French powerhouse Federation Studios and its Empreinte Digitale are launching Federation MEAC, a production subsidiary devoted to the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean. Co-founding chairman Joachim Landau, who has produced documentaries, unscripted programs and series with Empreinte Digitale, will lead the new outfit.
Federation MEAC’s stated purpose is to work with and connect talent from the regions, both locally and internationally, via productions and co-productions.
Lionel Uzan, managing director of Federation Studios, and Raphaël Rocher, managing director of Empreinte Digitale, will be on the board alongside Landau.
“The audiovisual market in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean is expanding fast, with a plethora of excellent writers, directors, actors and producers,” says Landau. “Their inventiveness and energy reflect those of Federation so much so that we just had to be present in these markets. We aim to help them grow internationally and to create synergies with our group, by sharing its formats, for example.’’
Landau has a master’s degree in South African Cinema during Apartheid, and a Master’s in Business Administration & Audiovisual Production, as well as a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux on the South African TV/Film Industry. He began his career in the Contents Division at Orange before joining Empreinte Digitale in 2014. Landau will be assisted by Manuela Cassuto, Head of Development in charge of sourcing projects and taking them through to production.
Landau co-created and is producing Spinners, a South African series for Empreinte Digitale in co-production with Natives at Large. Spinners is currently being shot in Cape Town for Canal+ and Showmax.
There are currently about 15 projects being developed at Federation MEAC, covering a wide spectrum, from streamed feature films and documentaries to fiction series, with a penchant for pop culture and genre products across the board.
The following was revealed about the cancellation:
As part of the deal, HBO Max also acquired the 14 seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation, which ran from 2001 to 2015. Those episodes remain on the streamer.
Production on the series did begin as planned during the summer but then paused. A statement from WildBrain says “discussions concerning the contract with WarnerMedia are ongoing,” hinting that the company may try to find a new outlet for the series.
Lara Azzopardi (The Bold Type) and Julia Cohen (Riverdale, A Million Little Things) were set to serve as showrunners. Like its predecessors, the new Degrassi series would have followed the lives of high school teachers and students at the titular school.
What do you think? Did you plan to watch the Degrassi revival on HBO Max? Are you hoping that it lands elsewhere?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
Ryan Seacrest is bidding his final farewell to Los Angeles, because he just unloaded his last big property there … selling the mansion he once acquired from Ellen DeGeneres.
Real estate sources tell TMZ … Ryan just closed on the sale of his sprawling Bev Hills estate for $51 million.
TMZ broke the story … Ryan originally put the home on the market back in November 2020, when he was seeking $85 million. The property didn’t sell … so Ryan put it back on the market earlier this year for $69 million.
The resort-like compound is palatial … 5 structures set between water features and gardens … the main house is 9,000 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 6 baths and a gourmet chef’s kitchen with an opening to an outdoor pizza oven.
The place is decked out with a movie theater, world-class gym, spa and a master suite with a private meditation garden. There’s also a super cool lounge/bar, plus a living room with 22-foot high ceilings.
There are spectacular views of L.A. from all over the property, especially from the pool and the teak pool house.
How’s this for homeowner history … Ryan bought it from Ellen for $36.5 million back in 2012, and she bought it from “Will & Grace” creator Max Mutchnick.
Ryan’s getting out of L.A. real estate it appears … these days he’s living in New York, where he co-hosts “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
Uber-successful realtor Kurt Rappaport held the listing.
EXCLUSIVE: CBS is developing They’re With Me, a multi-camera family comedy from 9JKL creator Dana Klein, Mat Harawitz, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV and CBS Studios.
Written by Klein and Harawitz, in They’re With Me, Jackie and Eli knew right away they were soulmates… too bad their souls come with so much baggage — each has a messed-up 20-something kid and a dependent parent. They’re With Me is a modern take on a blended family where, instead of young children, Jackie and Eli both come with two generations of intrusive adults. Forget about an empty nest; the number of birds and eggs has doubled.
Klein and Harawitz executive produce with Kaplan and Melanie Frankel for Kapital and Trilling for TrillTV. Jessie Abbott is overseeing for Kapital. CBS Studios, where Klein is under an overall deal, is the studio.
The same creative team, writers Klein and Harawitz, TrillTV, Kapital and CBS Studios, last season developed Tiny Putin, also at CBS.
Klein also is behind Triggered, a comedy in the works at Peacock from Kapital, TrillTV and CBS Studios She created and executive produced comedy 9JKL which ran for one season on CBS. She also created and executive produced Friends with Better Lives and served as a consulting producer on Fresh Off The Boat. and as a producer on Friends.
Harawitz, known in the industry as a top joke writer, is a consulting producer on NBC’s Night Court sequel. He also served as a consulting producer on Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. and Will & Grace and co-executive producer on LA To Vegas and Angie Tribeca, among other credits.
