Banijay -owned SAS: Rogue Heroes producer Kudos has taken a 25% stake in Body Of Proof and The Missing podcast indie What’s The Story?, following a first look-deal signed last year. The Leeds-based company, which is run by Workerbee and Candour execs Darrell Brown and Sophie Ellis, will also develop non-scripted ideas and become a go-to podcast supplier for other Banijay labels. Kudos Co-MD Martin Haines, who will sit on the What’s The Story? board, said there had been “fruitful synergies” between Kudos’ and What’s The Story?’s content since the first-look deal struck in September 2020. “Working together, there is a real opportunity to discover new stories and new ways to tell them for both television and for the audio space,” he added. The deal was brokered by Haines and financed via a Banijay scripted creative fund overseen by Head of Scripted, EMEA, Lars Blomgren. What’s The Story? was set up in early 2020 and has since been behind popular Audible …
The 10 Best Crime Podcasts of 2021
The true crime podcast genre reached the point of parody this year, with Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building depicting obsessive listeners who bungle their way through an ill-advised amateur murder investigation. As demand for the genre continues to boom, it seems like every day brings a new “investigation” promising to crack a cold case. We sifted through the deluge so you don’t have to, and found plenty of worthwhile storytelling to take in, too much even to include on this brief list. Some frightening and cautionary, others eye-opening and informative, still others fighting to change a justice system that repeatedly fails BIPOC crime victims and their families, these 10 selections are our picks for the best podcasts covering crime this year. Firebug In the Eighties and Nineties, an arsonist used a unique incendiary device made with a coin, a cigarette, and a book of matches to set dozens of fires in Southern California, some in the dry brush of the mountains, …
Sarah Hyland & Harvey Guillén To Star In Scripted Rom-Com Podcast ‘Bone, Marry, Bury’ From Dear Media
EXCLUSIVE : Dear Media , the female-focused podcast company, is moving into scripted audio series for the first time with a romantic comedy starring Sarah Hyland and Harvey Guillén. The Modern Family star and the What We Do In The Shadows star are leading the cast of Bone , Marry , Bury , which has been developed in partnership with RomComPods. The series, which will be released in February 2022, follows 26-year-old Allie, played by Hyland, who’s closing out the worst year of her life after recently being fired, dumped, and evicted. It starts with Allie on New Year’s Eve, where she plans to get wasted and leave this mess of the year behind. Little does she know that the NYE party she’s about to attend will be life-changing but not for the reason she thinks. Through the omniscient narrator, her best friend Gabe, played by Guillén, that by the end of the month, Allie will Bone, Marry, and Bury three different people… and they’re all at this party. It …
500 Greatest Albums Podcast: Hear How Alice Coltrane Turned Tragedy Into Musical Triumph
Alice Coltrane spent the mid-Sixties in personal and musical bliss, starting a family with John Coltrane and touring the world as the pianist in his band. But everything changed for her in the summer of 1967, when John died suddenly of liver cancer. Newly widowed at the age of 29, with four children to care for, she plunged into a lengthy period of despair. Sensing her pain, an old friend introduced her to his guru, Swami Satchidananda, who had soothed hundreds of thousands of rock fans with his opening address at Woodstock. With a new clarity — and a harp that John had commissioned for her before his death — she entered the basement studio of her Long Island home and recorded a tribute to Satchidananda. Featuring other former members of John’s band, the resulting album combined free-form jazz with the textures of Indian raga and shades of Alice’s roots playing gospel in the churches of Detroit. Released a half-century ago this year as Journey in Satchidananda , it …
‘Dune’: How Denis Villeneuve & Production Designer Patrice Vermette Went Back To The Past, To Create The Future – Crew Call Podcast
Production designer Patrice Vermette , who with Dune marks his fifth feature collaboration with Denis Villeneuve , knew what a precious childhood dream the Frank Herbert novel was to the filmmaker. “For Denis, it was always important to have immersive environments,” says the production designer about the pic’s set construction, “we embraced the old Hollywood style.” You can listen to the 100th episode of Deadline’s Crew Call here: This meant a mix of real environment and set extensions for the massive VFX shots. The film’s VFX supervisor Paul Lambert’s provided a good rule of thumb for the duo: the more sets built, the more realistic the world of Dune. “We needed to anchor our story into a realism, almost like it was a documentary,” explains Vermette, “If you have a strong anchor and people relate in it, they’ll believe in the more fantastical aspect of the story: When there’s a giant sand worm, you believe it because you’re anchored in something …
Whitney Cummings Strikes Podcast Partnership With Kast Media
