PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Netflix optioned the rights to 2016 NYT bestseller Shoe Dog, written by Nike founder Phil Knight, with Frank Marshall onboard to produce the film alongside Knight. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) are writing the screenplay.
Larysa Kondracki signed a first-look television deal with Amazon Studios on the heels of her work on the Amazon limited series Picnic at Hanging Rock. The producer, director and writer will develop and produce original series for the studio, with the option to serve as director for select series.
Production companies RYOT and Vice Studios are teaming to co-produce and co-finance via a multimillion-dollar fund a series of feature-length documentaries. with the first film to be announced this fall and premiere in 2019. The initiative is spearheaded by Hayley Pappas, head of RYOT Films; Bryn Mooser, CEO & co-founder of RYOT and Danny Gabai, executive creative director for Vice Studios.
Discovery put into production Cajun Navy, a feature-length doc spotlighting everyday civilians who risk their lives to help others survive devastating storms. Production company Lightbox’s team of Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Suzanne Lavery will helm, the project, directed by James Newton.
Lifetime will increase its movie tally to 75 for 2019, and signed a production deal with newswoman Robin Roberts for a series of movies and documentaries under the banner Robin Roberts Presents, which will debut next year. The net also is developing several book franchises, including the previously announced Jane Green three-picture deal, and the Seven Deadly Sins anthology by Victoria Christopher Murray. Lifetime has re-teamed with TD Jakes and has commissioned the first three books – L Lust, Envy and Greed – to debut next year. V.C. Andrews’ iconic novels also join the 2019 lineup, with five book series about the twisted relationships of the Casteel Family becoming movies including the first, Heaven. Also, Lifetime completed production on Somebody’s Someone, based on the memoir of Regina Louise, on which it is partnering with the Be Me Be Free anxiety empowerment campaign. The net also renewed a second season of psychological thriller You before its September 9 debut, and continues to grow original unscripted content with the Justice for Women with Gretchen Carlson block on Mondays and Real Love relationship block on Tuesdays.
Showtime renewed its drama series The Affair for a fifth and final season. Season 4 will come to a close on August 19.
SVOD service BritBox picked up daily British breakfast news program Good Morning Britain, with Piers Morgan. The digital platform will also debut John Cleese starrer Hold the Sunset and British dramas including Tom Riley’s Dark Heart and Three Girls as part of its latest slate of acquisitions. Also new to the service is Bancroft, featuring Sarah Parish (Broadchurch) and BBC daytime drama Shakespeare & Hathaway. BritBox will also air the live Halloween ep of Inside No.9, the dark comedy created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Pop TV launched free app Pop Now on Apple iOS and tvOS, Android and Roku and announced its upcoming slate. The app is the only streaming platform where viewers in the US can watch all eps of Schitt’s Creek prior to its season 5 return in 2019. Also available on the app are Swedish Dicks (season 2 premieres on Pop TV on Thursday, July 26 at 10p), Wolf Creek. whose second season bows Sunday, Oct. 21 at 10p, and Clique, a new drama from the producers of British television hit Skins that follows childhood best friends as they embark on the so-called best years of their lives at a university in Edinburgh. Series will premiere with two eps on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 10p; all six eps will launch on Pop Now immediately following the televised episode 2. Also new—Hollywood Darlings, a comedy starring Jodie Sweetin (Full House, Fuller House), Beverley Mitchell (7th Heaven) and Christine Lakin (Step by Step) as friends navigating showbiz careers and motherhood and friendship whose first season is free on Pop Now. Other new Pop content includes sketch comedy series Hot Date, scripted comedy Let’s Get Physical, Rock This Boat: New Kids on the Block, and docuseries The Sorrentinos.
Freeform comedy Alone Together will return for a 10-ep second season on Wednesday, August 1 with new episodes at 8p and 8:30p. Season 2 will feature a roster of comedic acts and will continue to follow the platonic, dysfunctional co-dependent friendship of series creators Esther Povitsky and Benji Aflalo.
Oxygen Media dives into the unnerving story of a small town shrouded in secrets in six-part series The Disappearance of Crystal Rogers, beginning Saturday, August 11 at 7p with a two-hour premiere.
MTV’s Jersey Shore: Family Vacation will be back for second season, with a two-hour premiere on August 23. The revival helped MTV swing its best Q3 primetime ratings average among A18-34 (Live+3) since 2011.
