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Some of Britain’s top stars including Brian Cox, Imelda Staunton and Simon Pegg are taking to the streets of London this afternoon in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA cause.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International “Succession” star Brian Cox and “Catastrophe’s” Rob Delaney are among the confirmed speakers at a London rally in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike. U.K. actors union Equity revealed plans earlier this week for two major demonstrations on Friday in solidarity with the actors strike. Twin rallies will take place at noon local time in London’s Leicester Square and in Manchester’s Media City. Speakers so far scheduled for the London rally include Cox and Delaney as well as “The Pact” and “Alex Rider” star Rakie Ayola, Equity general secretaries Paul W. Fleming and Lynda Rooke, and Bectu boss Philippa Childs. Member of Parliament John McDonnell is also set to speak.

Lights, camera, solidarity.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. actors union Equity has planned rallies in London and Manchester to support the SAG-AFTRA strike. The org revealed on Tuesday that it will hold a demonstration in London’s Leicester Square and Manchester’s Media City at 12 p.m. on Friday (July 21). Speakers at the London rally will include Equity general secretary Paul W. Fleming, Equity president Lynda Rooke and MP John McDonnell. The events will also feature “speakers from the entertainment industry and trade union movement.” “In our sister union’s fight we stand in unwavering solidarity, and we will not allow the U.K. to become a back door to undermine the strike,” said Equity in a statement.

UK actors union Equity is to rally in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA later this week in London and Manchester.

People dancing in the street to pop-up music festivals; lessons in woodcraft, and artists visiting schools to share their ideas and talent. This is what Salford can expect after the city won a £750,000 grant.

The BBC Breakfast team has revealed its first studio makeover in over a decade, ushering in a new era for the popular morning show. The revamped multi-purpose studio, which will be shared with BBC Sport at Salford's Media City, features cutting-edge broadcasting technology, including high-tech graphics and three additional cameras.

A gaming school for young people has in Media City.

The James Beard Media Awards, dubbed the “Oscars of food”, has dished out its winners.

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios and Convoke Media have set Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley), Rosanna Arquette (Signs of Love) and Brendan Bradley (A Tale Told by an Idiot) to star in Succubus, a new horror thriller written and directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna (Hard Miles), which Shout! will distribute in North America.

Christopher Vourlias A record number of African films are premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — including two titles in the main competition and four more in Un Certain Regard — promising a robust turnout on the Croisette from a continent that doesn’t often find itself being feted on world cinema’s grandest stage. Perhaps a more noticeable shift, however, has been taking place in and around the Palais des Festivals, where participants at the Cannes Market are opening their arms — and their checkbooks — to an industry just beginning to realize its potential. Witness the delegation of international film financiers, including Creative Wealth Media’s Jason Cloth and Convergent Media Capital’s Michael Cleaver, gathered on a recent, rainy morning to talk shop at a full house at the Pavillon Afriques. Or check the scene at the Palais des Festivals nearby, where three representatives of the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) assembled at the Africa Pavilion (no relation) to discuss the bank’s billion-dollar fund for the cultural sector.

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution has boarded recently wrapped holiday film Christmas Actually, starring Malin Akerman (Billions), Ryan Hansen (Party Down) and Amy Smart (Stargirl).

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Vincent Cassel (La Haine) in action-thriller Damaged, which wrapped this spring in Scotland.

EXCLUSIVE: Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Aporia, a previously unannounced sci-fi thriller from Armian Pictures starring Judy Greer (Halloween Kills), Edi Gathegi (The Harder They Fall), Payman Maadi (A Separation) and Faithe Herman (Shazam!). The film, written and directed by Jared Moshé (The Ballad of Lefty Brown), is slated for release in theaters in August. (Check out the first still from it above.)

Todd Longwell Back in 2017, Kevin King was looking to retire from ABS Payroll, the company he founded in 1985 to service independent productions, and hand the business off to his son Kris. He invited BondIt Media Capital co-founders Matthew Helderman (above, left) and Luke Taylor (above, right) to lunch. Their production company Buffalo8 had been an ABS client, and when the duo launched BondIt in 2013, the King family participated in its first round of financing. Now, King was offering BondIt the opportunity to return the favor and invest in ABS. “Kris was running the day-to-day, and his father wanted him to be surrounded with executive-level or MBA-minded support, as opposed to a scenario where he hired an investment bank and sold the business, and his son would likely be pushed out,” says Helderman.

