CNN Films


Participant rehires CNN Films exec to head up documentary content

Participant has rehired CNN Films exec Courtney Sexton to oversee all of the company’s documentary programming. Sexton will return to Participant early next year, having previously spent eight years as a development executive with the company, during which time she worked on projects such as An Inconvenient Truth, Food, Inc. and Page One: Inside The […]

CNN+ snags Ethan Hawke’s Woodward & Newman doc

US-based news network CNN has picked up The Last Movie Stars, Ethan Hawke and Martin Scorsese’s documentary about iconic Hollywood couple Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, to premiere on its upcoming SVOD service CNN+. Described as a film in “six chapters”, the project, which was first announced in 2020, is being directed by US actor, […]

‘The Lost Sons’ execs on finding creative partnerships & compelling characters

CNN Films and Raw’s latest factual collaboration, The Lost Sons, debuted on CNN yesterday and CNNgo today. Mark Layton talks to director Ursula Macfarlane, along with exec producers Liesel Evans and Amy Entelis, about bringing the project to the screen. As partnerships go, US-based CNN and UK prodco Raw have rare form. The duo scored […]

‘Three Identical Strangers’ creators CNN Films & Raw re-team for new investigative doc

CNN Films in the US and UK factual Raw have re-teamed to co-produce The Lost Sons, a new documentary feature about one man’s search to uncover the truth behind his own childhood disappearance. This marks the third collaboration between the companies, who also co-produced Three Identical Strangers in 2018, with CNN Films also having acquired The Imposter […]

CNN Films & BBC jointly commission Covid-19 vaccine doc

CNN Films in the US and UK pubcaster the BBC have jointly commissioned a feature documentary following the global quest to develop, trial, manufacture, and distribute Covid-19 vaccines. The film, which will be known as Race For The Vaccine in the US and has the working title of Vaccine: The Inside Story in the UK […]

CNN Films boards SpringHill’s ‘Dreamland’ doc about Tulsa race riots

US-based CNN Films has come aboard Dreamland: The Rise And Fall Of Black Wall Street, the documentary about the 1921 Tulsa race riot, produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The SpringHill Company. The project, which was announced earlier this year, is now in production and will explore the events of late May and June […]

HBO Max to launch in Latin America, unveils ‘free’ US deal

HBO Max is set to expand into Latin America after the streamer’s parent AT&T-owned WarnerMedia agreed a deal to take full control of HBO Ole Partners. WarnerMedia will acquire Ole’s minority stake in HBO Ole Partners, the joint venture set up in 1991 between WarnerMedia and Ole Communications, which will hand it 100% ownership of […]

HBO Max unveils first slate of CNN Originals, including Alex Gibney docuseries

HBO Max has rounded out a busy week for its unscripted division with its first slate of shows from WarnerMedia sibling CNN. The forthcoming streamer has greenlit two shows from CNN Original Series: Heaven’s Gate, a four-parter that explores the infamous religious cult of the same name; and Generation Hustle (working title). The latter is […]