ITV Acquires Natural History TV Producer Plimsoll for $127 Million

A vital tradition in Manchester's Little Italy calendar has finally returned to the city centre, three years after the last procession.

Fifteen years of history. While Bruce Willis has taken a step back from acting after his aphasia diagnosis, he had worked on more than 100 films — including many with producer Randall Emmett.

Christopher Vourlias Boutique German sales agent Patra Spanou Film has acquired international sales rights to “Men of Deeds,” the fourth feature by Romanian director Paul Negoescu (“Two Lottery Tickets”), which will be presented in a closed screening for industry guests on June 24 at the Transilvania Film Festival.The film tells the story of llie (Iulian Postelnicu), a small-town police chief who wants to build a modest, comfortable life for himself but makes all the wrong choices. Middle-aged and alienated, he feels the need to be a part of something – to build an orchard, even a home.

Elvis Presley’s legacy lives on. On Tuesday, three generations of Presleys, Priscilla, 77, Lisa Marie, 54, and her daughter Riley, 33, as well as her twins Harper and Finley, 13 participated in a historic Hand and Footprint Ceremony outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.The family had a gorgeous backdrop dedicated to the new Elvis movie starring Austin Butler. They all looked thankful to be together for such a special moment.Butler was also in attendance. The actor has been praised for his performance as Elvis, with the film gaining a 12-minute standing ovation at Cannes.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has greenlit five-part natural history series “Evolution Earth” in co-production with PBS and Arte. The series, produced by Passion Planet and shot in extreme locations around the world, is an examination of adaptation stories that illustrate the rapid pace of change happening across Earth, while providing a look at nature’s ability to thrive.The series includes five films, each showcasing a different extreme landscape including Earth, Islands, Ice, Heat and Grasslands. It will debut across Love Nature’s branded linear and streaming platforms around the world, PBS in the U.S., Arte in France and Germany and on Sky Nature in the U.K.

‘Evolution Earth’ Greenlit By PBS, ARTE, Sky Nature and Love Nature

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStudiocanal has acquired a majority stake in Dutch FilmWorks, a leading film production and distribution company operating in Benelux.Launched in 1998, Dutch FilmWorks produces and distributes 25 films each year, and has built up a library of over 900 Dutch and international films, including the popular family franchise “The Claus Family.” The acquisition of Dutch FilmWorks is part of Studiocanal’s aim to consolidate its pipeline of premium European content with international potential.Owned by Vivendi-backed Canal+ Group, Studiocanal already operates in all four major European markets — France, U.K., Germany and Spain — as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The banner also produces more than 200 hours of TV series each year at an international level, either in-house with Studiocanal Original, or through its network of European production labels, including Germany’s Tandem Productions, the U.K.’s RED Production Company, the U.K.’s Urban Myth Films and SunnyMarch TV, Spain’s Bambu Producciones or Scandinavia’s SAM Productions.

EXCLUSIVE: Julia Chan (Archive 81) has been cast as a series regular opposite Michaela McManus and Parker Young in Criminal Nature, ABC’s drama pilot from Rashad Raisani, 20th Television and A+E Studios. Ian Duff also stars.

‘Allo Insiders, Jesse Whittock here. The sun is scorching out there in London today (I promise you this does happen occasionally), but I’ve stayed just cool enough to bring you a rundown of this week’s biggest stories.

Netflix has greenlit a new Squid Game reality competition series that is going to make TV history.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster ITV has completed its acquisition of leading natural history program producer Plimsoll Productions by taking a majority 79.5% stake.The deal, which was revealed by Variety last week, values Plimsoll at £131 million ($161 million) and ITV will pay £104 million ($127 million) in cash for the stake.Founded in Bristol in 2013, the BAFTA, Emmy and Academy award winning Plimsoll has produced hundreds of hours of content including “Tiny World” and “Giant World” for Apple+; “Hostile Planet” and “Supernatural Planet” for Disney; “Night on Earth” and “Animal” for Netflix and the upcoming series, “A Year on Planet Earth” for ITV, Tencent in China, Fox Nation in the U.S.

The UK’s ITV has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in Hostile Planet and Tiny World producer Plimsoll Productions for approximately £103.5 million ($126 million), giving the company an enterprise value of £131 million ($159.7M). The stake is being acquired from private equity group LDC.

Netflix’s cutbacks have worried some in the industry that the content gold rush is ending. Producers at the “IP IQ” panel, sponsored by Deadline, at the Produced By conference, said there’s no need to worry. Girl From Plainville and The Dropout Executive Producer Liz Hannah, A&E Studios Head Barry Jossen, and UTA partner and Co-head of Media Rights Jason Richman said they don’t anticipate any slowdown in streamers needing content.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterUniversal’s dino-sized “Jurassic” franchise is showing no signs of extinction at the box office.“Jurassic World Dominion,” the sixth installment in the long-running series, pulled in a monster $176 million from 72 international markets over the weekend, bringing its overseas total to $245 million. Combined with its $143 million domestic debut, the film stands at a robust $389 million and will imminently cross the $400 million mark.Directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, “Dominion” opened in 57 new foreign markets this weekend, including China, the United Kingdom and France.China, which has been increasingly hostile to Hollywood films, embraced the film, where it opened in first place with $52.5 million.

Bollywood star Ranveer Singh is heading into the harsh forests of Serbia with adventurer Bear Grylls in an interactive special for Netflix India.

Selome Hailu Jordana Hochman has been promoted to executive vice president and head of programming at ITV America.Hochman was named executive vice president and head of East Coast programming in 2019, and will now expand her oversight to include productions on both coasts. In her time at ITV America, she has amassed credited including Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” A&E’s “The First 48” and upcoming documentary “Exposing Parchman,” Oxygen’s “New York Homicide,” OWN’s “Marry Me Now” and Disney+’s “Becoming.” She is also working on upcoming projects for Netflix, Hulu and Starz.Hochman joined ITV America in 2013, first serving as vice president of programming at Leftfield Pictures.

Netflix is celebrating Pride Month, revealing its greenlit “Stand Out: The Documentary.”The documentary film will examine the history of LGBTQ+ stand-up comedy. While exact details of who will be featured in the doc were not available, Netflix did note that many of the comedians in “Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration” are in both projects.The feature-length documentary will include original performances, interviews, archival materials and backstage vérité-style footage.

Netflix has given a green light to Stand Out: The Documentary, a feature-length documentary that examines the history of LGBTQ stand-up comedy, for premiere this year.