TV, Film & Media Industry News Roundup, Thursday 13 June 2024

The Last of Us wins; Italy revises tax credits; TF1 boosts kids' shows; Sydney company launch; UK film summit; Blair Witch actors speak out; Paramount's plan; French animation; Streamflation alert.

Today’s Highlights:

• The Last of Us Wins Big at Rockie Awards: HBO's "The Last of Us" wins two major prizes at the 2024 Rockie Awards, including Best Drama Series in English and the Grand Jury Prize.

• Reformed Italian Tax Credit: Italy's revised audiovisual tax credit will open applications before summer, focusing on local talent and locations.

• TF1 Increases Investment in Kids' Shows: French broadcaster TF1 boosts investment in children's programming and animation, aiming for a larger share of rights for its ad-supported streaming service, TF1+.

• Grand Pacific Entertainment Launch: Former Havas Media exec Francis Coady launches Sydney-based Grand Pacific Entertainment to develop and fund content across multiple genres.

• The Future of UK Film Summit: Screen International will host a conference in London on September 24, 2024, to discuss the future of the UK independent film sector.

• Blair Witch Project Actors Speak Out: Actors from "The Blair Witch Project" criticise the film's producers for not receiving profits despite the film's success.

• Paramount's Go-It-Alone Plan: Paramount executives address the end of Skydance deal talks and focus on a standalone cost-cutting and growth strategy.

• French Animation at Annecy: French productions dominate the Annecy Animation Festival, which showcases the strength and youth of the French animation industry.

• Lionsgate's Data-Driven Decisions: Lionsgate uses data from its free ad-supported streaming channels to make informed decisions on new shows.

• Streamflation Alert: Streaming platforms raise subscription prices again, pushing customers towards more lucrative ad-supported tiers.

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NEWS

‘The Last Of Us,’ ‘Poker Face,’ ‘Family Guy,’ ‘The Masked Singer’ Among Top Rockie Awards Winners at Banff World Media Festival

HBO’s “The Last of Us” won two prizes from this year’s 2024 Rockie Awards International Program Competition, as announced Tuesday at the Banff World Media Festival. The drama series won for drama series in the English language and also picked up the Grand Jury Prize, which is selected from the top-scoring programs across the entire field of nominees.

From: Variety

The reformed Italian tax credit will open “before summer”, with a focus on local talent and locations

Lucia Borgonzoni says that the reformed Italian audiovisual tax credit will be open for applications by “the start of summer”.

From: Screen Daily

TF1 agrees with unions to increase investment in kids’ shows and animation

ANNECY: French commercial broadcaster TF1 has agreed with local production unions to increase its investment in children’s programming and animation for a more significant share of rights for ad-supported streaming service TF1+. TF1 Group has agreed to increase its contribution to producing original European or French animated works from 5.2% to 6% of its contribution to developing new audiovisual content from 2025.

From: C21

Ex-Havas Media exec Francis Coady sets up Grand Pacific Entertainment in Sydney

Former Havas Media Australia executive Francis Coady has launched the Sydney-based production company Grand Pacific Entertainment (GPE). With strategic representation from talent agency William Morris Endeavour (WME) in the US, the company aims to “shine a light on Australia’s rich talent pool” by developing and funding content in multiple genres.

From: C21

Screen launches ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit to take place at BFI Southbank

Screen International will host a high-level conference on September 24, 2024, in London to debate how the UK independent film sector can build on its strengths to become a thriving, equitable and sustainable industry.

From: Screen Daily

‘The Blair Witch Project’ Actors Call Out ‘Reprehensible Behavior’ After Missing Out on Profits for Decades: ‘Don’t Do What We Did’

In the summer of 1999, Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard were trapped in a strange limbo. Their debut feature, “The Blair Witch Project,” had exploded out of the Sundance Film Festival that January to become one of the most influential horror movies of the past 25 years—and, with a $35,000 budget, one of the most profitable independent films ever made.

