Tanya Easterman Named CEO of Jumpline Group (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaReese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has forged a storytelling partnership with World of Women (WoW), the NFT collective that is cracking open the male-dominated world of crypto currency while celebrating inclusivity and equality. World of Women launched in July 2021 with some 10,000 artworks from women creators, quickly becoming one of the most popular and profitable purveyors of non-fungible tokens.As part of the partnership, Hello Sunshine will build out the World of Women character universe and franchise into entertainment properties including feature films, scripted and unscripted TV series.

Mary J. Blige, fresh off her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, will hit the stage to perform at the 53rd annual NAACP Image Awards, which airs live Saturday, February 26 on BET.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn a major move in the publishing world, Sony Music Publishing has announced the appointment of Walter Jones as executive vice president and head of A&R, effective February 22. In the role, he will oversee the company’s U.S.

Quiana Burns’s leadership role at Tamron Hall is becoming permanent. The Good Morning America Weekend executive producer joined the syndicated daytime talk show as interim executive producer in October, shortly after Tamron Hall moved from ABC Entertainment to ABC News where it is overseen by the team of ABC News President Kim Godwin. It was Godwin who announced Burns’ official appointment today.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR on Wednesday named Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch the honorary starter of the season-opening Daytona 500.Murdoch, the executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corp., will wave the green flag Sunday to start “The Great American Race.” The 64th running will be aired live on Fox, which is in contract negotiations with NASCAR on the current television deal that expires at the end of the 2024 season.The Daytona 500 will have a heavy Fox presence: Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson, a Fox Sports analyst, is the grand marshal.

Fans are noticing the Twitter like that Dylan O’Brien handed out yesterday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaParamount Plus will be the exclusive streaming home for all Paramount Pictures movies beginning in 2024.The announcement, which was made at ViacomCBS’s investor day on Tuesday, is a sign of how much the media giant is investing in its streaming service. It means that the company will forgo lucrative and profitable short-term licensing revenue in order to grow its library of content and with it, build its subscriber base.

Rising UK drill rapper Central Cee has shared "Khabib," the opening track of his upcoming mixtape 23. On "Khabib," the West London rapper makes his case for being one of the best out right now.

Hard pass. Michael Che didn’t exactly accept Kanye West‘s offer to double his Saturday Night Live salary if he stops working with Pete Davidson.

Christopher Vourlias Germany’s Sola Media has closed a wave of international sales for the animated feature “Finnick,” produced by Riki Group, which will be released by Sony Pictures Russia in Russia and CIS on March 24.The CGI-animated comedy follows the adventures of 13-year-old Christine, who befriends the young prankster Finnick – one of the furry and usually invisible beings known as Finns. The odd couple has to team up as detectives to solve the mysterious events happening in their city.The Stuttgart-based sales agency has inked deals with Eagle Pictures (Italy), Independent Films (Benelux), Koch Films (German/Austria/Switzerland), Vertigo Releasing (U.K.), Tanweer (Greece), Selmer Media (Scandinavia), Myndform (Iceland), Rialto (Australia and New Zealand), and Black Sheep Films (South Africa), and holds exclusive distribution rights in multiple additional territories.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaOlivia Mascheroni has joined Verve Ventures. She will be part of a growing independent sales and financing team that is led by Amy Beecroft and Ross Putman.Mascheroni most recently served as director of Ddvelopment at Madre Venturers, a venture capital firm, and served as executive of new media at The Blacklist prior to that. She has also held positions at both Blumhouse and CAA, where she worked in both the Television and Motion Picture Literary Departments.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaTaylor Tomlinson has mined her up-bringing in a devout Christian family for laughs in her comedy act and Netflix stand-up specials. Now, her story will be the basis of a new feature film.Village Roadshow Pictures has acquired the rights to an untitled movie based on the life of the hit stand-up comedian, outbidding several other suitors. Paul Weitz will direct from a script written by Tomlinson and Taylor Tetreau.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterBrightcove Inc. has named former ViacomCBS exec Marc DeBevoise chief executive officer and board director of the software company and video platform.Previously chief digital officer of ViacomCBS and CEO and president of CBS Interactive, DeBevoise will begin his tenure as Brightcove CEO on March 28.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaQ’orianka Kilcher will star in and produce “Yesteryear” alongside a cast that includes Scott Haze, Wes Studi and Nick Cassavetes. “Yesteryear” is written and directed by Adam VillaSeñor (“In Full Bloom”) and definitely seems to connect thematically with some of the challenges facing America and the world.The film follows Alma Deswood (Kilcher), a struggling, young Native actress who psychologically unravels in quarantine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has acquired North American rights to “9 Bullets,” a new crime thriller with “Game of Thrones” star Lena Headey and “Avatar’s” Sam Worthington. The studio is planning a day-and-date release in April. “9 Bullets” centers on a showgirl (Headey), who risks everything when she rescues a young boy after his family is murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who also happens to be the local crime-boss (Worthington).

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Midnight and Shudder have closed a multi-territory deal for “She Will,” a psychological horror directed by artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert.The film is a gothic fairy tale about Veronica Ghent who after a double mastectomy, goes to a healing retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi. There, she discovers that the process of such surgery opens up questions about her very existence, leading her to start to question and confront past traumas.

Cynthia Nixon, went from being ambitious in her career and somewhat settled in her marriage to Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) to pushing her career to the back burner and falling for Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), a non-binary, semi-celebrity comedian. The plot for the beloved character has been polarizing, to say the least, with Nixon publicly defending Miranda's journey multiple times. In a new documentary special, which was released by HBO Max on the same day as the show's season 1 finale, Nixon reveals that Miranda actually had an entirely different love interest when the reboot was first conceived. «Originally, when [showrunner] Michael [Patrick King] was trying to think about what would happen in our season, he talked about Nya, Miranda's professor being the romantic relationship,» Nixon shares, referencing Professor Nya Wallace, played by Karen Pittman. «Nya was a straight character and Miranda's a straight character and I was like, 'Well, that doesn't sound very sexy at all.' Two women who've gotten to this age and who are now just fumbling around.

Cynthia Nixon, went from being ambitious in her career and somewhat settled in her marriage to Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) to pushing her career to the back burner and falling for Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), a non-binary, semi-celebrity comedian. The plot for the beloved character has been polarizing, to say the least, with Nixon publicly defending Miranda's journey multiple times. In a new documentary special, which was released by HBO Max on the same day as the show's season 1 finale, Nixon reveals that Miranda actually had an entirely different love interest when the reboot was first conceived. «Originally, when [showrunner] Michael [Patrick King] was trying to think about what would happen in our season, he talked about Nya, Miranda's professor being the romantic relationship,» Nixon shares, referencing Professor Nya Wallace, played by Karen Pittman. «Nya was a straight character and Miranda's a straight character and I was like, 'Well, that doesn't sound very sexy at all.' Two women who've gotten to this age and who are now just fumbling around.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaFocus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “Brian and Charles,” a quirky and heartfelt comedy about an unlikely friendship that debuted to rave reviews this week at the Sundance Film Festival.The film centers on Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, who builds unconventional contraptions that rarely work. He soon sets out on his biggest project yet — spending three days to turn a washing machine and various spare parts into Charles, an artificially intelligent robot who learns English from a dictionary and has an obsession with cabbages.Polygon’s Oli Welsh praised the film’s “warmth and tenderness” while Thrillist’s Esther Zuckerman wrote that the movie is “adorably whimsical and downright touching.” Director Jim Archer developed the film with Film4, which co-funded the production, and the BFI, which awarded funds from the National Lottery.