U.K. TV Production Rebounds, Turnover Nearly at Pre-Covid Levels

EXCLUSIVE: Production has officially wrapped on the upcoming action thriller Hellfire under the seasoned Isaac Florentine directing with a cast that includes Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe 1 & 2), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), and Dolph Lundgren (Expendables, Rocky franchise). Hellfire also stars Scottie Thompson, Johnny Bosch, Michael Sirow, Chris Mullinax, Maurice Compte, Levon Panek, and local actress Natalie Canerday amongst others.

Kendrick Sampson has launched BLD PWR Productions, a new production company that extends the impact of his advocacy initiative of the same name. The actor — best known for “Insecure,” “Miss Juneteenth,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “The Vampire Diaries” — is the co-founder of BLD PWR, which helped to mobilize thousands of protesters during the #BlackLivesMatter movement of summer 2020 and organized industry leaders to sign a letter calling for Hollywood to divest from the police. “The days of begging for a seat are over. This is what building our own table looks like,” Sampson said in a press release announcing the launch. “We will continue to challenge those in power, but we recognize that it’s not Hollywood’s job to reimagine our future… we have always been experts at our own narratives and we are taking that power back.”

The ratings are in for the first installment of Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football.”The streamer’s first live football game – the matchup between Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers — averaged 13 million viewers, per Nielsen. Based on Amazon’s own measurement metrics and Nielsen Media research, Prime Video reported that “Thursday Night Football” averaged 15.3 million viewers for the Sept.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Steckler is exiting his post as President of Film Production at Imperative Entertainment to focus on producing under his newly launched shingle Enhanced Hammer. In addition to leading his production company, he will act as a consultant to Imperative Entertainment on select projects. Steckler arrived at Imperative in July 2019.

Naman Ramachandran AGC International, the international sales and distribution arm of Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, has revealed a raft of pre-sales on Richard Linklater’s “Hitman” and Anna Kendrick’s “The Dating Game.” “Hitman” will begin production in New Orleans in early October and “The Dating Game” in Vancouver later the same month. “The Dating Game,” which marks Kendrick’s directorial debut, tells the chilling true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, who appeared on popular U.S. dating program “The Dating Game” — and was selected to go on a date with contestant Cheryl Bradshaw (to be played by Kendrick) — before his grisly crimes were ultimately exposed.

Carole Horst As industry mavens alight on the Zurich Film Festival, escalating inflation costs and rising interest rates are hijacking dreams of a post-pandemic recovery and rebirth. Together, these financing challenges are sitting on top of unstable budgets still coping with COVID-induced costs that continue to send production budgets 10% north on average.   Observers need to go back to 1981 to find inflation rates higher than the current 9% to 10% figure across Western nations, while prime bank lending rates are now sitting at 5%-6%, matching 2008-09 financial crisis levels.     Take the rising cost of borrowing first, following a decade of extremely cheap money, and the pressure on producers is now acute: “You’ve got to consider that most indie financiers are always looking to lower budgets anyway. Interest is a key cost line that many producers don’t understand or are forced to factor in late in the day,” says Brian Beckmann, CFO of Arclight Films, which is behind Russell Crowe-starrer “Poker Face.” “Now the cost of money has gone up all over the place.” 

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9-1-1: Lone Star. Ready as ever to be getting back into the swing of things is Rob Lowe, and he brought out a dad joke to prove that he fits the parental role both on screen and off. And of course, his real-life sons couldn’t help but to call him out for it.

Filming on “Chicago Fire” came to a halt after a shooting close to the set on Wednesday, Sept. 8.

local report, the full cast was on-scene, and three cameras were rolling when the gunfire broke out around 1:45 p.m. CT. The incident took place as exterior shots were being filmed at A.A.

J. Kim Murphy Filming on “Chicago Fire” was halted on Wednesday afternoon after a gunman fired at a group of people nearby the production set for NBC’s marquee drama series. In a statement to news media, the Chicago Police Department shared that an unidentified individual carrying a handgun shot at a group of people standing in the 5900 block of W. Madison Street at approximately 1:45 p.m local time. The suspect then fled the area in a dark-colored SUV. Authorities shared that nobody was struck by the gunman. The incident is currently under investigation. A source close to the production shared that reports regarding the decision to suspend filming after the shooting were accurate. Immediately following the incident, the production entered its standard security protocols.

Matthew McConaughey‘s movie is not moving forward.

EXCLUSIVE: Paradigm has signed Pasaca Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based media finance and production company behind the TIFF 2022 family drama, Prisoner’s Daughter.

The Rocky-esque fact-based women’s soccer film Dallas Sting has been abruptly scrapped six weeks from start of production. Full details weren’t yet forthcoming, but pic was scrapped over an impropriety that Skydance and the producers were made aware of. After they investigated, the allegations were serious enough to get them to pull out of the movie. Also out is Matthew McConaughey who was set to star as the coach of a  group of Dallas high school girls who headed to China in 1984 and beat some of the best women’s teams from China, Australia and Italy. Kaitlyn Dever was set to play the coach’s daughter.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney, Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and other major Hollywood players are pledging support for the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a major educational outreach initiative championed last year by George Clooney and others. Paramount and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises are also signing on to become founding partners of the Los Angeles Unified School District magnet facility. These companies join previously announced founding partners History Channel/A+E Networks, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group has committed to providing more than $4 million in funding for the school, which opened in August with 150 students at the Edward G. Roybal Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles.

David Harbour is set to star in Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions film adaptation of Gran Turismo. Neill Blomkamp is directing from a screenplay written by Jason Hall and Zach Baylan.

Amazon Studios, Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed on as Founding Partners of the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Creative Artists Agency’s Bryan Lourd, to support The Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a specialized academy created to drive transformational change across the industry by building a more inclusive pipeline of historically underrepresented college- and career-ready students pursuing below-the-line careers in film and television.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA’s unscripted television department is getting a new agent.

My favorite Toronto premiere memory was the one where eventual Best Picture winner Spotlight played to a raucous crowd reaction at the Princess of Wales Theatre, the emotion ratcheted up even further when the Boston Globe journalists who cracked the Catholic Church pedophile scandals took the stage and stood next to the actors who played them onscreen. It has been several years since TIFF has been able to show why this is such a special festival, because of the Covid epidemic and Canada’s protective lockdown of its borders. Last night marked a turning point for TIFF as a preeminent showcase for awards season movies, with the back to back Princess of Wales Theatre world premieres of Netflix’s Rian Johnson-directed Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, followed by the premiere of Amblin/Universal’s Steven Spielberg love letter to his family and a movie camera, The Fabelmans. Both of these films land squarely in the awards conversation.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Producers, studio executives and agents are hoping that when they touch down in Canada this week for the Toronto International Film Festival, things will look a lot like they did in 2019. That was the last time that the annual celebration of all things movies was at full capacity, with star-studded red carpets, packed premieres and the kind of late-night parties and boozy dinners that help grease the wheels for dealmaking. COVID changed all of that, leading to a nearly three-year hiatus for one of the major hubs of film sales and awards season launches. Last year, TIFF returned in-person, but at limited capacity, and most Hollywood players skipped it. But this time, the film industry is returning in force, hoping to sell movies, spot talent and make sense of a landscape that’s been altered by the global pandemic.