Berlanti Productions President David Madden to Exit Company

EXCLUSIVE: Even Netflix’s in-house members of the Royal Family are not immune to a wave of cutbacks going on as the streamer recalibrates after a precipitous stock drop incurred after a drop in subscribers. Netflix has quietly dropped Pearl, the working title of an animated series that was created by Meghan Markle through Archewell Productions, the shingle the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry set up at Netflix in fall of 2020 to create scripted series, docuseries, documentaries, features and children’s programming. Pearl was to be Archewell’s first animated series.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed almost a dozen senior production figures to its Production Arts division in the wake of the Oscar telecast snub to several major categories, including those who’ve worked on Dune, You and Mrs America. 

EXCLUSIVE: Upgrade Productions, the Los Angeles-based production company focusing on local-language content, has unveiled an initial trio of projects from around the world.

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime and Paramount Television Studios have suspended production for four days on upcoming series American Gigolo, a reboot of the popular 1980 movie. The move comes a couple of days after the Paramount network and TV studio severed ties with the series’ developer, writer, director and executive producer David Hollander following an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Amanda Holden has left her Britain's Got Talent co-judges in hysterics as she shared her "brilliant" impressions on the ITV show. The hit talent show shared a hilarious Instagram clip of Amanda, 51, doing an impression of Lorraine Kelly, which left David Walliams and Alesha Dixon laughing. In the video, Amanda says: "Great, great, great! Do you like Coronation Street? I love Coronation Street!" BGT captioned the clip with: "@noholdenback: actress, singer, TV Judge, radio presenter and...

Rio Ferdinand has hailed Manchester United's legendary former manager Sir Alex Ferguson and detailed what made the 80-year-old so great.

Kevin Hart’s two entertainment businesses, HartBeat Productions and Laugh Out Loud, are merging into a single comedy-centered entity called Hartbeat.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDavid Hollander will no longer be an executive producer on the CBS comedy series “How We Roll,” Variety has confirmed with sources.The news comes shortly after it was reported that Hollander had been let go from his role as showrunner on the upcoming Showtime series “American Gigolo” following a misconduct investigation.Production has already wrapped on Season 1 of “How We Roll” and the show is awaiting word on a second season pick up. Should it return, Hollander will no longer be credited as an executive producer.Reps for CBS and CBS Studios declined to comment.Hollander had a longstanding relationship with Showtime, as he previously worked as showrunner and executive producer on the hit Showtime series “Ray Donovan.” That show ran for seven seasons and recently concluded with a feature length finale.

Marilyn Stasio Theater CriticIn the theatrical annals of wild and wicked stage plays, there are black comedies, blacker comedies, and blacker-than-the-dead-of-night comedies like “Hangmen.“  Prolific playwright Martin McDonagh hasn’t written all of them, to be sure; but he’s created some of the best of this deadly lot, including “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and “The Pillowman,” not to mention such beautifully bleak films as “Seven Psychopaths,” “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.”Still, there is something special about “Hangmen,” which, were it a song, would be the perfect little ditty to play as you were cutting your wrists. Happily (if such a word would apply to any of his work), this Broadway production is a deadly beauty, flawlessly cast and directed in the mordant style of an executioner’s song by Matthew Dunster.

EXCLUSIVE: Retired professional hockey player Miles Koules has launched the production company Koulest Productions, partnering with his father Oren Koules—who co-founded Evolution Entertainment and its division Twisted Pictures—to option the YA survival thriller, Ski Weekend, for development.

EXCLUSIVE: David Madden is leaving Berlanti Productions after more than two years as President, shepherding the company’s television operation. I hear his departure at the end of next month is amicable and comes at the end of his contract. Search is underway for his replacement. Berlanti Prods. will continue to work with Madden on projects he had helped put together.

Francis C. La Maina, the former COO of Dick Clark Productions who helped create Dick Clark Corporate Productions in 1991, has died at 82. La Maina, who represented Clark for over 25 years as his business advisor and president and board member of Clark’s affiliated companies, died Friday in Burbank, California.“We announce with great sadness that Francis C.

Wilson Chapman editorFrancis “Fran” La Maina, who served as president and chief operating officer of Dick Clark Productions, died Saturday in Burbank, Calif., his representative Cheryl J. Kagan confirmed to Variety. He was 82.“Fran was my soulmate,” his domestic partner Carla Patterson said in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Berlanti, Lauren Shuler Donner, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Ann Sarnoff have been added to the board of governors of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, the 100-year-old charitable organization that supports working and retired members of the entertainment industry through a safety net of health and social services, including temporary financial assistance, case management and residential living.

The production designer on Netflix’s Bridgerton prequel Queen Charlotte has been removed from the Shonda Rhimes show due to allegations of bullying behavior on set.

The BFI has named Louise Ortega as Senior Production and Development Executive for its Film Fund.

Manori Ravindran International Editor5Ringside Media, the investment arm of Newen-backed indie Ringside Studios, has taken a minority stake in Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Joi Productions.Joi Productions was founded by Gharoro-Akpojotor (pictured, right), and in 2020 received a BFI Vision award. Gharoro-Akpojotor, a BAFTA Breakthrough nominee, has had breakout hits producing Rapman’s “Blue Story” and “Boxing Day.” She is currently producing the BBC’s “Champion,” written by “Queenie” author and screenwriter Candice Carty-Williams.