Yvonne Orji Inks First-Look Deal With Sony Pictures Television

McKinley Franklin editor Asylum Entertainment Group has partnered with rocker Tom Morello for a first-look co-production deal with Morello’s recently formed company Comandante Productions, Variety can reveal exclusively.  Morello’s Comandante Productions and Asylum aim to build a portfolio of documentary films and series surrounding Morello’s history in the music industry, social consciousness and dedication to activism.  Morello, of course, is well-known for his work with both Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, two bands that have amassed more than 30 million album sales worldwide. He’s also a Grammy-winning artist and a recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (as part of this year’s class of honorees).

Angelique Jackson On the heels of winning a Peabody Award for the Showtime docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” W. Kamau Bell has launched a new production company, Who Knows Best, and inked an overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures. Bell, an Emmy-winning producer, director, host and comedian, founded Who Knows Best Productions (WKB), an Oakland-based company, with the mission of “fostering a diverse creative community and telling revolutionary non-fiction stories by any medium necessary.” WKB launches with a multi-year overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures (the award-winning production company behind “Chef’s Table,” “Cheer” and “Welcome to Wrexham”) after the parties partnered on the critically acclaimed four-part documentary “We Need to Talk About Cosby.”

EXCLUSIVE: Wilmer Valderrama’s production company WV Entertainment has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Telemundo’s TPlus brand.

EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Trevena, who recently starred alongside Gerard Butler in Plane, is moving further into unscripted content.

Since they began throwing people around the world into fits of laughter with several Netflix comedy specials and global stand-up tours, fans have become curious about Hannah Gadsby’s net worth.

EXCLUSIVE: With the Frasier sequel series for Paramount+ wrapping production, star and executive producer Kelsey Grammer and his Grammnet NH Productions has closed a first-look television deal with CBS Studios, the studio behind the Cheers/Frasier franchise.

Selome Hailu Sony Pictures Television has optioned “Is it Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth),” the debut collection of essays from comedian and writer Zach Zimmerman, for TV adaptation. “Is it Hot in Here?” is described as a “memoir-esque exploration of selfhood” chronicling Zimmerman’s journey from being a “straight, meat-eating, Southern Baptist to a queer, vegetarian, atheist socialist,” including stories about them learning to overcome their religious guilt or reminiscing over Tinder dates gone wrong. Published by Chronicle Books, “Is it Hot in Here?” was released on April 18. The option is the second commitment between Sony Pictures Television and Zimmerman, who secured a blind script deal at the studio in 2022.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to Pedro Almodóvar’s short Western “Strange Way of Life,” excluding the territories of the U.K., France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Latin America. Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star in the short that will premiere in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The short is now in pre-production and Sony Pictures Classics will release this fall. It’s Almodóvar’s second English-language project after “The Human Voice,” which was also distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. “Strange Way of Life” is produced by Almodóvar’s El Deseo and presented by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. It also stars Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández and Sara Sálamo. It’s produced by Agustín Almodóvar, with Esther García as executive producer and Bárbara Peiró, Diego Pajuelo, and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello as associate producers.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and United Agents have set former ITVS Creative Director Patrick Spence (Spy Among Friends) as Managing Director of their UK film and TV production joint venture.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Sony Pictures Television has appointed Matthew Justice as executive VP and head of U.K. and Europe. In the newly created role, he will report into Wayne Garvie, president of International Productions. Justice will directly manage SPT’s international studio operations and European co-productions business, as well as work closely with SPT International Production’s wholly-owned and joint venture production companies in the region, which includes Bad Wolf, Eleven Films and Left Bank Pictures. Justice most recently served as managing director at ITV Studios-backed Big Talk. He will start at SPT later this year.

Sony Pictures Television has bolstered its international team with the hire of respected UK scripted producer Matthew Justice.

Sony Pictures Classics has snapped up worldwide rights to Carlos, a new documentary about the father of Latin American jazz fusion, Carlos Santana. A release date for the film directed by Emmy winner Rudy Valdez (The Sentence) has not yet been disclosed.

20th Century Studios has announced that its new film Vacation Friends 2 (fka Honeymoon Friends) — the sequel to its hit 2021 buddy comedy Vacation Friends starring Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, Meredith Hagner and John Cena — will premiere exclusively on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories on August 25th.

EXCLUSIVE: Just ahead of the premiere of Shea Serrano’s upcoming comedy Primo on Amazon Freevee, Serrano is expanding his relationship with Amazon Studios, the studio behind the series. The bestselling author, screenwriter and podcaster has signed an overall television deal with Amazon Studios, and a first-look podcast pact with Amazon’s Wondery.

For the second year in a row, CinemaCon is in full swing. And, unlike last year when there were hopes the post-pandemic box office would turn around, the last six months have seen a slew of big hits and increased optimism that the movies are truly “back.” One studio that has had a somewhat slow start to 2023 is Sony Pictures, and the Culver City staple kicked off the convention touting a number of its upcoming tentpoles including “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Kraven the Hunter,” “Dumb Money” and, in partnership with Apple Original Films, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon.” READ MORE: ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’ Trailer: Miles Morales wants to change his destiny in the new ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel Sony also brought some in-person star power to the event with Jennifer Lawrence (“No Hard Feelings”); David Harbour and Orlando Bloom (“Gran Turismo”); Issa Rae, Haliee Steinfeld and Shameik Moore (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”); Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeny (“Anyone But You”); and Dakota Fanning and Denzel Washington (“Equalizer 3”).

Paramount Pictures has renewed a first-look deal with Todd Garner. The head of Broken Road Productions first signed a production pact with the studio in 2018.

Paramount Pictures has renewed a first-look deal with Todd Garner’s Broken Road Productions, one which the producer has had since 2018.

EXCLUSIVE: The Lamar Giles YA novel The Getaway is being developed for TV by Sony Pictures Television and Don Cheadle’s production banner The Radicle Act.

Jeffery Glaser will step down from his role as EVP of Current Programming at Sony Pictures Television Studios, TheWrap has confirmed.Current Programming co-lead Marie Jacobson is slated to succeed Glaser, who will be exiting the company in June, and will continue to oversee the department after beginning her post this past November, per the internal memo from SPTS President Katherine Pope.“After a 30+ year career in entertainment, Jeffrey had been considering a change and determined that now felt like the right time to begin a new chapter,” Pope wrote.

Veteran current executive Jeffrey Glaser will be leaving Sony Pictures Studios where he has served as EVP of Current Programming. Marie Jacobson, who has been co-leading the current programming department with Glaser since November, will be become sole head following his June departure. The announcement was made by SPTS President Katherine Pope in an internal memo.