News

Fremantle is getting into business with Fudge Park, the indie behind Aimee Lou Wood’s BBC comedy Daddy Issues.

The pair have struck a first look and development deal, which will see Fremantle become the primary home for all of Fudge Park’s upcoming scripted projects. The UK indie will also work closely with Fremantle’s global drama and International sales divisions to help develop its drama and comedy slate.

Fudge Park’s latest is Daddy Issues, which is sold by Fremantle and was recently re-upped for a Season 2. Starring Sex Education breakout Wood and David Morrissey and created by Danielle Ward (Brassic), Daddy Issues follows Stockport-based Gemma (Wood), who discovers she’s pregnant after a random hook-up. The show is the top-rated BBC Three comedy since the channel’s 2021 relaunch, according to the national broadcaster.

Fudge Park was founded a decade ago by The Inbetweeners creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris.

Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson finds himself in an interesting position — zip-tied, yet trying to do right by one of the hijackers — in TVLine’s exclusive sneak peek from Episode 4 of Apple TV+’s Hijack (out Wednesday, July 12).

When last we tuned into the real-time thriller, there was a lot going on. Sam and some neighbors in first class had deduced that the hijackers were wielding guns loaded with blanks, so when an unrelated commotion broke out — as Nasir tried to fetch his uncle’s insulin from an overhead bin, drawing pissy Jaden’s ire — Sam sneaked to the back...

Exclusive: This Is Us star Chris Geere, who is just coming off his run on NBC’s celebrated family drama series, has signed with Verve for representation.

Geere joined This Is Us as a recurring in Season 5, and was promoted to series regular for the sixth and final season, which wrapped up last night. Geere’s character Phillip, Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) co-worker, was at the center of a storyline bombshell that saw him eventually marry Kate after her divorce to Toby (Chris Sullivan).

British actor Geere became known to U.S. audiences during his five-season run as the lead of Stephen Falk’s critically-acclaimed FX series You’re The Worst. Other television credits include A Million Little Things and Modern Family, and an upcoming voice role in the animated Kung Fu Panda series.

On the feature side, Geere most recently starred in Hot Mess Holiday with Kal Penn for Comedy Central...

Exclusive: Vadhir Derbez has signed a multi-year first-look deal with Spanish-language streamer Pantaya.

Under the terms of the deal, the actor-producer will develop and executive produce a slate of original films and TV series for the company. Films developed as part of the deal will be produced in tandem with Pantelion Films, Pantaya’s partner company.

“As both an actor and a fan, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Pantaya and Pantelion,” Derbez tells Deadline exclusively in a statement. “I can’t wait to get to work and make great art together in the years to come.”

Adds Paul Presburger, CEO of Pantaya and Pantelion, “We look forward to working with such an established and beloved actor and producer such as Vadhir. His international presence and his versatility as a creative will blend seamlessly with our Pantaya team.”

Derbez began his...

Acquisition

Abacus Media Rights (Amr) has picked up global distribution rights to BBC Two’s Joan Collins documentary, produced by Salon Pictures and commissioned by Mark Bell at BBC Arts. Promising to tell the life story of the Hollywood actor from her point of view, the 90-minute documentary will be narrated by Collins herself. Clare Beavan (“Bricks!”) will direct as well as co-produce with Karen Steyn, Nick Taussig and Annabel Wigoder. Karen Steyn (“Tea With the Dames”) is executive producer.

“National treasures don’t come more glamorous than Dame Joan Collins and after seven decades of stardom her shine remains undimmed,” said Bell. “Her story too is priceless; this film will be an account of the ups and downs of an entertainment career like no other – candid, revelatory and occasionally hilarious.”

Amr managing director Jonathan Ford added: “This will be the definitive story of Dame Joan Collins told in her...

Tubi is set to premiere a handful of British comedies and dramas as part of a bumper deal with distributor BBC Studios.

The Fox-owned AVOD service will debut Will Arnett-fronted soccer comedy The First Team, from the creators of The Inbetweeners, Life, from Doctor Foster creator Mike Bartlett and Channel 4 series High & Dry from Baby Cow as part of the arrangement, which includes over 400 hours of programming.

The new series will begin airing from September 15.

The deal also includes library titles such as Antiques Roadshow, Atlantis, Misfits, Monarch of the Glen, The Musketeers, Primeval and Robin Hood.

“We are thrilled to begin our first-ever partnership with BBC Studios, showcasing the best in British creative talent,” said Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer, Tubi. “Viewers can now instantly access a wide cross-section of celebrated BBC content, including three series debuting on Tubi in the U.S.”

Dina Vangelisti, EVP, Content Sales,...

London Film Festival Lineup Revealed

The Lff has revealed its industry program, with speakers including Ava DuVernay, Jane Tranter, Ted Hope and Sundance director Tabitha Jackson. James Schamus will be take part in a panel discussion as part of the production finance market and there will also be spotlights on first films and new UK producers. All talks and events will take place digitally between October 7-18. Below is the lineup in full.

