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Jason Reed has been appointed head of Skydance Sports, the sports-focused studio joint venture formed between David Ellison’s Skydance Media and the NFL.

In the new role, Reed will oversee all Skydance Sports operations and the development and production of the studio’s entire slate of sports-driven storytelling across scripted and unscripted content, documentaries, and events including and not limited to NFL content. He’ll report directly to the Skydance Sports Board of Directors, which includes Skydance Media’s president and COO, Jesse Sisgold, who now serves as Chairman.

“Jason is an outstanding executive with a proven track record of running complex organizations and producing top-quality films and series. His versatility, creative sensibility, and expertise launching some of the world’s most recognizable franchises is a boon to Skydance Sports, as we look to harness our early successes and scale the global footprint of the studio,” said Sisgold.

Reed...

Veteran producer and film executive Jason T. Reed has been named as the head of Skydance Sports, the company announced on Thursday.

Skydance Sports is the sports-focused studio collaboration that was established in 2022, a joint effort between David Ellison’s Skydance Media and the NFL.

With more than 20 years in the media and content industry, Reed’s history includes the creation and production of significant film and TV intellectual properties, such as “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and the live-action version of “Mulan.” Furthermore, he had an 18-year tenure at The Walt Disney Company, where he excelled in international production and franchise management.

In his newly created role, Reed will spearhead Skydance Sports operations and oversee the development and production of the studio’s entire slate of sports-driven storytelling. This will encompass both scripted and unscripted content, documentaries and events, including NFL-related content.

Reed will report directly to...

Film executive Jason T. Reed has been named the head of Skydance Sports, the joint studio venture formed by Skydance Media and the NFL.

Reed most recently ran his own film and television production company and will now lead the development and production of Skydance Sports’ sport-driven scripted and unscripted content, documentaries, and events. He will report to the company board of directors, run by recently appointed chairman, Jesse Sisgold, Skydance Media’s president and chief operating officer.

At his self-titled production company, Reed produced Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the live-action feature film adaptation of Mulan. Working in international production and franchise management at The Walt Disney Company, Reed also oversaw films such as the National Treasure franchise, Alice in Wonderland, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and Enchanted. He has worked on sports features such as Prefontaine, The Waterboy and The Greatest Game Ever Played.

After Skydance Media...

Jason T. Reed, a veteran producer who spent 18 years as an exec at Disney overseeing a number of top franchises, has been named Head of Skydance Sports.

The division of David Ellison’s Skydance Media last year formally teamed with the NFL and NFL Films. In his newly created role, Reed will lead overall Skydance Sports operations and the development and production of the studio’s entire slate of sports-driven scripted and unscripted projects, along with documentaries and events.

Jon Weinbach, who has served as President of Skydance Sports since its 2021 formation, will now focus on overseeing the studio’s unscripted and documentary slate. That unit produced NFL Draft: The Pick Is In, a docuseries that became Roku’s most-watched original documentary title ever, earning a renewal for 2024. Another title shepherded by Weinbach was Kelce, a feature documentary on Prime Video about Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.

As Reed takes on the head role,...

“The Novice” is a dark-side-of-sports thriller. It’s a movie, like “Personal Best” or “Prefontaine,” that a lot of star athletes will probably be able to relate to, but it’s also a movie for anyone who ever felt existentially uncomfortable in gym class. The central character — and that’s no exaggeration, since her moody, relentless thousand-yard stare anchors every scene — is Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman), a freshman at Wellington University, an overcast dystopian oasis of modernist concrete slabs, who decides to join the rowing team there. She’s not looking for an athletic scholarship (she was second in her high-school class and has won a full ride), and it’s a sport she has no experience in. At first, as she buckles down and starts her Erg workouts, strapping herself into a rowing machine that measures the amount of work being done, she seems as physically self-conscious and out-of-sorts...

Dickens had the teeming streets of Victorian-era London, Balzac had Paris during the Bourbon Restoration period, and Steve James has 21st century Chicago. A key part of the team behind the groundbreaking Hoop Dreams, this veteran documentarian has dabbled over the years in everything from biopics (Prefontaine) to bigger-picture looks at social ills (Abacus: Small Enough to Jail). It’s the City of Broad Shoulders, however, that’s provided him with a creative home base via Kartemquin Films and a subject rich enough to examine in depth. Every U.S.

R. Lee Ermey, the gunnery sergeant turned actor who portrayed the scene-stealing drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, died Sunday at the age of 74.

