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Exclusive: Caroline Roseman is exiting Banijay UK’s unscripted label Initial to relocate to New York.

The former Fulwell 73 exec has been with the Big Brother producer since January last year in a Creative Director of Development role, but is now moving across the pond for a “huge move personally and professionally.”

Her and her family are moving after receiving “an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

“It’s been a brilliant 18 month journey as [Initial’s] Creative Director of Development with major new series commissions coming down the line that I’m hugely proud of and looking forward to watching in 2025 and beyond,” she added in a LinkedIn post.

Initial parent Banijay UK confirmed her exit, but didn’t provide details of a replacement.

During Roseman’s time at Initial, the production house launched the latest incarnation of Big Brother UK, this time on ITV. The show has played on both Channel 4...

Of all The Capitol inhabitants in The Hunger Games franchise, Caesar Flickerman is perhaps the most mercurial. As the host and master of ceremonies for the titular blood sport, he's charged with turning the unthinkable into entertainment: presenting the sight of teenagers murdering each other as a sporting event akin to the Super Bowl. He acts as the designated propagandist for The Capitol: tyrannical rulers of 12 subjugated Districts in the future nation of Panem. Unlike the saga's other antagonists, he comes armed with a smile as he assures Katniss Everdeen and her fellow "tributes" that their status — and almost certain death — is actually the greatest thing that ever happened to them. He makes a wickedly clever comment on our contemporary obsession with the media, and how it can distort people's views of the facts.

As an eager mouthpiece for The Capitol, his fate remains unknown following the successful revolution at...

Ryan O’Neal, the boyish leading man who kicked off an extraordinary 1970s run in Hollywood with his Oscar-nominated turn as the Harvard preppie Oliver in the legendary romantic tearjerker Love Story, has died. He was 82.

O’Neal died Friday, his son Patrick O’Neal, a sportscaster with Bally Sports West in Los Angeles, reported on Instagram. He had been diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate cancer in 2012.

“As a human being, my father was as generous as they come,” Patrick wrote. “And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo. He loved to make people laugh. It’s pretty much his goal. Didn’t matter the situation, if there was a joke to be found, he nailed it. He really wanted us laughing. And we did all laugh. Every time. We had fun. Fun in the sun.”

On the...

The Hunger Games served as a marshaling ground for an entire generation of young actors, who took comparatively small parts in the science fiction epic only to find prominence and fame in later projects. The four-movie cycle contained dozens of substantive roles, most of which had very little screen time. Casting memorable actors to quickly make an impression was one of the keys to the franchise's success.

That includes Alexander Ludwig, who appears in the first Hunger Games movie as one of Katniss Everdeen's fiercest foes. As Cato, the Tribute from District 2, he's a terrifying onscreen presence, and Ludwig's intensity in the role reflects his future success as Bjorn Ironside in the History Channel series Vikings. And like many of the film's other supporting characters, his apparent villainy can't hide his ultimate status as a victim of the system.

Related: Caesar Flickerman's Fate After The Hunger Games May Surprise...

Since the American remake of “The Office” hit small screens in 2005, its fabricated documentary style –– often referred to as the mockumentary format–– became a sensation in the United States. With both “Abbott Elementary” and “What We Do in the Shadows” nominated for Best Comedy Series this season, it’s clear that the mockumentary subgenre continues to find favor among Television Academy voters and general viewers alike. But what are the roots of the mockumentary, and what success has the relatively recent sitcom phenomenon had at the Emmys up to this point?

Precursors to the mockumentary format –– which refers to documentary-style filmmaking in comedic media, specifically –– can be found as early as the 1930s, with the Luis Buñuel film “Land Without Bread” documenting a real-life region in Spain, utilizing hyperbole in its narration to satirize the living conditions of the impoverished people of Las Hurdes, contrasting the narrator’s uninterested manner of speaking.

Leading entertainment format producer Claire O’Donohoe has joined Banijay U.K. as director of programs.

O’Donohoe will work closely with her long-time creative collaborator Natalka Znak, the newly appointed CEO of group companies Remarkable, Initial, and ZnakTV, a company Znak set up in 2021 after departing Sky-backed outfit Znak & Co.

O’Donohoe has some two decades of TV experience in the U.S. and U.K. She most recently served as a commissioner at Fox, and went on to be senior VP, head of current at Fox Alternative Entertainment Studios. While in these roles she was involved in commissioning and launching break out hits “The Masked Singer” and “I Can See Your Voice.”

At Banijay U.K. O’Donohoe will work with American buyers, bringing U.K. formats from the creative teams at Remarkable Entertainment, Initial and Znak TV to the U.S. market. She also has the responsibility of...

Bandicoot TV, producer of the U.K. version of smash hit music reality show “The Masked Singer,” has added Kate Stannard, Liz Holmwood and Ruchika Tagore to its management team.

