Nat King Cole’s Estate Sells ‘Broad Range of Rights’ to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group

The wife of a Broadway stagehand who fell to his death from a ladder 30 feet over the stage at an empty Winter Garden Theatre in 2020 is suing the producers of the Beetlejuice musical, claiming that the production companies involved in the show were negligent and failed to provide proper protections.

Martin Scorsese’s Boston gangster movie “The Departed” was loosely based on the thrilling Hong Kong crime epic “Infernal Affairs” that starred Asian superstars Tony Leung and Andy Lau. Well, the pair of actors are reuniting for a new thriller, “Goldfinger,” aka, “Once Upon A Time In Hong Kong,” that will be written/directed by Felix Chong, who penned the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy.

Shoppers will no longer be able to pick up free-range eggs from today in some of the UK's biggest supermarkets, including Morrisons and Sainsbury's.

Prior to its deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group which was announced last week, the Nat King Cole estate sold a stack of the late musician’s recordings to Universal Music, it has now emerged.Cole had a career-long relationship with Capitol Records, which was acquired by Universal when it bought the EMI record company back in 2012. However, in the latter part of his career a by then famous Cole negotiated a deal with Capitol that allowed him to retain the rights in his later recordings, which he then licensed back to the label.According to Forbes, the estate sold those rights to Universal in a deal worth somewhere between $10 million and $20 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMushroom, Australia’s largest independent label group, and Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, a division of Universal Music Group, have announced a multi-layered global partnership to support and distribute Mushroom artists’ releases worldwide, outside of Australia and New Zealand.Under the terms of the agreement, VLMAS will provide promotion, marketing and audience label services to Mushroom’s existing US and UK infrastructure. In addition, selected Mushroom artists’ releases will be issued through UMG’s major label network, when agreed by both parties.Mushroom’s Chief Executive, Matt Gudinski said “Mushroom has been a market leader for decades in Australia and today we take another huge step in building Mushroom into a truly global brand.

Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group last week announced a deal with the family of the late Nat King Cole which sees the company take an interest in the musician’s recording and publishing rights, as well as his name and likeness, plus an archive of TV shows.Co-founded by veteran artist manager Azoff, Iconic Artists Group has been competing with the various investment funds that are seeking to buy up the music rights of heritage artists and songwriters, but also has a focus on managing and monetising the brands and trademarks of such acts as well, as is the case with this deal with the Cole estate.Confirming said deal, Cole’s children Timolin and Casey Cole said: “We’re delighted to entrust our father’s legacy to Irving Azoff and the team at Iconic. Through the years, it’s been amazing to see how dad’s music continues to inspire and bring people together, and with Iconic at the helm, we know his musical legacy will endure and continue to grow”.Meanwhile, Azoff added: “We are THRILLED that Nat King Cole’s family is trusting us with his musical legacy.

Mirror singer and actor Anson Lo has joined the cast of Bizhan Tong’s upcoming action thriller Chungking Mansions. Billed as Hong Kong’s biggest zombie film ever, the Phoenix Waters Productions pic, in co-production with AMM Global and Salon Films Japan, has also added Hong Kong-Canadian actresses Selena Lee and Jeannie Chan, Korea’s Choi Si-Hun and Hong Kong actor Louis Cheung.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAsian sports streaming platform SPOTV has launched in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and The Philippines. The move was announced on the first day of the virtual FilMart rights market.The service is available as a subscription-based app that includes linear channels and on demand event coverage. The sports it covers include MotoGP World Championships and World Superbike Championships; World Badminton Federation Tour; the Korean Baseball League; V.League Japan and Formula E motor racing.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefOrganizers of Hong Kong FilMart, normally Asia’s biggest film and TV rights market, are putting on a brave face despite their prestige event being forced into an online-only format for the third time in a row.The city’s borders are closed to travelers from several key countries and its onerous quarantine on-arrival conditions show no sign of being lifted during the current fifth wave of COVID-19 infections.But, while many Asian industry executives have been unable to attend an in-person festival or market for some two years now, and are keenly awaiting the first opportunity, these days they are also vastly more experienced at dealing with virtual markets, video conferencing and online screenings. The number of companies participating as exhibitors at FilMart 2022 is set to reach 750, compared with 680 last year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSuperstar Puerto Rican songwriter-producer Tainy, who has helmed such hits as “I Like It” (by Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin), “Dakiti” (by Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez), and “Telepatia” (by Kali Uchis), has sold his pre-2021 music catalog to fast-rising Influence Media (Influence Media Partners).Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although sources tell Variety it was in the $25 million range.The San Juan native (real name: Marco Masis) has appeared on Variety’s Hitmakers list several times and spoke with us about his hits last year. A four-time Grammy nominee and Latin Grammy winner, Tainy has helmed hits for Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Rosalia, Lauren Jauregui, Zion & Lennox, Anuel, Ozuna, Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel, Rauw Alejandro, Jhay Cortez and more.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editortoday (March 9). He is based in the Republic Records Los Angeles office.Most recently, Beard  spent a decade at APG, where he rose from intern to senior VP of A&R and brought in Charlie Puth, Alex Benjamin and Pink Sweat$; he also has worked closely with David Guetta, Jason Derulo, Pitbull and Flo Rida, in addition to songwriters such as Amy Allen, Sean Douglas, Madison Love, Salem Ilese, and others. He also worked extensively as a DJ in nightclubs across the U.S., on-air for KIIS-FM and at private events.Goldstein said, “Miles has really set the pace for pop music with an unbelievable winning streak of incredible signings throughout the past decade.

Leonard Cohen is the latest artist whose song rights have been bought, after his estate reached a deal with the Hipgnosis Songs Fund for an undisclosed sum.According to Rolling Stone, the deal includes all 278 songs that Cohen wrote, including his most popular songs ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Suzanne’, ‘So Long, Marianne’, ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and more.The investment company obtained the “songwriter’s share” of 127 songs from Cohen’s Stranger Music catalogue, which covers the period of the inception of late musician’s career through to the year 2000; derivative works pushes the total to 211 songs.Hipgnosis also acquired the ownership of 100 per cent of the copyrights, “publisher’s share” and “songwriter’s share” of royalties of the latter part of his catalogue, spanning from 2001 to his death in 2016.“To now be the custodians and managers of Leonard Cohen’s incomparable songs is a wonderful yet very serious responsibility that we approach with excitement and fully understand the importance of,” Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement.“Leonard wrote words and songs that have changed our lives, none more so obvious than ‘Hallelujah’ but there are so many more that we look forward to reminding the world of on a daily basis.

Marisa Tomei says that she still hasn’t been paid for her work in The King of Staten Island, nearly three years after she filmed the movie.