EXCLUSIVE: Beta Cinema has unveiled a raft of key territory pre-sales for Joachim A. Lang’s Joseph Goebbels biopic Führer and Seducer ahead of its market premiere at the EFM this week.
23.01.2024 - 14:35 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Shares of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE and UFC, popped more than 23% on news of its 10-year deal with Netflix for “Monday Night Raw.” TKO’s deal WWE “Raw” deal with Netflix, announced Tuesday morning, has an initial 10-year term for an aggregate rights fee of more than $5 billion, or $500 million annually. That’s up from WWE’s current five-year deal for “Raw” with NBCUniversal, said to be worth approximately $250 million-$260 million per year. Netflix has the option to extend the pact for an additional 10 years — or to opt out after five years.
Shares of Netflix were up less than 1% in early trading. The streaming giant is scheduled to report Q4 2023 earnings after market close Tuesday. In addition to the multiyear deal with Netflix for WWE “Monday Night Raw,” TKO Group announced that Dwayne Johnson has joined its board.
Under its TKO’s agreement with Johnson, he will provide promotional, licensing and other services to the company — and Johnson gains ownership of the trademarked name “The Rock.” TKO Group was formed last year by the merger of WWE and UFC, which was engineered by Endeavor (the existing owner of UFC). Beginning in January 2025, Netflix will be the exclusive new home of “Raw” in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Latin America, among other territories, with additional countries and regions to be added over time.
EXCLUSIVE: Beta Cinema has unveiled a raft of key territory pre-sales for Joachim A. Lang’s Joseph Goebbels biopic Führer and Seducer ahead of its market premiere at the EFM this week.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based sales and production outfit Totem Films has closed a slew of sales ahead of the Berlinale premieres of their Competition title “My Favourite Cake,” and the Panorama opening film “Crossing.” Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha‘s “My Favourite Cake” sold to Cherry Pickers for Benelux, Camera for Denmark, Arizona for France, Triart for Sweden, Cineworx for Switzerland and BIR for Turkey. Levan Akin‘s “Crossing” sold to Imagine for Benelux, New Story for France, Lucky Red for Italy, Avalon for Spain and Cineworx for Switzerland. As announced previously, a multi-territory deal was also signed with Mubi.
EXCLUSIVE: Coming off a three-year overall deal at Netflix, kids programming veteran Nancy Kanter is re-launching her production company, Available Light Productions, with several projects already in the works, live-action movie Wayward Girls; animated movie Penny Phantom, based on the novel Little Thieves by Margaret Owen; animated movie The Circus Ship, based on the picture book of the same name; and animated preschool comedy series Alexander the Post Fox done in partnership with Kevin Jonas.
Maya Jama has achieved another significant milestone in her career by gracing the cover of British Vogue alongside 39 other influential women, including icons like Oprah Winfrey, Victoria Beckham, and Cindy Crawford. The shoot, marking the farewell cover of editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, featured the Love Island presenter clad in elegant black lingerie, exuding confidence and allure as she posed among A-list company.
Yesterday, Netflix announced new series “Death by Lightning,” a drama retelling the rise of US President James Garfield and his subsequent assassination by Charles Guiteau. It’s the next title from executive producers David Benioff and D.B.
Cheshire’s top family attraction, BeWILDerwood, is reopening next month and to celebrate it’s offering a deal for those visiting during half-term. BeWILDerwood is a huge woodland adventure park, near to Cholmondeley Castle, around an hour’s drive from Greater Manchester.
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Comedian Bert Kreischer is sticking with Netflix, signing with the streamer to film two more stand-up comedy specials. This reps the fourth and fifth specials for Kreischer at Netflix, following “Razzle Dazzle” (2023), “Hey Big Boy” (2020), and “Secret Time” (2018). The first of the two specials will be filmed by Kreischer at the Mahaffey Theater in St.
