Head coaches

EXCLUSIVE: American-European media fund APX Group has appointed film industry veteran Anthony Buckner as Director of Film and Television Distribution and Acquisition, to head up a new department created as it continues its international expansion drive. This new department will operate from APX Group’s head office in Twickenham Film Studios in London, with Buckner working alongside CEO Shelley Hammond, who also heads up its UK production subsidiary Herd International Productions. Buckner was previously Head of Sales at Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Entertainment International and then Kaleidoscope Film Distribution and has also worked with companies such as Magnolia Pictures and GFM Films. In 2021, he launched his own company Buckstop Films. The first project to be handled by Buckner and his team is Wish Dragon 2 , the sequel to Sony Pictures Animation and Tencent Picture’s Shanghai-set 2021 film Wish Dragon which debuted internationally on Netflix in 2021. … [Read more...] about APX Group Hires Anthony Buckner To Head Up New Distribution & Acquisition Arm

EXCLUSIVE : Buchwald has upped Rob Kim to its management team as co-head of the agency’s west coast office. He will serve in this position alongside Ryan Martin and Julia Buchwald, who also serves as the agency’s president. Kim is being elevated from his previous role as Head of Literary, where he oversaw the growth and expansion of the agency’s literary division. Kim joined Buchwald in 2019 as a senior agent. “In addition to his extensive experience and unstoppable work ethic, Rob has proven to be a true leader and key contributor to our continued growth and development. I am truly thrilled to welcome Rob into the executive management team of the agency, said Buchwald. “I look forward to having his strategic, forward-thinking perspective as part of the leadership at Buchwald,” added Martin. “It is my great honor to join Julia and Ryan on the leadership team at Buchwald,” said Kim. “I relish the opportunity to help chart the continued development and evolution of … [Read more...] about Buchwald Promotes Rob Kim to Co-Head of West Coast

Today’s eagerly awaited DGA nominations are out and there are no surprises in the bunch. Gravity’s Alfonso Cuaron , Captain Phillips’ Paul Greengrass , 12 Years A Slave’s Steve McQueen , American Hustle’s David O. Russell and The Wolf Of Wall Street ‘s Martin Scorsese were all odds-on favorites to make the five — and they did. Some might have questioned Scorsese’s chances since the film has become a lightning rod for controversy and was the last major release of the year, meaning the 15,000-member guild voters would have to see it in time to cast their ballot. But c’mon, he’s Martin Scorsese. There would be no denying this achievement among his fellow directors. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the guild and 10 other nominations with 3 wins in 3 different categories ( The Departed in film, Boardwalk Empire in TV a nd George Harrison: Living In The Material World in documentary). He’s a god to this guild. Greengrass, McQueen and … [Read more...] about No Shockers Among DGA Awards Film Nominees: Cuaron, Greengrass, McQueen, Russell, Scorsese

EXCLUSIVE : Four days after returning to the negotiating table, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers are near an agreement on a new three-year contract, I’ve learned. “We’re not there yet and there are still a few more I’s to dot and T’s to cross, but we’re very close,” one insider told me today. With many of the bulky points already coming together in the first two weeks of talks, the two sides spent some of their two-week temporary recess fine-tuning the agreement, sources on both sides say, before sitting down again at AMPTP ’s Sherman Oaks HQ. An official announcement could come as early as the beginning of next week. If you take out the downtime, this year’s talks pretty much follow the timeline of the placid 2011 negotiations, which started on March 3 that year and were all done by March 20. Related : WGA Contract Talks Brittle In Opening Days Over “Ridiculous” AMPTP Proposals As widely expected, under pattern bargaining, … [Read more...] about WGA & AMPTP “Very Close” To New Labor Deal

Issues faced by TV writers again are the sticking point in the WGA negotiations with the studios. In 2007, when the impasse led to a writers strike, it was residuals from series distributed online. This time around, it is the restrictive contracts for writers working in cable and on digital platforms. Under pattern bargaining, the deal between the WGA and AMPTP was expected to be similar to the recent DGA agreement with the studios with two writer-specific issues brought to the table by WGA — parity between cable and broadcast pay and the notion of exclusively and options. One of the two seem to have been resolved. “Every aspect of our contract has been negotiated and agreed upon with two exceptions — options and exclusivity — which remain points of contention between us,” negotiating committee co-chairs Chip Johannessen and Billy Ray wrote to their constituency last night . What are options and exclusivity, why are they so important to writers and what do writers seek to … [Read more...] about WGA Negotiations Impasse: Why Options & Exclusivity Issue Is So Important To Writers

