Tracey Lincoln Joins Imagine Entertainment As VP, Community And Brand Partnerships

EXCLUSIVE: The ancient Scottish town of St Andrews was hit with a heavy bout of  Spidey fever this past weekend as the third annual Sands International Film Festival opened, pulling in an eclectic set of films, filmmakers, and speakers alongside one popular guest of honor. 

EXCLUSIVE: Garrett VanDusen has joined Brad Krevoy’s Motion Picture Corporation of America as Vice President of Physical Production, Deadline has learned.

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime manager Michael Botti has joined Redefine Entertainment as a Partner, effective immediately. Botti is the first Partner added to the company since its founding in 2021.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”), John Hannah (“The Mummy”) and British newcomer Alanah Bloor are set to join Turkish lead Can Yaman in “Sandokan,” Lux Vide’s reboot of the cult Italian TV series about the adventures of its titular pirate who, with his motley crew, fights against colonial powers in Southeast Asia. Shooting is set to start April 22 outside Rome on this high-end reboot of Italian writer Emilio Salgari’s exotic epic.

EXCLUSIVE: Dale Dickey has been tapped for a heavily recurring role in the upcoming second season of Max comedy Bookie, from Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay.

EXCLUSIVE: Alloy Entertainment has promoted Elysa Koplovitz Dutton to the role of Executive Vice President of Theatrical Film Production, the company’s President and Chief Creative Officer Leslie Morgenstein announced on Monday.

Lauren Piester “Station 19” is about to hit a huge milestone, but it’s bittersweet. Just three days into production on Season 7 of the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, as plans for a celebratory 100th episode were beginning to develop, new showrunners Peter Paige and Zoanne Clack learned that the show had been canceled. Season 7 would be its last, tasking them with not only ushering the show into a new era, but also to a satisfying ending.

Alex Ritman Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (“Augure by Baloji,” “My New Friends”), French producer Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu,” “Staying Vertical”), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (“The Blue Caftan,” “Our Mothers,” “Casablanca Beats”) and Canadian film critic, journalist and frequent Variety contributor Ben Croll have been named on the jury for the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival. The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.

EXCLUSIVE: CJ 4DPLEX and Cinépolis are expanding their partnership with the launch of four new ScreenX locations in Mexico.

EXCLUSIVE: Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter, award-winning actress and author Fantasia Barrino Taylor or Fantasia (The Color Purple) is launching Rock Soul Productions, a new entertainment company that she has formed in partnership with award-winning live event producer, and artist manager Yvonne McNair. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Rock Soul Productions is a full-service operation with divisions centered in the areas of management, production, and entertainment ventures.

EXCLUSIVE: Sandrine Holt (Daredevil: Born Again) and Corbin Bernsen (The Curse) have been tapped for recurring roles on Your Friends and Neighbors, Apple’s new drama series created by Jonathan Tropper, which is based on his original idea.

Katcy Stephan Peter Dager has landed a lead role opposite Owen Wilson in AppleTV+’s new comedy series from Jason Keller. The comedy stars Wilson as Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago. After he gets fired from his job at an Indiana sporting goods store and his wife walks out on him, Pryce hedges his bets entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom, who will be played by Dager.

Heavy rain and snow have sparked travel chaos as Storm Kathleen batters large parts of Scotland.

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime Industry Entertainment managers Adam Levine, Brandy Rivers and Michael Hepburn have left to start a new management/production company that they have named Amplified. The trio, who come from talent (Levine, Hepburn) and lit (Rivers) backgrounds, are bringing all of their clients to the new venture.

Katcy Stephan WME has promoted Francesca Blackburn and Alex Rowley Egarian to partner in the brand partnerships department, Variety has learned exclusively. London-based Blackburn joined WME as an assistant in 2007 and was promoted to agent in 2018. Blackburn initially worked in the music department before joining the brand partnerships team when the group expanded to London.

EXCLUSIVE: This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will unspool in close collaboration with Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Scottish capital’s historic performing arts event, under a new expansive partnership confirmed today by the two organizations. 

EXCLUSIVE: Alloy Entertainment’s Head of Film Elysa Dutton has written a children’s book and her employer is turning it into its first animated feature film.

EXCLUSIVE: Brit-French newcomer Billie Boullet, who recently scored a Critics Choice nomination for her portrayal of Anne Frank in Nat Geo and Disney+ series A Small Light, has joined Luke Evans (Beauty And The Beast) and Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) in sci-fi survival thriller World Breaker.

Before reaching A-list status in Hollywood, some celebrities were once roommates in the early years of their careers. Many celebrity roommates, such as Dianna Agron and Lea Michele, met and lived together because they starred in the same show. In this case, Agron and Michele were both actors of "Glee," and decided to room together while filming.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia, where popular anime characters such as “Captain Tsubasa” and “Dragon Ball” protagonist Son Goku have been engrained in the culture for decades, is taking its love affair with Japanese manga content to the next level. In late March, just a few weeks after the death of “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama, it was announced that the world’s first theme park dedicated to the megahit Japanese manga and animation franchise will be built in Qiddiya, the massive entertainment and tourism project outside the Saudi capital of Riyadh through a joint venture between Qiddiya and Japan’s Toei Animation.