Charles Murray has inked an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV. He acted in the series Sons of Anarchy, which Fox 21 TV Studios produced for FX. Under the deal, Murray will be the executive producer and showrunner on Star, 20th TV’s new drama created by Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy, which was recently picked up to series by Fox. Also, Murray will be developing his own projects for the studio.
Producer Drew Brown has inked a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures TV to develop unscripted series for network, cable and streaming services under his Fascination Street shingle. SPT also has a first-look deal for scripted projects developed by Fascination Street. Brown’s previous credits include A&E’s Barter Kings and Big Smo, Oxygen’s Funny Girls and Bravo’s Eat Drink Love.
Writer-producer Nikki Toscano has inked a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Under the deal, she is joining the studio’s 24: Legacy, the 24 reboot that was picked up to series by Fox last week. Toscano will be the co-executive produce the series, along with executive producers/showrunners Evan Katz and Manny Coto, and executive producer Howard Gordon. Toscano will also develop projects of her own. She previously had a two-year overall deal at Universal TV where she was a consulting producer on NBC’s Shades of Blue and State of Affairs.
Pilgrim Media Group and ESL have joined forces to create and distribute original e-sports entertainment content for television and digital platforms. Last year ESL and its events in the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL Pro League series scored over 100 million viewers who watched over nine and a half billion hours of programming. Pilgrim’s credits include The Ultimate Fighter, Cuban Chrome, Wicked Tuna and My Big Fat Fabulous Life.
Oscar winning actress Alicia Vikander just launched her own production shingle, Vikarious Productions along with her London-based agent Charles Collier of Tavistock Wood. The company’s first film will be Euphoria, with Vikander set to star alongside Eva Green as sisters in conflict traveling through Europe towards a mystery destination. It will be produced with Wild Bunch Germany, in association with Dorian Media Limited and with support from the Swedish Film Institute. The company plans to produce two more titles at a similar budget to Euphoria within the next two years. Vikander’s upcoming roles include the Tomb Raider reboot and Jason Bourne.
ESPN settled its breach of contract lawsuit against Verizon, filed last April when the Verizon’s FiOS service began to offer a skinny bundle of pay TV nets that didn’t contain ESPN. The companies haven’t disclosed settlement terms of the case, filed at New York State’s Supreme Court.
Writer-director Daniel Adams and music producer Mike Flanders have joined together to launch Spiderworx Media, a $50 million fund set to produce films over the next several years. Spiderworx inked a deal with Hyde Park International, a division of Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group, to exclusively represent international sales. Their first project will be An L.A. Minute, a satire written by Adams and National Lampoon alum Larry “Ratso” Sloman. Flanders was previously the former head of A&R of Arctic/BMG Australia. Flanders will produce every project while Adams will serve in the creative end of the business, as a director.
Lionsgate has partnered with Globalgate Entertainment to target films in specific international markets. The partnership will be used to identify and produce films in local languages that consortium partners will distribute and co-finance via Globalgate Fund. Globalgate’s consortium with producers, distributors and co-financing partners cover France, Scandinavia, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Mexico and Korea. The company expects to forge alliances in China, India, and other major markets.