Showtime Sets Its Sights On Phil Spector Docuseries With Trailer & Premiere

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor CANNES — International TV sales veteran Jim Packer has set a multi-year deal with Lionsgate that will keep him on the senior management team as president of worldwide TV distribution. News of his contract extension was revealed Oct. 17, just as the Mipcom content marketplace kicks off this week in Cannes, bringing the global TV community together for the first full time in three years. Packer has been with Lionsgate since 2011. The news that he has re-upped comes at a time of uncertainty for the studio. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has said the company, which is home to the Lionsgate studio and Starz pay TV platform, is considering options for separating those assets, possibly by selling off the studio to focus on building up Starz.

Phil Cohen has joined Paramount Pictures as Senior Vice President of Literary Affairs. Cohen comes to Paramount from Warner Bros., where he was a literary exec responsible for sourcing and developing books, comics, long-form articles and podcasts for Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. TV and HBO Max.  

Manori Ravindran International Editor BBC Film boss Eva Yates has set out her new editorial team, with the BFI’s Kristin Irving joining as a commissioning executive, and Anu Henriques boarding as a development executive. Meanwhile, Claudia Yusef has been named commissioning executive, expanding her responsibilities across development and production. Irving was a senior production and development executive at the BFI’s Film Fund. She formerly worked in a number of development roles including for production company Portobello Pictures on films such as Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winning “Ida.” She also worked across sales at sister company, Fandango Portobello. At the BFI she has exec produced films including “Rye Lane,” “A Gaza Weekend” and “The Origin.” She joins BBC Film in November.

Chloe Moretz joins the cast of her new show The Peripheral at New York Comic Con 2022 on Saturday (October 8).

Production has wrapped on The Blind, a biopic of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson with a theatrical release date slated for Sept. 22, 2023 as distribution plans are being finalized.

Before Sunday's Manchester derby everybody was asking whether Manchester United would be able to stop not just Manchester City, but more specifically Erling Haaland.

Manchester City players must ignore any outside noise and focus on their individual roles in Sunday's derby with Manchester United.

Showtime Sports announced today that veteran journalist, host and sports broadcaster Rachel Nichols will join Showtime Basketball as both a host and producer, contributing to multiple platforms, programs and projects.“We are delighted to welcome Rachel Nichols to the SHOWTIME Basketball family,” said Brian Dailey, Senior Vice President, Sports Programming & Content, Showtime Networks Inc. “Rachel brings unmatched journalistic credibility, great familiarity with our roster and a work ethic that will take us to another level.”Nichols will contribute to SHOWTIME Basketball’s premium, award-winning storytelling as she bolsters a group that features Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, JR Smith and King of NBA Twitter Josiah Johnson.“I’ve been so fortunate to live my dream job alongside some of the best journalists in the business for more than 25 years, and this new development deal with SHOWTIME Sports gives me my most broad playing field yet,” Nichols said.

EXCLUSIVE: Addie Weyrich, Sydney Kuhne and Sabrina Wu are set as leads in FX’s untitled half-hour comedy written by Lauren Ludwig (American Auto, Rob Riggle’s Ski Master Academy).

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The FX comedy pilot “English Teacher” has found its main cast, Variety has learned exclusively. Stephanie Koenig (“Lessons in Chemistry,” “The Offer”), Enrico Colantoni (“Just Shoot Me,” “Station Eleven”), and Julian Sergi (“Ramy,” “War Dogs”) have all joined as series regulars. Carmen Christopher (“The Bear,” “Killing It”), Jordan Firstman (“Big Mouth,” “Ms. Marvel”), Yissendy Trinidad (“Babylon,” “You’re Not Alone”) and Langston Kerman (“Insecure,” “The Boys”) will all appear in recurring roles. “English Teacher” was originally ordered to pilot in June. Production is now underway. Brian Jordan Alvarez wrote the pilot and stars as Evan, a gay high school English teacher in Austin, Texas. The show follows him and his fellow teachers “trying to balance the competing demands of the students and their parents in a world where the rules seem to change every day.” Alvarez is also an executive producer on the pilot along with Paul Simms, who is currently an executive producer on the FX shows “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Atlanta.”

SPECTOR, a four-part docuseries diving into the story behind late music producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector.First announced back in August, the four-part series will predominantly focus on Spector’s involvement in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, of which he was convicted in 2009. It’ll feature archival footage of Spector himself – a voiceover in the trailer sees him argue that he “had nothing to do with [Clarkson’s] death” – as well as newly recorded interviews with figures close to both him and Clarkson.“He did not like to be alone – he had abandonment issues,” one voice in the trailer said of Spector’s personality, while another claimed that “Phil Spector enjoyed bringing people to his home and locking them inside”.An official synopsis for SPECTOR – directed by Sheena M.

K.J. Yossman Warner Bros. Discovery Intl President Gerhard Zeiler has set out the company’s post-merger strategy, re-iterating his belief in cinema as well as his commitment to “local stories,” despite the fact that HBO Max recently halted local original programming across a number of European territories, including in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey. “If you want to be a global player, you have to have relevant local stories,” Zeiler said at the Royal Television Society’s (RTS) annual convention in London on Tuesday morning. “I mean don’t misunderstand me, the big kids will always be the Batmans, the Elvises, the Black Adams, which premieres next month here in the U.K.” He also pointed out that WBD invests in local films, citing productions in Japan and Germany, as well as streaming content.

Jimmy Kimmel is taking his late-night show back to Brooklyn with a week of Jimmy Kimmel Live! shows from the East Cost. ABC has now confirmed the full lineup of guests set for “Kimmel in Brooklyn” that will be broadcasted in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.