Zenefits ceo david sacks

EXCLUSIVE : Lionsgate has acquired the Stephen Herman horror spec script The Culling for Shazam! helmer David F. Sandberg to direct. Sandberg & Lotta Losten will produce via their newly formed Mångata production banner, alongside Good Fear Content’s Chris Bender & Jake Weiner, with Scott Stoops exec producing. A troubled priest confines himself to a remote cabin in the middle of the woods where he attempts to make a last stand against the demon that terrorized his family when he was a child. Lionsgate’s Aaron Janus is overseeing the project along with Aaron Edmonds. Swedish-born Sandberg is coming off Shazam!, which grossed over $366M with Zachary Levi in the title role. Sandberg and Losten got started in 2013 when their short film Lights Out became a viral sensation with over 100 million hits. Short was acquired by New Line and Sandberg directed the feature with James Wan producing. That led Sandberg to the hit The Conjuring spinoff Annabelle: Creation . … [Read more...] about Lionsgate Lands Horror Spec ‘The Culling’ For ‘Shazam!’s David F. Sandberg To Direct

EXCLUSIVE: A24 is reuniting with its Green Knight director David Lowery on his next film Mother Mary and set Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel to star. Lowery is directing from a script he penned. The film will be an epic pop melodrama following a fictional musician (Hathaway) and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer (Coel). Lowery, Toby Halbrooks, and James M. Johnston will produce alongside Jeanie Igoe of Homebird Productions and Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo and Jonathan Saubach of Cologne-based augenschein Filmproduktion. Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX will write and produce original songs for the film, with an original score composed by Daniel Hart. This marks the third collaboration between A24 and David Lowery following The Green Knight and A Ghost Story . A24 will handle the global release of the film. Mother Mary will be filmed in Germany, funded by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the DFFF. Hathaway has already had herself a … [Read more...] about Michaela Coel And Anne Hathaway To Star In Pop Music Epic ‘Mother Mary’ For David Lowery And A24

The first premiere of Succession was in 2018 at the NYC complex formerly known as the Time Warner Center. “A lot has happened in those five years. We’ve had a couple of corporate mergers, a global pandemic, a few Emmys,” said Casey Bloys , chairman-CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content at the premiere of the series fourth and final season. HBO parent Warner Media was sold to AT&T in a deal that closed that year. The telecom giant then sold it to Discovery in 2022. At the Season 3 premiere in October of 2021 the deal to create Warner Bros. Discovery had been announced but not yet closed. “It’s been a wild ride. But we are so proud to be the home of Succession ,” Bloys said taking the stage at the event at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Succession happens to be a show where tortured M&A attempts and boardroom infighting by a charismatic ensemble led by Brian Cox as media mogul-patriarch Logan Roy are integral to the action. “It’s been a joy from day one,“ Bloys said … [Read more...] about HBO Content Chief Casey Bloys’ Heartfelt ‘Succession’ Sendoff, A Series That Weathered A Few Real-Life Corporate Mergers

Top International execs from ZDF Studios, Fremantle , All3Media and Banijay have said the potential U.S. writers strike and changing market economics can create opportunities to strike new business. As Banijay Rights CEO Cathy Payne put it, likening the challenging of leaving previous market conditions behind to bouncing back after being dumped: “When one door closes, another one opens.” She was talking during a Series Mania panel on windowing and content financing this afternoon in France. International distribution companies are already wrestling with myriad content financing issues as the U.S. market corrects after streamers’ spending momentum slows. All eyes are now turning to the discussions between the WGA and AMPTP, and one potential upshot if a strike kicks off will likely be more international business for U.S. networks. All3Media International CEO Louise Pedersen said U.S. execs at the London TV Screenings at the start of the month had begun … [Read more...] about Banijay, Fremantle, All3Media & ZDF Debate Market Economics And Writers’ Strike: “When One Door Closes, Another Opens” — Series Mania

