Argonon Sets Up First U.S. Joint Venture With Former ‘Duck Dynasty’ Producer and Spoke Studios Executive Joe Weinstock

Digital sports firm Fanatics has hired former Dick Clark Productions chief Mike Mahan in the newly created role of CEO of its trading cards and collectibles business.

K.J. Yossman 101 Studios, the company behind series including “Yellowstone” and “Mayor of Kingstown,” has inked a first-look deal with PZAJ, Variety can exclusively reveal.PZAJ, a global film and television production label formed by Phillip Glasser, Jason Brown, and Ash Greyson, is owned by Nasdaq-listed Vinco Ventures Inc. Vinco Ventures is currently merging with Zash Global Media.Already in development under the new partnership are a feature film adaptation of LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke’s “Paradise Found,” a story about a small California town ravaged by fires that finds new hope in a football team that rises from the ashes of the devastation.

John Oliver checked in on the midterm elections Sunday night, focusing on the Arizona senate race and having a ball tearing through some of the odd Republican campaign ads and strategies.Arizona is represented by two Democrats: Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. According to Oliver, Republicans think they can unseat Kelly, but it’s a competitive GOP primary.

Legendary Entertainment is developing a Duke Nukem film after acquiring rights to the video game franchise from Gearbox, Deadline can confirm. Legendary will produce the feature along with Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg for Counterbalance Entertainment and Marla Studio’s Jean Julien Baronnet.

Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer is teaming with ID, discovery+ and October Films in an expansive partnership and development deal for premium unscripted true-crime content. Under the pact, Spencer and her production company, Orit Entertainment, and producer October Films will develop and produce multiple projects for ID and discovery+, with Spencer set to executive produce. Production on the deal’s first two projects is underway, with additional titles in development. The first title announced under the agreement is the three-episode one-hour series Highway 20 (w/t).

Amazon today unveiled the first stills from its anticipated romantic drama My Policeman, starring pop phenom Harry Styles and The Crown‘s Emma Corrin, which will be released in UK cinemas on October 21st, arriving on Prime Video November 4th.

EXCLUSIVE: Wayfarer Studios has promoted Jamey Heath to President. In his new role at the company, he will be tasked with building out its vision and ensuring that all creative decisions, business opportunities, and partnerships are in line with its overall mission and values. Heath will also now oversee the financial health and management of the independent production studio.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterJimmy Kimmel and Brent Montgomery’s media company Wheelhouse has taken a stake in former Food Network president Courtney White’s new food and lifestyle-focused production company Butternut Films, which will now be renamed Butternut under the joint venture.As president of Butternut, which was launched when White exited Food Network this spring, White will collaborate with Wheelhouse leadership and across all Wheelhouse divisions — including Wheelhouse Entertainment, marketing arm Wheelhouse Labs, digital division Wheelhouse DNA, and investment department Wheelhouse 360 — “leveraging her deep production and creative expertise in culinary, home, design and lifestyle programming, and her wide-ranging relationships with talent and brands,” per Wheelhouse. Butternut is focused on creating original content for all platforms, “working with a range of established, emerging and home-grown talent.”White and her Butternut team will continue to work out of a clapboard barn on her family’s Southport, Conn., fresh-cut flower farm, Butternut Farm, as well as Wheelhouse’s New York and Los Angeles headquarters, and have full access to Wheelhouse’s large-scale campus in Stamford, Conn., dubbed “The Village.”The Wheelhouse-Butternut joint venture was brokered by Wheelhouse chief strategy officer Ed Simpson.“The single, common element across all successful lifestyle content is passion — talent must project it, creators must harness it, audiences must feel it,” White said.

Courtney White, the former president of Food Network, is partnering with Wheelhouse and CEO Brent Montgomery to create food, home and lifestyle content under the new Butternut hub.

Are those the pitter-patter of little cleats? Arizona Cardinals star JJ Watts announced that his wife, soccer player Kealia Ohai, is pregnant with the couple’s first child.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-nominee Richard Cabral (Mayans M.C., American Crime) has joined the cast of Peacock’s Twisted Metal. Cabral will star as Quiet’s (Stephanie Beatriz) overprotective brother Loud in the live-action video game adaptation.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran unscripted producer and executive Pam Healey has been named president of Wheelhouse Entertainment’s flagship production company Spoke Studios.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is investigating the proposed joint venture between Warner Bros Discovery and BT Group which will create a new premium sports offering for the UK and Ireland. The regulator said today that it notified the respective parties on Tuesday and is inviting comments on the transaction until June 17.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and telco giant BT.The entities had revealed a premium sports venture in May, for the U.K.

Joe Weinstock, Co-President of Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse Entertainment label Spoke Studios, has exited to launch a JV with The Masked Singer UK and Netflix’s Hard Cell super-indie Argonon.

Jeff Gladney, Arizona Cardinals cornerback and a former first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings, died Monday at the age of 25. Gladney's agent, Brian Overstreet, confirmed the news to the , following a car accident in Dallas.Gladney's fatal accident occurred around 2:30 a.m.

confirmed the manner of death to multiple news outlets.“We are devastated to learn of Jeff Gladney’s passing,” the team’s statement, posted to Twitter, read. “Our hearts go out to his family, friends and all who are mourning this tremendous loss.”Prior to being a 2020 first-round pick for the Minnesota Vikings, Gladney was a three-star prospect hailing from New Boston, Texas.

Jeff Gladney, Arizona Cardinals cornerback and former Minnesota Vikings first-round pick, died in a car accident Monday morning in Dallas, TX, his agent confirmed to media outlets. He was 25.

K.J. Yossman “The Repair Shop’s” Jay Blades has struck a first look deal with BBC Studios via his production company Hungry Jay Media.Hungry Jay is a joint venture between Blades and production company Hunrgy Bear (“Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel”), which was founded in November 2020 by Dan Baldwin and Juliet Denison Gay.The 1-year deal will mean BBC Studios has first dibs on Hungry Jay’s factual entertainment slate.