Independent Talent Agency Eyes Private Equity Deal, CAA No Longer Part of Sale Conversation (EXCLUSIVE)

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Gugu Mbatha-Raw will lead the voice cast of the animated short film “To My Daughter.” The “Surface” star will narrate the movie, which is an adaptation of “This Thread of Gold,” the debut book by actor, writer, filmmaker and UN gender advisor Catherine Joy White (“Black Mirror,” “Ten Percent”). “This Thread of Gold” is billed as a celebration of Black womanhood, weaving a story about resilience that connects Beyoncé, Nina Simone, Shirley Chisholm and Meghan Markle, as well as those throughout history “who resisted in secret through trusted networks.” The film is described as “part guidebook, part exuberant narrative and part poetry.”

EXCLUSIVE: Djimon Hounsou, the two-time Academy Award-nominated actor known for roles in Ed Zwick’s Blood Diamond and Jim Sheridan‘s In America, has signed with Range Media Partners for management.

Emily Longeretta The Salinger siblings are coming back together. Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolf are set to co-star has brother and sister once again in Hallmark Channel’s “A Merry Scottish Christmas.” The movie is set to air on the network’s Countdown to Christmas programming event. The film, written by NBC Correspondent Andrea Canning and author Audrey Schulman, follows estranged siblings Lindsay and Brad as they travel to Scotland at Christmas to reunite with their mother Jo (Fiona Bell) and “a big family secret is revealed.” Chabert and Wolf previously starred together as Claudia Salinger and Bailey Salinger, respectively, on Fox’s “Party of Five,” which aired from 1994 to 2000. Neve Campbell and Matthew Fox co-starred in the family drama.

Meghan Markle's talent was called into question by United Talent Agency (UTA) CEO Jeremy Zimmer during an interview last week. The top Hollywood agent weighed in after Spotify abruptly ended its deal with the 41-year-old Duchess of Sussex and her husband Prince Harry following the cancelation of Markle's podcast "Archetypes" after just one season. "Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent," Zimmer told global news website Semafor when asked about the podcast cancelation at the 2023 Cannes Lions advertising festival in Cannes, France.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the trailer for “Simone: Woman of the Century,” a biopic of Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who became health minister of France and championed the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France.  Directed by Olivier Dahan, best-known for his Oscar-winning Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose,” “Simone” boasts powerful performances by Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder. The key cast is completed by Elodie Bouchez, Sylvie Testud and Olivier Gourmet. The film was a box office hit in France, where it was released by Warner Bros and ranked as 2022’s third highest-grossing French-language hit with over 2.5 million tickets sold. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning to release the film in U.S. theaters, opening in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 18, followed by a wider rollout.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The estate of legendary British singer Joe Cocker has entered into an agreement with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group to acquire and develop the singer’s five-decade catalog. The acquisition includes the singer’s music intellectual property assets, including his interest in his sound recordings, compositions, and his name, image and likeness; further terms were not disclosed. After working as a singer through the early 1960s, Cocker burst into the mainstream in 1969 with his electrifying cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” which topped the British charts and sparked a major U.S. following, thanks in large part to his show-stopping performance at the Woodstock festival (and subsequent film). With his powerful and unmistakable soul-blues voice and explosive stage presence, Cocker’s popularity grew with the “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour, live album and film, which featured an all-star band helmed by Leon Russell.

Ivanka Trump is living her best life! The daughter of Donald Trump has been enjoying her summer and is currently on vacation in Spain with her husband Jared Kushner.On Sunday night, Ivanka and her husband, who recently celebrated Father’s Day attended one of David Guetta’s shows where she hung out behind the DJ booth, getting more than a front-row view of Guetta’s mixing skills.Ivanka and Jared seem to be good friends with Guetta. The couple was spotted aboard a yacht with him on Sunday before the show near the village of Es Calo in Formentera, Spain.

