Janice Johnston Promoted To Executive Producer Of ’20/20′

NBA star Chris Paul has long championed historically Black colleges and universities, partnering with Harvard Business School last year to develop an entertainment, media and sports curriculum at North Carolina A&T and most recently repping a different school on his sneakers during every game in the league’s Orlando bubble last fall.

Jamie Tarses, who broke the glass ceiling for female TV executives as the first woman to run a network entertainment division, passed away this morning from complications stemming from a cardiac event she suffered last fall, according to her family. She was 56.

telly drama Jamestown has told how he took drastic measures to achieve the rippling physique he displays in the show.Stuart Martin admits he was terrified when he realised he was going to be walking around in a loin cloth in front of millions of viewers as he was so out of shape.The 33-year-old, from Ayr, said: “A couple of months before we started filming, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get to the gym.’ I had been a resting actor, enjoying my life at home, and I was about 15st.“I was chatting to a

Buck Rogers.In addition to being an executive producer, the project could also be a “starring vehicle” for Clooney, according to The Hollywood Reporter.First appearing in in the 1920s before becoming a comic book mainstay in the 1930s, Buck Rogers is a NASA astronaut who falls into a coma and wakes up in the 25th century.

Naman Ramachandran Steve McQueen, currently riding a wave of global acclaim for his BBC/Amazon anthology “Small Axe,” will executive produce two Black-themed documentaries for the BBC.“Black Power,” which originated from an idea McQueen had while filming “Small Axe,” will examine how the Black Power movement came into being in the late 1960s and fought back against police brutality and racism.The films features rare archive of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael’s activities in

Steve McQueen is to executive produce two documentaries for the BBC that were conceived while shooting Small Axe. One will examine Black power in Britain, while the second film investigates how Black children in the 1960s and 1970s were disproportionately sent to schools for the so-called “educationally subnormal.”

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Academy Award and Emmy-winner Nicole Kidman will executive produce a television series based on Maria Sødahl’s European Cinemas Label-winning “Hope” under her Blossom Films banner. “Hope” is currently in the running as the Norweigan entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards.The rights to the film’s adaptation were acquired by Amazon Studios.

Naman Ramachandran Industry executive Julien Leroux has launched London-based outfit Paper Entertainment, a London-based company focused on development, finance and production.Paper Entertainment is on board as a co-producer on the recently announced second season of Apple TV Plus hit series “Tehran.” Leroux served as an executive producer on season 1, and struck the co-production deal with Apple, which was announced in June.Paper Entertainment has several other projects in development, which

Ava DuVernay has boarded Oscar contender A Concerto Is A Conversation as executive producer. Co-directed by  Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers and Emmy-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, the 13-minute short subject documentary follows Bowers as he tracks his family’s lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather Horace Bowers from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Keke Palmer has been tapped as host of Disney+’s upcoming unscripted build competition series Foodtastic. Palmer also will executive produce the series in which contestants are challenged to create Disney-inspired works of art made out of food. NYC’s City Cakes founder Chef Benny Rivera and Flour Shop founder Amirah Kassem will serve as judges for Foodtastic. The 11-episode series started production this week and is slated to premiere on Disney+ later this year.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Keke Palmer is inviting you to be her guest… and she’s putting your service to the test!Disney Plus has tapped superstar Palmer to host “Foodtastic,” an unscripted build competition series where teams are challenged to cook and bake Disney-inspired works of culinary art.The quadruple threat — acting, singing, daytime talk show hosting and activism— can also now add a fifth accomplishment to her résumé: executive producing.

Angelique Jackson Ava DuVernay is reuniting with “When They See Us” composer Kris Bowers for the documentary short “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”DuVernay will executive produce the film, which was co-directed and produced by Bowers and Ben Proudfoot. “A Concerto Is a Conversation” was selected to premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which has shifted to a virtual model amid the ongoing pandemic.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has acquired Indian director Chaitanya Tamhane’s Venice and Toronto winner “The Disciple,” executive produced by Alfonso Cuaron, and will release it exclusively on the platform.The Marathi-language film follows a singer who devotes his life to becoming an Indian classical music vocalist, diligently following the traditions and discipline of the old masters, his guru and his father.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHBO is developing the third season of the hit podcast “Serial” as a limited series, with LeBron James onboard the project as an executive producer.The potential series will examine the criminal justice system at work in Cleveland, Ohio.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterCapitol Music Group has promoted Greg Marella to the post of president of promotion and executive vice president.

McG has officially signed up to direct the pilot episode of Turner & Hooch, Disney+’s reboot of the classic 1989 buddy-cop comedy feature. The TV series, which has a 12-episode order, comes from Matt Nix and 20th TV. McG also will serve as an executive producer on the series, which is now in production.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorElectric Lady Studios, one of the few remaining major recording facilities in New York City, continues to expand its creative endeavors by striking a partnership with the estate of legendary indie singer/songwriter and visual artist Daniel Johnston.As part of the new partnership, Outsider Art Fair will present “Daniel Johnston: Psychedelic Drawings,” an exhibition of over 30 works by the late musician and self-taught artist, at the studio — you can see five examples

Manori Ravindran International EditorOscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin has boarded Doug Roland’s short film “Feeling Through” — one of the first films to feature a deaf-blind actor in a leading role — as an executive producer.The coming-of-age story follows Tereek (Steven Prescod), a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie (Robert Tarango), a deaf-blind man in need of help getting home.