Maia Eyre Promoted To Columbia Pictures SVP Creative Development

Max‘s drama/horror series Pretty Little Liars is returning for season two!

Ethan Shanfeld A little over 10 years ago, David Adjmi was on an airplane, listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” and picturing Robert Plant recording the vocals. “It’s communicating desire and pain and anguish and torture and lust,” Adjmi says of the song. “I was thinking about all of these conflicting emotions and imagining him singing the raw vocal in a studio — the state he must have gotten into to sing it.” Adjmi then started envisioning the room — what it might look like — in his mind.

Whether you’re planning on running the London marathon this April, are training for another major run, or just need something to help kickstart your workout routine, nothing gets you motivated and feeling good quite like some new activewear. Although Columbia is known for its outdoor-ready clothing, its newest launch is perfect for those needing a little pre-workout pick me up.

On the heels of its premiere to critical acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the documentary Kneecap on the Irish rap trio of the same name has been slated for release by Sony Pictures Classics in theaters nationwide on August 2, when it will open against Columbia Pictures’ family film Harold and the Purple Crayon.

NASCAR has hired John Dahl as its new SVP Content, bolstering the sanctioning body’s efforts to further connect with current and new fans across the globe over a range of content platforms.

LAS VEGAS – Things are rocky for Paramount Pictures at the moment. While studio CEO and Chairman Brian Robbins and his team presented highlights of their upcoming 2024 slate, reports were breaking of corporate shareholders coming out publicly against a proposed merger with Skydance Media.

LAS VEGAS – Universal Pictures has some potential big hits on its upcoming release slate. There’s “The Fall Guy” with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.

All American: Homecoming season three is on the way!

Chicago Med has already been renewed for a 10th season, but a major part of the creative team won’t be back.

Aevitas Creative Management literary agency is linking with Rubin Pfeffer Content, a literary agency for authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults. The latter agency’s Rubin Pfeffer and Amy Flynn will join ACM as Executive Agent at Large and Senior Agent, respectively.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Marketing veteran Scott Donaton has joined VersusGame, an AI-powered interactive content company, as chief marketing officer. Donaton, most recently senior VP of marketing at Disney’s Hulu, will oversee all marketing functions for Versus, including brand strategy, communications, content, social media and consumer insights. Donaton had joined Hulu in 2019; he introduced the streaming industry’s first branded entertainment practice before exiting Hulu in the spring of 2023.

Fox Television Stations has promoted John Brauer to SVP of Insights and Media Measurement.

Thania Garcia The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has upped Michele Ballantyne to President. She will also continue to serve as chief operating officer, running daily operations and managing the 56-employee team. Ballantyne serves on the executive leadership team alongside Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier.

EXCLUSIVE: A week after veteran talent agent Jed Abrahams resigned as KMR Talent’s SVP and head of the agency’s New York office, he has joined Los Angeles-based management and production company The Rosenzweig Group (aka The Rose Group) as a talent manager. He will open and head an office in New York, making The Rosenzweig Group — founded in 2018 by Marni Rosenzweig — officially bicoastal.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Searchlight Pictures has signed a first-look deal with Olivia Colman and Ed Sinclair’s South of the River Pictures. Under the new pact, the specialty studio, which has worked with Colman on “The Favourite” and “Empire of Light,” will develop and produce feature-length motion pictures with the production company. South of the River Pictures was founded by Colman, Sinclair and their long-time partner in crime, Tom Carver, to develop and produce original scripted comedies and dramas with “an authored sensibility.” Colman and Sinclair have been married since 2001.

Pierpaolo Piccioli is out at Valentino, and Alessandro Michele is in.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the centennial of Columbia Pictures with an expansive retrospective titled The Lady with the Torch, mounted in collaboration with the studio’s parent company, Sony. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival is set to celebrate the centennial of Columbia Pictures with a retrospective featuring classic titles spawned by the Hollywood studio between the dawn of sound and the late 1950s. The Locarno retro, titled “The Lady With the Torch –– The Centenary of Columbia Pictures,” is being curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, co-director of Italy’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival, which is dedicated to cinematic treasures of the past and organized in partnership with Switzerland’s Cinémathèque Suisse.

Hacks season 3 is finally going to debut on Max in May and we have details on the cast.

EXCLUSIVE: Wild Card Creative Group (WCCG), which has recently worked on such campaigns as Dune, The Bikeriders, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon and American Fiction, is joining forces with BlueMoon AI to develop a pioneering AI innovation tailored for advertising materials creation, harnessing cutting-edge technology.