Blue Fox Entertainment Buys ‘Unexpected,’ Comedy With Anna Camp, Joseph Mazzello, Neil Flynn and Ryann Shane (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaProducer and entrepreneur Alex Lieberman has launched Bright West Entertainment, a new film finance and production company with a special focus on backing documentary content.The company is making a big splash this month. Three of its next feature documentaries — “On the Line: The Richard Williams Story,” “Subject” and “Rudy! A Documusical” — are set to world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.“I’m focused on financing interesting stories and trying to serve as a catalyst to help projects get made,” Lieberman tells Variety.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaRay Romano was stressed out.It was the night before he was supposed to start filming “Somewhere in Queens,” his directorial debut, and Romano wasn’t sure he was up to the challenge. He’d already peppered his agent with calls warning him he thought he needed to drop out. Oh, and he’d been forced to go to the cardiologist to undergo a stress test after he started having chest pains in the lead-up to shooting.

Manori Ravindran International EditorCanada’s Blue Ant International has made one of its most ambitious acquisitions to date, taking 100% ownership of U.K.-based distributor Drive Media Rights, Variety can reveal.The deal comes as the distribution arm of Toronto-headquartered Blue Ant Media continues to grow in the U.K. and form new creative relationships, while expanding its pre-sales capacity — a crucial engine for growth among TV distributors looking to get in earlier on projects.Drive Media Rights is a well-respected financing, co-production and sales business set up in 2013 by Ben Barrett and Lilla Hurst.

Emily Longeretta The “Scrubs” family is back together. On Sunday, ATX TV Festival hosted an energy-filled reunion panel with the cast of the medical comedy-drama, which aired from 2001 to 2010, first on NBC and later on ABC.Creator and showrunner Bill Lawrence (“Ted Lasso”) along with cast members Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Judy Reyes and Neil Flynn gathered for a conversation hosted by Variety TV Editor Michael Schneider.First, the group spoke about “Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald,” the podcast hosted by Braff and Faison.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Jurassic World: Dominion” is off to a roaring start at the international box office.The blockbuster hopeful opened in 15 major markets this week, including the likes of Italy, Mexico and Brazil, and has already sunk its teeth into $16.7 million through Thursday. “Jurassic World: Dominion” is expected to bring in more than $45 million this weekend, giving it a healthy head start before it opens in U.S.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaDocumentary studio XTR and Crooked Highways are teaming up on “Merch!”The upcoming documentary will look at the origin and impact of music merchandise through the stories of pivotal musicians, designers, fans, and entrepreneurs who helped commodify artists. The non-fiction feature will trace the history of these products, starting with the first Elvis Presley concert t-shirt.