From: Variety

Paramount Co-CEOs Address End of Skydance Deal Talks, Say They’re Focused on Go-It-Alone Strategic Plan

With the Skydance Media deal talks dead, the three executives leading Paramount Global’s Office of the CEO said they remain focused on a cost-cutting and growth plan for the media conglomerate as a standalone entity.

From: Variety

INSIGHTS

Behind Netflix’s Real-Life Legal Dramas

Will defamation lawsuits over ‘When They See Us’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’ give the streaming giant second thoughts about telling stories ripped from the headlines?

From: The Hollywood Reporter

French Animation Breaks New Barriers

After closing out last month’s Cannes competition, Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Precious of Cargoes” opened this year’s Annecy Animation Festival on an auspicious note. With French productions accounting for one-half of Annecy’s 12 competition slots, the Alpine showcase doubles as a show of force for Gallic filmmakers writ large—a fact made all the more impressive given their sector’s relative youth.

From: Variety

Jim Packer reveals mining FAST data helps Lionsgate to sell new shows

BANFF: Lionsgate can make more sophisticated decisions around what’s working and what’s not as it mines increasingly sophisticated data sets from its free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, according to president of worldwide distribution Jim Packer.

From: C21

Streamflation Alert: Why Subscription Prices Are Suddenly Spiking (Again)

Platforms are boosting prices for the second time in as many years, hoping to nudge customers into their more lucrative ad-tiers.

From: The Hollywood Reporter

Marbella vice

Following their success with La Unidad (The Unit), Dani de la Torre and Alberto Marini take us inside their new Spanish crime drama Marbella. This dramatises a true story set in the murky underworld of the titular town—a popular tourist spot that has also been described as the UN of organised crime.

From: Drama Quarterly

‘Klitschko: More Than a Fight’ Director Kevin Macdonald on Capturing Ukraine’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion Turned Wartime Mayor — and His Beef With Zelenskyy

While he may be best known for features such as “The King of Scotland” and “The Mauritanian,” Kevin Macdonald has directed several documentaries about well-known figures, including 2012’s Bob Marley doc “Marley,” 2018’s revelatory “Whitney” about Whitney Houston and last year’s “High & Low: John Galliano.” His latest film, “Klitschko: More Than a Fight, " opens the 2024 Sheffield Doc/Fest on Wednesday (and lands on Sky Documentaries in August) and is slightly different.

From: Variety

Study: U.S. Films, Series Remain Most Powerful Content Category for Global Streamers in Asia Pacific

American content was viewed by 60 per cent of streaming users in major Asian markets during the first quarter of this year, outperforming Korean titles (at 56 per cent) and Japanese content (48 per cent).

From: The Hollywood Reporter

Bango survey finds UK viewers willing to pay up to $1,500 for subs amid price hikes

New research reveals that viewers in the UK are now spending, on average, almost £700 (US$895) each year on TV subscriptions, with some prepared to pay as much as £1,200 annually.

From: C21

Laurence Fishburne Talks Meeting Doc Rivers for ‘Clipped’ and His Sauna Scenes With LeVar Burton

Laurence Fishburne had never heard of Doc Rivers before signing on to play the perennial NBA coach in FX’s “Clipped.”

From: Variety

How the rise of the ‘showrunner’ role is changing British TV

Several big-name TV writers talk about the rise of the ‘showrunner’ role in the UK.

From: Screen Daily

‘Ren Faire’ Director Didn’t See His Game of Thrones Ending Coming — Now, He Sees It Was Obvious

Director Lance Oppenheim talks about the stress of filming the last days of “Ren Faire,” King George Coulam going full Logan Roy, and how history repeats itself on and off the screen.

From: IndieWire

The CW’s Brad Schwartz Dismisses Concerns That Canadian Series on U.S. TV Are Seen as a ‘Discount Bin’

As The CW has changed its financial model under new owners Nexstar, entertainment president Brad Schwartz has relied more on international co-productions from countries like Canada. Speaking on Tuesday at the Banff World Media Festival, Schwartz — who hails from Canada — acknowledged that Canadian acquisitions on U.S. networks have often been seen in a lesser light in the past. He’s hoping that perception is changing, however.

