Licensing Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Skydance Animation has set a multi-year licensing deal with Spin Master, the children’s entertainment company known for creating popular properties like PAW Patrol.

Before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy entered politics and found himself in charge of his country's fight against Russia's Vladimir Putin, he led a life as an on-screen performer. A former comedian, Zelenskyy, 44, starred as a head of state in the 2017 political satire "Servant of the People," which is also the name of the real-life political party he founded.

Chris Willman Music WriterHit songwriter Ross Golan, who has crafted smashes for Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction and Demi Lovato, has started a petition on Change.org asking the music community to stop licensing songs in Russia for as long as the nation wages war on Ukraine.The petition, posted Thursday afternoon here, was put up for the purpose of allowing songwriters to make their voices heard in requesting that collection agencies sever ties with their counterpart orgs in Russia, to ensure that they won’t be profiting from the rogue-superpower nation while the bloody siege of its neighbor country continues.“Currently, a portion of our royalties are going directly to the Russian government, which in turn funds their invasion into Ukraine,” Golan says. The petition — credited to “And the Writer Is,” the podcast Golan started to spotlight writers and their issues — reads: “The global songwriting business stands with Ukraine.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video and Germany’s Leonine Studios are expanding their existing partnership with a multi-year license agreement.Under the deal, Prime Video gets exclusive second window SVOD-rights for a six-month period to upcoming theatrical feature films and home entertainment titles from Leonine’s slate and also includes non-exclusive SVOD rights to titles from Leonine’s content library.Titles include Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick 4” and its spin-off “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas; Channing Tatum’s directorial debut “Dog”; Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall,” starring Halle Berry; Nicolas Cage action-comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”; Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” with Gilles Lellouche, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and soccer star Zlatan Imbrahimović; Jennifer Lopez starrer “Shotgun Wedding”; and Leonine Studios co-production “The School of Magical Animals 2,” the sequel to Germany’s most successful theatrical release of 2021. Leonine Studios CEO Fred Kogel said: “It’s fantastic that we can expand our long-standing partnership with Prime Video by this agreement and achieve another important milestone for our licensing business with premium content.

UPDATED with sentencing: Zachary Horwitz, the Hollywood actor who pleaded guilty last fall for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked $650 million from investors who thought their money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday.

Google Stadia is being put to one side in favour of focus shifting to the game streaming tech behind it.After launching in late 2019 the Google game streaming platform was met with some criticism regarding the quality of its streams, latency, and connection issues. After a slow roll out of major titles and news that the internal Stadia development studios would be shut down, all was looking lost for the game streaming platform.Now, Business Insider (paywall) reports that focus is apparently shifting from Google Stadia itself, as Google wants to focus more on licensing out the technology that the company uses to stream the games across the internet.Focus is reportedly shifting to selling the technology used in the streaming service, as obtaining big third-party titles Google Stadia is now being shelved.If you hear one thing, hear this: The Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gaming.

Angelique Jackson The popular YouTube Originals series “Super Sema,” starring and executive produced by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, has appointed UTA as its North American licensing and publishing agency.UTA will work alongside global toy licensee Just Play to focus on retail initiatives and key partnerships in publishing, apparel, home and accessories for the program, which is the world’s first children’s animated series focused on an African kid superhero.The series follows the world-changing adventures of an extraordinary young African girl, Sema, and her twin brother MB, who are on a mission to protect their town Dunia from the villainous Tobor. Fueled by STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) superpowers, Sema knows that with determination and creativity, anything is possible.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos proudly said “Stranger Things” is “as valuable a franchise as exists today in entertainment around the world” during the company’s Q4 earnings presentation Thursday. During the same pre-recorded Q&A, Netflix COO and chief product officer Greg Peters said while the streamer is very focused on its own titles, it’s still looking outside Netflix IP when it comes to building out a very young video games business.“It was exciting to see the activity in the space and I think, to some degree, it’s an endorsement of the core thesis that we have around subscription being a great model to connect consumers around the world with games and gaming experiences,” Peters said, when asked directly why Netflix isn’t making large acquisitions in the gaming space, following this week’s news that Microsoft is acquired Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at almost $70 billion.

