Skydance Animation Inks Multi-Year Merchandising Deal With Spin Master

EXCLUSIVE: Horror-thriller All Fun And Games, starring Asa Butterfield (Sex Education) and Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), begins production today in Canada with joining cast including Benjamin Evan Ainsworth — who has the title role in Disney’s upcoming Pinocchio — Keith David (Greenleaf) and Annabeth Gish (The Fall of the House of Usher).

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s The Mediapro Studio has secured local adaptation rights to Belgian TV primetime hit “The Musical of Your Life,” which won the award for best factual entertainment format at this year’s MipTV International Format Awards.The deal has been negotiated with Belgian international distribution company Be-Entertainment, which represents the format’s rights globally.Created and produced by indie company Dedsit, the first season of the show recently aired on Belgium’s Play4 channel, scoring a spectacular 35.7% average market share. Dedsit is already working on a second season.Set in a theatre, each episode of “The Musical of Your Life” pays tribute to a celebrity, someone beloved and admired by the entire country.  The celebrity is invited to the theater to join the host for a unique up-close and personal interview about all the key moments of his life.

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Logan, creator of Acorn TV’s Harry Wild and writer on Roald Dahl film To Olivia, is developing a crime drama TV series set in Malta with his Harry Wild co-writer Jo Spain.

EXCLUSIVE: West Side Story star Rachel Zegler is set to provide the voice of Princess Ellian, the the lead role in Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation’s new animated musical feature, Spellbound. Ellian is the tenacious princess who must go on a daring quest to save her family and kingdom after a mysterious spell transforms her parents into monsters and threatens to cover Lumbria in darkness forever.

Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott keep proving that they’re couple goals.

Peter Phillips attended Prince Philip's thanksgiving memorial service on Tuesday accompanied by his two daughters. Princess Anne's only son was not joined by the girls' mother, his ex-wife Autumn Kelly, and walked the aisle of the Abbey with the two girls alone. Savannah, 11, and Isla, 10, were two of the younger royals in attendance at the royal occasion to give thanks and remembrance to the late Prince Philip who died last April age 99.The Queen's granddaughters stood out from the crowd in their smart, navy outfits and made headlines along with their father, Peter, 44.

Youth Cultural Bonus was officially approved last Wednesday (March 23) by Spain’s council of ministers in hopes of restoring cultural and creative industries that have suffered during the ongoing pandemic.Recipients will have one year to spend the digital voucher, a €200 (£170) spending cap on live events and festivals, a €100 (£85) cap for physical products such as vinyl, and a €100 cap for digital products. Food, textbooks, and instruments can’t be bought using cultural vouchers.The official Spanish government website states: “Following the example of nearby countries, such as France or Italy, where similar initiatives are already being practised for young people who turn 18, the Youth Cultural Bonus is intended for those people who reach the age of majority in the calendar year in which it is requested.”The statement continued: “The Youth Cultural Voucher project seeks to facilitate universal and diversified access to culture for young people, generate new habits of cultural consumption and strengthen existing ones, create new audiences, stimulate demand and reduce the negative impact caused by the pandemic on various cultural sectors in our country.”They also shared that they hoped the vouchers would “promote loyalty that generates the habit of consuming cultural products in young people so that, as adults, they continue to consume cultural products regularly.”Similar plans to increase cultural spending have taken place in both France (€300) and Italy (€500).

It’s going to be another warm and sunny weekend in Greater Manchester. And what better way to spend it than going for a walk with family and friends, enjoying a few drinks in a beer garden or kicking back in your own back yard?

Children's TV icon Timmy Mallett is to auction off a limited print of his painting depicting the River Tay at dusk to support a charity that helped his late brother, who died in 2018.

Emilio Mayorga Jose Zelada and Richard Claus’ “Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon” (Peru, Netherlands), Cesar Cabral’s “Bob Spit: We Do Not Like People” (Brazil) and Hugo Covarrubias’ Oscar-nommed “Beast” (Chile) are some of the animated works in the running for the 5th Quirino Awards, the biggest prize event on Spain, Portugal and Latin America’s burgeoning animation scene.In addition to a ceremony, the Quirino Awards includes an industry co-production and business forum for animation titles from the region.The Quirino event will also host meetings including one of the Ibero-American CAACI state film-TV agencies, and another of Ibermedia, the region’s key international co-pro and distribution fund. Brazilian feature “Bob Spit” and Chilean short “Beast” nabbed the highest number of nominations, each securing four.

EXCLUSIVE: ESPN has added more lacrosse to its linear and streaming offerings via a new rights deal with the Premier Lacrosse League, a burgeoning league whose initial years on the air were with NBCUniversal.

Skydance Animation has set a multi-year licensing deal with Spin Master, the children’s entertainment company known for creating popular properties like PAW Patrol.

Rich Moore, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind such titles as Zootopia and Wreck-It Ralph, has entered into an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with Skydance Animation, which will see him create, develop and produce original animated features for the studio.

Skydance Animation has landed another major talent.Rich Moore, director of “Zootopia,” “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” is joining the team in an exclusive, multi-year overall deal. Under the new pact, Moore will create, develop and produce original animated features for the studio.

Filmmaker Judd Apatow has hammered a multi-year production film and TV pact across NBCUniversal including Universal Pictures and Universal Studio Group. The parties’ working relationship began with the 2005 $177M-plus grossing comedy blockbuster The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Apatow’s movies have grossed close to $3 billion around the world, the studio’s most successful original comedies.