PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Writer, director and producer Steven S. DeKnight signed a multiyear overall deal with Netflix for series and other projects, including films. DeKnight was showrunner and exec producer for season 1 of Netflix’s Marvel’s Daredevil, and he created, wrote and exec-produced Starz series Spartacus, among other projects.
Entertainment One entered into a two-year, first-look deal for scripted and unscripted programming with Cedar Park Entertainment, David Ayer’s and Chris Long’s new production house.
Kim Raver will co-executive produce a trilogy of films for Lifetime based on novels by international best-selling author Jane Green. Tempting Fate, the first of the batch, will also be Raver’s in directorial debut. Additional titles are To Have and to Hold and Family Pictures. Tempting Fate, from Raver, Manu Boyer (To Whom It May Concern) and Green, began production yesterday and stars Alyssa Milano (Insatiable, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later) in a story of a mother-of two whose picture-perfect marriage is jeopardized when she meets a handsome younger man. What begins as a business opportunity soon develops into an emotional affair leading to life-changing consequences. In addition to Green, Raver and Boyer, Dave Fleming and Shane Salerno will exec produce the trio of movies, which will all debut on Lifetime next year.
LaToya Morgan, co-exec producer of Into the Badlands, will remain in the AMC family under a fresh multiyear overall deal with the network. Morgan will develop new series as well as oversee an inclusion initiative for AMC, through which she’ll supervise and mentor diverse emerging writers.
In the latest move for Paramount Television and its partnership with Anonymous Content, the two entities and Sugar23 optioned the rights to Shari Lapena’s bestselling thriller novel The Couple Next Door to develop into a
series. Lila Feinberg (Younger) will write the treatment based on the book, with the potential series following three couples living in the same NY apartment building when their lives intertwine after a dinner party that ends in a shocking crime.
Apple gave a 10-ep straight-to-series order to an English adaptation of French shortform series Calls. Series, to be co-produced by Canal+, is a hallmark in Apple’s international business. It marks the international series greenlight for the company, and its first international co-production. Apple also acquired rights to the existing season, which aired last year. Created by Timothee Hochet, Calls enables audiences to experience stories through real-life audio sources and minimal visuals.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Smithsonian Channel this Sunday, June 24 at 8p will debut Pacific War in Color. John Cavanagh, executive producer for Smithsonian Channel, calls the new eight-part series “a true epic,” and tells Cynopsis, “The idea was to try to make a series that felt both huge and intimate, to try to capture both the tremendous scale of a conflict that covered over a third of the earth’s surface, and the ways it touched so many individual lives, both on the front lines and behind them. We wanted something for everyone: intense combat footage in places like Tarawa and Peleliu, and white-knuckle kamikaze dogfights off Okinawa, but also home movies, of sailors shipping out or on shore leave, nurses in desert island hospitals, and GI’s at Bob Hope’s USO shows.” Combined with first-person accounts – of the humorous, the horrifying, and the heroic – “they were able to bring the story of the Pacific War out of dusty textbooks and into the realm of the real, vivid, authentic, and memorable.”
Season 2 of scripted comedy series Strangers, about the life of a bisexual young woman, premieres this Sunday, June 24 on Facebook Watch, with a new episode dropping every Sunday at 9p ET/6p PT.
Season 2 of Fox News Channel series OBJECTified, hosted by TMZ’s Harvey Levin, debuts this Sunday, June 24 with an episode featuring NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Pop TV continues to go big on Big Brother. Big Brother After Dark, an unfiltered late-night feed from the house, returns seven nights a week for 13 straight weeks beginning Thursday, June 28 from 1-4a. Also headed back to the network is a new season of original comedy series Swedish Dicks, debuting with back-to-back episodes every Thursday starting July 26 at 10p.
Cable network Z Living acquired syndicated daytime talk show The Doctors, and will begin airing 150 episodes from recent seasons beginning with an Independence Day (July 4) marathon running from 10a-10p.m. to 10 p, with additional episodes stripped daily.
Real estate and home renovation experts Eric and Lindsey Bennett will fix and flip more hot properties in Palm Springs, CA, in a new 14-episode season of HGTV’s Desert Flippers, premiering on Tuesday, July 24, at 9p.