Todd Longwell By the mid-2010s, BondIt Media Capital was thriving, funding 50 projects a year, as well as producing its own slate through its Buffalo8 division. But its post-production pipeline was a chaotic tangle, employing an uncoordinated mix of talent working at facilities spread across the map. Simply put, “it was unsustainable,” says BondIt CEO and co-founder Matthew Helderman. Then, in 2017, an opportunity presented itself: a post-production house was exiting its lease on a 10,000-square-foot space in Hollywood, leaving both the building and an impressive amount of equipment and personnel up for grabs. Helderman and BondIt COO and co-founder Luke Taylor stepped in and Buffalo8 Post Production was born.

Todd Longwell It is often said that the secret to becoming a successful entrepreneur is finding a need and filling it. When Santa Monica-based BondIt Media Capital launched in 2013, it zeroed in on the deposits productions must leave with SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE and other guilds to ensure that their members get paid in a timely fashion.  The company co-founders — CEO Matthew Helderman and COO Luke Taylor — knew from their experience working in the production trenches that these deposits, which sometimes take up to six months to be returned, can create a significant cash flow problem for low-budget projects during principal photography. 

Alison Hammond looked stunning in blue on Friday as she and Dermot O'Leary headed to the cobbled Coronation Street set to present a special instalment of daytime show, This Morning. Filming the episode away from the studio to celebrate King Charles' Coronation, the presenter fittingly opted for a royal blue coat with trousers in a similar shade. Teaming the look with a white T-shirt, the 48-year-old TV star added a glamorous palette of make-up while leaving her dark locks to fall in a sleek style.

Not everyone loves pageantry and not everyone loves rolling pageantry footage either, so while many will be planning a full day in front of the television watching the Coronation, others will be casting their gaze elsewhere for bank holiday entertainment.

A popular boxing and fitness concept from down under will has chosen Salford as the location for it's first club in the UK. UBX Boxing + Strength was co-founded by four time world champion boxer boxer Danny Green and fitness entrepreneur Tim West.

Hollywood legend Samuel L. Jackson is filming a new blockbuster about a serial killer terrorising Scotland.

EXCLUSIVE: Screen greats Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassel have been set to lead cast in action thriller Damaged, about a Chicago detective who goes to Scotland after an emerging serial killer’s crimes match those that he investigated five years earlier, one of which was the crime scene of his murdered girlfriend. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prominent Arab journalist Nakhle Elhage, who ran the Al Arabiya news network for 16 years, is launching a digital startup called Blinx to produce news and short form storytelling content targeting Gen Z and millennials in the Middle East and beyond. Headquartered in a high-tech Dubai Media City studio, Blinx is being dubbed as the first digital native storytelling hub in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It “will soon launch on multiple platforms,” according to a statement. The digital startup, which is financed by unspecified UAE-based investors, is offering a “more story, less noise approach,” the statement said, with content made by young people “delivering relatable content to a young audience in a way the MENA region has yet to see,” it added.

Bosses behind The Botanist's south Manchester venue have announced that it is closing its doors for good after six years.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount has quietly struck a deal for completed action-thriller Assassin Club, starring Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Suicide Squad breakout Daniela Melchior.

A VR executive and a seasoned Olympics broadcaster today unveiled BlueStar Studios, a $180-million, 53-acre campus in Forest Park, Georgia, the latest in a stream of projects to address booming demand for production space in the state.

Talks are now to take place over a call for night trams for workers, lone women and revellers in Salford. A debate on whether to ask Transport for Greater Manchester to introduce trams until 2am on weekdays and 4am at weekends stalled at a Salford city council meeting because of lack of time.

EXCLUSIVE: IFC Films has picked up worldwide rights to writer and director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore feature and romantic drama Dandelion. A theatrical release is planned for next year.

New office space for small and start-up businesses as well as major companies is set to spring up in Salford's Media City. Councillors on the city's planning and transportation regulatory panel have approved an application by Peel Media Ltd for an 11-storey building including ground floor commercial space for drinking outlets.

Arctic Monkeys will play at Old Trafford on Friday June 2 as part of the band's newly announced 2023 UK tour but as demand for tickets rise so does the bid for a place to stay on the night.