Coca-Cola is on a mission to further spread its ethos of ‘Real Magic’ and human connection this holiday season, with a new short film anthology: The Santa Stories.
16.11.2023 - 20:39 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: It’s no secret that the independent film game is not for the faint-hearted, with the last decade seeing a number of companies and financiers collapse under the weight of the industry’s constant state of flux. But amidst the turmoil and unprecedented change, Teddy Schwarzman has been quietly building his Black Bear label into a full-fledged independent film studio.
The company, which Schwarzman founded as a financing and production outfit back in 2011, has now grown into a business that has tentacles in international sales; theatrical distribution in Canada (Elevation Pictures) and, more recently, the UK (Black Bear UK); a management business; a documentary financing joint venture with New Regency dubbed Double Agent; and a television strand, the latter of which recently deficit-financed AMC’s crime drama Monsieur Spade starring Clive Owen.
When Deadline sits down with Schwarzman in his Santa Monica office for a rare interview, Black Bear has kicked off this year’s fall festival season with three buzzy titles at Telluride and Toronto: Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money, starring Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan, America Ferrera and Pete Davidson; awards hopeful Nyad, starring Annette Bening as marathon swimmer Diana Nyad alongside Jodie Foster; and the Greg Kwedar-directed drama Sing Sing, which A24 acquired for U.S. theatrical in a competitive situation following the film’s premiere at TIFF.
This trifecta is emblematic of everything the company has spent the past 12 years slowly and strategically building: Black Bear not only produced and financed each title but also repped international sales for Dumb Money and Sing Sing via its Black Bear International arm led by John Friedberg. Dumb
Coca-Cola is on a mission to further spread its ethos of ‘Real Magic’ and human connection this holiday season, with a new short film anthology: The Santa Stories.
True Detective. The new season is subtitled ‘Night Country’ and is heading to HBO Max in the US in the new year.
Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma are stepping out for a bite to eat.
Looking back, America Ferrera is appalled by the narrative surrounding her body!
EXCLUSIVE: Emmy Award-winner Johan Renck has signed with WME.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Stuart Ford’s independent content company AGC Studios is partnering with Egyptian star Mohamed Karim’s MK Global Entertainment to produce “Judgment of the Dead,” an English-language thriller steeped in ancient Egypt’s lore. Karim is known across the Middle East as a former host of talent show “The Voice of Arabia” and for roles in popular Ramadan soaps. He is concurrently pursuing a Hollywood career that has led to roles alongside Nicolas Cage in 2019 action movie “A Score to Settle” and with Bruce Willis in “A Day to Die.” U.S.
With boyfriend Sam Thompson currently down under on this season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, Zara McDermott has been taking to social media each night to show her support as he vies to be crowned king of the jungle. As well as encouraging the couple’s followers to keep voting for Sam, Zara also shared a hilarious video of her choreographing a dance routine to the ‘jungle drums’ opening music of the show alongside former TOWIE star Pete Wicks, Sam’s best friend.
Six years ago, producer Ivana Mikovic was sitting with her production designer friend when the two discussed the lack of studio space in Serbia’s growing film and television sector. It was a year after the government had introduced its 25% – 30% cash rebate and Mikovic, a former BBC news producer, saw a gap in the market for such a studio facility. At the time there were only a handful of stages in the surrounding Belgrade area – including PFI Studios and Take 1 – but they consistently ran at capacity.
Demi Moore is getting in a morning workout.
Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Dumb Money, directed by Craig Gillespie and penned by financial journalists-turned-screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo based on Ben Mezrich’s bestseller The Antisocial Network.
Garry Keane and Stephen Gerard Kelly’s documentary In The Shadow Of Beirut, which is Ireland’s Oscar category this year, is headed to the Red Sea International Film Festival, running November 30 to December 9 in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
Dumb Money producer Aaron Ryder talked Saturday about why he wanted to bring to screen the story of GameStop’s short squeeze of 2021, a financial fluke that has gone down in history as a triumph for the little guy against the behemoths of Wall Street.
With Strictly Come Dancing heading to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom this weekend, it appears that dancing fever has well and truly taken over the seaside town.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Former head of drama development at Disney’s 20th Television Michelle Mendelovitz has been named head of Mattel Television Studios. In her new role, Mendelovitz will oversee the development, production, and distribution of Mattel’s slate of episodic content on broadcast and streaming globally.
Former 20th Television Head of Drama Michelle Mendelovitz has been tapped to take the reins as Head of Mattel Television Studios.
EXCLUSIVE: CODA and Source Code producer Vendôme Pictures has appointed Kathryn Thal as Senior Vice President of Development and Production.
Dumb Money, a film that documents the GameStop big short that happened over the Covid period a few years ago. The film is due to be released on all of the home formats starting with the digital market in a couple of weeks.Dumb Money is based on the insane true story of the YouTuber who brought Wall Street to its knees and got rich by turning the video-game retailer GameStop into the world’s hottest company.
Strictly Come Dancing returned on Sunday night, revealing which couples would face the dreaded dance-off and, ultimately, be eliminated from the show and narrowly miss out on a spot in Blackpool next week.
EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood Trailblazer: The Debra Hill Story, a feature documentary about Debra Hill, the late producer and co-writer of classic movies such as Halloween (1978) and The Fog (1980), has moved into production with Causeway Pictures.
EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear’s management arm has signed the Swedish actor and model Simon Lööf for representation.