Influence Media acquires Future's publishing catalogue in 'eight-figure' deal

New office space for small and start-up businesses as well as major companies is set to spring up in Salford's Media City. Councillors on the city's planning and transportation regulatory panel have approved an application by Peel Media Ltd for an 11-storey building including ground floor commercial space for drinking outlets.

Naman Ramachandran Priyanka Chopra Jonas (“The White Tiger”), Richie Mehta (“Delhi Crime”) and Anurag Kashyap (“Sacred Games”) are among the luminaries who are part of Awedacious Originals’ slate. Awedacious is a production company led by Apoorva Bakshi, one of the producers of Mehta’s International Emmy-winning Netflix series “Delhi Crime,” and Monisha Thyagarajan, who served as associate producer on the show.

Netflix’s latest film, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical. Starring Emma Thompson as Mrs Trunchbull, Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey and Stephen Graham as Mr Wormwood – alongside newcomer Alisha Weir as the heroine herself - this new Matilda is an adaption of the beloved West End play, which has racked up dozens of awards worldwide ever since its launch in 2013. It marks the first film in an ambitious project for Netflix, which acquired the rights to Roald Dahl’s entire collection in 2019 for a staggering sum.

There are stories so good they can withstand any amount of retelling. Matilda began life as Roald Dahl’s rollicking tale of an outrageously spirited, clever little girl who defeats the bullying headmistress whose vocation is to make children miserable. The Royal Shakespeare Company turned it into a Christmas musical that burst the banks of the festive season, running for years and winning seven Olivier Awards in 2012 in London, then five Tonys the following year in New York. Now, director Matthew Warchus, along with writer Dennis Kelly and songwriter Tim Minchin, has directed the London Film Festival opener Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical for the screen. And once again, it is an absolute blast.

Matt and Kaia Wright are exploring the Australian outback, a task they say would not have been possible without Steve Irwin opening that door so many years ago. Their new Netflix show, "Wild Croc Territory," features Matt and his team as they explore the Australian outback, looking to catch and relocate crocodiles and other dangerous animals living in the bush.

Country musician Blake Shelton has sold his rights in his recordings catalogue, covering releases from 2001 to 2019, to Influence Media Partners. As part of the deal, Shelton will set up a new joint venture with the company, which will allow him to continue to earn from those rights, which is nice.

Thania Garcia Influence Media Partners has acquired Blake Shelton’s catalog of master recordings, which comprises all of his commercial releases from 2001 to 2019. In the announcement, the company described the joint venture as a “groundbreaking deal” put in place “to amplify his works and entitling Blake to participate in a share of the profit generated.” Warner Music Group will continue to oversee distribution for the country singer’s catalog; further terms were not disclosed. Shelton said, “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since my first album and single. Sometimes I still feel like the kid from Oklahoma I was back then! While a lot has changed during that time, my passion for music hasn’t. I’m excited to be working with Lylette, Rene and the team at Influence Media on so much of my catalog and to introduce my songs to the next generation of country fans.”

Holly Willoughby has a brand new deal with Marks & Spencer, said to be worth a seven figure sum. The host’s impressive new venture with the retail giant follows recent backlash received for “skipping the queue” to see the Queen Lying-In-State last month. Holly’s M&S deal comes as her co-host Phillip Scofield’s £1 million contract with We Buy Any Car has ended.

.  Corwin and Penotti added, “Thanks to Sidney Kimmel’s decades long vision, support, and trust, this is all possible. We are incredibly grateful to Sidney for his leadership and belief in our team, and we will continue to apply the important lessons we learned from him.”“We are excited to have acquired a majority stake in SK Global, a leader in independent content for global audiences,” Josh Purvis, Partner and COO of Centricus, said in a statement. “This deal marks an important investment in the media sector for Centricus.

Spoilers for Emmerdale reveal that there is plenty of drama in the Dales this week. Affairs of the heart come to the fore with several residents harbouring guilty secrets. Liv (Isobel Steele) has an angry and violent showdown with Terry (Neil Bell).

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American VOD rights to the Emmy-winning documentary When Claude Got Shot. The film premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival and made its broadcast television debut in May 2022 on the award-winning PBS documentary anthology series Independent Lens. The documentary will be available to rent and own on North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms on September 27, 2022 through Freestyle Digital Media.

Future has sold the publishing rights to his recorded output from 2004 to 2020 to the investment firm Influence Media Partners.Variety reports that the catalogue contains 612 titles including collaborations with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and The Weeknd. The deal is reportedly in the “high eight figures”.Based on the cited time period, Influence Media likely now owns the publishing rights to all of Future’s nine studio albums, ranging from his 2012 debut ‘Pluto’ through to 2020’s ‘High Off Life’.

announced in 2020, “Kandahar” follows Tom Harris (Butler), an undercover CIA operative stationed in hostile territory in Afghanistan. When his mission is exposed, he and his Afghan translator (Navid Negahban) must fight their way past foreign spies and enemy forces on their way to an extraction point in Kandahar.“Kandahar” sees Butler reteam with his “Angel Has Fallen” and “Greenland” director Ric Roman Waugh.

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road Films has acquired North American rights to Gerard Butler action thriller Kandahar in a splashy eight-figure deal (low teens, we understand).

Kanye West has come out with claims that his publishing catalogue is “being put up for sale” without his approval, involvement or even awareness – contesting reports that his team had pitched the sale to prospective buyers.Earlier this week, Billboard reported that West was “quietly and intermittently shopping his publishing catalog”, and that representatives for the rapper had met privately with prospective buyers to “explore what kind of valuation” his extensive discography could net.It’s said that West is eying a valuation as high as 35 times that of the net publisher’s share – around $175million (£153.9million), based on the estimation that West’s catalogue earns him $5million (£4.4million) of annual revenue.West has now denied his reported involvement in the potential sale, taking to his Instagram Story overnight to declare that his catalogue is “not for sale”, noting that “just like Taylor Swift, my publishing is being put up for sale without my knowledge”.The situation West is referring to is the 2019 sale of Swift’s material released between 2006 to 2017, which was acquired by Scooter Braun (with whom Swift had long feuded) when he purchased her former label, Big Machine Records, for $330million (£290million). That sale was enormously controversial, with Swift herself describing it as her “worst case scenario” and leading her to re-record two of the albums she no longer owns the original masters to – 2008’s ‘Fearless’ and 2012’s ‘Red’ – with the suffix of ‘Taylor’s Version’.The rights to West’s catalogue currently lie with Sony Music Publishing.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Influence Media Partners has acquired Grammy-winning Future’s publishing catalog from 2004 to 2020, the company announced. The prolific rapper’s work from those years spans 612 titles, including titles with frequent collaborator Drake (“Life Is Good,” “Jumpman”), Kendrick Lamar (“King’s Dead”), Rihanna (“Selfish”), and the Weeknd (“Low Life”) and his own solo hits like “Mask Off.” A source close to the situation tells Variety the deal was in the “high eight figures.” Rene McLean, Influence Media partner and founding advisor, said, “Future is a cultural icon. He continues to be a blueprint for impact and success in the music industry and has reinvented music in ways that no one has ever expected. It is rare to find someone who moves music and culture at the same speed with his distinct vocal and melodic style. His prolific career and continued popularity more than 15 years into the game is a testament to his undeniable influence on the contemporary music and culture landscape. We’re honored to be partnered with him.”