Sony Pictures Television Launches Diverse Writers Program With Sixteen Aspiring Scribes

EXCLUSIVE: Ashley Marks has joined Sony Pictures as VP of Casting, covering all of the studio’s labels including Columbia Pictures, 3000 Pictures, TriStar, Screen Gems, Affirm Films and Sony Pictures Animation.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorFacebook is making it easier for independent artists and creators to share their music across the company’s different products — and get paid.For the Facebook Independent Artist Program, the company teamed with third-party music distribution companies DistroKid and TuneCore to help artists get their music on Facebook and Instagram quickly and at no cost to the artists.

Ethan Shanfeld Sean “Diddy” Combs has signed with WME in all areas and will launch “The Excellence Program,” a virtual development program and resume database for aspiring entertainment executives hailing from underrepresented communities.The Excellence Program, created in partnership with Endeavor, will debut on July 12.

April Shih, who has written on FX series including Dave, Mrs. America and You’re The Worst, is staying in business with the Disney-owned cabler.

EXCLUSIVE: Cobra Kai co-executive producers Joe Piarulli and Luan Thomas have signed a multi-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, the studio behind the popular Netflix series.

Jack Black is in talks to star with Ice Cube in Sony Pictures’ comedy Oh Hell No, to be directed by cutting-edge comedy director Kitao Sakurai. Matt Tolmach is producing through Matt Tolmach Productions with Black and Roz Music.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has swooped on world rights, outside Nordic, for Jalmari Helander’s World War II action film “Immortal.” Jorma Tommila and “Peaky Blinders” star Paul Anderson go head-to-head in the film, which is set to shoot in Lapland, Finland, in September.

EXCLUSIVE: Twenty-year Sony Pictures executive Peter Calvin Nelson is joining Samuel Goldwyn Film as the Head of Production.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSony Pictures has boarded Alê Abreu’s buzzed up animated feature “Perlimps,” the acclaimed Brazilian director’s follow up to “Boy and the World” which was nominated for best animated feature at the 2016 Academy Awards.A best animated feature-winner in the independent category at the 43rd Annie Awards, “Boy and the World” also took the top Cristal at the 2014 Annecy Festival.Several excerpts for the film will be screened on June 17 in this year’s

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLes Femmes s’Animent (LFA), France’s highly active women in animation organization, will launch its first international initiative at this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, Parcours de Femmes (Women’s Journey).A mentoring program, the diversity drive will help six French-speaking women writer/directors – three from France, three from Africa – produce their own animated short film.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer“Hannibal” and “Star Trek: Discovery” creator Bryan Fuller is attached to make his feature directing debut with an adaptation of the Stephen King novel “Christine,” which Fuller is developing with Sony Pictures.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures and Blumhouse are revving back up Christine, a new version of the Stephen King novel that Bryan Fuller is writing to direct. Jason Blum is producing for Blumhouse, and Vincenzo Natali and Steven Hoban are also producing.

Kinetic, from Chris Dennis, is an action thriller where a truck drive has to deliver dangerous cargo to save his pregnant wife. Paul Katis is attached to direct, with Carson Reeves.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all worldwide rights to the documentary “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” which is co-directed by five-time Academy Award nominee Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern, the studio announced on Thursday.The documentary is produced by Marshall, Suffern and Sean Stuart (“The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash”), executive produced by Quint Davis and Jimmy Buffett and features artists Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, Katy Perry, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many others.“We’re

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has taken all global rights to the documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story co-directed by five-time Oscar nominee Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern (Finding Oscar). Marshall recently directed the HBO documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart which is in consideration for this Emmy season.

Christopher Vourlias Sony Pictures International Productions has acquired remake rights for the Russian blockbuster comedy “Son of a Rich,” the country’s highest-grossing film of all time, Variety has learned.The studio has secured the Mexican, Indian, South Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian adaptation rights.

K.J. Yossman Sony Pictures Television has hired Michaela Fereday as senior VP of scripted production.Based in the U.K., she will begin her new role next week, reporting into senior VP of international co-productions, Brendan Fitzgerald.As senior VP of scripted production, Fereday will focus on productions coming out of Sony Pictures Television International Production, as well as overseeing premium scripted series commissioned abroad and produced in the U.K.

Sony Pictures Television has raided Red Production Company for Michaela Fereday, the head of production and executive producer on shows including HBO Max and Channel 4’s critically adored AIDS crisis drama It’s A Sin.

Jeffrey Katzenberg is stepping down as chairman of the board of governors at the Motion Picture & Television Fund, where he and his wife Marilyn have been among its biggest boosters and fundraisers for three decades.

Confusion and uncertainty would be good descriptors of how fans feel about Tom Holland’s future as “Spider-Man.” Sony Pictures‘ has multiple ‘Spider-Man’ spinoffs in the works developing their splinter cinematic universe featuring characters such as Venom, Carnage, Morbius, and Kraven, among others, but how does Spider-Man factor into those projects given, he’s so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which seems fairly disconnected from Sony’s Spider-verse? Continue reading Sony Exec Says Their