Joe Otterson TV Reporter Vince McMahon has resigned from his position as the executive chairman of the board of TKO Group Holdings, Inc., the company formed by Endeavor that merged WWE and the UFC. “I wanted to inform you that Vince McMahon has tendered his resignation from his positions as TKO Executive Chairman and on the TKO Board of Directors,” WWE president and TKO board member Nick Khan said in an email to staff seen by Variety. “He will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE.” McMahon’s ouster comes after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against him, the company, and former WWE executive John Laurinaitis.
(Editor’s note: this post contain extremely sexually explicit details from the lawsuit against WWE founder Vince McMahon)
Ellise Shafer John Cena is in full support of WWE’s recent pact with Netflix to stream “Monday Night Raw” on the platform starting in 2025. At the world premiere of his new movie “Argylle” in London, Cena told Variety that the deal is “good for everybody” and congratulated fellow wrestler Dwayne Johnson — with whom he feuded in the 2010s — on joining the board of WWE parent TKO. “That’s great for WWE, that’s obviously great for TKO.
WWE‘s weekly flagship wrestling programme Raw will be shown on Netflix from next year.Starting in January 2025, Netflix will become the exclusive new home of Raw in the US, Canada, UK and Latin America, among other territories, with additional countries and regions to be added over time. This also marks Raw‘s departure from linear television after 31 years.Netflix is also set to show all WWE shows and specials outside the US, including its other weekly shows SmackDown and NXT, as well as the company’s Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble.“This deal is transformative,” said Mark Shapiro, president of WWE’s holding company TKO, in a press release.
Ozzy Osbourne is planning “two more shows to say goodbye” before he fully retires from performing live.That’s according to the former Black Sabbath frontman’s wife and manager Sharon, who spoke about Ozzy’s future during her Cut The Crap show at London’s Fortune Theatre on Sunday (January 21).“He won’t tour again but we are planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye as he feels like, ‘I have never said goodbye to my fans and I want to say goodbye’,” she told journalist Jane Moore (via Music News).Sharon continued: “His voice is still absolutely perfect. And all the time he has been off he still does his singing lessons.
After insisting publicly for years that it was not dead-set on pursuing sports rights, Netflix has made a landmark deal for one of cable TV’s staples, WWE‘s Monday Night Raw.
Angelique Jackson Lionel Richie has been very emotional lately, but he wants to reassure everyone that he’s okay. According to Richie, it’s just been a heady experience to look back nearly 40 years and relive all the wondrous and chaotic memories of writing and recording “We Are the World” for the new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop.” “Every segment of this journey, I cry,” Richie said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere.
Amazon Studios is getting into business with YouTube personality MrBeast.
Carlos Aguilar The image of Frida Kahlo, the prominent Mexican painter of the early 20 century, is one of the most replicated and commercialized of any artist in the history of the world. From T-shirts to houseware, merchandise of all sorts emblazoned with her face has turned Kahlo into a kitschy, mainstream, decontextualized emblem for Mexican identity.
Early in Yance Ford’s visual essay “Power,” he tells the audience that the film to come either requires “curiosity” or “at least suspicion” from the viewer. It’s the type of bold claim that might pack a punch as a rhetorical hook, especially for a documentary that dives into the cultural, social, economic, and political history of policing in the United States.
Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pitch International have signed a package of rights that will see them broadcast live international cricket hosted in India on its linear and digital platforms, TNT Sports and Discovery+, for the next five years.
True Detective series has been released, with Jodie Foster starring as police chief Liz Danvers.True Detective: Night Country, which premiered on HBO on January 14, follows the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of eight men from a research station in Alaska.Directed and co-written by Issa López, the series also stars Kali Reis, Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw and Oscar-nominated actor, John Hawkes. The second episode is set to air on January 21.What is the theme song for True Detective: Night Country?The fourth series features a well-known song by a Grammy-winning pop artist as its theme song.
Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Netflix is kicking off its Milestone Movies: The Anniversary collection with films that are turning 50 in 1974 — a group that happens to include some of the medium’s all-time classics. The anniversary titles will stream on the platform in the U.S., along with in-person special screenings starting in March at New York’s Paris Theater and L.A.’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades.