Disney Unveils 2024 Television Writing & Directing Program Participants, Inaugural FX Singleton Scholar

Disney+ unveiled new originals out of France, Germany and Spain at Series Mania, with period drama and a pair of true crime projects added to a 70-part Spanish novella that will be stripped through the week.

Naman Ramachandran Prime Video has unveiled a 69-title 2024 slate of new and returning series and original and licensed films. The slate was revealed at a star-studded event in Mumbai on Tuesday hosted by Indian media personality Karan Johar. Amazon executives present at the event included Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Kelly Day, VP Prime Video International, ⁠James Farrell, VP, international originals, Gaurav Gandhi, VP, APAC and MENA, Sushant Sreeram, country director, India, Aparna Purohit, head of originals, India and Southeast Asia, Manish Menghani, director, content licensing, India, and Nikhil Madhok, head of Hindi-language, India.

The Disney Channel has been the home of so many child stars over the years, but it seems like the network hit its peak in the early aughts. Now many of the young actors that we grew up with are all grown up and having kids of their own!

Disney+ has unveiled a proper first look of German-Spanish actor Daniel Brühl as the titular iconic designer in the new show Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, produced by leading French film and TV company Gaumont.

Following Disney chief Bob Iger’s very recent admission that the company had quietly canceled several projects that they didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the last few months amid belt-tightening and scaling back, a picture of what some of those projects might be is starting to emerge. In an in-depth piece from The Wrap about soon-to-be-former Disney executive Sean Bailey and his legacy— exiting after 15 years as the motion picture group’s president of production, a big shake-up in the company— some details of what may have already been put out to pasture are becoming more apparent.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation with multiple studios bidding, 20th Century Studios has reeled in theatrical distribution rights to Imagine Entertainment‘s thriller Whalefall, based on the recently published novel by bestseller Daniel Kraus.

Viggo Mortensen really puts the word multi-hyphenate to good use for his second directorial effort The Dead Don’t Hurt as he also wrote, co-stars in and composes the music for this distinctive Western film, which played at the Glasgow Film Festival earlier this week after world premiering to critical acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival last year. 

Say what you will about singer/songwriter Taylor Swift, from the music industry, to the NFL and even the movie box office, wherever she appears, she seems to lift the financial sails of that industry. Obviously already a juggernaut in the music industry, Swift made major headlines last fall when she released “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert doc and made a deal directly with AMC to release the film theatrically, bypassing distribution with all the movie studios—a canny move though one that upset many in the industry.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The descendants of Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney have weighed in on the bid by two activist investment firms to win seats on the board of the Walt Disney Co. Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who runs hedge fund Trian Partners, is waging a proxy-fight battle to install himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo as directors; Peltz’s stated aim is to drive up the price of Disney’s stock.

In two open letters to shareholders of the Walt Disney Co., grandchildren of Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney came out in support of CEO Bob Iger and current management, which is being assailed by two investment firms trying to change the makeup of the company’s board.

Netflix’s Indian slate for this year includes a feature film about a group of drunk young men who crash a wedding, and a series about a plane hijacking.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has unveiled an eclectic, star-studded India slate for 2024. New films on the slate include comedy “Wild Wild Punjab” from producers Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg and director Simarpreet Singh, where a group of drunk boys decide to avenge a friend’s breakup by crashing his ex’s wedding and achieve closure. Varun Sharma, Sunny Singh, Manjot Singh, Jassie Gill Patralekhaa and Ishita Raj star.

Walt Disney Company and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries have merged their massive Indian TV and streaming businesses, ending months of speculation. As per the agreement, Reliance’s Viacom18 is merging with Disney’s Star India. The deal is estimated to be worth $8.5 billion on a ‘post-money basis,’ the companies said.

Reliance Industries and Disney India are set to sign a binding agreement to merge their assets, according to local reports.

Ryan Murphy‘s next TV project has been revealed!

Banijay’s powerhouse lineup at what promises to be one of the biggest presentations at next week’s London TV Screenings. Mixing third-party pick-ups and Banijay productions, further scripted titles take in second seasons of two Banijay hits, the sumptuous and revisionist “Marie Antoinette,” and “Rogue Heroes,” a big WWII special ops adventure story which hit high ratings on BBC. Unspooling over Wednesday Feb.

Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig is finally addressing Oscars snub.

The BBC has unveiled its biggest drama slate in years featuring a TV version of James Graham play Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes from The Crown producer Left Bank, Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood‘s debut writing project and a Rebecca Hall-starrer from Poor Things maker Element.

Lise Pedersen CPH:DOX, one Europe’s leading documentary film festivals, has announced its full program, which includes no fewer than 84 world premieres out of more than 200 films being screened in the Danish capital and nationwide from March 13 through March 24. This 21st edition, which aims to make documentary film accessible not only to a select industry few but to the public at large, will take off with a new nationwide approach, with mini festivals running simultaneously in nearly half of Denmark’s municipalities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Streaming platform Disney+ will add four new Korean-language original series to its 2024 lineup. Its “Blood Free,” “Unmasked,” “The Tyrant” and “Gangnam B-Side” land in addition to a third season of “The Zone: Survival Mission” and the previously announced “Uncle Samsik” and “Light Shop” from webtoon pioneer and creator of the platform’s 2023 series hit “Moving.” “Blood Free,” which is to star Ju Jihoon (“Kingdom”) and Han Hyojoo (“Moving”), follows a former bodyguard haunted by the failures of his past. He finds himself recruited to protect the CEO of a controversial lab-grown meat company who is also a survivor of the fateful attack that changed his life. Set in modern-day Seoul, “Unmasked” follows a group of investigative journalists who are fighting for their careers after broadcasting a controversial story.