Lion Forge Entertainment, the US-based studio behind the Oscar-winning Hair Love, has hired three new execs, with two joining from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, and launched a global sales division. Kirsten Newlands has been appointed as EVP of production and content partnerships to oversee all physical production, studio alliances, financing, co-productions and sales. The seasoned […]
Roku has commissioned and returned a slew of new original unscripted series, including projects from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. New titles announced at the 2023 IAB NewFronts include Charlie Makes A Record (working title), a six-episode unscripted comedy starring US singer-songwriter Charlie Puth, which takes stories from his real life and turns them into borderline-surreal […]
Netflix orders ‘The Corps’ & renews ‘The Diplomat’ Netflix has ordered comedy drama series The Corps (working title) and renewed political drama The Diplomat for a second season. The Corps hails from executive producers Andy Parker, Norman Lear, Brent Miller, Rachel Davidson, Scott Hornbacher and Sony Pictures Television. Inspired by the memoir The Pink Marine, […]
Candle Media-owned Hello Sunshine has hired former Disney exec Lauren Kisilevsky to lead its kids and family division. Kisilevsky will become EVP of live-action family, kids and young adults at Hello Sunshine, which was acquired by Candle for $900m in 2021. She will work across movies and TV series, reporting into Hello Sunshine CEO, Sarah […]
The global TV industry is streamlining, with a sharp uptick in M&A activity over the past 12 months. Mark Layton digs into the numbers to see who is spending the most, where and on what. In the past 12 months it has felt like barely a week has passed without an acquisition deal of one […]
Amazon picks up Witherspoon comedy Amazon has handed a two-season order to half-hour comedy series All Stars from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Witherspoon will star and executive produce the series, which follows a former cheerleader from the US who travels to UK to teach at coastal school. “I’ve been looking for a project that brought […]
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is moving into the UK and has hired a Channel 4 exec to run its new unscripted division in the country. Ex-formats and features exec Sarah Lazenby, who departed C4 last year, will lead Hello Sunshine’s UK unscripted business as EVP, reporting into the Candle Media-owned production firm’s head of unscripted, […]
AVOD operator Roku is expanding its originals push with three new unscripted shows in the works. Social experiment show The Marriage Pact and eight-part matchmaking series Match Me In Miami are joined by unscripted feature, To Paris For Love: A Reality ‘Rom Com’, from Reece Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Zoe Saldaña’s Cinestar Pictures. The trio […]
Disney+ and Disney Channels have commissioned a slew of new content across unscripted, kids & family and original movies. Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour, Disney Branded Television president Ayo Davis unveiled the new projects, which include both live action and animation productions. Davis announced two unscripted projects for Disney+, both of […]
Private equity firm Blackstone Group has acquired Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, with former Disney exec Kevin Mayer appointed to a new company that will house The Morning Show prodco. The deal values Hello Sunshine at $900m and comes just five years since the production firm was launched. Since then, it has been behind shows including […]