· Spotlight conversation – Ava DuVernay and Array

· Spotlight conversation – Jane Tranter from Bad Wolf

· Taking Black Writers Seriously pitching event with Ida Rose and the Young Vic

· Telling Black Stories on Screen – Kemp Powers and Kwame-Kwei-Armah in conversation

· From Big Screen to Small Screen, How Film Producers Navigate the World of Television with Ed Guiney and Allon Reich

· In Focus – Independent Producers with Ameenah Ayub Allen, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Matthew Wilkinson, Joy Ghatoro-Akopojotor, Elhum Shakerifar and Helen Simmons...

When you’ve had a big hit, it’s often all anybody wants from you. To artists, that level of success can feel like a trap. Fearful that the breadth of their creative genius may go unacknowledged, a singer might spend years trying to shake off a number one single, turning their back on requests for the old stuff and attempting to captivate fans with their Fresh New Sound. In such instances, results vary.

A saner alternative is to embrace what made that success happen, and try to repeat it. That’s what The Inbetweeners creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris have done in new BBC sitcom The First Team. Bar the cast, they’ve got the old band back together – the same writer-directors uniting with the same script editor and executive producer under the same comedy controller. Instead of breaking the mould and wasting energy simply to demonstrate versatility,...

Two magpies are fighting to the death outside Damon Beesley’s window. The violence is distracting him from the task in hand. “It’s just too much to ignore,” he tells Den of Geek, breaking off from an anecdote about the filming of new BBC football sitcom The First Team.

“Very Partridge that, by the way,” says his writing partner Iain Morris. “Super Partridge.”

Joining us on the call from La, Morris doesn’t have to contend with magpies; he’s dealing with a more existential struggle. The idea for The First Team arrived in 2009. “A decade ago – oh God, I’m so old.” Back then, the pair were pondering their next move after the second season of The Inbetweeners, the E4 schoolboy comedy that grew into a massive hit and two successful movies.

Beesley and Morris had found a groove, they realised, “writing about male insecurity. That’s what...

The Inbetweeners was a revelation, on the small screen and the big one, and even now, to this very day, every time we walk past a bus stop we think ‘w***ers’. We can’t help (sorry commuters!) Needles to say we’ve been patiently anticipating what creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley would conjure up next, and finally, coming to BBC2 this week, we have The First Team.

We had the pleasure of only speaking to the two writers/directors but also to the three leading cast-members, Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Jack McMullen and Jake Short. The series, which is set behind the scenes at a fictional football club, we watch on as these promising youngsters navigate their way around the dressing room, and how they balance being famous with, you know, wiping your arse. We discuss the character with the three young lads, who all impress heavily in the show.

Warning: contains spoilers for The Last Kingdom season 3

Landing on Netflix on Sunday the 26th of April are 10 new episodes of The Last Kingdom, the bloodthirsty historical drama based on Bernard Cornwell’s ‘The Saxon Stories’ novel saga. Season four continues the story of Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), a Saxon-born but Viking-raised warrior who became King Alfred’s military right-hand-man/mortal enemy/cherished friend over the course of the first three seasons.

Season four takes place after the death of King Alfred, with his dream of a single England more fractured than ever as the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex continue to compete for power. Uhtred once again plans to challenge the uncle who usurped his ancestral home of Bebbanburg, but destiny instead leads him back to politics and to Alfred’s dream of a united land.

The body count in a season of The Last Kingdom being what it is,...

Joshua Longhurst, Joanna Beveridge and Aaliyah-Jade Bradbury.

Joshua Longhurst, Aaliyah-Jade Bradbury and Joanna Beveridge have each been selected to undertake a customised paid industry internship via Screen Nsw’s annual Emerging Producer Placement initiative.

All three will undertake a three-month placement with the Screen Nsw investment team, headed by Sally Regan, followed by internships within Nsw production companies.

First cab off the rank is Longhurst, who joins Screen Nsw February 17, with Bradbury and Beveridge to follow later this year. All three will also be supported during their placements with opportunities to attend key screen industry events.

Co-founder of the independent production company Wintergarden Pictures, Longhurst is a director, producer and writer. In 2018, he co-produced and directed Cherry Season with production support from Screen Nsw’s Generator Emerging Filmmakers Fund, Sbs and Cjz, and is currently producing the comedy web series Ding Dong I’m Gay with development support from Screen Australia and Screen Nsw.

“BoJack Horseman” star Will Arnett has said it’s “hard to let go” of the freshly concluded Netflix original, while admitting that the cast is still thinking up future iterations of the show.

Arnett, who voiced the washed-up Hollywoo star BoJack since the show’s debut in 2014, tells Variety: “It’s bittersweet. I feel satisfied with what we did. [Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg] is an incredible writer and I feel fortunate I got to be a part of something like that, and ride his coattails a bit.”

The actor, who was at the BBC Showcase in Liverpool to promote his new BBC comedy “The First Team” with “The Conners” producer Tom Werner, adds that he’s “very happy with the way fans have reacted to (the ‘BoJack’ finale) and how the audience has grown.”

However, the “Arrested Development” and “Riviera” actor admits it’s still “hard to say goodbye.”

“Last week, we...