Out gay ‘Bridgerton‘ star Jonathan Bailey is no stranger to attention. Bailey starting his career as a child star, but it was his role as the brooding, hunky Viscount Anthony Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton that won him international heartthrob status. Jonathan Bailey in ‘Bridgerton’.In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Bailey shared some pretty intimate details about the second season of Bridgerton and the shooting of a particular scene that has since launched a thousand memes. The said scene had the Viscount, steamy and sweaty, in a bathtub pining and brooding over the “object of all my desires” Kate Sharma played by Simone Ashley. While his fans of all genders have swooned over the dreamy-eyed Viscount in a bathtub, Bailey said filming the scene left him “traumatised” and “confused”. Bailey told the Los Angeles Times that “there was actually a camera in the water between my legs looking back at me”Jonathan Bailey in ‘Bridgerton’.The shooting took place around the time that COVID-19 restrictions were being relaxed and you could meet people outside.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaQuiver Distribution got into the business of producing its own movies out of necessity. “Our goal was to go out and acquire all rights to films and exploit them on as many media as possible,” says Barry Meyerowitz, the company’s co-founder. “But we found out that we couldn’t find as many high quality feature films as we needed, so we started making our own.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNetflix is wrapping up a deal for “Pain Hustlers,” a conspiracy film from David Yates that is set to star Emily Blunt.The pact, which is for global rights to the package, is said to be in the $50 million range, according to a knowledgable insider. The sale is the biggest one so far out of Cannes, where dealmaking has been slow going.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaArclight Films and MEP Capital Management are teaming up to acquire and license all available media rights to the library of The Lotus Entertainment. That library consists of a mix of worldwide and foreign sales rights to 58 films released between 2005 to 2019, which earned more than $500 million at the global box office.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has acquired all North American rights to “The Locksmith,” an upcoming action-thriller starring Ryan Phillippe, Kate Bosworth and Ving Rhames.The film was directed by Nicolas Harvard, a veteran first assistant director whose credits include “Hell or High Water” and “Whiplash.” It marks his feature directorial debut. Screen Media is planning a day-and-date, theatrical and on-demand release later this year.In “The Locksmith,” Miller (Phillippe), an ex-con recently released from prison for a bungled robbery, tries to walk a straight line and work his way back into the lives of his ex, Beth (Bosworth), a police detective, and their young daughter.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNeon has purchased North American distribution rights to Mark Jenkin’s “Enys Men,” ahead of the horror film’s premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.The film, which sounds very shades of “The Wicker Man,” stars Mary Woodvine and Edward Rowe. Jenkin wore a lot of hats on this one.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaRob Reiner is getting the band back together.Four decades after introducing audiences to Spinal Tap, a British heavy metal band with big hair that far outweighs their actual talent, Reiner and his comic collaborators Michael McKean (as guitarist David St. Hubbins), Harry Shearer (bassist Derek Smalls) and Christopher Guest (lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel) are returning to the scene of the musical crime with “Spinal Tap II.” Reiner, who directs and co-stars in the film as documentary-maker Marty DiBergi, is hitting the Cannes Film Festival to round up backing for the sequel and to present a special screening of the 1984 original “This is Spinal Tap” as part of the Cinema de la Plage sidebar on Wednesday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has acquired North American rights to “Code Name Banshee,” an upcoming action-thriller with Antonio Banderas and Jamie King. The film will receive a day-and-date theatrical and on-demand release in July.Directed by Jon Keeyes and written by Matthew Rogers, the duo behind “The Survivalist,” the film follows Caleb (Banderas), a former government assassin in hiding, who resurfaces when his protégé, the equally deadly killer known as Banshee (King), discovers a bounty has been placed on Caleb’s head.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaA trio of veteran film financiers and producers are launching a new venture.Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross are teaming up on Ashland Hill Media Finance, a film and TV financing venture, backed by an alternative investment fund with assets under management of $1.85 billion. From its offices in Santa Monica and London, Ashland Hill expects to close upwards of 25 deals in the next 12 months, with plans to further expand its operations beyond the U.S.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Films has acquired North American rights to “R.M.N.,” the new film from acclaimed writer, director and producer Cristian Mungiu, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes this week.It’s a grand reunion for the indie studio and the director, marking their fifth distribution collaboration. IFC Films will release “R.M.N.” theatrically in 2022.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWith “Final Cut,” Oscar-winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius has to convince audiences that he’s a very bad director. At least for the first 20 minutes or so of the movie within a movie. You see, “Final Cut,” a remake of the 2017 Japanese cult favorite, “One Cut of the Dead,” initially unspools as a low-budget zombie film, one produced with few frills and even less talent.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWestEnd Films has closed a series of new deals on “Out of the Blue,” an upcoming thriller that brings together Neil LaBute and Diane Kruger.Rights for the film, which LaBute writes and directs, have gone to Australia and New Zealand (Kismet Movies), France (Metropolitan Filmexport), Germany (Koch Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Middle East (Phoenicia Pictures) Israel (Forum Film), Poland (Galapagos Films), Greece (Spentzos Film), former Yugoslavia (Investacommerce) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo). WestEnd is also sharing a moody first-look image.Kruger, best known for her performances in “Inglourious Basterds” and “Troy,” leads an ensemble that also includes Ray Nicholson (“Promising Young Woman”), Hank Azaria (“Love & Other Drugs”) and Chase Sui Wonders (“Genera+ion”).

EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Cochran, the American rock n roll star behind songs such as “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Summertime Blues,” is getting the feature documentary treatment.