At CBS, Kapital and TrillTV have hit sitcom The Neighborhood, now in its fifth season, and are developingThe Bad News Bears reboot as well as comedyBook Club.
We got more undercover Lucy on The Rookie Season 5 Episode 7, which made for an intense hour. The case managed to bring most of the characters together, which was interesting in and of itself.
And we also got some forward movement with Elijah, and it’s not looking pretty.
First, we have to give props to Castle alum, and This is Us veteran Jon Huertas for directing the installment. He did a fantastic job!
But when it comes to the storylines, we’ll kick things off with the weakest one: Nolan and Bailey’s plotline about her feeling uncentered in his home was so inconsequential it’s barely worth mentioning.
It was one of those things where one didn’t even realize that she hadn’t fully moved into Nolan’s place or didn’t feel like it was hers yet.
Whether the hour was exploring this to give us more domestic, loving scenes of Nolan and Bailey or it’s one of those things that doesn’t bode well for their future is hard to say.
But that dynamic among Nolan, Bailey, and Celina was still in full force. Celina and Bailey have a surprisingly close, quick bond, and Celina is a solid person to give Nolan some advice.
It all fared well in the end, broken knick-knacks not included.
Nolan and Celina’s case had some twists and turns, and the original concept of a woman shooting a corpse was entertaining in spurts. However, it didn’t remain gripping enough to last the entire hour.
Most of the entertainment lay in the cops trying to figure out what to charge the shooter with once they realized that she only shot a corpse and not a living man as she had intended.
Nolan and Celina are great partners, though. Their chemistry is great, and the dynamic they have developed continues to work. They put both of their skills to proper use when they’re working on cases.
Their combined skills led them to take down a pharmaceutical ring and solve the most loathsome doctor’s death by determining that the man’s wife poisoned him for the insurance money and lack of hassle.
The more interesting case involved the other characters. Harper and Lopez’s murder investigation merged well with Thorsen and Bradford’s random domestic, leading to Thorsen adopting a “puppy.” Both duos are gifts that keep giving this season.
It was a hell of a coincidence that the cases connected, but it worked all the same.
Lucy got a puppy over a year ago, now she’s living with her.
Bradford
I love that the season is finding ways to put Lucy undercover whenever possible. Lucy thrives when she’s undercover. She’s a natural at it, and we see this unshakeable confidence in her when she’s playing a role that we don’t always see when she’s herself.
It’s like she’s more liberated while playing someone else, which is fascinating and makes her more convincing than ever. Her rolling up on the female gang, burning some serious rubber, and looking like a Chola was quality content.
When Lucy gets into character, she embodies it and is so convincing. Maybe not convincing enough that the gang leader would instantly trust her based on who she claimed she was in a cell with and take her on runs for their illegal activities and tell her things, but still convincing.
The setup to get to that point felt needlessly complicated. They needed to find a way to get Lucy in with the group and trusted, but it didn’t seem like it was some impossible thing that only required the angle of using her brother.
The need for Lucy and Tabin to be in the mix and putting Tabin at risk felt a bit contrived for the sake of the drama.
It led to a lot of uneasiness all around. Thorsen was right to be concerned about Tabin, and interestingly, while there’s no doubt as to others’ intentions and care, he had the best understanding of this situation and even the perspective about police with all of this.
Thorsen had Tabin’s best interest in mind the entire time, and he didn’t want to put him at risk even for the advancement of the case. Maybe that’d be considered a rookie move, but in a field that requires a lot of restructuring and rebranding, Thorsen’s approach is what’s needed more.
It was scary to think of how easily things could’ve taken a turn for the worse when Tabin’s sister gave him that gun. Tabin was clearly still in shock from everything happening at once, and he hadn’t processed everything yet, but suddenly he had guns trained on him and more than one person yelling at him.
Harper: They’re a real threat. Lucy: Well, so am I.
Things could’ve ended badly if Thorsen wasn’t there to defuse the situation. And while that’s not an indictment on Bradford or anyone else, it simply goes back to what’s at stake and how sometimes it takes someone more conscious and aware to help a situation.
We even saw that when Thorsen and Bradford first responded to the call in the first place. Bradford seemed surprisingly out of touch regarding what the mother wanted, and he only focused on if Tabin was affiliated with gangs, had drug issues, or so forth.
Thorsen instantly knew what was at stake, and he took that community policing style and put it to use, speaking to Tabin, trying to give him advice and an open line of communication whenever he needed.
Fortunately, Bradford didn’t mind letting Thorsen take the lead with that situation and Tabin, and that’s what was needed. It was a rare instance where Bradford seemed woefully out of his depth.
Bradford and Thorsen have already been a highlight of the season because their partnership bears many fun, entertaining, and enlightening fruits. But I love the idea that Bradford can learn from Thorsen as much as Thorsen does from him, and it’s a different relationship than Bradford had with Lucy.