Ermey's longtime manager Bill Rogin confirmed Ermey's death on the actor's Facebook account. "It is with deep sadness that I regret to inform you all that R. Lee Ermey ("The Gunny") passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia. He will be greatly missed by all of us," Rogin wrote.

"It is a terrible loss that nobody was prepared for," Rogin added. "He...

by Nathaniel R

Margot Robbie recently shared this pic from "exactly a year ago" when she was training for I Tonya

Is Margot Robbie the first actress to ever be nominated playing an Olympic athlete? I legit don't know the answer but I can't think of any others. The only previous Oscar nominated performances that we could think of were men: Will Smith as Muhammad Ali (though the focus there wasn't on the Olympics) and Mark Ruffalo as David Schultz (thanks commenters for this one!)

If you think back over movies that revolved around the Olympics in some way they aren't usually acting showcases (Chariots of Fire) or aren't focused on the Olympians themselves (Munich) or they're films that were either aimed at wide audience crowd pleasing or just didn't connect with awards voters (The Cutting Edge, Personal Best, Running Brave, Prefontaine, Eddie the Eagle, Cool Runnings) or they're documentaries...

Jared Leto is wearing a preposterous straw hat this morning, a gigantic, not-quite-a-sombrero thing he bought for seven bucks at a corner store. And why not? He's made it this far by committing fully, sometimes crazily, to everything in his life: Method acting, music-making, video directing, tech investing, not to mention the arts of being enigmatic, brainy and really, really good-looking. "I don't dabble," he says. "I dive in, 1,000 percent." So if he needs sun protection for a hike, of course he goes big. In any case, Leto recently turned 44 — "old,...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…

Peter Gilbert: Musician: Ben and Leo Sidran. Movie: Ida. Book: Short Nights of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. TV: The Knick

Lavallee: Intimately and professionally they share a common bound, but seeing that you come to Unexpected from a unique vantage point (in the producer capacity), I was wondering, a. what initially drew you to the material and b. creatively-speaking, how does Kris filmmaking process differ from Joe’s.

Gilbert: When I was at Sundance with year with Happy Christmas I was able to sneak away and have dinner with Kris. Who I adore. I loved her other film. I also love the relationship that Joe and she have. At dinner that night she told me about Unexpected. I was thrilled and my partner Chris Webber and I immediately jumped on board. Chris...

From Oscar-winning to Homeland and more, here's what the cast of My So-Called Life have been up to over the past 2 decades...

Twenty years has passed since we were first introduced to the characters of My So-Called Life, twenty years! Where has the time gone? And more importantly when did I get so old?

While most of you won’t really care too much what I’ve been up to since the show finished, let’s take a look at what the actors have been up to in the years since the cancellation of what is frankly the greatest teen TV drama ever.

Claire Danes (Angela Chase)

After breaking out in My So-Called Life, Danes focused on her film career first with a leading role in 1995’s Little Women and then supporting roles in smaller but interesting films like Home For The Holidays, How to Make An American Quilt and...

You’ve seen the shocking photos of Matthew McConaughey, who dropped more than 40 pounds to play Ron Woodroof, the real-life AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club. But McConaughey isn’t the only star of the film who underwent a complete physical transformation. Jared Leto plays Rayon, the HIV-positive transsexual who becomes Ron’s business partner in their 1980s drug-smuggling operation to get unapproved AIDS medicines into the U.S. Leto not only dropped more than 30 pounds to play the dying drug addict — a feat he’d famously done before for Requiem for a Dream — but he stayed in-character as Rayon...

Carlos de Abreu, founder and executive producer of the 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards, announced today that Jared Leto of Focus Features’ “Dallas Buyers Club” will be honored with the Hollywood Breakout Performance Award. The honor will be bestowed at the 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 21st, 2013 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. “Jared’s portrayal of Rayon in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ is infused with humanity and bravery, and is nothing short of a revelation. This is an exceptional tour-de-force of acting,” said de Abreu. The Hollywood Film Awards honors cherished stars, filmmakers, and up-and-coming talent, and traditionally kicks off the film awards season with the biggest stars and top industry executives in attendance. Past Hollywood Breakout Performance Award honorees have included Jamie Foxx, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and Naomi Watts. Last year’s awards show received more than 41 million media impressions,...