German production house and distributor Leonine Studios has signed an expanded partnership with local broadcaster Sky Deutschland.

German production house and distributor Leonine Studios has signed an expanded partnership with local broadcaster Sky Deutschland.

Amazon Prime Video is continuing its push into the African market by signing a second exclusive licensing agreement with a production company based in Nigeria.

The new Lidl store in Kemper Avenue, Falkirk, was back in front of Falkirk Council’s licensing board a year and a day after being granted the provisional licence that allowed it to open.

Manori Ravindran International EditorAmazon Prime Video is breaking into the Nigerian film market, also known as “Nollywood.”The global streaming service has struck a multi-year licensing deal with Nigerian production outfit Inkblot Studios. Under the deal, Prime Video will have exclusive, worldwide distribution rights for the company’s slate of theatrical releases from 2022.

A family business selling ‘bespoke’ Caribbean rum online has been given the thumbs up by-licensing chiefs.

Naman Ramachandran All-rights sales agency and distribution company Park Circus has renewed a licensing deal for thousands of titles from Disney and Fox.The new distribution services agreement with The Walt Disney Company Limited allows Park Circus to grant exhibition licenses for screening of Disney’s repertory and library catalogue and other selected feature film releases in cinemas internationally. The agreement is valid until Sept.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSnap has struck a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment — which means the music of all three major labels/ publishers and many indies is now available on the platform (which prefers to be called a camera company, not a social media network).

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment reported third-quarter results that undershot Wall Street analysts’ expectations on the top or bottom line.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNippon TV, one of Japan’s entertainment groups, has struck a deal to license 30 drama and entertainment titles to Netflix for play across Asia, outside Japan.

Naman Ramachandran Upcoming Bollywood blockbusters with A-list talent from leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films will stream on Amazon Prime Video four weeks after their theatrical release.The licensing deal is for exclusive global streaming rights.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorA test version of Donald Trump’s Twitter-like social network violated open-source licensing terms, according to the not-for-profit Software Freedom Conservancy.The Software Freedom Conservancy, which enforces open-source software agreements, said Trump’s Truth Social website — launched by the newly formed Trump Media & Technology Group — failed to provide the source code to users, as specified in the Affero General Public License (AGPL), a “copyleft license”

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Michele Amabile Angermiller In celebration of the Spice Girls’ 25th anniversary, the group has partnered with Universal Music Group’s Bravado for a wide-ranging deal spanning merchandising, direct-to-consumer products, touring, brand and retail licensing and distribution on a global scale.The girl group — comprised of original members Mel B, Emma Bunton, Melanie C, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham — released its debut album “Spice” on Nov.

UPDATE, 7:29 AM: Actor Zachary Horwitz has pleaded guilty in a Ponzi scheme that cost investors more than $227 million with fake promises of licensing rights to films by WarnerMedia-owned HBO and Netflix in Latin America.

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Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, parent of ad-supported streaming services like Crackle, reported disappointing second-quarter results but showed sharp gains in advertising and licensing revenue.

Lily Moayeri Columbia Records has promoted Kerry Hickey to senior vice president, film & television licensing. The Los Angeles-based Hickey, who reports to general manager Jenifer Mallory and chairman/CEO, Ron Perry, joined Columbia in 2018 as vice president.In her newly elevated role, Hickey will continue to utilize the systems she has put in place over the last three years.

Manori Ravindran International EditorVice programs will remain on streaming service Hulu in the U.S. after Vice Distribution, the global distribution arm of the youth-skewing media brand, renewed its licensing partnership with the Disney-backed SVOD.The deal covers more than 130 hours of Vice programming, and continues a partnership struck in 2019, when Vice shows first landed on Hulu.

A lawyer who represents John Lydon yesterday said that he’d been working for the musician for four years before even being aware of any 1988 band agreement between members of the Sex Pistols that allows for licensing deals to be done if a majority of said members agree.

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