Scripted


Cardiff Productions ups Narinder Minhas to CEO, as Pat Younge steps down as co-MD

Channel 4-backed Cardiff Productions has restructured its leadership team, with co-founder Pat Younge stepping down as MD. Narinder Minhas, previously co-founder and co-MD, will become CEO at the company, which was launched in 2020 and is supported by C4’s Indie Accelerator scheme and the BBC’s Small Indie Fund. Former Sugar Films founder Younge will become non-executive director, […]

Blue Ant Studios inks first-look deal with producer & director Lisa Cortés

Blue Ant Studios in Canada has struck a first-look deal with US producer and director Lisa Cortés to develop and produce new scripted and unscripted properties across documentary, music, history and biography, and narrative. Kicking off the collaboration, Cortés and Blue Ant are developing a docuseries based on Clover Hope’s book The Motherlode: The 100+ Women […]

Crunchyroll CEO Colin Decker exits following Funimation merger

Colin Decker, who became CEO of anime streamer Crunchyroll following its merger with Funimation last month, is exiting the company. Decker, who previously headed up Funimation, leaves the role after more than three years at Sony, which acquired Funimation in 2017. He will be succeeded by Rahul Purini, the current COO of Crunchyroll, who also […]

Carl Fennessy & Hugh Marks launch Dreamchaser, new Australian producer & distributor

Endemol Shine Australia co-founder Carl Fennessy and former Nine Entertainment CEO Hugh Marks are launching Dreamchaser, a new Sydney-based full-service production and distribution studio. Fennessy and Marks will serve as joint CEOs of the new firm, which will partner with established and emerging creators to develop “exceptional programming slates, cultivate distinctive creative identities and bring […]

UK’s Vertigo & Germany’s SquareOne team for YA vampire drama

UK-based Britannia indie Vertigo Films and Germany’s Totenfrau producer SquareOne Productions have teamed to co-produce Vamping, a new supernatural YA drama series. Set in Berlin, this new 8 x 60-minute series uses the city’s famously hedonistic, nocturnal LGBTQ+ club culture as the backdrop in which to tell the story of a vampire community that’s fighting to find its […]

Netflix shares plummet 33% as subscribers fall, prompting ad-supported move

Netflix shares have plummeted by more than 30% after it revealed a drop in subscribers for the first time since October 2011, prompting the world’s biggest SVOD to move into ad-supported streaming. Announcing its Q1 2022 results, the streaming leader revealed that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the quarter, prompting an investor sell-off that lopped […]

Italy’s MIA names new director & moves event before MIPCOM

Widely respected event organiser Gaia Tridente has been appointed director of fast-growing Italian content festival MIA – Mercato Internazionale dell’Audiovisivo, which has also unveiled it will now take place before MIPCOM. The eighth edition of the event will be held in Rome from 11 to 15 October, while MIPCOM is set to land in Cannes […]

Netflix teams with Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively to improve on-set representation

Netflix has teamed up with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s Group Effort Initiative (GEI) on a new program to help people from underrepresented communities gain career opportunities in the production industry. Participants will gain access to on-set production training, as well as work placements on Netflix productions in the US and Canada this year. GEI […]

HBO Max expands ‘Doom Patrol’ characters’ universe with horror detective drama

Warner Bros Discovery-owned HBO Max has ordered an eight-part horror detective series based on DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner.  Dead Boy Detectives is from Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), Doom Patrol’s Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV). All parties are under overall deals with WBTV. The show, which HBO Max said […]

Netflix makes double order for ‘Exploding Kittens’ adult animation & mobile game

Netflix is launching an animated series and mobile game based on the popular Exploding Kittens card game, and has also commissioned Wild Babies, a natural history series narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. Exploding Kittens – The Game will launch on Netflix next month, and retains the same classic gameplay where players draw cards aiming to […]