New product marketing companies

EXCLUSIVE: The Wiz is getting ready for the road to Broadway with an award-winning design team, including Oscar-winning Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler and Emmy-winning Watchmen costume designer Sharen Davis . The design team, which also includes lighting design by Ryan J. O’Gara ( Thoughts of a Colored Man ) and wig design by Academy Award-winning Mia Neal ( Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom ), was announced today by producers Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson, Brian Anthony Moreland, and Ambassador Theatre Group. As previously reported , the all-new production of the groundbreaking Broadway hit musical will launch a national tour in fall 2023 in Baltimore (where the original musical debuted in 1974), before arriving on Broadway for a limited engagement in spring 2024. Featuring a book by William F. Brown and a Tony Award-winning score by Charlie Smalls (and others), director Schele Williams ( The Notebook , revival of Disney’s Aida ), … [Read more...] about Oscar-Winning ‘Black Panther’ Production Designer & Emmy-Winning ‘Watchmen’ Costume Designer Join ‘The Wiz’ On Road To Broadway

EXCLUSIVE : Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ Milojo Productions are launching a new podcast hosted by the Live with Kelly and Ryan anchor and produced in collaboration with SiriusXM. Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa will feature conversations between Ripa and a celebrity guest. Depending on the subject matter, a specialist or expert could also join the episode to provide insight. “After 23 years of interviewing celebrities, authors, musicians and experts on live TV, the big takeaway is that the most compelling and unfiltered conversations happen off camera,” said Ripa. “I have dreamed of a platform where I can have these honest talks without all the fuss and filter of a camera. Now SiriusXM has made my dream a reality with a podcast featuring friends, both old and new, discussing a variety of topics we all face in life, while getting deep with some experts’ views and advice along the way. Not another podcast, this is off camera!” New episodes of Let’s Talk … [Read more...] about Kelly Ripa Launching New Podcast With SiriusXM

Banijay and North Road Entertainment are keen on to Love Island producer ITV Studios, according to Reuters. The report suggests private equity-backed studio firms have also looked at the production and sales arm of ITV, which could fetch as much as £3BN ($3.7BN). Reuters cites sources who claim UK network ITV is willing to selling a portion of ITV Studios but is keen to keep control of the business, which has production assets in the UK, Europe, U.S. and Australasia and owns shows such as Love Island , I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Life of Duty . Rumors ITV was open to some sort of sale first emerged in the FT in October last year, though sources within ITV have consistently played down the idea and it has at times appeared off the market. The news comes just a day after The North Road Company , which former Fox chief Peter Chernin launched last year, landed $150M from the Qatar Investment Authority “to support ongoing expansion. The … [Read more...] about Banijay and Peter Chernin’s North Road Eye ‘Love Island’ Maker ITV Studios – Report

UPDATE Lackawanna Blues has postponed its opening night by a week, to Thursday, Oct. 7, as the star of the solo performance Ruben Santiago-Hudson continues to recover from a back injury. The delay is the second for the show, following last week’s announcement of a two-day delay that would have set the opening for Sept. 30. PREVIOUS, Sept. 24 Lackawanna Blues , the solo Broadway show written, performed, and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, has canceled its performances for tonight and over the weekend due to an off-stage back injury suffered by the star. Santiago-Hudson is expected to return to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Tuesday, though the canceled previews have bumped the play’s official opening from that night to Thursday, Sept. 30. The Manhattan Theatre Club production – the company’s first since the reopening of Broadway following the pandemic shutdown – features the Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star in an autobiographical telling of his upbringing … [Read more...] about Broadway’s ‘Lackawanna Blues’ Postpones Opening By A Week As Star Ruben Santiago-Hudson Recovers From Back Injury – Update

EXCLUSIVE : Brillstein Entertainment Partners is exploring a sale of its venerable management/production company. Several are circling, but sources said Casey Wasserman has emerged as a front-runner to bring BEP into the fold alongside his formidable sports and music divisions. Like every possible deal, this one could fall apart and BEP principals could decide to stay independent. It would be the latest move in management after 3Arts made a deal with Lionsgate , and Anonymous Content, with investment from Laurene Powell Jobs, recently linked with Automatik . If this did happen, it would invoke the legacy and memory of some storied Hollywood figures. Start with Wasserman, the grandson of the legendary Lew Wasserman. He always has resisted the urge to get into mainstream Hollywood, and instead built a formidable management business specializing in sports and music, the latter most recently including the acquisition of Paradigm’s lucrative music touring businesses . His … [Read more...] about Brillstein Entertainment Partners Explores Sale; Casey Wasserman In Pole Position: The Dish

