Sony Pictures Entertainment & Viaplay Extend Multi-Year Content Partnership

XFL, the football league founded by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners has made an exclusive global multi-year agreement with the Walt Disney Company and ESPN.The deal, which was announced Tuesday by Johnson and Garcia onstage at Disney’s Upfronts presentation, which included all of its brands, will mean that every regular-season and playoff game from the XFL will be presented on an ESPN/TWDC platform. XFL will return Saturday, Feb.

EXCLUSIVE: Laura Fitzpatrick has joined Sony Pictures Imageworks as Vice President, New Business. In her new role, she will be responsible for third party VFX business development and strategic planning for long-term growth. She will also oversee worldwide sales, marketing and client engagement, reporting to Executive Vice President Michelle Grady. Upcoming projects Fitzpatrick will have a hand in include the animated features The Sea Beast and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Manori Ravindran International EditorIn one of the first major deals of the Cannes market, Sony Pictures Classics has swooped on Un Certain Regard title “All The People I’ll Never Be.” The distributor has picked up rights in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.The film, which is written and directed by Davy Chou (“Diamond Island”), will be re-titled as “Return to Seoul.” It premieres in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.The pic centers on 25-year-old Freddie, who impulsively returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. The headstrong young woman starts looking for her biological parents in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American rights and other territories to “All The People I’ll Never Be,” a film from writer and director Davy Chou that is playing in the Un Certain Regard section on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival. SPC is also planning on re-titling the movie in English, “Return to Seoul,” which is the translation of its actual title in French. In addition to North America, the distributor also acquired rights to the film in Latin America, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.“All The People I’ll Never Be” is the story of a 25-year-old woman who, on an impulse, returns to South Korea for the first time where she was born before being adopted and raised in France.

Ahead of its world premiere in Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, the Davy Chou directed and written feature All the People I’ll Never Be has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn a further expansive move into production, London-based Protagonist Pictures is teaming with Madrid’s Mogambo, executive producers on “1917,” for a multi-year, multi-title strategic production partnership.Announced on the cusp of the Cannes Festival, the deal sees the two companies allying to finance, co-produce and sell up to five films a year, Protagonist CEO Dave Bishop and CCO George Hamilton, announced alongside Mogambo founders Ignacio Salazar-Simpson and Ricardo Marco Budé.They added in a statement that the partnership will focus on jointly green-lighting prestige third party filmmaker-driven titles with budget ranges of $5 million-$25 million, as well as strategic co-productions and development. Negotiated by Mogambo’s legal director Carlos Segovia and Protagonist’s COO James Pugh, Hamilton and Head of Acquisitions Luane Gauer, the alliance is another building brick for both companies as they seek to leverage co-production to create bigger and more ambitious movie productions.They can also bring to the table Protagonist Pictures’ muscle as a top European sales company.

EXCLUSIVE: Here is the hot project for international buyers for next week’s Cannes Market. Sony Pictures has preemptively acquired US rights to Miramax’s Here, a film adaptation of the celebrated Richard McGuire graphic novel that will reunite the Forrest Gump team: Academy Award-winners director Robert Zemeckis, screenwriter Eric Roth and star Tom Hanks, with Robin Wright also starring. It’s the quartet’s first time back together since the 1994 film classic, which won six Oscars including Best Picture.

Katherine Tulich Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel has renewed its film and TV supply deal with Hollywood studio Sony Pictures. The multi-year agreement covers new release movies, library titles and TV series.Foxtel, which is owned by News Corp. and Telstra, will be able to play the content on its pay-TV channels as well as its 2020-launched streaming service Binge.Sony has enjoyed a succession of movie hits in the past year.

Sony Pictures saw its fourth quarter profits reach $84 million (11 billion yen), up significantly from when the film division posted a loss of $2.7 million the same quarter a year prior. And the Japanese conglomerate’s film division completed its fiscal 2021 with $1.67 billion overall (217.4 billion yen) operating income, up 55% from the previous year.

Refresh for latest…: For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, Sony Pictures Entertainment saw a 172% increase in operating income to 217.4 billion yen ($1.67 billion). Revenues hit 1,239 billion yen ($9.5 billion), up 55% versus the previous year.

EXCLUSIVE: Luis Gnecco (The Two Popes), Claudia Ramírez (Nice Sunday) and Juan Manuel Bernal (Perfect Obedience) will lead the upcoming thriller Confessions, from Sony Pictures International Productions, Alameda Films and Zamora Films, which has wrapped production in Mexico. Also amongst the cast is Ana Claudia Talancón (The Crime of Padre Amaro), who will make a special appearance.

EXCLUSIVE:  Jonathan Gist has joined Sony Pictures Entertainment as Executive Director of Global Intersectional Marketing, supporting all of the studio’s labels, including Columbia Pictures, 3000 Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Affirm Films and Sony Pictures Animation.

China and Hollywood used to seemingly have a healthy, symbiotic relationship. Hollywood released massive blockbusters in the Asian nation, they made massive bank, audiences were happy, and presumably Chinese theater owners were doing quite well for themselves, along with Hollywood often got massive box office boosts from the country.

EXCLUSIVE: The Goldbergs star Wendi McLendon-Covey has signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television, the studio behind the hit ABC comedy series. Under the pact, McLendon-Covey will develop for the studio across all platforms.

Sam Raimi stepped into the offices of Sony Pictures in an impeccable black suit to pitch himself to direct “Spider-Man.” He had no reason to expect he would get the job.“My agent, Josh Donen, said, ‘They want to be honest with you. There’s about 18 directors they’d rather have than you on a list,'” Raimi recalls. “And I said, ‘OK, well, tell them I’m number 19.'”When Raimi finally did get a meeting, he found himself in a room that included Sony Pictures CEO John Calley, Columbia Pictures chair Amy Pascal, Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad, Sony film executive Matt Tolmach and the film’s producer, Laura Ziskin.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films has acquired international rights (outside of China) to the dark comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, from director Halina Reijn (Instinct).

Development on a live-action “Robotech” movie began back in 2007 at Warner Bros. with a fleet of writers each taking a crack at turning the beloved Japanese anime series from the 1980s into a Hollywood feature film.

SEE: Gordon Ramsay's wife Tana stuns in jaw-dropping dress at Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz's weddingHolly shared an adorable snap of herself twinning with two-year-old brother, Oscar. The blonde beauty rocked an oversized grey sweater for the family snap, holding her baby brother on her hip.

Brooklyn Beckham, 23, and Nicola Peltz, 27, are currently enjoying post-nuptial bliss following their $3.5million wedding earlier this month - and the newlyweds certainly aren't afraid to demonstrate their PDA on their social media platforms.SEE: Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham's lavish menu inside $3.5million weddingTaking to Instagram on Monday to share Nicola's heartfelt gesture with fans, Brooklyn posted a delicious-looking snap to his Story, revealing a giant box of sugared doughnuts. The sweet treats were from California Donuts, a retro-style bakery in Los Angeles.WATCH: Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz's wedding - all the detailsThe budding chef revealed a love note left for him by Nicola, which read: "Good for you.