Sony Imageworks Expands To Montreal

EXCLUSIVE: Liza Koshy (A Family Affair) has closed a deal to star opposite Ariana DeBose, Amanda Seyfried, Megan Stalter and Chloe Fineman in My Ex-Friend’s Wedding, the new comedy from director Kay Cannon (Blockers) that Sony picked up in March, in a competitive situation.

Several times in recent years, Sony has used the Cannes Film Festival to promote a key upcoming title, despite the movies not officially being involved in the event — see Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation in 2018, 2017’s The Emoji Movie and 2016’s The Angry Birds Movie. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Aniplex, a Sony business unit best known as a major producer and distributor of anime films and series including the hit “Demon Slayer,” is to acquire Japanese IP development and talent management firm Origamix Partners. The firm will be expanded into live-action production. The deal was announced Wednesday and will become effective from June 1. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed other than Aniplex obtaining “a full share” of the company. Sony said that Origamix, which has previously been behind the “Kingdom” film franchise and the “Alice in Borderland” series, now in its second season at Netflix,” will be renamed Myragion Studio.

Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) subsidiary Aniplex Inc has acquired Origamix Partners Inc, the management company of Alice In Borderland director Shinsuke Sato, and will  relaunch the company under the name Myriagon Studio as of June 1.

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EXCLUSIVE: Hasan Minhaj is set to play Marshall opposite Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in Wayfarer Studios and Sony Pictures’ film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s highest-selling novel, It Ends With Us. Baldoni is directing. Alex Saks is producing for Saks Picture Company, along with Jamey Heath who is producing on behalf of Wayfarer Studios. Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar are also on board.

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Primetime Emmy nominee Rhea Seehorn has boarded the fourth installment of the $841M grossing Bad Boys franchise.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Álvaro Morte, immortalized by his performance as the Professor in “Money Heist,” has inked a multi-year producing deal with Sony Pictures Television through his Madrid-based production company 300 Pistolas, which he founded alongside Blanca Clemente. The accord sees 300 Pistolas, a theater company, making the transition into producing scripted TV, with Morte developing English-language scripted series exclusively with SPT, which he and Clemente will serve on as producers via 300 Pistolas.  Morte and Clemente will have access to SPT’s development teams. SPT will serve as exclusive production and distribution partner to any projects produced under the deal, SPT confirmed Wednesday.

Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled a July 14th release date and trailer for The Miracle Club, their Dublin-shot comedy that Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Agnes O’Casey lead for Emmy-nominated director Thaddeus O’Sullivan.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has revealed a raft of global sales on “Twisted Metal,” “The Winter King” and “Ten Pound Poms,” which will be screened to international clients this week during the LA Screenings market. Based on the PlayStation game series and starring Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz, action-comedy drama “Twisted Metal” has sold to India (SonyLIV); New Zealand (TVNZ); Australia (Stan); the Middle East (BeIN); Central and Eastern Europe (HBO and HBO Max) and across sub-Saharan Africa on MNET’s Showmax. The series will have its world premiere on Peacock in the U.S. on June 27. “The Winter King,” the King Arthur tale based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, produced by SPT-backed Bad Wolf, and co-commissioned by ITVX for the U.K. and MGM+ in the U.S., has been acquired for the Middle East by BeIN, in India (SonyLIV) and in Australia (Stan). The cast includes Iain De Caestecker, Ellie James and Eddie Marsan.

Sony Pictures Television has pre-sold Twisted Metal, The Winter King and Ten Pound Poms to international buyers as the LA Screenings gets underway.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The ASCAP Pop Music Awards honored “Stay,” by the Kid Laroi featuring Justin Bieber, as the org’s pop music song of the year Thursday night. That number came out on top as the performing rights organization calculated the most-played affiliated songs of the past 12 months, with results for the 40th annual awards revealed at a private party held for members at Yamashiro in Hollywood. The org’s interest in “Stay” is via ASCAP member Bieber, one of the co-writers on the smash. The song spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in mid-2022. Dr. Luke was named the songwriter of the year, largely for his participation in hits that have continued to do well off Doja Cat’s 2021 album “Planet Her,” primarily “Need to Know,” “Woman” and “You Right.” The success of Latto’s “High Energy” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” also contributed to the producer-writer achieving the highest number of plays for the year.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has snapped up U.S., Canada and key international for Studiocanal and Heyday Films’ threequel Paddington in Peru.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor K5 Media Group has rebooted its international sales arm, K5 Intl., recruiting five industry veterans. It will sell and distribute eight to 10 new titles a year, across both film and TV. In its former incarnation, K5 Intl., which was founded by Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur, represented premium film titles like “ANON,” directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen; Cannes competition title “Paterson,” directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Adam Driver; and Academy Award nominee “Land of Mine,” directed by Martin Zandvliet. K5 Intl. will be represented by its partners in Paris, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin and Cologne.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired all rights in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories to Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s upcoming Bossa Nova-themed animated film, “They Shot the Piano Player.” Sony Classics plans to release the film at the end of the year to qualify for year-end awards consideration.A true international production, the film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (“Chico & Rita”) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (“Josep”) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles”) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.From Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita,” “They Shot the Piano Player” is narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up rights to the animated feature They Shot the Piano Player for the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within the aforementioned territories. The film from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, two of the directors behind the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico and Rita, is set up for a fall awards push from SPC.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Group Corporation senior executives Thursday delivered a resoundingly robust exposition of their hardware-plus-software business mix, of continuing to grow Sony’s position in entertainment and acceleration of a strategy to address a diverse, globalized marketplace. Speaking at Sony’s annual corporate strategy day presentation, chairman and CEO Yoshida Kenichiro gave an almost Biblical explanation of the group’s origins. The Sony name, he said, is an extrapolation of the word ‘sound.’ One possible implication: in the beginning was the word. The corporation’s present is a hybrid, six division structure with entertainment functions music, games and pictures (film, TV networks and TV production) making up three of the six.

Sony Pictures has made updates to their domestic release calendar, pushing back the dates for some films by nearly a year. Newly added dates include: “Psycho Pass: Providence” —July 14, 2023 (Limited Release)“My Ex-Friend’s Wedding” —May 10, 2024“Horrorscope” —June 28, 2024 Release dates that have been moved include: “Harold and the Purple Crayon” —Aug. 2, 2024 (previously June 30, 2023)“They Listen” —Aug. 30, 2024 (previously Aug. 25, 2023) The Producers Guild of America has set its awards timeline for the 35th Producers Guild Awards with ceremony set to take place on Feb. 25, 2024, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA.

IMAX is ramping up its operations in France, as well as expanding its longstanding relationship with Kinepolis in Europe and North America. In France, IMAX will aim to nearly triple the number of its systems from the 22 currently in operation to more than 60. One of those will be in partnership with Belgian exhibitor Kinepolis in Nimes.

Comcast-owned Sky has extended its multi-year content agreement with Sony Pictures Television on the eve of the LA Screenings.