National Geographic Seals First Look Deal With Muck Media to Produce Unscripted Content

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Documentary Films has signed a first-look production deal with director Sara Dosa and producer Shane Boris, the team behind NatGeo’s Oscar-nominated hit Fire of Love.

The blossoming relationship between Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed has been teased in first look images from the final season of The Crown.The sixth series of the hit royal drama will be released in two parts, with the first instalment of four episodes launching on 16 November and part two airing on 14 December. On Monday, 16 October, the streaming giant released a selection of images which include a picture of Diana on a yacht belonging to business tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed.The billionaire’s relationship with the royal family was depicted in season five of The Crown, where Mohamed (Salim Daw) was seen getting to know Diana – played by Elizabeth Debicki.

EXCLUSIVE: Lion Forge Entertainment has set a first-look deal with award-winning Nigerian creator and producer Roye Okupe. YouNeek Studios founder and YouNeek YouNiverse creator Okupe recently teamed with Lion Forge on the animated fantasy series Iyanu, based on Okupe’s graphic novel Iyanu: Child of Wonder. Production is currently underway for the Cartoon Network and Max animated series, which Lion Forge will introduce to global distributors at MIPCOM next week.

The rom-com’s heyday may be far in the past at this point, but with two buzzy leads, Will Gluck‘s “Anyone But You” could be a sleeper on the calendar to end 2023. Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star as two former college classmates who fake being in a relationship at a mutual friend’s wedding to deal with their exes at the ceremony.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Neom, the Saudi Arabian region on the Red Sea that is aiming to become a major film and TV production hub, has forged a strategic partnership with the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) to set up training programs for young Saudi content creators. The full-service Saudi production hub, which is becoming a major driver of the kingdom’s effort to build a film and TV industry almost from scratch, will be hosting courses held by The Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), South Korea‘s top national film school.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox Entertainment has struck a first-of-its-kind drama development deal with two UK production companies, Walter Iuzzolino‘s Eagle Eye and The Serial Killer’s Wife producer Clapperboard.

Fifth Season and Roku have struck an unscripted international distribution deal.

Eddie Murphy is getting us so excited for Christmas!

Lego and Nintendo have revealed Lego Animal Crossing, featuring mini figures of fan-favourite villagers as well as characters like Isabelle and Tom Nook.The teaser for the collaboration showed Rosie, Bunnie, Marshall, Kapp’n, Fauna, Julian, Isabelle and Tom Nook waving at a floating present with a balloon attached. When the clouds parted, the logos for Lego and Animal Crossing appeared in the sky.Behind the villagers were Lego trees with plastic fruit like apples, oranges and cherries on their branches, and Lego flowers studded into the grass.

The National‘s Matt Berninger has spoken to NME about the “different kind of spotlight” that has fallen on the band after working with Taylor Swift.The band have collaborated with Swift on a number of occasions – featuring on her track ‘Coney Island’ from 2020’s ‘Evermore‘ before she provided vocals and lyrics for ‘The Alcott’ on their 2023 album ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein‘. Guitarist Aaron Dessner has also produced Swift’s last three albums and ‘re-recorded’ records.“The Taylor thing was super organic,” Berninger told NME for this week’s In Conversation interview. “We’ve known her for a long time and obviously Aaron has been doing so much amazing stuff with her.

aespa have released a first look at their upcoming collaboration with American footwear brand Crocs.In a new Instagram post, aespa are seen wearing their new Crocs collaboration. The girl group’s Stomp Clogs feature a blue and purple body, lined at the top with faux fur of the same colours.A post shared by aespa 에스파 (@aespa_official)Crocs has also since teased the upcoming aespa Stomp Clogs on its official Twitter account.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paris Hilton is getting her X on. The influencer and entrepreneur — who has 16.6 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter — announced a deal with the social platform owned by Elon Musk for an array of content and commerce initiatives.

Jaden Thompson NBCUniversal has promoted Rachel Smith to executive vice president of unscripted content, lifestyle and documentaries. Smith will helm the production of unscripted lifestyle, true crime, documentary and docuseries content development in addition to NBCU’s current programming across NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen True Crime, SYFY, Universal Kids, USA Network and Peacock.

Just as studios were quick to start suspending overall and first-look deals just days after the start of the WGA strike, several began to restore suspended pacts right after the strike ended Wednesday morning.

Muck Media is expanding its relationship with National Geographic. The Emmy- and Peabody-winning production company has signed a first-look deal with the network for unscripted series and specials.

EXCLUSIVE: EverWonder Studio is teaming with John Skipper’s Meadowlark Media on its first project, a feature-length documentary examining the dynamic relationship between tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, which it will finance and co-produce.

MediaInvest, a new E.U. equity tool managed by the European Investment Fund, which targets the audiovisual industry with €400 million ($424 million) over 2022-27, has made its first deals: An equity agreement with France’s Logical Content Ventures, part of Logical Pictures, and three debt financing agreements, with Spain’s Cersa and Crea and Luxembourg-based The Archers. Announced Sunday at the San Sebastian Film Festival following on a Spain-hosted E.U.

The National’s Matt Berninger has opened up about struggling with writer’s block.It comes after ‘Laugh Track’, the band’s surprise ninth album arrived in quick succession off the back of April’s acclaimed ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’. It was announced earlier this month (September 15) during a concert at their Homecoming Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. The LP was released three days later on September 18.Speaking to The Independent, Berninger reflected on having writer’s block for some time, a process that he said would scare him.“I couldn’t even open a laptop,” he told the publication.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution rights to quirky comedy “Volare” about the fear of flying that marks the directorial debut of actor Margherita Buy. Buy is known internationally for frequent roles in Nanni Moretti movies, most recently in “A Brighter Tomorrow” that launched from Cannes. Her smart concept movie is being lead-produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, the company founded by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio.

EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Waterside Studios and UK-based podcast producer Blanchard House are teaming up.