TodayTix Group Buys Secret Cinema, Plans International Expansion for Immersive Entertainment Company (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Seoul- and Los Angeles-based Bound Entertainment (Apple’s Dr Brain) is teaming with author Ann Liang to develop her genre-bending YA debut novel, If You Could See the Sun as a series.  

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has announced its plans to expand global operations. The former head of studio at DNEG Bangalore and Chennai, Kiran ‘KP’ Prasad will head a full pipeline studio which will be based in Mumbai.  The visual effects division of Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in San Francisco and has studios in Vancouver, London, Singapore and Sydney. It will open a new full pipeline studio, operating full visual effects and animation services for film and television in Mumbai to gain access to the talent base in the region.  Prasad will lead operations and report to ILM SVP and General Manager, Janet Lewin. 

EXCLUSIVE: Former Legendary Entertainment executive Vasco Xu is joining forces with Hong Kong business exec Brian Cheng and Chinese venture capitalist Sun Ge to launch a Los Angeles and Beijing-based international production venture, Conqueror Entertainment. Cheng and Sun will both serve as Co-Founders, with Xu as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing corporate affairs, creative development, production, marketing, distribution and franchise management. Cheng is a member of one of Hong Kong’s biggest business families, while Sun is the founder Chinese VC company Grains Valley. Xu said the company will develop and produce feature films and series, both in English and Chinese, for the international and domestic Chinese market.

Olivia Newton-John died.EXCLUSIVE: Remembering Olivia Newton-John - Her family, Dolly Parton, Sir Cliff and more share memoriesThe Grease star was surrounded by the people she loved when she passed away aged 73 at her ranch in California in early August. In HELLO!’s Breast Cancer Awareness special, Dionne joined Dolly Parton and Sir Cliff Richard in paying tribute to the late star.Speaking from the heart exclusively to HELLO!, the Grammy Award-winning singer got emotional as she detailed her grief following the sad news."Olivia was very, very special to me as is her family and I’m going to miss her an awful lot," she told HELLO! "It hit me pretty hard of course.

The stars are stepping out for a special fashion event!

Manori Ravindran International Editor It may officially be the year of the tiger in the Chinese Zodiac calendar, but in the world of film, it’s definitely the year of the wee donkey. The humble equine features in films such as Searchlight’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and even Neon’s “Triangle of Sadness,” but nowhere is this loyal beast of burden in the spotlight more than Janus Films and Sideshow’s “EO,” from legendary Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. The film — which shared the Cannes Jury Prize with Félix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s “The Eight Mountains” — shares a vision of modern Europe through the prism of a gray donkey, EO, who is torn away by animal activists from his beloved circus performer owner, and passed from hand to hand in the service of humans. On his life’s path, EO meets all sorts of people and experiences joy and pain, as well as disasters and unexpected bliss.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor J Eatedali has exited Twitch to join UTA as an executive in the company’s gaming and esports department. Prior to joining UTA, Eatedali served as the co-head of creator acquisitions, retention and programs at Amazon-owned Twitch (alongside Toby Berlin), where he and the team were responsible for contract negotiations for the livestreaming platform’s top creators. Eatedali will be based in UTA’s Los Angeles headquarters and will report to Damon Lau, head of gaming and esports at the global talent, entertainment and sports company. In the position, Eatedali will lead the team’s gaming advisory business by helping existing UTA brand clients including Apple’s Beats by Dre and L’Oreal “navigate the rapidly evolving gaming landscape,” according to the company. He also will be tasked with bringing on new clients, including gaming and non-gaming-endemic brands.

EXCLUSIVE: Olivia Culpo (I Feel Pretty), Nestor Carbonell (The Morning Show), and Oliver Cooper (Project X) have joined the cast of Yale Entertainment’s Clawfoot.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Coolio recorded lines for the “Futurama” revival at Hulu just weeks before his death at age 59. “Futurama” executive producer David X. Cohen told TMZ that the rapper reprised his role as Kwanzaa-bot for the revival, even recording some new music as the character. Fans of the series will recall that Kwanzaa-bot was the counterpart to Robot Santa and the Chanukah Zombie. Every year he flies around the world distributing a book called “What the Hell is Kwanza [sic]?” He originally appeared in the Season 4 episode “A Tale of Two Santas” and again in the Season 7 episode “The Futurama Holiday Spectacular.” He also made a cameo in the “Futurama” film “Bender’s Big Score.”

EJ Panaligan editor Focus Features has shared the trailer for upcoming biographical drama “Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies” from director Michael Showalter. The film stars Jim Parsons as Michael Ausiello, a real-life entertainment journalist who experiences the death of his partner, Kit Cowan (played by Ben Aldridge) over a prolonged 11-month period due to terminal cancer. The film’s story, which was penned by screenwriters David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage, is based on Ausiello’s 2017 book of the same name. In the book, Ausiello chronicled the last year of his partner’s life and their 13-year relationship before Cowan died of a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer in February 2015.

Secret Cinema, the London-based immersive entertainment company, has been acquired by TodayTix of the U.S. plans for a national tour Stateside in 2023 and a permanent location in LA.

EXCLUSIVE: Punchdrunk, the immersive theater company behind New York City’s long-running Sleep No More production, has signed with CAA.