Stannard joins as the label’s first ever head of development, with a remit to identify, create and develop brand new formats across U.K., U.S. and international markets. She had a brief stint at Rdf and was previously head of development at Initial. Shows Stannard has worked on include “The Games,” “5 Gold Rings,” “Catchpoint,” “The Question Jury,” “Pick Me” and “Cash Trapped.”

Liz Holmwood, who previously worked with Bandicoot as a talent executive on “The Masked Dancer” and was formerly head of on-screen talent for Fremantle, joins as head of talent. Credits include “All Star Musicals,” “Britain’s Got Talent,” “Celebrity X Factor” and “Celebrity Juice” and responsibilities will include both U.K. and U.S. territories.

Stannard, Holmwood...

Mark Ruse. (Photo: Annie Beach)

Mark Ruse, who was partnered with Stephen Luby in Ruby Entertainment for 20 years, died unexpectedly on Saturday. He was 64.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Ruse produced more than 250 hours of prime-time comedy and drama, more than 20 hours of documentaries and 300 hours of live television.

“Mark was a true gentleman; incredibly talented, understated and generous, he gave many lucky people a leg up in the industry,” Julie Marlow, screen industry consultant and former Film Victoria director, tells If. “He was a joy to deal with and will be sadly missed by so many.”

Luby said of his colleague and close friend: “Mark was a man of incredible integrity, kindness, creativity, intelligence, dedication, work ethic, humour and goodness.

“His express philosophy was to ‘enable other people’s talents to shine.’ He loved to support and nurture people’s creative journeys (including mine).

“Producer skills developed...

Flamboyant film director, best known for Death Wish, and later an outspoken restaurant critic and bon vivant

Michael Winner, who has died aged 77, supplied interviewers with a list of more than 30 films he had directed, not always including the early travelogue This Is Belgium (1956), mostly shot in East Grinstead. But his enduring work was himself – a bravura creation of movies, television, journalism, the law courts and a catchphrase, ''Calm down, dear", from an exasperating series of television commercials.

He was born in London, the only child of George and Helen Winner, who were of Russian and Polish extraction respectively. His builder father made enough money propping up blitzed houses to invest in London property. The profits funded his wife's gambling, which, her son complained, so distracted "Mumsie" that he was never paid due attention. She left him in the bedroom with the mink coats of guests who came to his...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Director Michael Winner has died in his native England at age 77. Winner's star rose in the early to mid 1960s with a string of innovative comedies such as The Jokers and I'll Never Forget What's'isname, that perfectly tapped into the emerging London "mod scene".  His eclectic range of movies covered many genres, from Westerns to WWII to urban crime thrillers. Among his more notable titles were Lawman, Chato's Land, Scorpio, Hannibal Brooks, The Games, The Sentinel, The Nightcomers, The Mechanic and The Stone Killer. His greatest and most unexpected success was the 1974 film Death Wish starring Charles Bronson which was released at a time when societies worldwide were bristling at an explosion of urban crime and the perception that the current laws were not protecting them. The film tapped into a vigilante sentiment in its depiction of a New York liberal who takes the law into  his...

Michael Winner: Death Wish director has died Michael Winner, best remembered for directing the Charles Bronson action hit Death Wish, died earlier today at his home in Kensington, London. According to reports, Winner had been suffering from (an unspecified) liver disease. He was 77. (Photo: Michael Winner.) Born in London (on Oct. 30, 1935) to a well-to-do family of Eastern European Jews — his father was Russian, his mother was Polish — Winner studied law and economics at Cambridge University. Following a stint as a gossip columnist (reportedly at the age of 14), he proceeded to study journalism and film criticism. He began working in the field in the mid-’50s. Michael Winner movies Michael Winner’s directorial career also took off in the mid-’50s, when he began directing several documentary and live-action shorts, a couple of which featured well-known names such as A.E. Matthews and Dennis Price. Winner progressed to features in the early ’60s,...

UK cinematographer with credits including Thriller and Superman

The film directors Michael Winner and John Landis have every reason to be grateful to the British cinematographer Robert Paynter, who has died aged 82. Paynter helped visualise 10 of Winner's films and five by Landis, one of which is considered the most popular music video in history. Directed by Landis, the 14-minute video for Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983) vividly merged a pop song, innovative dancing and horror movie. Shot on 35mm stock, it featured Jackson metamorphosing into a werewolf and a zombie. Both Paynter, who created the eerie mood, and Rick Baker, credited with the stunning makeup effects, had previously teamed up effectively for Landis on An American Werewolf in London (1981).

Paynter was born in south London and educated at Mercer's school, Holborn, before being evacuated to Horsham, West Sussex, during the second world war. While still in his teens, he became a camera...