Studios Say Goal Is Keeping “Production Active” As Talks Between WGA & AMPTP Set To Start Tmrw

Amber Gill made headlines back in 2019 when she and Irish rugby player Greg O’Shea were the surprise winners of the fifth series of Love Island. But these days, her love life is making headlines for a different reason, after the beautician recently went public with Arsenal and Scotland footballer Jen Beattie.

The Daily Show used to have a white host?

EXCLUSIVE: Broadway casting director Duncan Stewart, whose big-name clients include the Tony-winning Hadestown, the new Life of Pi and the acclaimed The Great Comet of 1812, is dissolving his Stewart/Whitley agency after 14 years to head up the new casting arm of global live event company RWS Entertainment Group.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief C More has commissioned a second, six-episode season of ITV Studios Finland’s glossy detective drama “Helsinki Crimes” (aka “Harjunpää”). The first season of Helsinki Crimes became one of C More’s most-watched crime series to date. After its launch on Netflix last year, in regions across CEE, Benelux, Austria and the Nordics, the series was one of the top ten most-watched series, and the third most-watched in Finland.  In the new season, Chief Constable Timo Harjunpää, portrayed by Olli Rahkonen, and his murder team investigate bloody clashes between street gangs, love scams and a wave of burglaries.

EXCLUSIVE: Peacock is developing drama series Queen of Flow, a premium adaptation of Caracol Television’s Colombian telenovela, La Reina Del Flow. Jorge Reyes is attached to pen the script for the project, fromWestbrook Studios and Universal Television. Singer and actress Becky G (Good Mourning, Power Rangers) is in early negotiations to lead the series, Deadline understands.

K.J. Yossman Former Amazon Studios Europe boss Georgia Brown has revealed her first industry role since leaving the streamer last year. She is set to chair a skills task force for the U.K. screen industry with the intention of focusing on critical labor shortages in the production sector. Joining her on the task force will be senior representatives from major U.K. broadcasters BBC, ITV and Channel 4 as well as international studios and streamers including Prime Video, Netflix, Disney and NBCUniversal, key orgs such as ScreenSkills, PACT and the British Film Commission and national screen agencies. The British Film Institute (BFI) have convened the task force following a skills review commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport showing crew shortfalls will soon reach breaking point. Its remit is to produce and support a plan of action that will result in growth, training and increased retention in the screen sector as well as improvements in equity, diversity and inclusion and mental health. Where appropriate, the task force will make recommendations to the U.K. government.

Former Amazon Studios Europe boss Georgia Brown is to chair the BFI’s Skills Task Force, which has been assembled to address major skills shortages in the UK film and TV sector over the next five years.

Bad Bunny is opening up about his first onscreen kiss with actor Gael García Bernal, calling it «badass.»In an interview for the April double issue of  magazine, the 29-year-old superstar shared why it was fun to film the 2023 biopic, the Roger Ross Williams-directed drama in which BB plays Bernal's character's lover.«It was cabrón (badass). My first kiss for a movie and it was with a man,» the Puerto Rican rapper told the magazine. «That's the penalty I get for being with so many women during my life.»Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also offered a glimpse as to why he said yes when producers asked him about kissing a man in the film.«If you’re acting, you’re being someone you’re not,» he explained.

Martha Stewart has no shame in her game.During an interview with E! News published this week, the lifestyle mogul revealed some insight into her current dating life — and it doesn’t include taking care of any men.“I know a lot of eligible men,” Stewart, 81, admitted to the outlet.“I think they really want a woman who will take care of them, so I’m still not quite in the position where I can take care of a man full-time because I work too much.”She also divulged that sometimes, dating takes a backseat because she is so focused on her work life. The entrepreneur said she had a “hard time” clearing time for both.

Martha Stewart is perfectly fine just taking care of herself. In a recent interview with E! News, the businesswoman explained that she has high dating expectations even though she knows "a lot of eligible men." "I think they really want a woman who will take care of them, so I'm still not quite in the position where I can take care of a man full-time because I work too much," she explained.  "If I analyze my life, I think the work has taken precedence over the romance.

Naman Ramachandran BAFTA-winning producer Patrick Spence is leaving ITV Studios after three years, Variety has confirmed. Spence, who serves as creative director, will leave at the end of March, ITV Studios managing director Julian Bellamy told staff via an internal memo on Thursday. Spence will continue to partner with ITV Studios on upcoming projects including “People vs. Post Office” (working title). Spence joined ITV Studios in 2020 and secured several acclaimed commissions, including the BBC’s drama-romance “Ralph & Katie,” a spin-off of “The A Word,” about the lives of a couple with Down syndrome; ITVX’s “Litvinenko,” about the investigation into the death of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko; the BAFTA-nominated Cold War spy drama “A Spy Among Friends,” also for ITVX; and post-pandemic frontline medical drama “Maternal” for ITV.  

EXCLUSIVE: Dan Taberski, the man behind podcasts including Missing Richard Simmons and 9/12, has struck a multi-show deal with Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios.

Amazon Studios is taking to the streets to promote Ben Affleck’s “Air,” which chronicles the beginnings of the iconic Air Jordan sneaker brand. The studio has teamed up with iconic sneaker culture icon Jason Markk to host a multi-city consumer experience, dubbed “Fresh Air,” which ties into the film’s social campaign, “A shoe is just a shoe until I step into it.” The activation will see guerilla street teams flood U.S. cities including Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago, in a unique opportunity to bring together sneakerheads and celebrate the culture and history of the sneaker community. The street team will also have a presence at the Jason Markk flagship store in L.A.

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 showed their support for the WGA on Monday, posing with WGA leaders shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the Writers Guild’s contract negotiations with producers at the AMPTP’s headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

The first international show to be greenlit in Ukraine since the start of the war has entered production.

Much like the beginning of a Congressional hearing on a hot potato political topic, expectations for the first day of talks between the WGA and AMPTP were high, but largely began with formalities.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America officially began negotiations on Monday with the studios, as the union seeks to increase compensation and set minimum standards for the size and duration of writers rooms. Over the decades, bargaining has become a highly ritualized process, with each step carefully scripted. The guild has already told members that the initial round of talks will last for two weeks. At that point, the WGA will advise the membership on “what next steps we believe are necessary,” said writer-director Kay Cannon in a video posted on Friday. If it’s anything like the last contentious negotiation, in 2017, the guild will seek a strike authorization vote, which would give negotiators leverage for the final round of talks.

EXCLUSIVE: First among Hollywood unions this year, the WGA is going face-to-face with the studios starting Monday in what’s expected to be contentious negotiations for a new overall contract. However, the atypical pole position for the hard-hitting scribes this labor round is a consequence of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ rebuke of the DGA efforts to strike a pact a few months ago.

Motherwell gaffer Stuart Kettlewell believes Fashion Sakala was offside for Rangers’ third goal at Fir Park - despite VAR ruling that it stood.

EXCLUSIVE: Angel Studios — the producer and distributor of the equity-crowdfunded, faith-based series The Chosen, which has done major business both online and in movie theaters — has today announced its launch of a theatrical division, as well as its appointment of Brandon Purdie as Vice President of Theatrical Distribution.