Fuse Media Launches Ignition Studios to Create and License Global Content (Exclusive)

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday. Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Love Island contestants will once again be banned from keeping their social media accounts updated while they are in the villa. In previous series of the show, contestants have had friends, family or PR workers running their Instagram and Twitter accounts - sharing memes or occasionally responding to controversies with statements on their behalf.

Netflix will send out emails to thousands of Netflix users today, warning them that they may lose access to their accounts.

Naman Ramachandran A-lister Manoj Bajpayee, one of the few Indian actors who scores critical acclaim and commercial success in equal measure, has notched up another triumph with ZEE5 Global film “Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai.” Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki (Prime Video series “Flames”) and written by Deepak Kingrani (Disney+ Hotstar series “Special OPS”), the film is a courtroom drama based on the real-life case of a once-revered and powerful Indian religious leader who is currently serving a life term in jail for the rape of an underage girl. Bajpayee plays the prosecuting lawyer who is pitted against a phalanx of celebrity lawyers. “Usually what happens is that, you spend some time with the real person. Somewhere, I realized it’s a two-hour film, you have to have your own preparation away from the real guy, who is somebody who’s not even known to the world. And he’s achieved a feat in five years of continuous court hearings that is remarkable,” Bajpayee told Variety. “Instead of just creating or imitating a real person, let’s have the essence of him – the relentlessness and the courage and somebody who is stubborn about what he’s doing, completely focused, and he’s a good son, good father. I wanted to take all of it and make a character of my own and take a little bit of his physicality when I got to meet him before the shoot – I think it worked.”

K.J. Yossman Sports.com have inked a deal with Twickenham Film Studios – known for iconic films including “Gandhi” and “Top Gun: Maverick” – to create a slate of original projects that will stream on their platform. The range of content includes features, docs, scripted and unscripted longform content, podcasts and live studio productions all themed around sport, which will be produced from the studio. “Sports.com will create the ultimate world of fan engagement in sport, all from one immersive platform,” said Sports.com’s director of original content, Shelly Hammond. “Original content is a key driver to deliver ground- breaking sports entertainment to fans. Together with Twickenham Film Studios, we aim to deliver captivating and high-quality original content to entertain and engage audiences across the emerging platform and the globe.”

EXCLUSIVE: ITV Studios is seeking a VP of Global Content to work with natural history and premium doc labels including Tiny World indie Plimsoll.

The global brand development, marketing and entertainment platform Authentic Brands Group has today announced its expansion with the launch of Authentic Studios, a full-service production studio that will develop and produce film, TV and commercial content drawing on Authentic’s portfolio of more than 40 world-renowned brands.

EXCLUSIVE: A Swedish producer, Studios Extraordinaires, has launched in Cannes with an ambitious slate of film and TV projects.

EXCLUSIVE: New indie film financier Mizzel Media is launching in Cannes with what we understand to be a healthy six-figure investment in feature The Girl From Köln, the next film from Holy Spider and The Tale outfit One Two Films.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A new documentary about Avicii, the late Swedish DJ who became an international phenomenon in the 2010s, is underway, with Lawrence Bender, known for his many projects with Quentin Tarantino, and longtime talent manager Orlando John as producing partners. John will co-direct the film with Jonas Trukanas. “Avicii changed the music industry,” said John, a Dutch talent manager who works with musician Wyclef Jean, actor Joel Kinnaman and others. “People think they know the story, but they have really no clue as to what actually happened. I feel a profound responsibility to ensure that it’s told accurately and objectively. This documentary will give the audiences a deeper understanding of the brand that left an indelible mark on music and culture.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On the heels of his acclaimed stage performance at London’s National Theater for “Phaedra,” Assaad Bouab (“Call My Agent!,” “Bad Sisters”) is set to team with filmmaker Benjamin Ross (“The Frankenstein Chronicles”) and European production banner Asacha Media Group on “Voyager.” “Voyager” will star Bouab as legendary Medieval explorer and philosopher Ibn Battuta who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up travelling for over twenty years and over 76000 miles across Africa, India and Eurasia, more than anyone in pre-modern history.  Battuta logged his experiences of the people, places and cultures he encountered along the way, writing one of the world’s earliest and most famous travelogues, The Rilah, and earning himself legendary status in history. The project is being developed as a series.

Naman Ramachandran Distributor Verve Pictures has revealed the first trailer for “Inland,” headlined by Oscar-winning thespian Mark Rylance. The film marks the debut of Fridtjof Ryder and alongside Ryland the cast includes Rory Alexander (“Pistol”), Kathryn Hunter (“Andor”), Eleanor Holliday, Alexander Lincoln (“The Fence”), Nell Williams (“The Good Liar”) and Shaun Dingwall (“Top Boy”). Described as a “modern folktale,” “Inland” explores the fractured identity of a young man after the mysterious disappearance of his mother. Guided by a father figure (Rylance) and old friends who care deeply, his journey through the dreamlike spaces of rural England brings him face to face with the loss that haunts him in ways he could never have expected.

