Director Charlie Minn Signs Three-Picture Deal With Gravitas Ventures (EXCLUSIVE)

Peter Berg, the filmmaker behindDeepwater Horizon, Hancock, and Friday Night Lights,and his banner Film 44 have signed a first-look deal at Netflix to produce and direct live-action films and series. The pact comes just over a year after his last feature directorial effort, the action thriller Spenser Confidential, debuted on the streamer and become one of the company’s biggest hits of last year.

Following the success of the Mark Wahlberg-starrer, Spenser Confidential, director Peter Berg is making a home at Netflix. The filmmaker, through his Film 44 entertainment banner, has entered into a first-look deal to produce and direct live-action films and series for the streaming giant.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBritish singer, songwriter and actor ARLO has signed with Arista Records, the U.S. label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.London-based ARLO will release new music this year with Arista.

One of ABC Signature’s top showtunners, Krista Vernoff (Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, Rebel) is staying put with a new multi-year overall deal for her company Trip the Light Productions. Closing a new big three-year pact with Vernoff represents a key piece of the complex effort to bring Grey’s Anatomy back for Season 18.

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Vertical Entertainment has obtained worldwide distribution rights to indie horror, The Resort, from writer-director Taylor Chien and executive produced by rapper Quavious “Quavo” Marshall of the Migos. Starring Bianca Haase (Hot Tub Time Machine 2), Brock O’Hurn (Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween), Michael Vlamis (Roswell, New Mexico), and Michelle Randolph (5 Years Apart), the plot centers on four friends who head to Hawaii to investigate reports of a haunting at an abandoned resort.

Antonio Ferme editorEllen DeGeneres has signed a multi-year deal with Discovery to develop and produce a slate of natural history content for Discovery Channel and Discovery Plus. The line-up of specials, series and documentaries will highlight the many wonders of the natural world and the incredible wildlife that inhabit it.From Discovery and the BBC Natural History Unit, DeGeneres will narrate and executive produce “Endangered,” which will be the first project under the deal.

EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning theater and television director-producer and overall queen Kamilah Forbes has signed

Idris Elba has signed a global multi-book deal with HarperCollins to publish a range of children's books. The actor’s book deal includes both picture books and fiction that he has developed with his writing partner Robyn Charteris.

Gravitas Ventures has picked up the North American rights to writer/director Leon Pierce Jr.'s Welcome Matt comedy ahead of a planned theatrical and on demand release on May 28, 2021. The indie stars Tahj Mowry, Deon Cole, Jazsmin Lewis-Kelley, Dorien Wilson and G.G.

EXCLUSIVE: Rosalind Ross has signed with Range Media Partners for representation.

Apple has struck a first-look dealBrian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. The multi-year pact will see the banner produce aslate of scripted features, exclusively for the streamer.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Undergods, a fantasy thriller anthology movie directed by Chino Moya in his feature directorial debut. A May 7 day-and-date release in theaters and on-demand is planned.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterNinja Thyberg, whose movie “Pleasure” debuted to rave reviews at Sundance Film Festival, has signed with CAA.“Pleasure,” an explicit drama about the adult film industry, marked Thyberg’s feature film directorial debut.

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Giants Being Lonely, the coming-of-age drama that had its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. The pic, which marked the feature debut for mixed media artist Grear Patterson, will now bow April 6 day-and-day in theaters and on demand.

Screen Media has acquired U.S. rights to Eat Wheaties!, Scott Abramovitch’s comedy that stars Tony Hale along with Paul Walter Hauser, Danielle Brooks, Lamorne Morris, Robbie Amell, David Walton, Sarah Burns, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Chalke, Sarah Goldberg and Alan Tudyk. It now will hit theaters and on-demand on April 30.

Free Association — the production shingle run byChanning Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan — has signed a first-look deal with MGM. The studio and production are working together on Tatum's directorial debut Dog, which is due out in theaters in 2021.