The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers are heading to the bargaining table on November 4, more than six months before the current agreement expires. As announced earlier this year, Thomas Schlamme and Michael Apted will serve as co-heads of the DGA ’s negotiating committee. The latest three-year Basic Agreement and the Freelance Live and Tape TV Agreement are up on June 30, 2014. Unlike the DGA and SAG-AFTRA , the WGA’s agreement ends on May 1 not June 30, 2014. While the DGA is going first this time, s tarting in the fall is fairly typical for the guilds. In fact, last time round, SAG had already wrapped up its deal by the fall of 2010 when the DGA started its talks. The last agreement between the AMPTP and the DGA as well as SAG and the WGA back in 2011 saw low single digit increases in pay and pension fund contributions for guild members. Those rather benign negotiations came after the harsh talks of 2008 that followed the … [Read more...] about DGA & AMPTP Set November Contract Negotiation Start Date

" Orange Is the New Black " star Lea DeLaria went off the rails on the train in NYC Tuesday morning ... verbally attacking a Bible-thumper who was holding commuters hostage to his rants. DeLaria (aka Big Boo) was on the train when the proselytizer began preaching at ear-piercing levels. The actress stood up in her "Bad Jew" T and schooled the guy, distracting commuters intently Instagraming, Twittering and Candy Crushing. But the preacher guy fought back ... eventually referencing Sodom and Gomorrah and "the sin of homosexuality." At that point Lea, who is openly gay, throws her hands up and just loses it on the guy. TMZ.com As for where DeLaria was headed ... she apparently took the train to "Sesame Street." … [Read more...] about ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Star Lea DeLaria — Shouts Down Subway Preacher … You Don’t Own the Bible (VIDEO)

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Gordon and Will Speck have signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop and produce feature films. The news comes in the wake of their feature take of the children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile grossing over $104 million at the global box office. The movie, which stars Javier Bardem and Constance Wu and has songs by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul and Shawn Mendes, is set for a China release April 15. Speck and Gordon are attached to direct a film based on the AfterShock comic The Kaiju Score for Columbia Pictures. Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal at Escape Artists are producing along with AfterShock Media’s Lee and Jon Kramer; that project is in development. The duo are also attached to direct the A24 TV thriller Silverlake starring Zach Quinto and written by Samuel D. Hunter ( The Whale ). They also are the creators and showrunners of the Hulu/Marvel animated series Hit Monkey , which was recently ordered for a second season and … [Read more...] about ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Filmmakers Josh Gordon & Will Speck Ink First-Look Deal With Sony

Game of Thrones star Iwan Rheon is one of nine joining the cast of Peacock’s epic gladiator drama Th o se About to Die , as principal photography on the Roland Emmerich show kicked off at Rome’s historic Cinecittà Studios. Rheon, best known as Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones , has has been cast as ambitious crime boss Tenax and will replace Lorenzo Richelmy , who dropped out over scheduling conflicts. Rheon is appearing in The Magic Flute and has appeared in the BAFTA-winner Misfits and Netflix’s The Dirt . RELATED: 2023 Peacock Series & Pilot Orders Also joining the cast are Liraz Charhi, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Rupert Penry-Jones , Eneko Sagardoy, Pepe Barroso, Gonçalo Almeida, Kyshan Wilson and Alicia Edogamhe. Inspired by Daniel Mannix’s nonfiction book, Those About to Die is billed as an epic drama set in the complex and corrupt world of ancient Rome’s spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition. AGC Television is the studio, with … [Read more...] about ‘Those About To Die’: Iwan Rheon Among Nine Cast In Peacock & Roland Emmerich’s Gladiator Drama As Shooting Begins

EXCLUSIVE: Sharp Objects developer/executive producer Marti Noxon is reuniting with eOne , the indie studio behind the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, with a two-year exclusive first-look deal for television and new media. Under the pact, Noxon will write and serve as showrunner on projects, which she will be producing through her production company Tiny Pyro, with producing partner and company president Maria Grasso. “Building upon our previous partnership with Marti, whose talent and passion spans across multiple genres, is an incredible moment for us, and we look forward to all the exciting things to come,” said Pancho Mansfield, President of Global Scripted TV at Entertainment One . Jacqueline Sacerio — eOne’s Co-Head, Development, Scripted TV, US — will oversee the day-to-day activities of Tiny Pyro as part of her overall management of eOne Television’s first-look and overall deals “Marti is one of the most prolific writers working in television today, and her … [Read more...] about Marti Noxon Inks First-Look Deal With eOne For Television & New Media