Bruce Vaughn Returns To Disney Imagineering As Chief Creative Officer, Co-Head

Addie Morfoot Contributor Three projects pitched at CPH:FORUM – the industry program of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen-based documentary festival – have been awarded cash prizes. They are Robin Petré’s “Only on Earth,” Iryna Tsilyk’s “Red Zone” and Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska.” The filmmakers were awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital on Thursday. Petré’s “Only on Earth” garnered the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth €20,000 for best pitch. The docu, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen, and Malene Flindt Pedersen, depicts a journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.

Highway works being crammed in before the end of the financial year has turned March into the ‘month of madness’ for motorists and buses, a councillor says.

EXCLUSIVE: Cranked Up Films has acquired North American rights to the comedy The Country Club starring John Higgins of SNL trio Please Don’t Destroy, with Archstone Entertainment taking foreign rights. The film marking the directorial debut of Fiona Robert, who also stars, is set for release in June. 

Naming a young Black man’s story after a transport stop gives off strong Fruitvale vibes, but Aristotle Torres’ feature debut reaches back further to the hip-hop morality tales of the early ’90s, like Boaz Yakin’s Fresh or Ernest Dickerson’s Juice — the wave that immediately followed John Singleton’s influential Boyz n the Hood. Surprisingly, given Torres’ history of videos for the likes of Ludacris and Nas, the soundtrack is light on rap, using unexpected needle drops like Pavarotti’s version of “La Donna e Mobile” to score scenes of spray-can anarchy on the New York subway.

Naman Ramachandran Writer, producer and script editor Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe has joined U.K. independent production company DARE Pictures in the newly created position of head of scripted development. Johnson-Bekoe was previously senior development executive at Daniel Kaluuya’s production outfit 59%, overseeing the company’s slate and generating new IP across international and regional markets. Prior to this she worked in scripted development and her credits include “Ted Lasso” season 2 (WarnerBros/Apple+), “Riches” (Greenacre Films for ITV), “Secret Invasion” (Marvel Studios) and “The Chemistry of Death” (Cuba Pictures Ltd, for Paramount+). Reporting into DARE CEO Derren Lawford, Johnson-Bekoe will focus on developing the company’s scripted slate, as well bringing with her an original slate of IP and working on new drama and film projects with a view to taking them from pitch to commission with a particular emphasis on the U.S. and African markets. She will identify and develop relationships with emerging and established storytelling talent.

The Prime Minister's family were spoken to by police in London's Hyde Park after letting his dog off its lead. Rishi Sunak had been walking his labrador Nova with his family in the Royal Park on Saturday (March 11).

The post-parade Cape Town Pride Mardi Gras was a colourful climax to the annual Cape Town Pride Festival with a spirited celebration of the rainbow community.

The annual Cape Town Pride Parade took to the streets of the Mother City to celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community and the freedom to be our authentic selves.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor SoundCloud has named Eliah Seton chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Michael Weissman, who joined the streamer in 2017, has served as CEO since 2021 and is departing for a new opportunity. Seton joined SoundCloud in 2021 as president, overseeing the Creator and Roster operating divisions as well as strategy, M&A, content partnerships, business development, and distribution and artist partnerships. In that role, he has been instrumental in refocusing the business on deepening the relationship between its artists and fans through new economic models, products and tools. The company also announced that Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures and member of SoundCloud’s board since 2011, has been appointed as the new chairman of the board. Wilson succeeds SoundCloud Founder Alexander Ljung who served as CEO from 2007-2017 and chairman from 2017-2022. Ljung will assume a new role as chairman emeritus of the SoundCloud board, continue to serve as a board member and will also remain closely engaged and available to the company’s management team and employees going forward.

Jen Hollingsworth, a longtime entertainment executive most recently COO of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, is the new chief commercial officer at Flawless, a growing firm specialized in generative AI technology for film and television.

was the case with Lionsgate’s “Fall,” altering lip movements to better match the re-dubbed dialogue to remove R-rated profanity to win a PG-13 rating.  Hollingsworth worked at Lionsgate for over 15 years, during which she served as COO of the Motion Picture Group, led the Finance and Content Strategy Teams, and established the Inclusive Content Team, focused on developing and implementing strategies to increase content diversity.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Flawless, a VFX company specializing in generative AI dubbing technology for film, TV and commercials, hired 15-year Lionsgate veteran Jen Hollingsworth as chief commercial officer. Hollingsworth, who most recently served as COO of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, will oversee all commercial strategy at Flawless, which has offices in L.A. and London. She reports to Nick Lynes and Scott Mann, Flawless’s co-founders and co-CEOs. Flawless, founded in 2018, originally designed its TrueSync AI-based system to provide a better dubbing solution for films translated into other languages. TrueSync creates deepfake-style effects altering the mouth movements of actors to match the alternate dialogue being spoken (a process the startup calls “vubbing”).

A series of weather warnings have been issued across the UK as the country braces for snow to come from the north.

The weather will turn wintry in Greater Manchester tomorrow (Thursday, March 9), with snow forecast to fall across some boroughs.

Snow is expected to fall across Greater Manchester tomorrow as temperatures dip below freezing.

Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive unit responsible for Disney theme parks, cruise ships and shopping experiences, has reclaimed one of its own: Bruce Vaughn, who left the company in 2016, will return to Disney. Vaughn will be installed as chief creative officer, working alongside Barbara Bouza, president of Walt Disney Imagineering.

Chelsea Vaughn, who competed on the reality show in 2021, lifted the veil on finding love after being jilted by the leading man of the series, which is airing its Season 27 finale on March 27.“Dating in New York was already hard enough before I went on the show,” Vaughn, 30, told The Post.Now it’s even harder. “Being in the “Bachelor” world, you get all of the negatives of being famous and none of the good parts … we’re not actually famous, but I can’t go anywhere without people recognizing me, coming up to me, and taking my picture.”The runway model applied for the show in June 2020 because she was attracted to its leading man, Matt James, the first black “Bachelor,” who happened to live on the Lower East Side.She was eliminated on week six and returned home to Bushwick in November 2020 — but contractually wasn’t allowed to be on dating apps or publicly dating for four months, until the episode in which she was kicked off aired.“It kind of puts your personal life on hold because you have the months that you’re filming and then there’s months in between and then it airs and you have those months,” she explained.When she was allowed to resume courting, she was hesitant to get back on dating apps.After a stint on “Bachelor in Paradise,” the franchise’s summer dating series where castoffs gather on the beach, she joined the elite dating app Raya for a year.“It wasn’t the best for me.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) has joined the cast of director Josh Webber’s holiday pic Athena Saves Christmas, with Christina Cooper coming aboard as producer.

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s rape lawsuit trial date has been scheduled for the first week of June 2023. Judge Paul Austin Crotty made the ruling in a Manhattan courtroom Monday afternoon nearly three years after the complaint was filed by "Jane Doe" in the Southern District of New York. While the plaintiff (Jane Doe) asked for a 2024 date due to scheduling conflicts, the defense (Gooding Jr.) was ready to move the trial ahead for this summer.

Tributes have been pouring in for Lord Tom Pendry, a former MP of Stalybridge and Hyde, following his tragic death aged 88. Lord Tom was the Member of Parliament for the area for 31 years, from 1970 until 2001, and also served as the Northern Ireland Office Minister.