Thorsen got attached to Tabin, but even when he was most antsy, he never felt out of line with his concerns. Even when he questioned Bradford, it was easy to understand why that was.
While we know Bradford’s choices weren’t strictly about serving Lucy’s career advancement, it was about her safety, something Bradford admitted to, as it should have been.
Fortunately, Bradford didn’t take Thorsen’s statement personally. And hopefully, Thorsen can work things out with his “puppy.”
Tabin will need all the help he can get. His sister is a loose cannon who seems like she’d hold a brother against her “soft” brother, who snitched on her to the cops. And who’s to say that her friends or the guys who roughed him up won’t be after him in some capacity?
It’s also concerning that Lucy blew her cover. I get that she was worried about all the parties when things escalated because of the gun, but it’s dangerous to burn an identity like that. It could bite her later, which is a terrifying thought.
We know the show isn’t above something like this since they brought back Elijah to wreak havoc.
Elijah using the same legal system that he felt tried to bury him is oddly hilarious. What do you even say when the career criminal tries to sue everyone?
Elijah is a brilliant enough person to lose the same system his opponents work within against them, and there’s something delicious about that.
He’s unpredictable as a result. While revisiting him as a villain feels unnecessary, the potential for intriguing moments exists.
Wesley was a fool for doing that press conference and public apology. No way on earth he should have to tank what’s left of his career to appease Elijah and rebuild this man’s reputation.
Wesley’s name is likely dirt now. He was already in trouble before and barely got out of that. At this rate, he should probably get into working at the community center with James or something else.
Thorsen: You are endangering this kid all because it’s good for Lucy’s career. Bradford: Excuse me?
Wesley felt he was doing the best thing to protect himself, Angela, the department, and the D.A’s office by falling on the sword and making nice with Elijah publicly.
But the city is paying him a handsome settlement, and now, Elijah is a free man who will likely go back to doing all of his nefarious things. If they can’t prove it, he’ll be untouched.
And the thing is, he can go back to doing whatever he pleases. Unless they have an airtight case against him, they can’t make any sort of moves without it appearing as if there was a vendetta, or they’re obsessively going after an innocent Black man.
They’re not winning here. And Elijah’s in the best position ever. It’s doubtful he’ll let this go without rubbing it in, so who knows how he’ll continue to pop up this season.
Over to you, Rookie Fanatics. Sound off below!
You can watch The Rookie online here via TV Fanatic. And don’t forget to check back in for our The Rookie Round Table!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
Channel 4 has commissioned David Abraham’s Wonderhood Studios to produce a four-part doc series following Britain’s pet owners through the pregnancy and birth of their pets. In Fur Babies (working title), vet practices across the UK have been rigged to capture the initial ultrasounds and pregnancy checks, labors, complications, and the final heart-warming moments when the offspring are rehomed. Wonderhood, whose founder Abraham was once Channel 4 CEO, is producing in association with All3Media International.
‘Boy From Heaven’ Wins Two Prizes At Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Sweden’s Oscar entry and the Cannes best screenplay winner Boy From Heaven picked up the NDR Film Prize and the Interfilm Church Prize at Nordic Film Days Lübeck. The prizes come with a €12,500 ($12,500) and €5,000 euros cash prize respectively. Other prominent winners included the Finnish film Girl Picture by Alli Haapasalo, which also scored twice. It won the prize of the Sparkassenstiftung for best Children’s & Youth film, as well as the award from the youth jury. Meanwhile, the audience jury selected the Norwegian-Swedish comedy Everybody Hates Johan by Hallvar Witzø. The award comes with a €5,000 cash prize.
ZDF Boards ‘Ernest and Célestine – The Collection‘ Season Two
German pubcaster ZDF has boarded a second season of pre-school series Ernest and Célestine – The Collection after striking a deal with French animation production and distribution company Dandelooo. Twenty-six episodes of the show, which is from Folivari, So-Nord, and RTBF, will begin airing on December 1. The show follows the adventures of big eccentric bear Ernest, a street musician and clown, and a mischievous little mouse, Celestine, who support and comfort each other despite others disapproving of their friendship. It’s based on the cult books by Belgian author and illustrator Gabrielle Vincent.
Just days after CNBC announced the cancellation of one news show – The News with Shepard Smith – sister channel MSNBC has cancelled another series – Cross Connection. Tiffany Cross hosted the Saturday news program for the last two years and her contract has not been renewed. Guest anchors will take over the timeslot until a permanent show replacement is found.
Variety revealed the following about the decision to cancel the series:
Her production staff was informed of the decision Friday morning, according to three people familiar with the matter. MSNBC declined to make executives available for comment, and Cross could not be reached for immediate comment.