Naman Ramachandran British singer-songwriter Craig David (“22”) and singer and stage actor Beverley Knight (“Sister Act”) will headline the Windrush 75 celebration at London’s Royal Albert Hall on June 9. The event is being curated and hosted by DJ and radio presenter Trevor Nelson. The Windrush generation came to the U.K. from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971. The ship MV Empire Windrush had arrived in Tilbury on June 22, 1948, bringing workers from the Caribbean to help address a post-war labor shortage in the U.K. The concert will aim to capture the breadth of musical influence which the Windrush generation has had on British culture over the last 75 years, with performances including R&B group Loose Ends’ “Hangin’ on a String,” G-folk’ pioneer Hak Baker’s “Windrush Baby” and David’s “Fill Me In,” as well as renditions of classic tracks like Lord Kitchener’s “London is the Place for Me,” Bob Marley’s “Is this Love,” and Goldie’s “Inner City Life.”

Angelique Jackson “Nope” standout Brandon Perea is going from surveying one (alien) storm system to chasing another — with the actor signing on to star in the upcoming “Twister” sequel. Perea joins Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos in “Twisters,” directed by “Minari” helmer Lee Isaac Chung from a script by “The Revenant” writer Mark L. Smith. The film, from Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment, is described as a “new chapter” of the 1996 movie, which followed a team of storm chasers as they hunted down the most powerful tornado in decades. Plot details, including Perea’s role, are being kept under wraps.

Paul Plunkett Besides incentives and locations, people make up a crucial component of New Mexico’s production ambitions. The New Mexico Media Academy (NMMA) is getting ready to supply skilled crew for the increasing number of jobs provided by the film and television industry. Headquartered in the Downtown Albuquerque Rail Yards, the NMMA is a collaborative initiative between industry partners, multiple educational institutions and the state to equip New Mexico residents with the education and skills necessary to work in production. “Our students will be trained by the best in the industry on state-of-the-art technology to further cultivate the modern film and digital media workforce we are building,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement announcing the academy’s Albuquerque location.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Backup Systems, the Paris-based company behind the owner of the cloud-based app MovieChainer, has launched Connect, which is being presented as the first AI-powered app enabling smart data upload and data management for filmmakers. Rolled out on the eve of the Cannes Film Market, this new tool has been created to help filmmakers with non-creative tasks and has been designed to identify entertainment-related data, including all sorts of creative, financial and contractual data used in the film and TV industry. The app scans hard drives or dedicated folders in search for user’s raw material – scripts, videos, contracts, budgets, accounting reports etc, automatically archives files at the right place in user’s own cloud-based secured drive. Connect also identifies relevant data contained in the files and extract them to feed user’s database – enabling data-centric approaches and models to generate intelligence for the user. Backup Systems will be at Cannes to present the app.

Deadline’s parent company Penske Media has launched Harmony, a proprietary livestreaming platform the company has been refining over the last year. The new platform makes it possible to view PMC’s portfolio of live entertainment shows and industry experiences across all of Penske Media’s owned and operated websites (which Comscore clocks as reaching a monthly audience of 124 million unique views) and PMC social media channels that have 110 million followers. To start, Harmony viewers will be able watch the live Academy of Country Music Awards red carpet tonight at 4pm PT/ 7 pm ET, in partnership with Amazon.  

Naman Ramachandran Signature Entertainment has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut,” starring Emma Roberts (“We’re the Millers”) and Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix”), from Highland Film Group. Written and directed by Jess Varley (“Phobias”) in her solo directorial and writing debut, the film follows astronaut Sam Walker (Roberts) who, upon returning from her first space mission, is found miraculously alive in a punctured capsule floating deep off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. General William Harris (Fishburne) arranges for her to be placed under intense NASA surveillance in a high security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. However, when disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, Walker fears that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth.

Naman Ramachandran The Indian media and entertainment industry grew 20% to reach INR2.1 trillion ($26 billion) in 2022, 10% above pre-pandemic 2019, according to the annual EY report released during the ongoing Frames conference in Mumbai, organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The report collates data from television, digital media, film, animation and VFX, out of home media, live events, music, radio, online gaming and print. Overall, the M&E sector is projected to grow 12% to reach $28.6 billion in 2023, the report says. While television remained the single largest component of the M&E sector in 2022 with a valuation of $8.6 billion, it shrank 1.5% from 2021 levels, despite advertising revenues growing 2% to reach levels just behind 2019. The reason for the shrinkage is that subscription revenue continued to fall for the third year in a row, reducing 4% due to a reduction of five million pay-TV homes and stagnant average revenues per user. Linear TV viewership declined 7% over 2021. Television is projected to grow slightly to $8.8 billion this year.

Naman Ramachandran Indian media and entertainment company IN10 Media Network has launched its film division, MovieVerse Studios. The film studio aims to “produce fresh and engaging content in Hindi and regional languages that connect with theatre-going audiences and those on streaming platforms,” the studio said in a statement. The studio has revealed a diverse slate across genres. These include an action survival rescue drama based on a true story in partnership with Bake My Cake Films, helmed by Sandeep Leyzell and Shobhna Yadav, which has hit films like “Batla House,” “Dasvi” and the upcoming “Tehran” to its credit. It will be directed by Umang Vyas (“Ventilator,” “Dear Father”).