Roundtable Entertainment Sets Multi-Picture Financing, Production & Distribution Deal With Slated

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Los Angeles-based real estate developer The Ratkovich Company, which brought the Hercules Campus in Playa Vista to life for Google and YouTube Studios, and a J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives investment group have acquired a three-acre property near Downtown Culver City with plans to develop it into a creative campus like others in the area occupied by Amazon, Apple, WarnerMedia, Sony, TikTok, Nike and Adobe, Variety has learned exclusively. Dubbed “The Bowcroft Collection,” the 73,035-square-foot group of connected buildings stretches from 5950-5978 Bowcroft Street, near the intersection of Jefferson and Obama Boulevards in Los Angeles.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Cody Ryder has joined Park Pictures as senior executive producer for commercials and co-head of film and television. Ryder is the first executive producer at the company to serve in a dual capacity across its commercial and feature film divisions. Ryder previously served in the TV and branded content department at Plum Productions. There, she developed pitches and produced branded content until becoming a freelance line producer based out of New York. Ryder has been freelance ever since until she decided to join the ranks at Park in its Los Angeles office.   Ryder’s projects include the recently released Kendrick Lamar short film “We Cry Together”and the “We Matter Too” PSA produced with Common’s Imagine Justice organization. She has worked with brand clients including Coca-Cola, Old Navy, Verizon, McDonald’s, Chevy, Reebok, Instagram,and Kia, to name a few; and artists like LCD Soundsystem, Kanye West, Haim, Brandi Carlile and Questlove. Her feature film work includes “The Art of Self Defense,” “The Clovehitch Killer,” “Other People,” “Cop Car” and “Robot and Frank.”

UPDATED, 4:50 PM: William Sadleir, the former chief executive of Aviron Pictures, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for applying for and receiving $1.7 million in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program for Aviron entities when the entire operation was being shuttered because of his embezzlement.

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Angelique Jackson Prepare for more Black lady hilarity as Robin Thede’s Emmy-winning HBO comedy series “A Black Lady Sketch Show” has started production on its fourth season. Created by and starring Thede, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” was renewed in June following a strong third season that netted two Emmys — one for outstanding picture editing for variety programming (a trophy the series has won in back-to-back years, with editors Stephanie Filo, Bradinn French, Taylor Joy Mason and S. Robyn Wilson honored for Season 3) and outstanding directing for a variety series (Bridget Stokes). The first three seasons of the sketch series have garnered 13 Emmy nominations and three wins.

New Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade has talked up the potential for TMZ to become a “huge entertainment studio,” setting out his stall at Mipcom Cannes for the first time since he replaced Charlie Collier.

Khloe Kardashian and her famous siblings are known for throwing the best parties to celebrate any occasion. And as Halloween approaches, the reality star, 38, pulled out the stops to throw an adorably spooky children’s party for her daughter True and nieces and nephews in her massive Los Angeles mansion.Taking to Instagram to document the event, Khloe showed her 277 million followers how to throw a Halloween party and entertain the kids in Kardashian style.The party was well stocked thanks to an early drop off of a Halloween gingerbread house made courtesy of Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Travis Barker.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan-based development and production operation Organic Media is teaming up with Los Angeles-based sales agency and content aggregator Shoreline Entertainment in a strategic pact that sees Shoreline take responsibility for much of Organic’s sales function. The pairing will make its debut at this week’s MIPCOM TV rights market in Cannes. It will follow that with an appearance at the American Film Market in Santa Monica in early November. Organic was co-founded in 2019 by veteran sales and production executive Steve Chicorel and Kelly Mi Li (“Bling Empire”) and now has operations in Taipei, Los Angeles, London, Riga and Brisbane. The operation, now headed by Chicorel and Shari Hamrick, is currently in post-production on two movies and the second season of “Cypher,” a series for Roku.

Emiliano De Pablos Three years ago, platforms were asking Spanish producers for full rights to their TV fiction projects for all territories.  Times have changed. As platforms’ revenues taper off or slow in growth, originals are less habitual. Co-production is increasingly becoming the name of the game. A first-phase boom was triggered by Netflix titles “Money Heist” and “Elite.” Now, Spain is maintaining its momentum, remaining a priority region for Netflix, HBO Max and Prime Video. Newcomers Disney+, Paramount+ and Lionsgate+ have unveiled their first original productions.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Rick Caruso is confident that he’s going to be the next mayor of Los Angeles.  “I’m getting the job,” he says with a grin before sitting down to detail his vision for the future of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles in an interview with Variety‘s “Strictly Business.”  The real estate developer who is behind such retail destinations as the Grove and Glendale’s the Americana is vying against Congresswoman Karen Bass for the job of leading the nation’s second largest city at a time when L.A. is beset with crises — most acutely, the growing ranks of the unhoused.

Angela Lansbury, whose 75-year career in entertainment spanned big screens, small screens and the stage, died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 96.

EXCLUSIVE: Seoul- and Los Angeles-based Bound Entertainment (Apple’s Dr Brain) is teaming with author Ann Liang to develop her genre-bending YA debut novel, If You Could See the Sun as a series.  

EXCLUSIVE: Former Legendary Entertainment executive Vasco Xu is joining forces with Hong Kong business exec Brian Cheng and Chinese venture capitalist Sun Ge to launch a Los Angeles and Beijing-based international production venture, Conqueror Entertainment. Cheng and Sun will both serve as Co-Founders, with Xu as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing corporate affairs, creative development, production, marketing, distribution and franchise management. Cheng is a member of one of Hong Kong’s biggest business families, while Sun is the founder Chinese VC company Grains Valley. Xu said the company will develop and produce feature films and series, both in English and Chinese, for the international and domestic Chinese market.

FX’s Kindred, the new drama series based on Octavia E. Butler’s novel, will premiere Tuesday, December 13 exclusively on Hulu. The premiere will include all eight episodes. 

ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will team to televise the 2022 MLB Wild Card Series beginning Friday with four games, marking the debut of the reformatted and expanded baseball postseason.

EXCLUSIVE: Former MGM and Sony Pictures exec Eric Paquette’s film and TV company Meridian Pictures has struck a partnership deal with Saudi Arabian production house and literary management company Hakawati Entertainment.

Variety’s Entertainment Gaming Leaders report is an up-to-the-minute look at the key figures driving this dynamic intersection, where nothing less than a visual media revolution is taking place. Variety teams with Pixel United for first-ever Leaders in Gaming & Entertainment Breakfast Oct.

CBS has set its first-ever crossover between NCIS and its spinoffs NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Hawai’i for January 2023, Deadline has confirmed.

EXCLUSIVE: Olivia Culpo (I Feel Pretty), Nestor Carbonell (The Morning Show), and Oliver Cooper (Project X) have joined the cast of Yale Entertainment’s Clawfoot.