MSNBC decided not to renew Cross’ contract after two years, according to one of these people, and severed ties with her immediately. A rotating group of anchors will lead her weekend hours until a replacement is found, and the production staff assigned to her show are believed to be likely to stay in place.
Sources say that the relationship between Cross and the cable channel had become frayed recently because executives were “concerned about the anchor’s willingness to address statements made by cable-news hosts on other networks and indulging in commentary executives felt did not meet the standards of MSNBC or NBC News.”
What do you think? Did you watch this MSNBC show? Are you sad to see Cross Connection end?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton are two rising Australian stars who play the leads in STARZ’s new Dangerous Liaisons prequel series.
Set in France in the late 18th century on the eve of the Revolution, Dangerous Liaisons takes us back to the youth of the iconic characters from the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, made famous by Christopher Hampton’s play and Stephen Frears’s subsequent 1988 film.
This version of Dangerous Liaisons introduces us to Camille and Pascal, young lovers trying to break into the lush, decadent world of the aristocracy by any means necessary.
Alice Englert was recently seen as Nurse Dolly in Netflix’s Ratched. Englert plays Camille, the woman at the center of it all.
Nicholas Denton has acted in countless theatre productions, as well as television and film, where he also writes and produces. Denton plays the driven, determined rake, Pascal.
We caught up with this charismatic pair at a recent press day and chatted about the responsibility of stepping into such well-known characters.
Of Pascal and Camille, Englert notes, “It’s interesting the lies they tell to people and the lies they tell themselves.”
Denton found the couple’s many levels of manipulation, scheming, and machinations an exciting challenge as an actor. “I was trying to keep up with them, which keeps me on my toes.”
With characters this ruthless and single-minded, Englert says, “What makes their behavior, instead of just being stupid, [but] tragic … is that you can understand. The pain is almost forcing their hands.”
Denton maintains that “They’re just trying to exist.”
The irony is that, despite their behavior, Camille and Pascal “think they’re good! They hope they’re good. They actually hate themselves.”
Both actors liken their characters’ journey to a horror movie, “You’re like, ‘Don’t go in there! Don’t do it!'”
The show is filled with extremely steamy intimate scenes, and Denton and Englert dissolved into giggles when we brought up their palpable chemistry.
They cite the work of their intimacy coordinator (Ita O’Brien), directors (Leonora Lonsdale and Olly Blackburn), and hours of rehearsal to make the sex scenes safe and comfortable.
When asked what attracted Camille and Pascal to each other, they cited “competition,” “curiosity,” and, of course, “love.”
It’s clear these two have a charming, easy rapport with each other, whether they are playing 18th-century lovers or just joking around as themselves.
You can watch our full interview with Alice and Nicholas here:
Dangerous Liaisons premieres on Sunday, November 6, at 9 p.m. on STARZ.
Mary Littlejohn is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
Nick Carter, brother of the late Aaron Carter, has issued a message via Instagram mourning the loss of his sibling while acknowledging a “complicated” relationship.
Aaron Carter was found dead in a bathtub Saturday at his Lancaster, Calif. home. Nick Carter is currently in the U.K. on the last leg of a tour with his group Backstreet Boys. The group is appearing tonight at the O2 arena in London.
In a statement on Instagram (see below), Nick Carter began, “My heart has been broken today” alongside a photograph of the two in earlier days.
“Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held onto the hope, that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss. But the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz., now you get a chance to finally have some peace you could never find here on earth….God,Please take care of my baby brother.”
Among replies to the message was Spice Girl Emma Bunton, who wrote: “I’m heartbroken for you and your family. Sending so much love.”
Fate: The Winx Saga is not returning for a third season. Netflix has cancelled the teen drama series, which is a live-action reimagining of the Italian cartoon Winx Club. Abigail Cowen, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Precious Mustapha, Eliot Salt, Elisha Applebaum, Danny Griffin, Sadie Soverall, Freddie Thorp, Theo Graham, and Robert James-Collier star in the series.
The first season, which consisted of six episodes, was released in January 2021. The second season of seven episodes was released in September 2022. During the September 5-11 viewing window, the second season debuted on the Netflix Top 10 as the second-most viewed English-language TV title and the third-most watched title overall. It stayed on the list for five weeks.
Executive producer and showrunner Brian Young revealed news of the Netflix series’ cancellation on his Instagram account, per Variety. Check out his post below.
What do you think? Are you surprised by the cancellation of Fate: The Winx Saga? Did you want a third season of the Netflix series?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
Additional TV credits include Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Seventh Heaven, and Lizzie McGuire.
The star had been open about his struggles, recently revealing he had voluntarily checked into an outpatient program of a rehab center because he wanted to regain custody of his son, Prince.
We extend our condolences to Aaron Carter’s family and friends during this difficult time.
May Aaron Carter rest in peace.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
