Kapital Entertainment, SK Global, Jeff Sagansky & Florence Sloan Launch Global Content Company Jaya Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Mila Kunis has partnered with superhero creator Sharad Devarajan of Graphic India to launch Armored Kingdom Media Inc.—a new entertainment franchise spanning a Web3 trading card game, digital comics, animation and film, which will be built on the carbon-neutral, community-driven blockchain, NEAR. To commemorate the launch of the sci-fi/fantasy franchise, a limited-edition Issue #0 comic book NFT will be made available for free, for seven days only, at this link.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Frost, a 15-year Sony TV veteran, is stepping down as President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, a post he has held for the past five years. According to sources, his departure was a mutual decision. With the TV studio coming off a banner year — hitting an all-time high of over 50 produced series and making waves at the 2021 Emmys nominations — I hear Frost felt it was time to leave and start a new chapter. Frost just shared his decision with his staff; Ravi Ahuja, Chairman, Global Television Studios, announced Frost’s departure in a company email. (You can read both in full at the bottom of the post.)

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp has hit the road, ostensibly to tour with 77-year-old musician friend Jeff Beck but also possibly to rub salt in the $15 million wound with a UK-wide victory lap. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories but why else would Depp — international mega star, ex-boyfriend of Kate Moss — cavort with badgers in Kent, eat £50,000 worth of Indian food in Birmingham and dispense parenting advice to a Geordie bar manager other than to refuel the social media fire which has laid waste his ex-wife’s life? It started in Sheffield when Depp appeared on stage with Beck, much to the excitement of Beck’s fans, and basically everyone on social media. Little is known about what happened after the show, but they presumably tore up Division Street in time-honoured Sheffield style.

It became the speech heard around Hollywood — Jeff Sagansky’s blistering comments last week about the adverse impact the proliferation of the streaming-driven “cost plus” business model has had on profit participation struck a chord in the industry. A week after Deadline wrote about the media investor and producer’s speech at a NATPE event, the discussion over the issue continues, with agencies and unions mulling ways to step in and help the creative talent they represent.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentNetflix has either reached or surpassed the required 30% local content quotas in major markets in Europe, ranking ahead of its global streaming rivals, according to a new study by Ampere Analysis. The programming quota applies to all streamers operating in Europe and is part of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive of the European Commission.Disney+, which launched in November 2019, is hovering around the 10% European content mark but has recently been ramping up commissions of local original productions.The study shows that Netflix in the U.K.

New research shows almost a third of Netflix’s European content now hails from the continent, as the effects of quota regulations and its push into local original content kick in. An Ampere Analysis study suggests the streamer is at or above the 30% European content in “almost all” European markets, though the figure is slightly below this mark in the UK, Ireland and France.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is opening a writers room for Dumped, a single-camera comedy from writer Heather Flanders, director Liz Friedlander and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, sources tell Deadline. This is part of the streamer’s development process since Netflix does not do pilots, even on the comedy side, so Dumped remains in development with an eye toward a potential straight-to-series order. A rep for Netflix declined comment.

Jeff Bridges, in a rare small-screen role, stars in this psychological thriller as Dan Chase, an ex-CIA operative who’s been living off the grid for years. When an assassin tries to take him out, he must come out of hiding and reconcile with his past.

Jeff Sagansky, a media investor and producer and former top entertainment executive, is sounding the alarm on the adverse impact the now prevalent “cost plus” business model has had on profit participation. The setup, originally introduced by Netflix and subsequently adopted by most major streamers and TV studios, reverses a decades-long practice of above-the-line talent on hit series being handsomely rewarded with a cut of the profits that continues to generate income for decades after the show’s creation.

Vice Puts FAST Channel In Gear On Fox’s Tubi

EXCLUSIVE: Former Disney exec David Levine is exiting kids entertainment powerhouse Moonbug Entertainment, Deadline has learned. The well-liked exec has been Head of Studios since December 2020.

Two highly anticipated shows have added content warnings to their opening episodes, as scenes may remind viewers of the tragic events that occurred in Uvalde, Texas last Tuesday.

Donald Trump’s emerging media and technology company has taken a stab at further refining its business plans, promising in a new SEC filing that its forthcoming streaming service will be a “non-woke alternative” to Netflix and Disney+.

Netflix has added a content warning for the first episode of Stranger Things season 4 following a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 24.

Netflix is making some changes to Stranger Things season 4.

“Stranger Things” fans checking out the new season are being greeted with a warning.

Content Warning: The following article contains discussion of violence involving children.Netflix has added a content warning to the first episode of Stranger Things season four, following the recent school shooting in Texas that left 21 dead, including two teachers and 19 children.As reported by Variety, the warning card will only appear for US viewers, at the start of episode one before the recap of season three. It reads: “We filmed this season of ‘Stranger Things’ a year ago.

Ahead of its midnight premiere, Netflix has added a content warning to the fourth season of Stranger Things following the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs have been around the media business long enough to resist the temptation to overreact to Netflix’s latest travails. Even though their emerging investment firm, Candle Media, owns two key Netflix suppliers—CoComelon production company Moonbug Entertainment and Fauda producer Faraway Road—they don’t seem too concerned that Netflix may topple from its perch. (And at press time, the previously unthinkable scenario has become a lot more, well, thinkable.)

It’s felt like a lifetime since Netflix subscribers left Hawkins, Indiana in July 2019, when the third season of “Stranger Things” came to a close.