Sony Pictures Animation Campus Acquired by Hackman Capital

Haley Bosselman editorCAA has promoted Albert Lee, Bryant Barile and Stephanie Smalling to agents in its motion picture literary department.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Television’s (SPT) international production division has signed a two-year exclusive first look deal with Nigeria’s EbonyLife Media for scripted content.SPT gets the first look at all new EbonyLife-controlled scripted television projects created, originated or developed by EbonyLife and intended for global audiences.The deal follows a multi-title deal EbonyLife signed in 2020 with Netflix to produce films and series.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEagle Pictures, a leading Italian distribution and production company, has signed a home entertainment distribution deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment Italia. Kicking off April 1, the deal covers the distribution of feature films and TV series on DVD and Blu-ray Discs in Italy.

Sony Pictures Entertainment recorded a $212M profit in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2020, good for a 316% upward swing versus the similar period in 2019. The profit increase for the three months ended December 31, 2020 was due to lower theatrical marketing costs and higher TV licensing and home entertainment sales from prior year titles, Sony Corp said in announcing results from Tokyo today.

Sony Pictures Classics has made some tweaks to its release schedule for four upcoming pics and one that’s already in theaters.

Craig Hunter, who is Director of Kids Networks at Sony Pictures Television, is joining YouTube Originals as its Global Head of Preschool Content.

Another film acquisition has come down the pike out of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. This time, the title being picked up is the drama Jockey, pegged as one of the flicks most likely to be bought at the fest.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Clint Bentley’s Jockey on the second night of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, acquiring all worldwide rights to the film.

Sony Pictures Television’s boutique production outfit Gemstone Studios along with creative agency Ideas United has selected Jenny Schuster’s dramedy Dirty Thirties as the winner of its inaugural Rising Storytellers Search, which seeks emerging voices and female-centric stories.

Sony Pictures TV has signed 88rising, the emergent company that spotlights modern global Asian culture, to a first-look deal. The two will partner to develop scripted series centering Asian and Asian American culture, across all platforms, and 88rising has hired former Imagine and NBC exec Alex Lin to serve as its first development executive for film and television.

Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management have acquired the Sony Pictures Animation Campus in Culver City, the partners said Tuesday. It’s their second venture in two days as transactions involving studio spaces explode.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television has put in development Mother Daughter Widow Wife, a one-hour limited series  based on bestselling author Robin Wasserman’s novel of the same name, with Wasserman attached to pen the adaptation. Sharon Hall and her Mom de Guerre productions will executive produce. Sony Pictures TV is the studio.

Ed Meza @edmezavarSony Pictures Entertainment Germany has picked up “Hide and Seek,” Ukraine’s first crime noir series, in a deal struck with ZDF Enterprises.The show is expected to air on the Sony Channel, available on German pay TV via cable and satellite, this fall in both German and original Russian language.Filmed in over 80 locations in the Ukraine, “Hide and Seek” is a tension-filled story about children who mysteriously disappear from a small industrial town and the two determined

Naman Ramachandran Peter Cattaneo will direct and Lesley Manville will star in a six-part series adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s acclaimed crime novel “Magpie Murders” for PBS Masterpiece and BritBox U.K.The U.K.’s Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleventh Hour Films (“Alex Rider”) is producing.

Also Read: Odessa Young, Colin Firth's 'Mothering Sunday' Acquired by Sony Pictures Classics“There is a reason underdog stories hold so much weight in the popular imagination, and we know the Mighty Mites’ true story of triumph over adversity — set in a time when much of the country was suffering — will lift the spirits of audiences worldwide.