Filmmaker Ridley Scott has launched a new genre label entitled Ridley Scott Presents… through is Scott Free Productions. The division’s first project will be the feature, Twisted in conjunction with Verve Ventures, the new packaging, finance and sales division of talent and literary agency Verve. Verve packaged the feature and brought on their client, Olatunde Osunsanmi as the film’s director. The film will be introduced at TIFF to buyers. Scott is at TIFF for the world premiere of his latest film, The Martian. Scott Free also produced Equals which is a sales title at the fest.
Director and TV personality Erik Anders Lang and producer Ryland Aldrich have founded Pictures, Pictures. a new production company to focus on feature films, long-form documentary series, short-form commercials, and branded content. The company is currently in production on Be The Ball, a documentary feature examining the link between golf and the mind featuring Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Day, Deepak Chopra and others. In addition, they’re producing the original web series, Adventures in Golf, currently airing on the PGA Tour’s SkratchTV. Pictures, Pictures. is represented by CAA.
Chinese giant Tencent has launched the production company Penguin Pictures with the goal to “engage in the self-production of primarily online dramas, minority investments in movies, as well as to develop our own talent pool of artists.” Tencent makes up the T in the term “BAT”, used to refer to the three online powerhouses that include Baidu and Alibaba. Tencent has released 10 self-produced dramas and their feature investments include Monster Hunt, the biggest Chinese film in history.
As noted in SSN’s Exec Shuffle, WME | IMG has acquired The Miss Universe Organization from Donald Trump, in a deal that include Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Recently Trump bought NBCUniversal’s interest as part of the settlement of his litigation against NBCUniversal. Prevoiusly, WME entered into a partnership with the company in 2011 and IMG had served as executive producers of both Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
Ben Wexler, who co-created The Comedians, has signed a new deal with 20th Century Fox TV. As part of the overall deal he will executive produce and be a showrunner on their upcoming series, The Grinder, starring Rob Lowe. The series previously had Greg Malins as their showrunner. Wexler’s previous series, The Comedian was also produced under Fox 21 TV Studios’ division. Wexler is repped by WME and Patti Felker.
Producer-director Michael Watkins, known for Prison Break, Smallville, The X-Files and NYPD Blue, among others, has inked a two-year overall deal with Sony TV, the studio behind Blacklist, which he currently serves as executive producer. The deal will include a development side, with Watkins teaming with his producing partner Brian Gersh, the previous head of WME’s Film Talent Department with a focus on producing half-hour and hourlong series for network and cable, along with limited event series and docuseries.
Drama writer Aron Eli Coleite has inked a multi-year overall deal with Warner Bros. TV. The deal follows the pilot order for Home by TNT, an hourlong project written and executive produced by Coleite for Warner Horizon Television and Warner Bros TV-based Jerry Bruckheimer TV. Under the overall deal, Coleite will continue as executive producer on the series and develop projects for network, cable and streaming services through WBTV and Warner Horizon.
Author Solutions, a Penguin Random House self-publishing services company, has closed a first-look deal with faith-based Paulist Productions (Insight). Through the deal, Paulist will comb through Author Solutions titles to adapt for film and TV. Emmy-winning Paulist was founded in 1960, and has produced projects with writers including John Wells, Michael Crichton, Rod Serling and John Sacret Young, among others. The company also awards the Humanitas Prize to celebrate writers who “affirm human dignity and explore the meaning of life.”
Chinese streaming video platform Youku Tudou has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution that will add over 100 titles to its catalog. Under the deal, Youku Todou will have access to franchise hits like Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible among others. Youku has been expanding its content acquisitions as the Chinese online video space becomes more competitive. This is the second international digital licensing deal this week for Paramount. The studio also signed a deal with curated streaming cinema platform MUBI to add Paramount films to their rotating curation library.
Cinedigm has launched The Dove Channel. The OTT, subscription-based, channel with over 900 hours of new and original content, was created through a partnership with The Dove Foundation, a non-profit devoted to promoting and identifying family-appropriate movies, the Dove Channel offers a library of handpicked family-friendly, faith-based and kids programming. The first exclusive offering on Dove Channel is the 10-episode first season of Austentatious, a modern take on the works of author Jane Austen. Cinedigm recently partnered with comic book convention producer, Wizard World to launch ConTV earlier this year and previously started the documentary channel Docurama as part of YouTube’s Paid Channel initiative in summer 2013..