Former Disney Exec Ravi Ahuja Joins Sony As Chairman, Global Television Studios

Get the biggest City stories, analysis and transfer updates delivered straight to your inbox

Real estate developer Hackman Capital is planning to spend $1.25 billion to overhaul the nearly 70-year-old West Hollywood landmark CBS Television City including adding sound stages to supply the seemingly boundless demand.

Sign up to the MySalford newsletter and don't miss a thing happening in and around the city

Sally Hawkins Boards Stephen Frears’ ‘The Lost King’ Oscar-nominated The Shape of Water star Sally Hawkins has joined the cast of UK comedy-drama The Lost King, inspired by the remarkable 2012 true story of finding Brit monarch King Richard III’s remains under a Leicester car park. Steve Coogan has co-written the script with his Stan & Ollie and Philomena collaborator Jeff Pope. Philomena director and two-time Oscar nominee Stephen Frears is aboard to direct the Baby Cow-produced feature.

Antonio Ferme editorDavid Levy, the former president of Turner, has been appointed chairman of data firm Genius Sports.According to Sportico, he will lead the board’s oversight of company operations and strategy. Genius Sports is the leading provider of sports betting data and marketing.

Sheridan Smith To Headline Channel 5’s ‘Teacher’ BAFTA-winner Sheridan Smith is to headline Teacher, the latest drama series from ViacomCBS’s UK network Channel 5. Smith will play Jenna in the Clapperboard-produced psychological thriller, which follows a state schoolteacher whose life unravels after being accused of a drunken sexual encounter with one of her pupils.

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, Acorn TV greenlights “Queens of Mystery” season two; NATPE Budapest confirms in-person event in August; Lionsgate Play unveils “U-Special” — its second original series in India; ITV commissions relationship drama “You & Me”; Dave Johns joins the cast of “I’m Still Ethan”; and Mexico’s Dopamine creates a new in-house entertainment team.AMC Networks-owned streaming platform Acorn TV has renewed its Primetime Emmy-nominated British crime series “Queens of

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Her Lullaby” from Hong Kong and “The Catch” from India were the winners of the top fiction prizes at the 2021 edition of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum.A total of 17 cash and in-kind prizes worth a combined HK$1,200,000 ($157,000) were awarded at the conclusion of the three day (March 15-17, 2021) project market, which was operated in parallel with the FilMart rights market.HAF returned to its regular March slot after the 2020 edition was first delayed

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video is making its first foray into Indian feature movie co-production with Bollywood film “Ram Setu,” starring Akshay Kumar.Directed by Abhishek Sharma (“Parmanu”) with Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi (“Prithviraj Chauhan”) as creative producer, the film is an action-adventure drama that is rooted in Indian cultural and historical heritage.

In a first for its Indian operations, Amazon Prime Video will act as co-producer on upcoming Hindi movie Ram Setu, which will be led by superstar Akshay Kumar.

Starz’s India-based streamer Lionsgate Play today announced its second original series, the college romantic drama U-Special.

Vivienne Chow Facebook Watch is to expand Paid Online Events into 24 markets, including Hong Kong, in the coming weeks following an exponential growth in viewership amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Saurabh Doshi, Facebook’s head of entertainment partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, announced the social media giant’s plans at Hong Kong FilMart on Monday.Paid Online Events allows users to limit access and content distribution to those who have registered to the event, positioning the

the glaring lack of international inclusivity in the Grammys’ newly redubbed global music (formerly world music) category. In the category’s 38-year history, almost 80% of African nations have never had an artist nominated; no Middle Eastern or eastern European musician has ever won; every winner in the past eight years has been a repeat winner; and nearly two-thirds of the nominations have come from just six countries (the US, the UK, Brazil, Mali, South Africa, India).

Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man, former Cleveland Browns linebacker and New York Times bestselling author Emmanuel Acho tackles charged racial issues with white folks, sometimes famous, who don’t quite get it.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterSony Pictures Entertainment has named Ravi Ahuja as chairman of Global Television Studios and its corporate development operations, where he will lead Sony Pictures TV’s domestic and international productions, the studio’s game show franchises and its India business, according to the company.Ahuja will also oversee the company’s corporate development and mergers and acquisitions alongside SPE chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra.“Ravi is an extraordinarily talented and

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, Women In Motion launches a special International Women’s Day podcast featuring Jane Fonda and Jameela Jamil, Amazon Prime Video announces a new women-fronting original series in India, BritBox heads to Amazon Prime Channels in the U.K., Keshet International acquires three new titles ahead of the London TV Screenings, BBC One unveils new casting for “The Responder,” Young Films Foundation beefs up its writing talent scheme and Paramount Plus goes all in on

Laetitia Eido, the French actress known to fans of Netflix's Israeli drama Fauda as Dr. Shirin El Abed, has signed on to co-star in Nhiem, a new high-end television series set during the Vietnam War from New Zealand director Roger Donaldson (The World's Fastest Indian) and German production group Carte Blanche International.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVeteran animation executive Steven Wendland has been appointed as president of Discreet Arts USA, the newly-launched offshoot of Indian animation firm Discreet Arts. The new unit is based in Burbank, California.He is expected to expand the company’s work-for-hire business while also developing a slate of original productions.