Gena McCarthy’s Unconventional Entertainment Inks Overall Deal With Sony Pictures Television

EXCLUSIVE: Following the success of Netflix’s Wednesday and Oscar contender Elvis, Andrew Mittman has renewed his overall deal with MGM Television.

Ariana DeBose, Chloe Fineman, Amanda Seyfried, and Megan Stalter are teaming up for a very exciting new movie!

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Sony Pictures has won global distribution rights to the hot comedy package “My Ex-Friend’s Wedding,” a script co-written by buzzy author Taylor Jenkins Reid starring a murderers’ row of funny women. Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, “Saturday Night Live” breakout Chloe Fineman, Amanda Seyfried and Megan Stalter are set as the core ensemble. The film follows four childhood best friends who receive a drunken voicemail from a former BFF on the eve of her wedding day — confessing that she thinks she’s making a mistake. The group sets out to stop her wedding and rekindle the friendship they once shared. Comedy vet Kay Cannon, whose 2019 feature directorial debut “Blockers” over-performed at the box office, is directing. The script is from Ashley Rodger and Jenkins Reid. The latter could not be hotter at the moment, as the series adaptation of her novel “Daisy Jones & The Six” is about to hit Amazon Prime Video. Additional Jenkins Reed books are headed to the screen at Hulu (“Malibu Rising”) and Netflix (“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”).

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a bid to give more opportunities to women directors and boost the romcom genre, Sony Pictures International has teamed up with Maria Ripoll’s Cahuenga Filmmakers and transatlantic production shingle El Estudio to launch The Love Collection, a series of romantic comedy features to be written and helmed by women. Ripoll, best known for her romcom “Ahora o nunca,” the highest-grossing femme-directed film in Spain, will serve as executive producer on all the titles, and will direct the first in the collection, “Yo no soy esa,” (roughly translated to “I’m Not That One” or “I’m Not Her”) starring Verónica Echegui (“Trust,” “You’re Killing Me, Susana”). El Estudio’s Enrique López Lavigne will serve as producer on all the titles.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sony Pictures Classics has bought “The Teachers’ Lounge,” Ilker Çatak’s drama which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, for North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe (excluding Hungary). “The Teachers’ Lounge” marks the fourth feature from Çatak, who co-wrote the screenplay with Johannes Duncker. The movie played in the Panorama section and won the Europa Cinemas Label award for Best European film, as well as the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award. Produced by Ingo Fliess and shot by award-winning cinematographer Judith Kaufmann (“Corsage”), “The Teachers’ Lounge” stars Leonine Benesch (“The Crown”), Michael Klammer, Rafael Stachowiak, and Eva Löbau.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all rights in North America, Latin America and European Europe (excluding Hungary) to the Ilker Çatak drama The Teachers’ Lounge, which won both the Europa Cinemas Label award and the CICAE Arthouse Cinema award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in the U.S., Latin America, and select territories in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe to “The Miracle Club.” Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, the film stars Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Agnes O’Casey. The Dublin-shot film centers on four Dublin women who come together on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes in France, where they discover the solidarity in their friendship and unveil their own personal miracles. Produced by Chris Curling, Joshua Maurer and Larry Bass, the film was shot throughout 2022 and is currently in post-production. “The Miracle Club” reunites its leading actresses and Sony Pictures Classics, with all three having starred in previous films released by the distributor, including Linney in “Jindabyne” (2006) and “Driving Lessons” (2006), Smith in the titular role of “The Lady in the Van” (2015), and Bates in “Love Liza” (2002) and “Midnight in Paris” (2011).

EXCLUSIVE: Blake Griffin and Ryan Kalil are getting into business with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The producing partners have signed a multi-year first-look development and production deal for film and TV via their Mortal Media production banner.

EXCLUSIVE: Smokehouse TV and 101 Studios have made a multiyear overall deal for original scripted and unscripted content for television.

EXCLUSIVE: Five years after Netflix inked their first ever European overall series deal with Dark creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the studio has re-upped with the duo in a splashy eight-figure pact, we can reveal.

EXCLUSIVE: The New York Post is looking to get into the TV game with a first-look unscripted deal with producer Asylum Entertainment Group.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is kicking off its 2023 Diverse Writers Program giving 10 participants the opportunity to link up with industry professionals in a four-week course.

EXCLUSIVE: In a seven-figure deal finalised over the last week, Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films has beaten out competitors for UK rights to Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which A24 is releasing in the U.S. on April 21.

Zack Sharf HBO’s “The Last of Us” is one of the biggest shows of 2023 so far, so big that Sony Pictures Entertainment film chairman Tom Rothman is wishing the studio had gone ahead and turned the video game into a feature film. “The Last of Us” is based on the Sony Playstation game of the same name. “Yes,” Rothman answered when asked by Business Insider if he wishes “The Last of Us” was a Sony movie. “But I’m very happy for them and I think it’s better suited episodically. I’m jealous in the best way.” “The Last of Us,” starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, centers on survivors of a pandemic in a world where brain-eating fungus has decimated the human population. The show has been a ratings powerhouse for HBO, garnering over 7 million viewers in one night as of its fourth episode airing.

Italian medical drama series Doc – Nelle Tue Mani is getting a U.S. remake.

Sony Pictures Classics said it’s planning to release Sean Mullin’s documentary on baseball superstar Yogi Berra, It Ain’t Over, in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 12, expanding over following weeks.

Sony Pictures Television is adding to its roster of non-scripted production companies.

Ahead of the SXSW world premiere and the March 31 opening of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Paramount Pictures has closed a multi-year, first look deal with the film’s directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein and their newly formed production company GoldDay under which they’ll write, direct and produce features.   

Stacey Dooley has shared one of her first pictures with her daughter, Minnie, since announcing her arrival into the world. The documentary announced that she and her boyfriend Kevin Clifton had become first-time parents to their baby girl last month.