Mo Willems Launches Production Company to Leverage IP From Best-Selling Children’s Books

Get ready for some real talk. Kendra Wilkinson revealed that she and her ex Hugh Hefner’s widow, Crystal Hefner, will share an emotional conversation on season 2 of Kendra Sells Hollywood.

Coronation Street - but since then, Suranne Jones has took over our screens, with acclaimed roles in the likes of Gentleman Jack and Doctor Foster. This week, the Manchester-born 44-year-old returned to ITV, launching a new drama Maryland, which has won rave reviews from critics and viewers alike after its debut episode on Monday. Starring alongside Eve Best, the three-part series - which concluded last night - sees two polar opposite sisters, Becca (played by Suranne) and Rosaline (played by Eve), reunited when their mother is found dead on a beach on the Isle of Man.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Ithra Film Productions has launched a new film fund that aims to attract international filmmakers to shoot fully-financed movies in the kingdom on which local talents and crews can cut their teeth. Ithra Film — which is a unit of The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, financed by Saudi Aramco Oil Company to promote cultural development – is looking to commission and fund up to five films annually. The level of funding was not disclosed, nor was the criteria for selection besides the requirement that they contribute to foster the growth of Saudi Arabia’s embryonic film industry. “We invite international filmmakers to collaborate with filmmakers in the kingdom and join us on our journey to accelerate talent and sector development in Saudi,” said Majed Z. Samman, who is head of performing arts and cinema at Ithra, announcing the fund at the Cannes market during a panel at the Saudi pavilion.

Back in 2012, Liam Scholey and Andres Budnik, assistants at WME and Creative Partners Group respectively, met by chance at Laurel Hardware, a vibey bar-restaurant in West Hollywood. Scholey, who grew up in Panama, overheard the Chilean Budnik speaking Spanish, and the two got to talking.

EXCLUSIVE: MrBallen, otherwise known as John Allen, the former Navy SEAL turned breakout podcaster behind Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, has launched his own management company.

EXCLUSIVE: German production and sales outfit Augenschein, best known so far for thrillers Stowaway and 7500, is at the Cannes market talking to buyers about new thriller Islands (working title), which is due to star Control and Maleficent actor Sam Riley.

EXCLUSIVE: Mandalay Pictures (Air) Yale Entertainment, and Post Film have partnered to produce a new thriller titled Barron’s Cove, starring Garrett Hedlund (Mudbound), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect, X), and Hamish Linklater (The Big Short).

EXCLUSIVE: Producer Moshe Diamant, film financing company Chiltern Media, and the Santa Monica-based sales firm Film Bridge International have set a sales and production partnership to launch at this week’s Cannes Market.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Stacey Offman, Jigsaw Production’s exec VP of development and production, is exiting the company to work as an independent producer, Variety has confirmed. Longtime Jigsaw producer Erin Edeiken to serve as head of production for Alex Gibney’s shingle going forward. Offman, who is exiting on May 19, joined Jigsaw Productions in 2012. In her 11-year tenure at the documentary production company, Offman was part of the team that launched Jigsaw’s television branch as well as the creation of a vertical of non-fiction series and documentaries for an array of studios and broadcast partners. Offman’s recent projects include Jigsaw’s “Dirty Money,” a six-part investigative series which exposed corruption and financial malfeasance in some of the most influential companies and industries. The series began streaming on Netflix in January 2018. In addition, Offman developed “Salt, Fat, Acid Heat,” a 2018 four-part Netflix culinary travel series based on Samin Nosrat’s book by the same name, which won a James Beard Media Award. Offman also spearheaded notable political projects including Showtime’s Emmy winning “Kingdom of Silence” (2019) and Apple TV’s Emmy nominated series “The Line” (2021).

EXCLUSIVE: Tye Sheridan is launching his new production company, Dogwood Pictures with its debut film, Black Flies, is set to play in competition at the 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, the pic reunites Sheridan with Sean Penn after over a decade since Malick’s The Tree of Life. Sheridan first became involved with the film in 2018 and continued on throughout the film’s execution and release.

Kiss rocker Gene Simmons and Gary Hamilton, Chairman of sales and production company Arclight Films, have launched a new production company called Simmons/Hamilton Productions.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and Gary Hamilton, chairman of Arclight Films, have launched Simmons/Hamilton Prods. to develop, finance and produce feature films. The standalone banner will produce 25 movies over an initial five-year period, with a focus on action, thriller and genre titles with global franchise potential. The company is backed by a multi-billion dollar fund manager that is providing slate financing through a revolving finance facility. Arclight Films’ CFO Brian Beckmann was responsible for closing the slate funding deal. All films created under the new company — which was first discussed five years ago, and recently firmed up — will be produced by Simmons and Hamilton, both of whom are in Cannes for the festival. The focus is to build a feature film production company, targeting original theatrical product that can be developed into franchise properties.

Remember the author of that children’s book about grief — the one who was just arrested for the murder of the husband she wrote about grieving? Well, his family is speaking out, and they have a lot of disturbing details to share.

Sophia Scorziello editor Luminate, the entertainment industry data company, has launched the beta version of their new platform. The new design gives users better insight into entertainment consumption and audience outreach across music, film and television industries. For the last three decades, Luminate has been the resource behind Billboard Charts, providing access to music sales, streaming and airplay. “As uncertainty surrounding AI and other technological advancements begin to inundate the entertainment industry, there’s never been a more pressing time for transparency and objectivity in how data is used across music, film, TV, streaming video content and more,” said Rob Jonas, Luminate CEO, in a statement.

Finding love on set! Soap operas including Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and One Life to Live have inspired love stories both on and off the screen.

Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice 2 has continued to round out its cast with the addition of Willem Dafoe (Inside), sources have confirmed to Deadline.

Angelique Jackson On the heels of winning a Peabody Award for the Showtime docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” W. Kamau Bell has launched a new production company, Who Knows Best, and inked an overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures. Bell, an Emmy-winning producer, director, host and comedian, founded Who Knows Best Productions (WKB), an Oakland-based company, with the mission of “fostering a diverse creative community and telling revolutionary non-fiction stories by any medium necessary.” WKB launches with a multi-year overall deal with Boardwalk Pictures (the award-winning production company behind “Chef’s Table,” “Cheer” and “Welcome to Wrexham”) after the parties partnered on the critically acclaimed four-part documentary “We Need to Talk About Cosby.”

Jennifer Lopez is an assassin with a plan in her new movie The Mother, which is a true testament to her creative range.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are rumoured to have cooled off their friendship off-screen.

— which sought to help kids cope with losing a loved one.Nearly a month after that, while promoting her book, Kouri gave an interview to the ABC affiliate KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah and opened up about how she and her sons are grieving the loss of her husband and the father of her children, Eric Richins, who died on March 4, 2022. She recalled the sudden death as «unexpected» and that it «completely took us all by shock.»Fast-forward to May 8 — a mere 62 days after she published her children's book — Kouri was arrested on charges of aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.More specifically, prosecutors allege Kouri murdered Eric after poisoning his Moscow Mule cocktail with a deadly dose of fentanyl.