Work has begun on Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight ’s Birmingham TV and film studio. Digbeth Loc. Studios will complete in July and filming will begin in October, including on Knight’s upcoming BBC drama Two Tone. The 80,000 sq ft Digbeth Loc. Studios will create 760 new jobs, according to its founders, contributing £30M ($36.6M) to the local economy as it acts as a regeneration project for the Digbeth area in the West Midlands. Knight, who is also helming the BBC and FX’s upcoming Great Expectations adaptation, had a vision to create a long-term cultural legacy for Birmingham and he forged the idea for Digbeth Loc. with business partner Piers Read, the CEO of TIME+SPACE. The studios are the first such project in Birmingham, which has been boosting its local TV and film industry in recent years. Knight is also involved with the Birmingham Create Central grouping of producers and creatives, which champions local talent. Birmingham City Council has … [Read more...] about Work Begins On ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Steven Knight’s TV & Film Studio, First Projects Will Film Later This Year

GLAAD has released its 18th annual “Where We Are on TV” report. It counted 596 regular and recurring LGBTQ characters across broadcast, cable and streaming shows that have been released (or are expected to) between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. This is a decrease of -6.44% from the previous year’s 637 LGBTQ characters. Streaming continues to dominate with 356 LGBTQ characters on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, and Paramount+ vs. 141 LGBTQ characters on broadcast, and 139 LGBTQ characters on cable. All broadcast networks saw a decrease in their percentage of LGBTQ series regulars from the previous report. The CW remains on top with 14.8 percent of all series regulars being LGBTQ. That is down -2.3%, and the report expresses concern how the network’s changed ownership would impact LGBTQ representation. In total, 51 percent (304) of the 596 LGBTQ characters are people of color. For the first time, in 2022-23 streaming features a majority … [Read more...] about LBGTQ Representation On TV Dipped During 2022-23 Season, GLAAD Reports

EXCLUSIVE : Scott Stoops has been elevated to Partner at management and production co. Good Fear Content , Partners Chris Bender and Jake Weiner announced on Tuesday. A manager at Good Fear since its 2015 founding, Stoops’ roster includes numerous prominent writers and directors across film and TV, a number of which have reached EP or Co-EP level. Among his most notable clients is Megan McDonnell, who was the first writer in on Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels , after serving as a staff writer on the Emmy-winning WandaVision and its forthcoming spin-off Agatha: Coven of Chaos , as well as Apple’s Dark Matter . Others include Rayna McClendon, who is currently working in the Star Wars universe after staffing on Obi-Wan and Willow for Lucasfilm; Aisha Porter-Christie, who is on Marvel’s Daredevil staff while writing Clifton for Peacock; Stephen Herman, who sold his horror spec The Culling to Lionsgate and is currently penning Sweet Tooth for New Line; … [Read more...] about Good Fear Content Ups Scott Stoops To Partner

Amazon is laying off another 9,000 workers as job cuts in the tech sector expand at a time of growing economic uncertainty. It follows cuts last fall and early this year. “Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” Jassy said in a memo to staff today. “As we’ve just concluded the second phase of our operating plan (“OP2”) this past week, I’m writing to share that we intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term,” he said. (PXT is People eXperience and Technology,) Tech companies have been shedding staff at a rapid clip. Meta Platforms, the corporate parent of Facebook , Instagram and WhatsApp, recently announced plans to cut another 10,000 jobs and undergo a hiring freeze in what CEO Mark … [Read more...] about Amazon Laying Off Thousands More As Job Cuts In Sector Expand

UK sales and production firm Embankment Films ( The Father, The Wife ) has set a wholesale rejig of its nonfiction arm with four new senior hires. Producers Nick Taussig, Malcolm Neaum, Sophie Harmer, and researcher Henry Farrington will join the company, taking on their new positions with immediate effect. Taussig ( McQueen, Audrey, Killing Escobar ), a BAFTA and Grierson nominated feature documentary producer, will team with Neaum ( I Shouldn’t Be Alive, Savile Row ) to produce unscripted series formats, including returnable series, for Embankment. Those two will be joined by Harmer, who, with Taussig, recently produced the feature docs Call Me Kate and Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me . Harmer will be Head of Production Unscripted at Embankment, while Henry Farrington joins as a senior researcher. These four new hires are the latest to be announced by Embankment since veteran UK producer Kevin Loader ( The Death of Stalin, … [Read more...] about Embankment Beefs Up Nonfiction Arm With Four Hires