Dirty Robber Taps Jasper Thomlinson as Head of Branded Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has promoted Seth Needle to executive vice president, global acquisitions and co-productions. Needle, who has been with Screen Media for a decade, will continue to report to David Fannon, president of Screen Media and executive vice president of distribution at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.Needle oversees all acquisition efforts at Screen Media, including finding domestic new releases and foreign sales.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media1091 Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to “Varginha: The Roswell of Brazil,” James Fox’s follow-up to “The Phenomenon.”The film is another exploration of potential extraterrestrial encounters, this one centered on a series of events in 1996 when citizens of Varginha, Brazil, reported seeing one or more strange creatures and a UFO crash.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaCAA has signed filmmaker Karen Cinorre, who made her debut with the action fantasy film “May.”The film, which Cinorre also wrote and produced, was recently acquired by Magnolia Pictures. The indie studio recently announced that it plans to release “Mayday” this fall.“Mayday” premiered in the U.S.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe Zac Efron survival thriller “Gold” has sold to Screen Media following a competitive bidding situation that saw several studios and distributors circling the project. The film co-stars Anthony Hayes who co-wrote the script in addition to directing the picture.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaFresh off of upending the media landscape with their deal to combine WarnerMedia and Discovery, Discovery chief David Zaslav and AT&T head John Stankey will touch down in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July for Allen & Co.’s annual media conference.They will be joined at the annual confab of power brokers and media barons by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, fresh off his $8.5 billion deal to purchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and will hit the resort at a time when most

River City actor and trans rights activist David Paisley has had to leave his home after a string of ‘personal threats’ were made against him. The 42-year-old actor from Falkirk said that he ‘no longer felt safe’ at his home after his personal details were posted online.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaMagnolia Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to “Mayday,” an action fantasy that debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Mayday” is directed by debut filmmaker Karen Cinorre and stars Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth, Havana Rose Liu, Soko, Théodore Pellerin and Juliette Lewis.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has nabbed all North American rights to “Naked Singularity,” a heist thriller with John Boyega and Olivia Cooke.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorRoku is debuting an entertainment show designed to give the company a new bucket of ad inventory to sell, as well as a vehicle to promote streaming content on its platform.“Roku Recommends” is a 15-minute weekly entertainment program that will feature the Top 5 trending or topical titles (either on The Roku Channel or on any of thousands of partner channels).

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaOver the course of his long career, Cheech Marin has toked up with Tommy Chong in umpteenth Cheech & Chong movies, hung out on the driving range with Kevin Costner in “Tin Cup” and rode shotgun with Don Johnson on “Nash Bridges.” But he’s never taken on a role quite like the one he’ll be playing in “Lapham Rising.” The actor will be lending his distinctive voice to role of Hector, a born-again evangelical and unapologetic capitalist talking dog.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterParamount Television head Nicole Clemens is seen as the likeliest candidate to oversee Paramount Plus’ content and programming strategy, according to sources familiar with the matter.The move comes after Paramount Plus head of programming Julie McNamara, a 15-year-veteran of ViacomCBS, announced her departure Thursday.Paramount declined to comment.More to come…

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorClubhouse has hired Kelly Stoetzel, a 17-year veteran of TED and the executive responsible for lining up the company’s famous TED Talks.Stoetzel started last week at Clubhouse, the buzzy social-audio app, in a new role heading up thought-leadership programming.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterVersus Systems, a tech company that serves up brand offers as prizes to consumers inside games, apps, streaming video and other content, appointed Twitter’s Jennifer Prince to its board of directors.Prince, as global VP and head of content partnerships for Twitter, leads the social network’s worldwide efforts engaging with media entities and individual creators across TV, film, music, sports, news, lifestyle and gaming.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaPoorna Jagannathan and Casey Thomas Brown are starring in Megan Griffiths’ “I’ll Show You Mine.”The dramedy, a Duplass Brothers Production, centers on Priya Sura, an author who has made a career of examining her own trauma, as she sits down to interview her nephew Nic for a new book about his history as a model who challenged gender norms and embraced his pansexuality in a very public forum.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIndependent filmmaker and educator Deborah LaVine has been tapped to run the film program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).

soap watched in horror as Iain’s character Stevie O’Hara took an overdose and ended up in intensive care. And in tomorrow night’s It’s A Wonderful Life - style episode critically ill Stevie finds himself in limbo where he is visited by the ghost of Gabriel Brodie who tries to convince him to fight back from the brink.Iain, 39, who sobbed out loud when he saw the finished sequence, admitted filming the gruelling scenes left him feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

EXCLUSIVE: The Volume, the podcast network founded by Colin Cowherd, has tapped Logan Swaim as its head of content.