EON Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

EXCLUSIVE: Hasbro’s reshaping of eOne continues with multiple sources telling us that the latter will cease theatrical operations in the UK.

Selome Hailu MTV is launching a new dating series titled “The Love Experiment” that aims to bring the choices and excitement of dating apps to life. The series, which premieres on Aug. 15 at 10 p.m., follows three single best friends who enter a hall of eligible men who are all ready for committed relationships. Inside the “dating utopia,” the women are in control, but they quickly realize that having too many ideal choices is harder than it seems. The stars of Season 1 and are Marcia, age 30; Paige, age 27; and Tamara, age 30. They are all from Atlanta, Ga. Mari Waugh aka Spicy Mari will help guide the women through “The Love Experiment” as a relationship expert. As the CEO and founder of the Spicy Life, Waugh works to encourage singles and couples to communicate and connect more effectively by incorporating passion and adventure in their interpersonal relationships.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has established pole position to acquire the Hasbro-owned Entertainment One, sources tell Deadline.

True Detective EP Richard Brown’s Passenger has struck a first-look deal with Patrick Daly’s Caledonia Productions.

Black Bear UK, the newly established theatrical distribution arm of indie studio Black Bear, has made a series of hires, solidifying its core distribution team who will work out of the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Hasbro-owned Entertainment One is undergoing a round of layoffs sources tell Deadline. The reduction is said to impact about 20% of the indie studio’s film and television staff.

were first announced in late January as part of the company’s end-of-year and quarterly earnings reports, in which Hasbro reported a 9% year-over-year drop in revenue.“This workforce reduction is part of the ongoing transformational changes Hasbro announced in January to substantially reduce costs and increase growth rates and profitability,” said Hasbro spokesperson Roberta Thomson.Hasbro is also currently planning to sell off a majority stake in eOne, which co-produces films based on Hasbro IP as part of a production deal with Paramount including recent releases like “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” as well as TV shows like Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.” Lionsgate and Legendary are among the contenders to purchase the majority stake, which was estimated by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks to be sold by the end of this quarter.

James Bond franchise so explosively in No Time To Die. Even before he announced his fifth and final 007 movies, speculation was rife over who his successor would be from Tom Hardy to Idris Elba. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, star of Kick-Ass and Bullet Train, leads the bookies' favourites with odds of 9-4 but he's way down the pecking order of who UK fans want to be the next Bond.

E.ON Next has been ordered to pay £5 million in compensation to more than 500,000 customers for "unacceptable" call services following a review.

Roy Trakin The son of Canadian country dance instructors “Sheriff Norm” and “Down the Line Sue,” in a way, MNRK Music Group president-CEO Chris Taylor was destined to become one of the most legendary executives in the country’s music history. He his start in the early ‘90s as lead singer for the reggae-ska-funk band One, which signed with Virgin Records while he was still in law school. Opting for the latter as a career, Taylor opened his Toronto-based law firm in ’97 and went on to represent some of the country’s top acts — from Drake and Avril Lavigne to Nelly Furtado and Sum 41 — and launched the influential Last Gang indie label (Metric, Death from Above 1979, Mother Mother, Crystal Castles and more). When he sold the label to Entertainment One in 2016, he also shuttered his legal practice to head the eOne Music Group, which was rebranded MNRK Music Group after parent company Hasbro sold the company to Blackstone in 2021 for a reported $385 million.

ABC still has some decisions to make on its scripted slate.

Channel 4 has picked up a wealth of U.S. content for its rebranded streaming service including Dr. Death, Queer As Folk and Becoming Elizabeth.

K.J. Yossman Anthony LaPaglia‘s upcoming factual series “The Black Hand” is set to be distributed internationally by eOne. The three-part series will explore Australia’s Italian community, looking at the difficulties they face, their politics, the threat of war and the mafia. According to the series synopsis, The Black Hand is the name for a gang of Italian criminals in Australia. Alan Erson, LaPaglia, Michael Tear exec produce. Adam Grossetti and Kate Pappas produce. “The Black Hand” is directed by Kriv Stenders and written by Grossetti, Stenders and Anya Beyersdorf.

