Village Roadshow Developing Scripted Limited Series Based on the Life of Rev. Jesse Jackson (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: McFarlane Films is partnering with wiip and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Rooster Teeth Studios to develop RAW10, an adult animated series from creator Dan Dominguez (Gen: Lock), inspired by McFarlane Toys’ eponymous series of action figures.

EXCLUSIVE: Courtney Lauren Penn and Thomas Jane’s Renegade Entertainment has acquired bestselling author Candice Fox’s thriller, Gathering Dark, for development as a series. The project brings the trio back together on the heels of their success with the Amazon Freevee original series, Troppo.

EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles Media Fund has landed rights to Andrew DeYoung’s novel The Temps in a competitive situation with plans to develop it for television. Gabriel Bisset-Smith (The Last Hours of Laura K) will serve as the show’s creator.

After A Strange Loop capped the Tony Awards by taking the Best Musical prize, playwright Michael R. Jackson offered his main takeaway from the show’s unlikely path to the top: “It’s OK to be weird.”

The “Ghostbusters” franchise is expanding into the animated realm. Again.Netflix announced on Wednesday that the streamer and Sony Pictures Animation are developing an all-new “Ghostbusters” animated series to debut exclusively on Netflix.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHBO Max is developing a series adaptation of the novel “Dava Shastri’s Last Day” by Kirthana Ramisetti, Variety has learned exclusively.In the novel, Dava Shastri is one of the world’s wealthiest women. But when she learns she is dying of brain cancer, she decides to leak news of her death early so that she can read the obituaries from around the world. But once the news is out, secrets from her past are exposed that shake her and her children to their core.The project was sold to HBO Max in what sources describe as a competitive situation.

Selome Hailu Lizzo, a three-time Grammy winner, is entering a new awards season campaign — but this time, she’s a TV star.In March, reality competition series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” debuted on Amazon Prime Video. The project, now a contender in the Emmys reality race, was the first to come out of the Lizzo’s first look deal with Amazon Studios, and follows the singer as she puts 13 plus-sized dancers through a series of boot camp challenges in hopes of getting them ready to join her on tour.“Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” sets itself apart from other competition series from the start. Rather than focusing on dance training alone, Lizzo provides the contestants with personal enrichment opportunities with trained professionals in disciplines like sensual movement and photography.

Brenda Song is finding love via text.In Amazon Freevee's first original movie, , Song plays Alexa, who gets dumped on her birthday and is down on her luck. But things may be looking up when she and her co-worker, Jason (Aaron O’Connell), are up for the same promotion at their advertising firm.

EXCLUSIVE: Village Roadshow is teaming with the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts to develop a film based on New York Times bestselling-author Don Yaeger’s Turning of the Tide: How One Game Changed the South as a USC Original Film, a new initiative designed to support emerging and diverse filmmakers. This partnership supports Village Roadshow’s aim to consistently source fresh voices, and to support the next generation of innovators.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeDon’t call it a comeback. But thanks to sports, ever-expanding drama franchises and a handful of new hits, the Big 4 broadcast networks managed to avoid another year-to-year collapse during the now-concluded TV season.Football once again ruled primetime, led by NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” while “Thursday Night Football” showed up twice on Nielsen’s top-rated series’ chart due to a quirk of some games airing only on NFL Network, and others simulcast on both Fox and NFL. (This won’t be an issue next year, as “Thursday Night Football” moves to Amazon Prime Video — and off this chart.)But beyond that, network TV’s embrace of procedural dramas is giving broadcasters a fighting chance at survival.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterWarner Bros. won a significant victory Friday in its legal battle with its longtime financing partner, Village Roadshow, as a judge agreed to send the dispute to arbitration.Village Roadshow has teamed with the studio on numerous blockbusters over the last 25 years, including “Joker,” the “Ocean’s” series, and “American Sniper.” But the relationship foundered when Warner Bros. opted to release “The Matrix: Resurrections” simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, along with the rest of its 2021 slate.Village Roadshow sued in February, alleging that Warner Bros.

UPDATED with latest: Looks like Warner Bros. got its way.

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read unless you’ve watched the series finale of Bull on CBS. 

Clayton Davis After coming up short in the Oscar race for his role as Pa in Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Jamie Dornan is trying his hand at the Emmys for his work in the HBO Max series “The Tourist.” Assumed to be going into the brimming limited series categories, Variety has learned exclusively that HBO submitted the show in the drama categories for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards.The HBO series tells the story of a Northern Irish man who wakes up with amnesia in an Australian hospital. Following clues to his identity, he tries to find who he is, while his past threatens to catch up with him.

Aloy and the Machines are set to make their television debut on Netflix. A series adaptation based on the PlayStation action-adventure game Horizon Zero Dawn is in the works at the streaming giant, Deadline can confirm. Sources tell Deadline that the project is still in early development.

A follow-up to the $130M-plus grossing movie Law Abiding Citizen is happening with producer Lucas Foster and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer returning, as well as Gerard Butler and his G-Base partner Alan Siegel reprising their roles as producers.

A sequel is in the works to F. Gary Gray’s 2009 action thriller “Law Abiding Citizen,” which starred Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx.No cast has been set for “Law Abiding Citizen 2,” but Butler will return as a producer on the film along with his partner Alan Siegel for G-Base, and the film’s original producer Lucas Foster and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer will also be reprising their creative roles on the sequel.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVillage Roadshow Pictures has partnered with fellow financier and movie producer Rivulet Films on a feature film sequel to 2009’s “Law Abiding Citizen.” The original film, directed by F. Gary Gray, centered on assistant district attorney Nick Rice’s (Jamie Foxx) pursuit of Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), a frustrated father who implements an elaborate and twisted plan to bring down the entire judicial system in Philadelphia after a plea bargain sets free the man who murdered his wife and daughter.