From Marathon Man to Forrest Gump, we complete a circuit of the best running-themed films. What's your favourite? Let us know below

Since the moment Eadweard Muybridge captured a man sprinting in 1887 runners have worn a path across the cinematic landscape. Whether on the pristine oval of an Olympic running track, a dusty patch in a prison rec yard or the damp tarmac of a rural country road, film has documented the sweat and solitude of running in all its pain and glory.

Here are 10 of the best.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

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Opening with the sound of Tom Courtenay's feet thudding against a bleak rural lane, Tony Richardson and Alan Sillitoe's 1962 British New Wave classic is one of the most poetic running films in cinematic history. As Colin Smith, a petty delinquent, Courtenay gives a...

"Charlie Chan at the Olympics" (1937): Yes, really. Footage from the previous year's Berlin Olympics figures into this caper that takes the sleuth (Warner Oland) to those Games.

"Jim Thorpe - All American" (1951): Burt Lancaster surely had the physique for the title role in this portrait of the Native American who medaled in both the pentathlon and decathlon.

"Walk, Don't Run" (1966): Cary Grant made his final screen appearance in this comedy set against the backdrop of the Tokyo Olympics, where scarce quarters make roommates of strangers (Grant, Samantha Eggar, Jim Hutton).

"Chariots of Fire" (1981): Generally acknowledged as the top Olympics movie to date, confirmed by its Oscar for best picture, director Hugh Hudson's drama casts Ben Cross and Ian Charleson as British competitors in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

"Personal Best" (1982): An athlete (Mariel Hemingway) becomes deeply involved with a rival (Patrice Donnelly) for a spot on the U.

Steve James is the director and producer of the documentaries “Hoop Dreams,” “Stevie,” “Reel Paradise,” “At the Death House Door,” “The Interrupters” and “Head Games,” which is awaiting release. He also co-wrote and directed the narrative feature “Prefontaine.” “Generation Food” is a collaboration between myself and author/activist Raj Patel that will tell stories about efforts around the world to try to solve the food crisis — through a documentary, a book, a website and mobile apps. On July 8, we launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to raise funds for the very first research trips we need to make on the film, to locations such as Peru and Malawi. So far, we’ve raised half our goal, with a little less then half the time left. I’ve never done this kind of fundraising before. But for some time I’ve been intrigued to see that people have had success with.

"Special From Next Avenue"

By Leah Rozen

Hollywood has long carried an Olympic torch for the Games and their charismatic champions

Before he wore a loincloth as Tarzan and yodeled while swinging across movie screens on a vine, Johnny Weissmuller was an Olympic swimming champ.

The strapping Weissmuller -- 6-foot-5, 190 pounds -- power-splashed his way to five gold medals in the 1924 and ‘28 Olympic Games. Recognizing a marketable hunk when it saw one, Hollywood snapped him up.

"It was like stealing," Weissmuller (1904-1984) once said of his Tarzan career, which included a dozen films between 1932 and ‘48. "There was swimming in it, and I didn't have much to say. How can a guy climb trees, say ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane,’ and make a million?"

I was a sucker for Weismuller’s Tarzan films -- as a kid, I used to watch the scratchy prints that repeatedly aired on Saturday afternoon TV.

In fact,...

Photograph by Patrik Giardino

Nike's Mark Parker brings together extreme talents, whether they're basketball stars, tattooists, or designers obsessed with shoes.

"It still has moon-dust on it." Mark Parker sounds like a happy kid as he points to an astronaut manual from the Apollo mission inside his glass-topped desk at Nike's Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters. Over his shoulder, Keith Richards, at least the version of the Rolling Stones guitarist by German artist Sebastian Krüger, feigns a boozy disinterest. "And here," says Parker, swinging around in his chair, "is Jimi Hendrix's guitar."

It is astonishing to see this shoe designer turned CEO in his natural habitat, surrounded by artwork he has commissioned or collected, mixed in with bits of Nike history, such as the boots Michael Keaton wore in the 1989 hit Batman. Next to Keith Richards is a bas-relief by Missouri sculptor Kris Kuksi. Parker owns three of his pieces, one a blank-check commission.

Chariots Of Fire has topped an apt new list of Olympics-related films.

The celebrated 1981 Hugh Hudson movie, starring Nigel Havers and Ben Cross, beat ice hockey sports film Miracle and Cool Runnings to top the new Access Hollywood movie poll.

The top 10 is:

1. Chariots of Fire

2. Miracle

3. Cool Runnings

4. The Cutting Edge

5.Munich

6. Prefontaine

7. Olympia

8. One Day in September

9. American Anthem

10. Blades of Glory...