FilmRise, Nicely Team Ink Production, Distribution Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

Film Independent today announced that the seventh triennial Sloan Film Summit will take place from April 8-10 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

EXCLUSIVE: Time Studios has entered a shopping agreement with Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, fourth-generation members of the Russ family who now own its iconic New York culinary brand Russ & Daughters, to develop a scripted series examining its history and the family behind it.

Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, has sued the musician over a deal he recently struck for the royalties of a number of Beach Boys songs.Wilson agreed a reported $50million (£38.1million) deal with Universal Music Publishing Group in relation to his songs catalogue back in December, though the deal was not announced at the time.Wilson-Rutherford, who was married to Wilson from 1964 to 1978, first sued Wilson over the matter in February at Los Angeles Superior Court, and the case was moved to federal court last Friday (March 25).Wilson-Rutherford is alleging that she is owed at least $6.7million (£5.1million) from the song rights that were sold to Universal last year, and has requested a full account of the royalties she claims Wilson owes her from the past seven years (via Reuters).Wilson and Wilson-Rutherford’s 1981 divorce settlement saw the latter take a 50 per cent ownership of Wilson’s songwriting royalties from the 170 compositions the Beach Boys musician wrote during their marriage, including ‘California Girls’, ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and ‘Good Vibrations’.While Wilson-Rutherford was paid about $11million (£8.3million) from the writer’s share as a result of Wilson’s recent deal with Universal, she is now seeking the aforementioned $6.7million following the sale of his “reversion rights” – referring to US copyright law where artists can reclaim the rights to their songs 35 years after transferring them away – to the publisher.Her lawsuit adds that Wilson initially offered her $3.3million “to tie off all issues” between the ex-couple (via Rolling Stone), but Wilson-Rutherford then took legal action in February and alleged that she was owed twice as much.While they don’t dispute Wilson-Rutherford’s rights to the

J. Kim Murphy Joseph Patel, a producer on the Oscar-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” has blasted Chris Rock for his presentation of the category during Sunday’s ceremony, in which Rock introduced Patel and the producers other than Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson as a group of “four white guys.”“The reason that makes me SO SO VERY ANGRY is because I was so proud to be one of a handful of South Asians to have ever won an Oscar in the history of the award,” Patel wrote in a Twitter thread airing his frustrations on Wednesday evening.

NEW YORK -- Nielsen is being acquired for $16 billion, including debt, about a week after the media measurement company rejected a $9 billion offer.Viewing data collected by Nielsen plays a big role in determining where billions in advertising dollars are spent each year. The company itself has annual global revenue of about $3.5 billion.A group of private equity investors led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P., and Brookfield Business Partners L.P.

Related: Honouring the Irish: it’s the wildest Oscars party you’ve never heard of At Ireland’s own Oscar party, the Oscar Wilde awards, in Los Angeles on Thursday, the mood was optimistic, with Belfast cast members and other celebrities excited about the film’s nominations and the power of seeing broad recognition for an Irish story. With his critically lauded role as a Northern Irish father in Branagh’s film, actor Jamie Dornan is throwing off the shackles of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, in which he played an insipid sex maniac who seduces a woman who wears cardigans. Dornan literally threw off those shackles as he accepted an Oscar Wilde award for his work on Thursday, producing a pair of handcuffs from inside his jacket and then casting them aside.

Dune: Part Two is set to begin next week, according to director Denis Villeneuve.A sequel to the hit 2021 film was officially announced last October after the new film earned over $40million at the US box office in its opening weekend. It will land in October 2023.Speaking to ET Canada at a pre-Oscars event celebrating Oscar nominees from Canada, Villeneuve said of the sequel: “It’s gonna be intense.

We have confirmed that West Side Story star Rachel Zegler has been invited to the Oscars after all. There’s word out there that the Academy has invited her to be a presenter, however, they won’t confirm.

DGA, SAG, VES, ACE, ADG, CDG, MUAHS, MPSE – has almost run its course.But a couple of awards remain to be handed out before we get to March 27’s Academy Awards, and one of them is very big indeed.That one is the Producers Guild Awards, which takes place on Saturday night in Los Angeles and may be the last remaining show that can give us valuable information about what’s going to happen at the Oscars.(The Writers Guild is handing out its awards the following night, but WGA rules make the Oscar screenplay nominees “The Power of the Dog,” “Belfast,” “The Lost Daughter” and “Drive My Car” ineligible, which means they’re no help at all as predictors for the Academy’s big night.)Crucially, the PGA is the only awards body other than the Oscars to use the preferential or ranked-choice system to count votes in its best-picture category, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Propagate President Greg Lipstone has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of American Song Contest Inc., one of the companies behind NBC’s upcoming music reality competition series of the same name, which premieres March 21.

Zachary Quinto and Calista Flockhart are set to appear in a Los Angeles production of the classic play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Archer Gray, a New York production and finance company known for backing projects like the Oscar-nominated Can You Ever Forgive Me?, is branching out into alternative formats and non-scripted programming.

UPDATE:  Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison said last night that she has spoken to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, but did not reveal specifics about their conversation.

Just in time for SXSW, Byron Allen’s Digital Freestyle Releasing has promoted Bill Vergos to Head of Digital Film Distribution. He had been VP Operations & Sales since 2015.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAmazon has ordered two seasons of an animated comedy from Ramy Youssef, Variety has learned exclusively. The series is part of new first-look deal Youssef and his Cairo Cowboy production banner have signed with the streamer.Youssef leads Cairo Cowboy with Andy Campagna, the former senior vice president of television for Sam Esmail’s Esmail Corp.“Ramy has only scratched the surface of his incredible creative gifts,” said Vernon Sanders, head of global television for Amazon.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed award-winning filmmaker Erik Nelson (Terror and Glory: 1945) and his production company Creative Differences for worldwide representation in all areas.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorSamsung, the world’s largest maker of connected TVs, is looking to flex more muscle in content distribution through a pact with Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Tennis Channel to carry a new free streaming channel in the U.S.Dubbed T2, the Sinclair-owned channel will feature an advertising-supported 24/7 live stream of matches from major tournaments that might otherwise never be televised. The channel will be available only in the U.S. and exclusive to the Samsung TV Plus platform for the first 12 months.

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is developing A24 and Scott Rudin Productions’ adaptation of 2020 Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain, Deadline can reveal.