Meghan Markle isn’t gonna like this!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Izhar Harlev, the co-creator and head writer for “Mossad 101” and “The Gordin Cell,” is set to showrun “Maggiore,” a thriller series revolving around the sinking of a boat full of Israeli and Italian intelligence officers on Lake Maggiore in the Swiss Alps. Ordered by leading Israeli network Yes TV (“Fauda,” “Shtisel”), “Maggiore” is being developed and produced by Dafna Prenner at Israel’s Artza Productions, the banner behind Netflix’s hit show “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”; Leo Maidenberg at Paris-based Place du Marché and Jad Ben Ammar at Kador (“Sisters in Arms“) and his new banner Talea Produzioni in Italy. The eight-part series will revolve around the sinking of the small boat on Lake Maggiore on May 28 and the chain of events that followed the tragedy. The boat sank after being hit by a violent storm. Out of the 23 passengers on board, four people drowned, including a former agent of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, two Italian intelligence officers and a Russian woman.

Spotify’s breakup with Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan Markle, 41.“Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” Zimmer told Semafor during the Cannes Lions advertising festival.“And, you know, just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something.”The Duke and Duchess of Sussex inked an agreement with the audio giant back in December 2020, estimated to be worth a whopping $20 million.They told The Post in a joint statement that they have “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together.”Spotify and Harry and Markle’s Archewell production company spectacularly ended their partnership last month after the couple released just one podcast series, titled “Archetypes.”A source previously told The Post that the Archewell media company launched by Harry and Meghan didn’t produce enough content to receive the full payout of the $20 million deal they agreed to in 2020.These remarks from Zimmer, whose business focuses a lot on audio platforms, show the shift in the podcasting industry, with A-list celebrity hosts and big-budget podcast on the ousts while personalities similar to those on the radio or talk shows are on the rise.The comments come shortly after a royal expert said Spotify executives were likely “horrified” by comments Prince Harry made to Oprah Winfrey after he signed a multimillion dollar deal with the company.Speaking about Spotify and a separate arrangement with Netflix during the sit-down with Winfrey, Harry downplayed their significance, saying they were “never part of the plan.”“That was suggested by somebody else by the point of where my family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us,” he added, implying

Idris Elba, Olivia Colman, Woody Harrelson Lead King Charles III Environmental Short

UPDATED, 4:15 PM: A Los Angeles judge today denied a motion to dismiss a screenwriter’s lawsuit stemming from a dispute over credits for James Caan’s upcoming final film, Fast Charlie, finding that the case did not infringe on the defendants’ First Amendment rights.

Charna Flam Saban Films has acquired the rights to Art Camacho’s action thriller “Ruthless” starring Dermot Mulroney and Javier Reyna’s “Palido” starring Kellan Lutz. Saban will distribute the titles throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Benelux and Australia. Jonathan Saba, CCO of Saban Films, negotiated the deal with Devin Carter, SVP of sales at Premiere Entertainment. “Ruthless” follows a high school coach (Mulroney) who takes matters into his own hands by going after the men who kidnap his female student for their human trafficking operation, according to a snyopsis.

Crazy Rich Asians star Jing Lusi is leading an ITV drama about an all-night plane flight from London to Beijing and the corridors of power within Whitehall.

As the DC Universe enters a new era under Peter Safran and James Gunn’s vision, many projects were scrapped or left in development hell. However, Blue Beetle director Angel Manuel Soto says his film is part of the future that the DC co-heads are building.

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corporate advisory firm MediaLink in 2021, United Kingdom-based literary and talent agency Curtis Brown Group last year and publishing agency Fletcher & Co in January. As part of the transaction, MediaLink’s executive search team will join UTA’s new division.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Prime Video has revealed its top traveling non-English local originals in the history of the service, with Spanish YA romance “My Fault” and French crime thriller “Medellín” topping the list. Both are feature films that launched in the last two weeks across Prime Video’s footprint in 240 countries around the world. Interestingly, both titles have more than 75% of their viewership coming from outside their country of origin (Spain for “My Fault,” and France for “Medellín”), though Prime Video hasn’t disclosed any further metrics related to ratings or impressions. Of the list (available in full below), 60% are movies and 40% are TV series.

leaving "Top Chef" after 17 years and 19 seasons."After 17 years, many of the cast and crew are like family to me and I will miss working alongside them dearly," she wrote on Instagram. "I feel it's time to move on and make space for 'Taste the Nation,' my books and other creative pursuits."All cats go to heaven. A heartbroken Kate Beckinsale has indicated that she will likely take a social media break to mourn the loss of her beloved cat, Clive. "Clive has died," she announced on Instagram on Monday, June 12.