ErosSTX Strikes Output Deal With Italian Major Leone & Renews Deals In Australia, Benelux, Scandinavia & Eastern Europe

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Entertainment has acquired mob crime-drama The Birthday Cake for UK-Ireland and Australia/New Zealand.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Fox Corp.-owned animation studio Bento Box Entertainment is partnering with Australian television and film production company Princess Pictures to form Princess Bento Studio, a new animation studio that will produce animated content out of its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. production funding and distribution agency Drive has sold two-part documentary series “The Diana Interview: Revenge of a Princess” to Channel Nine in Australia, REELZ in the U.S., TV 2 in Norway, Servus TV in Austria, RTL Netherlands and TVNOW in Germany, to broadcast this year.Produced by Minnow Films for U.K.

News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said Thursday “the terms of trade for content are changing fundamentally,” citing a global news sharing deal the company signed last week with Google.

EXCLUSIVE: ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group has sealed a raft of international deals for CBS’s headline-hogging interview between Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Carole Horst “Best Sellers,” a Berlinale Special Gala screener and debut feature from Lina Roessler, has scored deals from major territories, which were announced by film’s sales outfit Foresight Unlimited at the European Film Market.Universal Pictures Content Group has acquired major markets including the U.K., Germany, France and Latin America, among others.

Married At First Sight Australia star Jessika Power dated a criminal kickboxer who once killed a great-grandmother, it has been revealed.Although she was originally matched with Mick Gould on the reality series, Jessika embarked on an affair with latecomer Dan Webb.

Martha Kalifaditis has been photographed looking gorgeous in a skin-tight number at a beauty event.The 30 year old rose to fame after starring in Married At First Sight Australia, where contestants tie the knot with a stranger and see if they can spark a romantic connection. Luckily for Martha, the show experts matched her up with Michael Brunelli, and two years on from the show, the pair are still together.

The SAS drill sergeant was dropped by Channel 4 in the UK following talks with him over his “personal conduct”, according to reports by The Sun.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorMichael Gudinski, founder of the Mushroom Group, Australia’s largest independent entertainment company, has died. He was 68.Gudinski’s death was confirmed in a statement posted on the Mushroom Group’s website.

Facebook unveiled commercial agreements with three Australian publishers Friday capping a tense week that saw passage, the day before, of a law recasting how Facebook and Google must approach the use of news content.

AMC Networks siblings RLJE Films and Shudder have teamed to acquire North American rights to Seance, the horror film written and directed by Simon Barrett, the You’re Next and The Guest scribe who is making his feature directorial debut. A theatrical, on-demand and digital bow via RJLE Films is set for May 21, with Shudder bowing it on its platform later this year. Shudder also acquired UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand rights.

Naman Ramachandran ErosSTX International has closed a strategic output deal with Italy’s Leone Film Group, the distributor behind hits “Knives Out” and “1917.”The STX international pipeline includes Guy Ritchie’s untitled spy thriller starring Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza and Josh Hartnett; a pair of films from Black Bear Pictures, including Neil Burger’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” starring Daisy Ridley and thriller “Memory,” starring Liam Neeson; aerial war epic “Devotion” from