B.J. Novak-Backed ChainFest Partners With Event Producer Medium Rare

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might be considering a move back to the UK, as suggested by a former royal butler.

Anton, a European studio that has backed titles including Paddington and His Dark Materials, has raised €100M ($108M) in financing through investors led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off their partnership on Studiocanal’s “‘Mayhem!” (“Farang”) and Netflix hit movie “Watch Under Paris,” popular genre filmmaker Xavier Gens (“Gangs of London”) is joining forces with Vincent Roget and Eric Lavaine’s banner Sameplayer to launch a new production company. Named Good Players, the Paris-based company will aim at developing and producing action, thriller, aventure, fantasy and horror movies that have an international appeal.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Actor-singer-songwriter Keke Palmer and her Big Bosses Entertainment imprint have partnered with the SRG-ILS Group, which is distributed by Universal Music’s Virgin Music Group, the companies announced on Tuesday. Palmer’s first release under the new partnership will drop in early summer. Palmer, an Emmy Award-winning actor, singer-songwriter, producer, author and television host, founded Big Bosses with Sharon Palmer and her longtime music manager, Billy Clark, in 2017.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Veteran unscripted producer Jeff Collins (“Dance Moms”) has sealed an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television – Nonfiction. Under the pact, Collins and his newly launched Resilient Content shingle will focus on creating unscripted programming and developing formats for broadcast, cable and streaming.

EXCLUSIVE: Philippines‘ Nathan Studio has struck a deal with Singapore’s Momo Film Co to invest strategically in Momo’s slate of upcoming projects.

It looks like Alan Ritchson and Jake Gyllenhaal are enjoying their time together!

Thania Garcia Seeker Music is expanding into Latin American and U.S.-based Latin music markets by partnering with Latin record label, artist management and entertainment company MITH Media. Seeker will jointly sign songwriters and artists, acquire and manage catalogs and develop new genre-focused IP and projects in tandem with MITH.

EXCLUSIVE: Mansa, the ad-supported streaming platform highlighting Black content for a global audience, has partnered with Ava DuVernay‘s ARRAY Releasing on a licensing agreement to distribute a curated selection of ARRAY’s independent feature films directly to audiences via the Mansa Streaming Service and on the Mansa Mix FAST channel.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran manager Leonard Torgan, formerly of Cohn Torgan management, has joined forces with Brett Carducci as a partner in his new shingle, Aligned Entertainment Group, which will both manage and produce projects alongside clients.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “I’m really busy.” This is the first thing Busy Philipps tells me as we sit down to chat. When I tell her I’m impressed with her jam-packed schedule, she immediately agrees: “I’m impressed as well.” Philipps and I are sitting in a bare-bones Chelsea loft on an early afternoon in March.

EXCLUSIVE: Ever Anderson, an up-and-coming actress known for roles in Disney+’s Peter Pan & Wendy and Marvel’s Black Window, has entered into a new strategic partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, sources tell Deadline.

Netflix and The Blackhouse Foundation will partner on the Netflix Nonfiction Producing Fellowship, a year-long program giving rising producers from underrepresented perspectives the hands-on training, mentorship and experience to help advance their careers in film and TV production. 

More than 8,600 people have signed a new online petition calling for Scottish tax rates to be scrapped and restored to the same levels as those administered by the UK Government. There are now six tax bands for people in Scotland, compared to just three in other parts of the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Stillking Films, the production services company behind titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things has teamed up with production house Twentyfour Seven to launch the Málaga-based production outfit Ánima Stillking.

Tyler Perry Studios and DeVon Franklin (Flamin’ Hot) have formed a partnership with Netflix to produce faith-based films under a multi-year and multi-picture first-look deal. This deal marks the latest extension of Perry and Netflix’s creative partnership which sees Perry write, direct, and produce films and series, however, these films will be produced by Franklin and Perry in conjunction with Tyler Perry Studios.

Happy birthday, Princess Charlotte!!

John Lennon Estate has partnered with the Lumenate app for a series of meditation mixes, developed from the musician’s 1973 track ‘Mind Games’.Unveiled today (May 1), the project has been developed to help people reach a relaxed, meditative state, and “help guide your mind into deeper states of consciousness”.In the newly transformed mixes, various sound design techniques and processes have been applied to the original 1973 recordings by late Beatles member John Lennon and, in some instances, have been enhanced with additional instrumentation from producer Sean Ono Lennon – who is also the son of Lennon and Yoko Ono.The song was written by Lennon after reading the 1972 book Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space, by Robert Masters and Jean Houston, which offered brain training exercises to help people take a more positive outlook. The song then came as the title track for the album of the same name and has gone on to become a cult classic.“John was trying to convey the message that we all play mind games.

The Jeffrey Archer Company has struck a deal to localize his literary works into film and TV adaptations with ex-Amazon exec Thomas Drachkovitch and ex-CAA Agent Jason Hafford’s new outfit.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Lenny Kravitz loves to wear shades. For the stylish rock-and-roll star, there is seemingly no wrong place or occasion to accessorize an ensemble with a pair of sunglasses — whether he’s in the studio, on a red carpet, rocking out on stage or, yes, even lifting weights at Equinox.