EXCLUSIVE: Hot off the heels of their Sundance premiere of Rye Lane , writers Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia have teamed up with Vertigo Films for their next romantic comedy The Whole Hog . The project follows a newly broken up couple who are forced to temporarily reconcile their differences and travel the food festivals and markets of Britain together as they try and make a success of the food truck that they sunk their savings into before they split up. Bryon and Melia are currently preparing for the release of youthful Brit pic Rye Lane for Searchlight Pictures, which opened to rave reviews in Sundance last month. Deadline’s Anna Smith described the Raine Allen Miller-directed pic as a “delight” and a “sunny, irreverent take on life and love” The Whole Hog , which is produced by Vertigo’s Allan Niblo, will apply the same razor sharp and freewheeling insights into relationships as Rye Lane (which was also compared to Before Sunrise in Deadline’s … [Read more...] about Vertigo Films Taps Scribes Behind Sundance Hit ‘Rye Lane’ For Original Rom-Com Road Movie ‘The Whole Hog’

At the same time it is courting subscribers with its cheapest plan yet, the $7-a-month Basic with Ads, Netflix is adding upgrades to its top-end Premium tier. The streaming giant has incorporated spatial audio on Premium and also expanded the number of devices on which subscribers can download programming, from four to six. Concurrent streaming is still limited to four devices. The price of Premium is slated to remain at $19.99 a month even after the enhancements. Rishu Arora, Director of Product Management, announced the changes in a blog post. Spatial Audio, which is increasingly found on platforms like Apple Music, is now available on 700 titles, Aora wrote, including Stranger Things , The Watcher , Wednesday , and Knives Out: Glass Onion . While the company doesn’t break out subscriber numbers by tier, its Standard tier (a notch below Premium, at $15.49) is the most popular in the U.S. and Canada. Netflix regained momentum in its most recent quarter, … [Read more...] about Netflix $20-A-Month Premium Plan Adds Spatial Audio, Expands Number Of Devices For Downloading From 4 To 6

President Joe Biden wants limits placed on concert ticket fees and TV and internet providers’ early termination charges, as the White House seizes on the practices as a sign of lack of competition in various business sectors. Biden will announce the proposals at a meeting of the President’s Competition Council on Wednesday. Also being highlighted is a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule to curb excessive credit card late fees, and a Department of Transportation rule to require airlines and booking sites to show the full price of an airline ticket upfront. Additional proposals would be part of a Junk Fee Prevention Act, legislation that targets an array of fees placed on consumers. The White House’s focus on concert ticket prices follows a Senate hearing last week that focused on that issue and competition in the ticketing industry, as lawmakers grilled Live Nation President Joe Berchtold about subsidiary Ticketmaster . The company reportedly is under … [Read more...] about Joe Biden To Call For Congress To Place Limits On Concert Ticket Fees, TV And Internet Providers’ Early Termination Charges

EXCLUSIVE: Ron Ninio , executive producer of Showtime drama Your Honor , is lining up an espionage drama as his next series. Ninio has teamed with journalist and doc maker Amir Oren and Sharon Bar-Ziv ( Room 514 , Good Morning Son ) to create The Clinic , we can reveal. Your Honor exec Rob Golenberg is producing and Israeli network Reshet/Channel 13 is already attached. Ninio is “fast-tracking” the show’s development and wants it to be a co-production with an American partner. Based on real characters and events, The Clinic follows top New York surgeon Dr. Steven Neuman, who moonlights as an assassin. Having served in the Israeli Navy as a commando, he returns to the States to run a practice but when Mossad and the FBI catch a plot to overthrow the U.S. government, they send him to use his medical expertise to kill. “Dr. Steven Neuman has a constant conflict between his doctor’s oath to save peoples’ lives and his job at the Mossad, which in many … [Read more...] about ‘Your Honor’ Co-Creator Ron Ninio Sets Espionage Drama ‘The Clinic’ As Next Series

Apple and Major League Soccer lit up their Season Pass streaming service today, bringing exclusive coverage of games and related programming to more than 100 countries in a groundbreaking venture. The service costs $14.99 a month (or $99 for the full season) for those who do not subscribe to Apple TV+. For Apple TV+ subscribers, the cost is $12.99 a month ($79 for the season). While the pricing is toward the higher end of the general market spectrum, in the burgeoning area of sports streaming , it is below what many regional sports networks and others charge. Viewership, technology and strategy in the sports media business are all moving incrementally toward digital platforms, with Amazon and Google both joining Apple in making big bets on sports content recently. Disney’s ESPN+, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Paramount+ and HBO Max have also made investments in sports. Despite the larger shifts in the landscape, and the precedent set by Season Pass in terms of the extent … [Read more...] about Apple And Major League Soccer Throw The Switch On Season Pass Streaming Venture