Sphere Media-Owned BGM Taps Kim Bondi As Senior Vice-President Of Development (EXCLUSIVE)

Manori Ravindran International EditorCanada’s Incendo and Los Angeles-based Nicely Entertainment have struck a development and production partnership beginning with the scripted limited series, “The Christmas Checklist.”The four-episode series will be available in the marketplace for the 2022 holiday season.Written by Lisa Hepner (“A Christmas Wish in Hudson,” “Christmas Lovers Anonymous”), “The Christmas Checklist” is a holiday-themed limited TV series targeted for release in December 2022. Incendo and Nicely Entertainment will develop and produce the series with Incendo responsible for distribution in English and French Canada, and Nicely Entertainment overseeing the U.S.

Naman Ramachandran Entrepreneur Karnesh Ssharma is launching Clean OTT, a streaming service focusing on female-oriented original content, in the first quarter of 2023.Female actors, directors and producers will be at the heart of the service, which aims to move away from the male gaze that plagues Indian content and to create a sustainable platform for female professionals to further their career in the entertainment industry, while also removing age barriers.The content will include originally curated and produced works by Clean and pre-selected projects that meet the Clean OTT messaging framework by other producers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.Ssharma is also a co-founder of Clean Slate Filmz (Netflix’s “Bulbbul,” Amazon’s “Paatal Lok”). The Clean OTT library will feature work from directors, scriptwriters, actors, and producers associated with Clean Slate Filmz, as well as providing opportunities to emerging talent.

More than 20 international media groups have heeded calls from Ukrainian news organizations to turn off Russian news channels.

AnnaLynne McCord was mocked on Twitter Thursday for posting a video of herself reading a poem to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Broadway’s real-life Max Bialystock.After producing “Ragtime” and “Show Boat” in the 1990s, Drabinsky was thrown behind bars in 2009 for keeping two sets of books for his Broadway production company Livent. In doing so, he misled investors into believing that money-losing flops were really big hits, bilking them out of some $500 million. The Canadian crook was only allowed to cross the border into the United States again in 2019 after charges here were dismissed with prejudice because he served time in Canada.

Manori Ravindran International EditorScrapbook-style book series “The Popularity Papers” is getting the TV treatment.Amy Ignatow’s award-winning middle-grade novels will be adapted for the screen by Corus Media-backed Aircraft Pictures, the Oscar-nominated producers behind “The Breadwinner,” and Emmy-nominated production company WexWorks Media.The original book series, for which the first installment was selected as a top-10 title of 2011 by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Project and won the 2010 Gold Award from the National Parenting Publications Association, tells the story of two best friends, Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, who are on a mission to crack the popularity code and dismantle the social construct for middle-schoolers everywhere. Using the scientific method, the girls conduct social experiments on their peers with hilarious results.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster ITV has commissioned real-life drama “Stonehouse,” from “A Very English Scandal” writer John Preston, directed by BAFTA-nominated Jon S. Baird (“Stan & Ollie”).

Facebook Reels, which launched on Instagram as a competitor of TikTok, has expanded to 150 countries as a feature on Facebook.

Brittany Aldean doubled-down on her criticism of the Biden administration in a Presidents’ Day social media post. "Happy President’s Day to such great U.S. presidents," reads a meme posted by the 33-year-old mother of two to her Instagram Story in which a portrait of Biden donning a face covering is smack dab in the middle of a grid of nine former presidents with the text "not you" affixed over his head.

Channing Tatum is planning to make the stripper movie to end all stripper movies.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami-based FiGa Films has announced a flurry of sales and acquisition activity during the EFM. Among its stellar pics is ‘Nudo Mixteco,” the first indigenous film it has handled, which HBO Max has picked up for the U.S., to bow in May.Uruguayan doc, “Straight to VHS,” winner of the prestigious critics award, the Fipresci, at the Buenos Aires indie film fest, Bafici, has been sold to IndiePix for the U.S. It also acquired the film on which the doc is based upon, “Act of Violence on a Young Journalist,” that will be released as an extra on home video.“We are delighted to collaborate with IndiePix and with their enthusiasm for ‘Straight to VHS,’” said FiGa Films’ Sandro Fiorin, adding: “Their plans for a home-video release full of extras sounds like an instant collectible item.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorAn eight-hour drama inspired by Carolyn Arnold’s “Madison Knight” detective novels is being developed by Muse Entertainment and Pop Fiction Entertainment.Hélène Joy (“Durham County,” “Murdoch Mysteries”) will star as Madison Knight, a daring detective who works to investigate criminals throughout the series. Orion Lee (“First Cow”) will portray Knight’s work partner, Detective Steven Hung.

An isolated house in the country, a small tribe of peculiar characters mostly keeping a wary distance from each other: That Kind of Summer (Un Ete Comme Ca) is a film set up perfectly for the pandemic era. The bonus zinger is that the house is a live-in retreat for supposedly, or maybe just possibly, recovering sex addicts. Nobody leaves, and everyone talks dirty. Denis Cote, the prolific Quebecois provocateur, must have been hugging himself when he thought of that one.

The Oscars might be going from no hosts to three this year.

who died Saturday at the age of 75, will probably be remembered for, it’s “Ghostbusters” — the blockbuster adventures of four misfits that blurred the lines between broad comedy, monstrous horror and working-class heroism. But while “Ghostbusters” may have been Reitman’s biggest financial success, it’s that particular blurring of the lines that was the filmmaker’s lifelong calling card.

Kanye West has drawn an Avengers-themed line in the sand, and ex Kim Kardashian and new boyfriend Pete Davidson are on the wrong side of it.

Kanye West has drawn an Avengers-themed line in the sand, and ex Kim Kardashian and new boyfriend Pete Davidson are on the wrong side of it.

Naman Ramachandran BritBox has picked up “Reel Britannia,” a documentary series on the history of modern British cinema, for the U.S., U.K., Canada and South Africa. The deal was closed by Abacus Media Rights (AMR), an Amcomri Entertainment company, who acquired worldwide distribution rights to the series from director Jon Spira and producer Hank Starrs of Canal Cat Films.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a memo that it has received reports that truck drivers may attempt to block roads at major events to protest vaccine mandates. This Sunday’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium is a likely target, according to an internal memo cited by several major media outlets.