Summer drama: August 31 is the date Netflix picked to debut the second season of crime drama Ozark. Second season will see the Byrde family continuing to navigate the troubled money laundering and drug cartel waters they waded into during the premiere season.
COMING UP
Digital documentary series ABC News Features yesterday released Prejudice and Pride, days ahead of the 45th anniversary of the attack at New Orleans gay bar UpStairs Lounge. The doc recounts the fire and the aftermath that swept through New Orleans via new interviews with survivors, first responders, activists, journalists and family members of the dead.
Sony Crackle is teasing the network’s new summer comedy-horror movie Office Uprising, launching July 19. The movie will premiere on Crackle ahead of the wide release exclusively through PlayStation and PlayStation July 12-15 and on Amazon Fire TV July 16-18 via the Sony Crackle app
AXS TV will have viewers rockin’ around the tree with a special “Christmas In July” promo, stocked with classic holiday concerts on Saturday, July 28 beginning at 8a. Among featured performances are those by Kelsey Grammer with the cast of the hit musical Big Fish, The Killers, Seal, James Blunt, Louis Tomlinson and Jennifer Nettles, Brian Setzer and Twisted Sister (because who doesn’t think holidays when they hear Twisted Sister?).
DIGITAL DATA
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is out following an internal investigation into a past relationship with an employee. The company announced yesterday morning Krzanich resigned, and is being replaced by Intel CFO Robert Swan, who will serve as interim CEO.
Snapchat Shows, the short-form serialized video format that had been used solely by premium content providers, will now be available to creators on the platform. Sean Mills, director of content partnerships at Snap, broke the news yesterday at Vidcon and said the first creator Show will feature makeup artist Patrick Starrr, creator and star of a E! makeover show Face Forward.
Podcastic: Spotify and Amy Schumer teamed for a new original podcast Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls, 1 Keith, which launched yesterday on the streaming service. In the series, Schumer talks about intimate aspects of her life alongside her best friends and comedians Rachel Feinstein, Bridget Everett and Keith Robinson… Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations will feature a new interview with journalist, producer and author Maria Shriver. The interview will be available on Apple Podcasts and other platforms beginning Monday, June 25… Episode 4 of People’s new podcast series Cover-Up premiered yesterday (June 21) and probes the historic deadly car crash at Chappaquiddick involving Ted Kennedy.
FilmRise is adding neo-noir sci-fi classic Blade Runner: The Final Cut and other classic Warner Bros. films including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gremlins and Million Dollar Baby.
A new national survey conducted by Screen Education finds teens want to reduce their smartphone screen time. The survey involved 1,017 13- to 18-year-olds from grades 7-12. Among top-lines:
* 65 percent wish they were better able to self-limit the time they spend on their smartphone
* 68 percent have attempted to reduce the time they spend on their smartphone
* 26 percent wish someone would limit the time they spend on their smartphone for them
* 53 percent of those who attend schools that ban smartphones in class are glad they do so
KIDS NEWS
Digital streaming service Cheddar is focusing its Saturday mornings around kids and family. Genius Brands International series Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club will make its debut on Cheddar on Saturday, June 23, with 26 half-hour eps available on Cheddar’s OTT partners, including Sling TV, Hulu, YouTube TV, Philo, and fuboTV, and continuing throughout 2018 and 2019.
ADVERTISING & PARTNERSHIPS
History and the Ram Truck brand are partnering on the “Stories of Horsepower” campaign, which showcases stories centered around equestrian racing to engage viewers of the network through short-form content across linear, digital and social platforms. Each of the four executions will have 30- and 90-second versions and will run on-air and on History’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages, as well as across all Ram Trucks’ platforms.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Netflix licensed new Korean drama series Mr. Sunshine, from creators Kim Eun-sook and Lee Eung-bok, the team behind Descendants of the Sun. The 24-ep series will premiere July 7, the same day as its Korean broadcast, in the US and Asian territories excluding Korea. It will then debut in Japan July 8 before a wide global release July 19. Series is set in the late 19th century and follows a Korean boy born into a family who runs away aboard an American warship, later returning to his homeland as a US marine officer.