EXCLUSIVE : Whitney Cummings is doubling down on podcasts. The comedian has struck a multi-year partnership with podcast company Kast Media . As part of the deal, Kast media will represent Cummings’ current show Good For You and will work with her to develop and produce new original series for her to front and exec produce. Cummings launched Good For You two years ago, interviewing guests, friends, comics, celebrities, experts and weirdos every week. The series has featured the likes of David Oyelowo, Paris Hilton, Amanda Knox, Dr. David Sinclair, and Dave Grohl. Cummings and Kast Media are developing original narrative content and talk shows with the first new show expected to launch in 2022. In addition to podcasting, Cummings is known for creating and starring in the NBC series Whitney , she also co-created the Emmy-nominated series 2 Broke Girls , has released four stand up specials and is currently on her Touch Me stand up tour spanning 50 cities. …
Continue Reading about Whitney Cummings Strikes Podcast Partnership With Kast Media →
Brian Grazer & Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment Launches Audio Division, Strikes Podcast Deal With iHeartMedia
Imagine Entertainment is launching a podcast division and has struck a deal with iHeartMedia. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s production company will develop and co-produce a slate of unscripted podcasts as part of the partnership. The deal will see six new series launched over the next two years, distributed via the iHeartPodcast Network. Imagine Audio will be oversee by Imagine’s Chief Strategy Officer, Justin Wilkes and led by producer Kara Welker, who has exec produced comedy specials such as Patton Oswalt: Annihilation and Pete Holmes: Faces and Sounds. Summer Sagansky has also joined the division as a Creative Executive. It is the latest exclusive podcast deal for iHeartMedia, which has recently partnered with the likes of Bloomberg, the NBA and the NFL for original audio series. iHeartPodcast Network currently has more than 750 original podcasts. Wilkes said that audio is a “fantastic incubator” for IP development and the company will create podcasts as …
Jessica Biel’s Iron Ocean Productions & ATTN: Set ‘The Lost Olympians’ Podcast At Audible
EXCLUSIVE : Jessica Biel is moving into podcast production. Iron Ocean Productions , the production company Biel runs with Michelle Purple, has teamed up with ATTN: to produce a three-part series about legendary swimmer Lesley Cairns for Audible . The Amazon-owned audio platform has ordered the series, which also marks the first podcast produced by digital media firm ATTN:, which was founded by Matthew Segal and Jarrett Moreno in 2014. The Lost Olympians tells the story of Cairns, one of the best swimmers in the world, whose chance to compete on the world stage was stolen by the political forces of Apartheid in 1970’s South Africa. Interwoven throughout Lesley’s story is the history of the construction of Apartheid and how the effects of the devastating policies still ripple through society today. The series is narrated by Patrick Cairns and executive produced by Biel and Purple for Iron Ocean, Segal and Moreno for ATTN: and Matt Fabbri and Patrick Cairns for …
‘500 Greatest Albums’ Podcast: Hear Dolly Parton Break Down Her ‘Coat of Many Colors’
Dolly Parton ’s hardscrabble childhood in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains informs her very being. She wasn’t too far removed from her family’s one-bedroom cabin on Locust Ridge when she moved to Nashville in 1964 after graduating high school. As she slowly carved out a career as a songwriter, her upbringing — and one memory in particular — kept peppering her thoughts. Five years later, while on a tour bus with the country singer Porter Wagoner, she was compelled to write it all down. The song was “Coat of Many Colors” and it poured out. So quickly, in fact, that Dolly grabbed the only paper she could find — a dry-cleaning receipt for one of Wagoner’s suits — and wrote her early life story. The year was 1969. Two years later, “Coat of Many Colors” would form the basis of Dolly’s album of the same name, a record that found her honing a plainspoken and personal writing voice. The latest episode of our Amazon Original podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums revisits Coat of …
Trey Songz Involved in Sexual Assault Investigation in Las Vegas
The Las Vegas police are investigating a sexual assault allegation involving Trey Songz , the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The R&B singer — real name Tremaine Neverson — is reportedly cooperating with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and as of Monday, Nov. 29, no arrests had been made. The incident allegedly occurred at a hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard, according to the police. No date was given, though authorities received the report on Sunday. Neverson had been in Las Vegas for a birthday party/performance Saturday, Nov. 27, at Drai’s Nightclub. (The LVMPD did not immediately return Rolling Stone ’s request for comment. A rep for Neverson declined to comment. ) Neverson has faced accusations of sexual assault and misconduct in the past. Last January, an unnamed woman filed a $10 million lawsuit against Neverson , accusing him of touching her and trying to insert his fingers into her vagina without her consent or permission at a Miami nightclub in …
Continue Reading about Trey Songz Involved in Sexual Assault Investigation in Las Vegas →