News round-up: Prime Video returns ‘The Bad Guy’; Acme & Lightbox team on ‘Mr Doodle’; CBS orders ‘Young Sheldon’ spin-off

The Bad Guy (Source: Fifth Season/Kimberley Ross)

Prime Video returns ‘The Bad Guy’

Amazon streamer Prime Video has returned Italian original drama The Bad Guy for a second season.

The show is directed by Giuseppe G. Stasi and Giancarlo Fontana, created by Ludovica Rampoldi, Davide Serino and Giuseppe G. Stasi, and written by Fortunata Apicella, Giacomo Bendotti, Giordana Mari, Ludovica Rampoldi, Davide Serino and Giuseppe G. Stasi.

The new season is produced by Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Carlotta Calori, Viola Prestieri at Indigo Film in a co-production with Amazon MGM Studios, in association with Fifth Season and in collaboration with Rai Cinema, which will broadcast an original Prime Video series on linear television for the first time.

Season two of The Bad Guy will be available on Prime Video in Italy in 2025, and later, on Rai, which will also broadcast the first season free-to-air. Fifth Season will handle international sales of both seasons in all other territories.

The Trouble With Mr Doodle (Source: Alun Callender)

Acme & Lightbox team on ‘Mr Doodle’

Acme and Lightbox have partnered on The Trouble With Mr Doodle, an independent feature documentary premiering at SXSW next week.

Directed by Jaimie D’Cruz and Ed Perkins, the film follows the story of Sam Cox, a 25-year-old British artist known as Mr Doodle, who bought a six-bedroom mansion in the English countryside, stripped it bare and painted it brilliant white, then spent more than two years covering every single inch of it in doodles.

Young Sheldon (Source: Bill Inoshita/Warner Bros. Entertainment)

CBS orders ‘Young Sheldon’ spin-off

CBS has ordered as as-yet-untitled spin-off from Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory, following the characters of Georgie and Mandy as they raise their family in Texas.

Montana Jordan and Emily Osment will reprise their Young Sheldon roles for the multi-camera comedy which is created by Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro and Steve Holland, from Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc. in association with Warner Bros. Television.

The show will launch in the 2024-2025 season, and comes as Young Sheldon prepares to conclude its seventh and final season in May.

OTF strikes US deals

US-based streaming platforms The Roku Channel, VIZIO and Xumo have acquired factual content in multi-genre package deals with international distributor Off The Fence (OTF).

Under the deals, many of OTF’s most popular history, crime, wildlife, nature, science and conservation programmes will become available on The Roku Channel, Vizio’s and Xumo’s streaming services in the US, the UK and Canada, with dual English/Spanish-language content becoming available in Mexico and the US.

Highlights from the The Roku Channel package include the Eight Production/New Zealand Film Commission’s feature-length doc More Than Gold; and Gebruder Beetz Filmproduktion’s A Century of Sex Education.

Under the deal with Vizio, OTF programming is headed for the US platform’s WatchFree+ free streaming service. Included in the package are Auschwitz In 33 Objects, produced by Polish indie Inbornmedia with Polsat Television and Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial; and Spiegel TV’s Hawaii: Paradise in the Pacific.

Headlining the Xumo package, which focused exclusively on OTF’s nature and wildlife content were two territory premieres: Butterflies: Superheroes Of Nature and Nature’s Ultimate Survivors.