Playground Entertainment


Starz boards BBC Two Poliakoff drama

US premium cable channel Starz has signed on as coproducer of BBC Two drama Close to the Enemy, which comes from writer Stephen Poliakoff. The deal with distributor All3Media International hands Starz exclusive US premium rights to the six-part drama. Writer Poliakoff was attached to previous Starz drama Dancing on the Edge. He will write […]

In the spotlight: Colin Callender

Wolf Hall producer Colin Callender reveals the influences that have shaped a five-decade career spanning television drama, film and theatre Colin Callender’s career began in British network television in the 1970s at ITV network Granada. After running indie Primetime Television and launching his own firm, The Callender Company, he moved to the US to work […]

Colin Callender’s Playground adds another UK exec

Playground Entertainment, the fast-growing prodco run by former HBO programming chief Colin Callender, has hired another UK exec as it staffs up its London office, with Tom Leggett joining as director of development. Leggett (left) joins from Channel 4’s UK digital movie service, Film4. He will work with broadcasters and talent as the Wolf Hall […]

Macallister to replace Pedersen at All3 Int’l

Sales veteran Steve Macallister is taking on the CEO job at All3Media International. The former Zodiak Rights and BBC Worldwide sales chief (pictured) will take up the post on March 1 after current incumbent Louise Pedersen (below) moves to Playground Entertainment. Macallister left his role as chief executive of Zodiak Media’s sales division unexpectedly in […]

BBC, Starz find The Missing for a second season

The BBC and Starz have jointly ordered a second season of hit drama The Missing. The first season of the heavily serialised drama has performed well for UK pubcaster the BBC and US premium cable net Starz. It tells the story of a father desperately searching for his son, year after he goes missing while […]

Starz developing New Orleans drama with Playground

US premium cable net Starz is developing Storyville, a period drama set in turn of the 20th Century New Orleans, with ex-HBO exec Colin Callender’s prodco, Playground Entertainment, on production duty. The show will be set in the Storyville district of New Orleans at a time when prostitution has been decriminalised and the city’s jazz […]

BBC in Israeli drama remake first

UK pubcaster BBC One is working on an adaptation of Israeli scripted format The A Word. The series is thought to represent the first time a British broadcaster has acquired and remade an Israeli scripted format, though US channel Showtime’s UK remake of Prisoners of War is popular on Channel 4. Endemol-owned Fifty fathoms, which […]

Channel 4’s Gardiner enters Playground

Channel 4’s commissioning editor, drama Sophie Gardiner has joined Playground Television, the TV arm of former HBO Films president Colin Callender’s prodco, Playground Entertainment. Gardiner joins Playground as creative director ahead of the launch of a London office, which former All3Media International managing director Louise Pedersen will oversee as UK MD. Gardiner was responsible for […]

Endemol making Phantom of the Opera TV series

Endemol’s scripted division and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Tony Krantz are adapting Phantom of the Opera for TV. The script for the TV adaptation of the classic Gaston Leroux French novel, first published in 1909, has been written by Tony Krantz (Mulholland Drive, 24), having been developed at Endemol Studios in association with US indie Alcon […]