Dear Team:These days, success in our industry, and the excellence we aspire to, hinges on our ability to evolve and balance an ever-changing landscape with the desire to make exceptional movies and support artists on the winding path to reach audiences. As eOne’s relationship with Hasbro moves to its next chapter, I have decided to end my tenure as eOne’s President of Film when my contract ends next month. It has been an epic run, starting with the founding of Sierra with Marc in 2009 through the subsequent mergers with eOne and Hasbro.

EXCLUSIVE: Nick Meyer has just informed his staff that he’s exiting as eOne’s President of Film when his contract ends next month.

 finished its second season on Friday, completing a nine-episode installment of everyone's favorite soccer team-turned-survivalists. Co-created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Showtime's mystery-thriller series follows a 1996 girls soccer team whose plane crash lands in the Canadian wilderness while en route to a tournament in Seattle, Washington. The group was left stranded for 19 months, forced to endure harsh weather and dwindling options for sustenance.

EXCLUSIVE: Back in 2009, Quentin Tarantino began dropping hints that he’d be outta the movie-making business by the time he reached 60.

Paramount has pushed back the release date for Transformers One, the newest animated feature in the Transformers franchise that was unveiled at CinemaCon in April. The origin story from director Josh Cooley, previously set to open on July 19, 2024, will now bow nationwide on September 13, 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Audiences appear to be eagerly awaiting Season 2 of Freeform’s Cruel Summer.

Naman Ramachandran Entertainment One (eOne) has solidified its collaboration with U.K. independent production company Hardcash Productions through an exclusive first-look agreement. Under the deal, brokered by Kate Cundall, eOne’s VP of acquisitions, and Robin Barty-King, Hardcash’s business affairs consultant, the partnership aims to develop and produce investigative factual content for the global market. eOne will handle international rights for all projects resulting from this collaboration. Previously, eOne and Hardcash worked together on the distribution of award-winning documentaries such as “Inside China,” “Fearless: The Women Fighting Putin” and “Outbreak: The Virus that Shook the World,” which have been sold to over 160 territories worldwide.

Around 18,000 billpayers are set to receive £4 million in compensation due to overcharging.

EXCLUSIVE: Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Christian Gudegast’s action thriller sequel, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera which stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. reprising their respective roles of “Big Nick” and “Donnie”. A wide theatrical release is planned for Q4 of 2024.

London TV Screenings Unveils 2024 Dates

The CW has been busy north of the border.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hasbro’s Entertainment One (eOne) is rolling the D&D dice — betting that Dungeons & Dragons fans will flock to a new free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel dedicated to the fantasy franchise it’s prepping for a summer launch. The Dungeons & Dragons Adventures FAST channel is expected to be available on “a number” of platforms but eOne has not cut any distribution deals as yet, according to the company. The channel will feature a slate of original celebrity-focused unscripted series, including “Encounter Party,” “Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!” and “Heroes’ Feast,” as well as catalog content including the 1980s “Dungeons & Dragons” animated series. In addition, the FAST channel is to feature third-party content from top internet creators and influencers with a focus on live gameplay.

EXCLUSIVE: Hell on Wheels, starring Anson Mount, ran for five seasons on AMC and became one of the network’s biggest hits. Twelve years on the western drama about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad across the U.S., is at the center of a legal dispute between the for-sale eOne and Banijay’s Endemol.

EXCLUSIVE: Simon Rex (Red Rocket) and Chris Cooper (Little Women) will star alongside Bryan Cranston, Allison Janney, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Jack Champion in Everything’s Going To Be Great, the new film that Jon S. Baird is directing for eOne and Astute Films. No character details have been disclosed.

EXCLUSIVE: A story about a Fiji surf paradise gone wrong by David Kushner, the journalist behind A24’s Zola, is to be turned into a documentary.

As broadband customers are subjected to further price hikes this month, the cost of living crisis continues to make basic internet access and home entertainment even more expensive.

Paramount Animation, Hasbro and eOne are teaming on the first-ever animated Transformers movie, now titled Transformers One. Directed by Josh Cooley and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the origins story’s key voice cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne. Release is scheduled for July 19, 2024.