management and production company Range Media Partners. She will oversee all scripted development and production for Range Studios and will executive produce their scripted television projects under the company’s co-production arrangement with A+E Studios as part of A+E Networks’s minority stake acquisition in Range.

Post Malone has disputed claims made by a songwriter who is suing him over his 2019 hit ‘Circles’.Tyler Armes filed a federal lawsuit in California in April 2020, listing Post (real name Austin Post), Post’s producer Frank Dukes and Universal Music Group as defendants, and claims he is seeking co-writer and co-producer credits, as well as prospective and retroactive royalties and other money owed from the ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’ track.On the same day, Post filed his own suit, with the rapper asking a New York Federal Judge to rule that Armes has no claim to the song’s copyright and did not participate in writing it.“It is an age-old story in the music business that when a song earns the type of runaway success that ‘Circles’ has garnered, and individuals will come out of the woodwork falsely claim to take credit for the song, and demand unwarranted and unearned windfall profits from the song,” reads Malone’s complaint.In a new court filing (via Rolling Stone), Post claims that Armes did not contribute anything “original” to the song, just “an admittedly extremely commonplace guitar chord progression,” and potentially a “fragment of a guitar melody that Armes claims he sung to Post”. Armes claims he was initially offered five per cent of the song’s royalties for his work on ‘Circles’, but that was removed when he tried to negotiate a bigger cut.Post’s new court documents read: “Armes admitted that his contributions did not even rise to the level of originality, which is also required in addition to the fixation requirement.

A+E Networks has taken a minority stake in management and production firm Range Media Partners. No financial details are being disclosed but the stake is believed to be in the high teens percent and the deal in the $50 million ballpark, with Range’s valuation at around $300 million. That is a hefty valuation, especially for a company that is just a year and a half old. It is close to what one of Hollywood biggest, most established management-production companies, 3 Arts, sold for in 2018 after 27 years in the business.

Looking to the past. Cheryl Burke opened up about trying to embrace every emotion amid her divorce from Matthew Lawrence.

DirecTV has dropped RT America, the sister network to Russia Today, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Manori Ravindran International EditorCanada’s Incendo and Los Angeles-based Nicely Entertainment have struck a development and production partnership beginning with the scripted limited series, “The Christmas Checklist.”The four-episode series will be available in the marketplace for the 2022 holiday season.Written by Lisa Hepner (“A Christmas Wish in Hudson,” “Christmas Lovers Anonymous”), “The Christmas Checklist” is a holiday-themed limited TV series targeted for release in December 2022. Incendo and Nicely Entertainment will develop and produce the series with Incendo responsible for distribution in English and French Canada, and Nicely Entertainment overseeing the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners has entered into an overall deal with SRO Productions, the label founded by director Bartlett Sher (Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird), writer JT Rogers (Tokyo Vice) and producer Cambra Overend (Oslo). Under the two-year deal, Amblin will have first-look rights on SRO’s film projects.

Matthew Rondeau is seemingly “feeling good” amid his recent arrest. Days after the actor was released from police custody and an emergency protective order was issued to keep him away from Shanna Moakler, he jetted off to Las Vegas with friends.