From: Variety

What’s Next For Paramount After Skydance Merger Talks Fail

Redstone, whose family holding NAI controls about 80% of Paramount, always had the last word, and the last word was no. She waved goodbye as National Amusements noted that the two sides could not find “mutually acceptable terms.” The stock dipped today on the news.

From: Deadline

Workers feel the pain as a post-streaming-wars Hollywood restructures

What if a generation of artists, workers and craftspeople decided that a career making film and TV wasn’t as viable a path to a middle-class lifestyle as it once was?

From: Los Angeles Times

Why Does Hollywood Care About Box Office Opening Weekends?

Especially in this dismal summer season, some box office watchers have questioned the need to pay attention to opening weekends at all. A recent Vulture article opined that obsessing about them helps “propagate the idea that opening weekends is all that matters.”

From: Variety

‘Fallout’: Jonathan Nolan In Conversation With Aaron Moten On Bringing The Video Game To Life

Among the many challenges that Jonathan Nolan faced when adapting Bethesda’s popular Fallout video game into a television series were narrowing the massive scope of the story and finding the perfect people to tell it.

From: Deadline

Indie Filmmaking, the ‘Ghostlight’ Way: Family Dynamics, Free Costumes, and Refreshed Shakespeare

For filmmakers, Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, the movie business is a family business, and that's how they make features that come from the heart and stand out.

From: IndieWire

The Street-Fighting Lawyer Who’s Become Hollywood’s Dark Knight

When pissed-off power players from Megyn Kelly and Bethenny Frankel to Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon need a warrior to fight their nastiest legal battles, Bryan Freedman is the first person they call: "If you f*** with my client, you get what you get!"

From: The Hollywood Reporter

Power Lawyers 2024: Meet Hollywood’s Top 100 Attorneys

They don’t advertise on billboards, but these A-list attorneys are almost as famous (or infamous) among industry insiders as the stars they represent.

From: The Hollywood Reporter

Edward Norton’s Challenging New Role Could Put Him in TV’s Battle for Advertising Dollars

Norton does his work behind the camera these days, but it could make him and his colleagues some of the medium’s most influential. EDO, an analytics company he co-founded with economist and entrepreneur Daniel Nadler, has struck alliances with Netflix, Disney, Amazon, TelevisaUnivision, Nielsen, and Paramount Global in the past year. It also helps advertisers such as State Farm and SoFi determine how to spend their dollars.

From: Variety

Tom Hiddleston and Anna Sawai on What Connects ‘Loki’ to ‘Shogun’ and Why Saying Goodbye to the Marvel Antihero Is a ‘Wash of Relief’

Anna Sawai’s excitement is palpable as she sits down with Tom Hiddleston. It’s her first experience with the awards season rigmarole. Still, Sawai’s stunning performance in FX’s historical epic “Shōgun” as Toda Mariko — the last surviving member of a disgraced samurai clan in feudal Japan — has catapulted her into the race.

From: Variety

THR Frontrunners Q&A With the Cast and Creators of 'Young Sheldon'

The cast and creatives of CBS' hit comedy series 'Young Sheldon' joined The Hollywood Reporter's Tyler Coates for a conversation about the seventh and final season at a live event hosted by the San Vicente Bungalows in Los Angeles. Stars Zoe Perry, Lance Barber and Annie Potts appeared with executive producers and co-creators Chuck Lorre and Steve Molaro and executive producer Steve Holland.

The Art of Directing Actors | BFI Film Academy Lab June 2024

This masterclass with casting director Mary-Ellen O’Hara will focus on the essential creative and logistical aspects of working with actors. It will provide you with practical tools to prepare for your role as a first-time director, including teaching you how to effectively brief actors and foster a collaborative environment on set.

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