New series Murder in the Family with Geraldo Rivera (Premiering Saturday, November 3 at 9p), Mafia Killers with Colin McLaren (Wednesday, August 29 at 9p) and Irreconcilable Differences (Thursday, October 5 at 9p) are on Reelz’s fall 2018 slate, announced yesterday, which also includes the Stand Up To Cancer fundraising telecast (Friday, September 7 at 8p) airing for the first time on the network. Specials include two new Behind Closed Doors treatments featuring John Ritter (Saturday, September 8 at 9p) and Paul Walker (Sunday, November 25 at 9p), hosted by Natalie Morales, and a look at the Casey Anthony (Sunday, December 9 at 9p) story through her inner circle and the law enforcement officials who worked the case. The Price of Fame (Saturday, December 15 at 9p) returns with new eps about the remarkable yet often devastating paths to fame lived by Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr. and Princess Diana, among others. Additional returning series include Murder Made Me Famous and World’s Most Evil Killers.
Season 9 of Showtime comedy Shameless premieres Sunday, September 9 at 9p. New season will see political fervor hitting the South Side, and the Gallaghers take justice into their own hands.
E! and WWE’s Total Divas returns for its eighth season beginning Wednesday, September 19 at 9p.
HBO teased a first look at Camping, from Girls creator/exec producer Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner. Series bows Sunday, October 14.
COMING UP
ABC News’ chief national correspondent Matt Gutman will report on new details about the treacherous mission to save 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in Thailand on 20/20 airing this Friday, July 27 at 10p on ABC.
The Sentence, winner of the Sundance 2018 Audience Award: US documentary, will premiere on HBO October 15 preceded by an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run beginning October 12. Film draws from hundreds of hours of footage shot by filmmaker Rudy Valdez showing the aftermath of his sister Cindy’s 15-year sentence for conspiracy charges related to crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend.
DIGITAL DATA
President Trump went on the offensive against Twitter, on Twitter, again – slamming the platform for reducing the visibility of select prominent Republicans in a practice referred to as “shadow banning.” Twitter then reportedly made adjustments to no longer restrict the visibility of the Republicans.
AMC Networks’ streaming service Shudder in August will present 31 films from its curated list including newer releases such as Southbound (2017) and Caught (2016) as well as classics such as Hostage (1967). Shudder will premiere the first season of Swedish TV drama series Angelby (2015), and season 1 of horror series Channel Zero (2016).
Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Entertainment Studios, acquired North American digital rights to high school drama Reach, about bullying from the perspective of the bully, the bullied, and the bystanders. Reach will debut on VOD on October 19.
Streaming service Philo is partnering with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) to offer Philo to the NCTC membership of 750 cable and broadband providers. Philo currently features more than 40 cable channels including A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, ID, Lifetime, MTV, OWN and WeTV.
CASTING
The Crown is expanding its royal family. The series found its Prince Charles and Queen Mother: Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country) and Marion Bailey (Allied) join the cast of the third season of the Netflix series, due in 2019.
Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$) scored a role opposite Toni Collette, Merritt Wever and Kaitlyn Dever in Unbelievable, the eight-ep Netflix limited series… Shelley Conn (Liar) and James D’Arcy (Homeland) snagged recurring roles opposite Emma Greenwell, Joely Richardson and Olivia Munn in upcoming Starz spy drama The Rook… Alex Trebek is in the spotlight on this Sunday’s (July 29) ep of Fox News Channel’s OBJECTified. He’ll share stories of his life by showcasing prize possessions he’s kept along the way… Judith Light (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Transparent) will recur with the ensemble cast on Facebook Watch scripted series Queen America.
ADVERTISING & PARTNERSHIPS
AMC Networks is the first company to use Sorenson Media’s Sorenson Addressable, a targeted advertising platform for television that provides real-time ad replacement technology. Through its dedicated AMCN Agility sales group, AMC Nets will leverage the platform on live linear TV programming across AMC, WE tv, SundanceTV and IFC; BBC America will come aboard at a later date. Sorenson Media partners with smart TV manufacturers to dynamically deliver targeted ads directly to the screens of individual households regardless of the resident’s choice of cable, satellite or telco TV provider.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
John De Mol, creator of successful formats including Big Brother and The Voice, is launching music talent brand House of Talent, slated to launch on Holland’s SBS6 on August 6. The daily series features a group of music artists from different genres who live together as they attempt to make it big in the music business.
The BFI released new data that shows high-end TV production firms are spending a record amount of money in the UK. During the first half of 2018, 48 “high-end” programs (tax incentive-qualifying shows with budgets of greater than 1 million British pounds per ep) began principal photography in the country. Among the new wave of programming is BBC/New Line’s His Dark Materials, the second season of Sky/Amazon’s Britannia (season 2) and the new season of Netflix’s Black Mirror.
