‘Wildcat’ Producer Renovo Media Group Launches Studio and Facility in Iowa (EXCLUSIVE)

Jack Dunn Film distributor Uncork’d Entertainment has acquired the documentary “The Mandela Effect Phenomenon” from writer-director Robert Kiviat. Uncork’d plans a July 9 digital release. The Mandela Effect refers to the psychological phenomenon of a group of people misremembering well-documented facts or events.

William Earl Allen Media Group has struck a FAST channel distribution pact with Amazon that will make its TV stations and Weather Channel en Español available for free via Amazon’s Fire TV and Echo Show devices. The deal covers 21 Allen Media Broadcasting-owned TV stations including outlets in Honolulu (KITV), Flint, Mich. (WJRT), Fort Wayne, Ind.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off her Oscar-nomination for her performance in Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Hüller looks to have found her follow-up project as she looks to team with another Oscar-nominee from the 2024 class. Sources tell Deadline, Hüller is set to join Ryan Gosling in Amazon MGM Studios adaptation of Project Hail Mary with Amy Pascal producing.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Recently crowned Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph has joined the cast of A24‘s upcoming romantic comedy “Eternity,” Variety has learned exclusively. Directed by David Freyne, the film also stars Miles Teller (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Elizabeth Olsen (“WandaVision”), and Callum Turner (“Masters of the Air”). This project marks Randolph’s first feature film with A24.

Edinburgh’s Fringe Society and TV Foundation are joining forces for a first-of-its-kind partnership to unearth the next generation of comics.

EXCLUSIVE: In its first expansion into the kids & family space, Paris Hilton‘s next-gen media company 11:11 Media has partnered with HappyNest Entertainment, the kids & family-focused joint venture from Stampede Ventures and UTA, as well as 9 Story Media Group on Paris & Pups, a new kids’ animated series inspired by Hilton’s real-life pets.

Brazilian production powerhouse Gullane, which is behind Netflix’s “Senna” and Cannes competition title “Motel Destino,” has closed international co-production pacts on new projects from Cao Hamburger (”The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”) and Sandra Kogut (“Three Summers”). France’s Playtime and Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes will co-produce Hamburger’s “School Without Walls.” Playtime will also handle international sales on the true and inspiring story of Braz Nogueira, principal of a public school in Heliopolis, one of Brazil’s biggest slums.

Although Tyson Fury may become the undisputed heavyweight world champion tonight, it's unlikely he'll retain all four belts for an extended period.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Johnny Depp-directed film “Modì,” about Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, has secured a distribution deal in Italy, where it will be released by emerging production/distribution player Be Water. Above is a first-look image from the set of the film, which is now in post.

Christopher Vourlias The Intl. Emerging Film Talent Foundation (IEFTF), a new Athens-based venture established to provide support for unheard and unseen talent, launches May 18 at the Cannes Film Festival during the ceremony for the Arab Cinema Center film awards at the Plage des Palmes.

EXCLUSIVE: Alex Creasia has joined management and production company Navigation Media Group as a Literary Manager.

K.J. Yossman U.K. distributor Other Parties has launched a new production arm headed by former Amazon Studios U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: Highland Film Group is launching international sales on the action film Alarum starring Sylvester Stallone, Scott Eastwood, and Willa Fitzgerald, which has just wrapped principal photography. 

Naman Ramachandran ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which owns one of Germany’s leading broadcasters and one of its top streaming platforms, has had an encouraging start to 2024 after a rough 2023 financial year that saw revenues dip by 7%. Financial results for the first quarter of 2024, reported on Tuesday, reveal that group revenues increased by 6% to €867 million ($935 million) in the first quarter of 2024 and adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) grew by 35% to €72 million ($77.6 million) despite higher programming expenses. The group said that in addition to revenue growth, the positive numbers are due to the cost control program implemented in the previous year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Argentina’s EO Media, led by CEO Ezequiel Olzanski, has teamed up with Nicolas Aznarez’s Uruguay-based El Camino Films (“Blindness”) to co-produce murder mystery “Punta Blanca” (a working title) with a stellar cast led by Natalia Oreiro, star of Disney’s “Santa Evita” and Prime Video’s “Iosi, the Regretful Spy.” The six-episode limited series is created by up-and-coming writer-producer Joaquin Romero Vercellino and penned by writers behind the hit Argentine series streaming on Netflix, “El Marginal”: Silvina Olschansky and Guillermo Salmerón, as well as Alejandro Aimetta (“Maradona: Blessed Dream”). EO Media will also handle international sales.

In the fuselage of a C-47 transport plane, a group of high-ranking Nazis in uniforms stripped of their insignia are facing their captors. Among them, Hermann Göring strikes up a conversation with a U.S. military psychiatrist, Lt. Colonel Douglas Kelley. “Howie here tells me you do magic,” Göring says to Kelley. Kelley nods and shows him a quick coin trick. “Very good,” Göring responds. “But I am going to show you a real magic trick someday. I am going to escape the hangman’s noose.”

Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer SonyLIV has unveiled the actors playing Pakistani leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his sister Fatima in its magnum opus series “Freedom at Midnight.” Based on the 1975 non-fiction book of the same name by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, the political drama delves into India’s independence movement, weaving together untold tales and critical moments from the era when the country’s then British colonial rulers partitioned the country into India and Pakistan in 1947. Formerly a member of the Congress party that the leaders of India’s independence movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru also belonged to, Mohammed Ali Jinnah became the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the formation of Pakistan.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Gordon Ramsay and Fox are set to launch Bite, described as a global food brand and entertainment platform. Bite falls under Ramsay’s deal with Fox Entertainment and their production partnership, Studio Ramsay Global.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sola Media has acquired worldwide sales rights to CGI animated film “Captain Sabertooth and the Countess of Gral,” the follow-up to “Captain Sabertooth and the Magic Diamond,” which Sola Media sold to more than 160 countries. Sola Media will present “Captain Sabertooth and the Countess of Gral” to buyers for the first time at the Cannes Film Market and will unveil first footage. In the film, best friends Raven and Pinky serve under Captain Sabertooth, the feared pirate and King of the Seven Seas.

K.J. Yossman Lionsgate will handle U.S. distribution of eagerly awaited “Greenland” sequel “Greenland: Migration,” Variety can confirm.