News

Exclusive: Stapleview, the digital comedy production outfit founded by Sam Grey, is expanding its North American footprint with a strategic investment from Blink49 Studios as well as two key hires.

The capital raise from Blink49 Studios, a Fifth Season-backed company, will fuel the growth of Stapleview’s production and management divisions, particularly helping to scale the company’s slate of scripted and unscripted comedy for a broader North American audience.

In particular, Stapleview and Blink49 will focus on co-producing long-form adaptations of Stapleview’s digital comedy series and formats for the U.S. and Canadian markets. Stapleview will also launch a Canadian content hub to manage Canadian talent and develop original series and formats with the Canadian creative community.

Stapleview, which launched in March of 2022, has already had an eye on expansion in the last year with the hire of co-founder and COO Daniel Lantsman. The company has been focused...

Blink49 Studios is bulking up its executive roster with a series of promotions and a key hire as the Fifth Season-backed production banner continues to expand its footprint in the global content market.

Former Lionsgate executive Andrew Nissen has joined the company as VP of scripted television, reporting to Carolyn Newman, executive VP of global scripted. Based in Los Angeles, Nissen transitions from his previous role as director of scripted television development at Lionsgate, where he helped shepherd high-profile projects including “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

The Toronto-headquartered studio also elevated four senior executives. Allison Brough moves up to senior VP of unscripted television in Toronto, continuing to oversee the company’s reality slate under Toby Dormer, executive VP of unscripted television.

Lucy Galstyan has been upped to senior VP of business and legal affairs, unscripted, operating from the L.A. office and reporting to Nicole Levinsohn, executive VP of business and legal affairs.

Maternal Mystery

Disney+ has dropped first-look images for its upcoming U.K. original series “The Stolen Girl,” a psychological thriller toplining Denise Gough, Holliday Grainger, Ambika Mod and Jim Sturgess.

The five-part limited series, previously developed under the working title “Playdate,” comes from scribe Catherine Moulton (“Baptiste”) and helmer Eva Husson (“Mothering Sunday”). The project adapts Alex Dahl’s bestselling page-turner “Playdate.”

The story follows Elisa, a mother whose world implodes after her nine-year-old daughter Lucia vanishes during what was meant to be an innocent sleepover. The seemingly perfect host mother Rebecca, along with her daughter Josie, disappear without a trace – leaving behind only a vacant holiday rental where their supposed family home once stood.

As authorities launch a Europe-wide search, scrutiny falls heavily on Elisa and her husband Fred while family secrets bubble to the surface. Narrative promises to explore whether Rebecca’s shocking actions could have deeper justification than initially apparent.

Anyone who grew up in the '90s knows who Tom Green is, and if you don't, well, you're about to thanks to Amazon, who have announced three new projects with the legendary comedian. Green was a staple on MTV from 1994 to 2000 with The Tom Green Show, and later transitioned into films. He starred in such offbeat comedies as Road Trip, Freddy Got Fingered, and Stealing Harvard, while also appearing in the reboot of Charlie's Angels alongside Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Prime Video will debut three new projects with Green, all coming by the end of January. Not only is he the star of each one, but he also directed them as well, and serves as an executive producer with Rory Rosegarten through his Tom Green Productions Canada banner. First up on the list is This Is the Tom Green Documentary, which "will...

Tom Green, the one-of-a-kind funnyman who rose to fame with the success of The Tom Green Show on MTV, is returning to the small screen. Courtesy of Prime Video, there will be three all-new projects from Green made available for streaming this month.

The new projects released this month include a documentary, a new comedy special, and a reality series. Releasing on Jan. 24, This Is The Tom Green Documentary follows Green's career "as a trailblazing influence on comedy, film, television, and internet culture. With thousands of hours of digitalized personal footage, rare episodes, and unseen raw footage from past series and films, the documentary captures the early days of his humble beginnings in Canada, to stardom in Hollywood, as he goes full circle and returns to his roots moving from his LA home to a rural farm in the country." Green opens up on his journey in the doc, touching...

The Revenant star Forrest Goodluck, Blake Alec Miranda, Glen Gould and Brandon Oakes have nabbed lead roles in Bretten Hannam’s supernatural thriller Place of Ghosts, now shooting in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Goodluck played Hawk, the son of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass in The Revenant. Hannam’s third feature film follows siblings Mise’l and Antle, close confidants as children who have drifted apart as adults.

When a malevolent, rotting spirit of teeth and bones begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Skite’kmujuekati’k, or the Place of Ghosts primordial forest that exists outside of time, to face their violent upbringing.

“As Mise’l and Antle descend into the darkness of the forest, the emotions and the core of the story cut a visceral path through things left unsaid, leading to a different way of understanding each other, before doing battle with the...

Willa Fitzgerald stars as the protagonist in the upcoming horror film Strange Darling, where she is hunted by a deranged serial killer portrayed by Kyle Gallner. Strange Darling, directed by J.T. Mollner, will have its world premiere at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival in Austin, Texas on September 22. The film follows an injured woman being tracked by a relentless predator in the Oregon wilderness, as she tries to outsmart him and survive.

Can Willa Fitzgerald possibly escape? Miramax’s upcoming horror film Strange Darling finds Fitzgerald’s character running for her life as she is literally hunted by a deranged serial killer, portrayed by Kyle Gallner. A new clip from the horror/thriller flick, which gives off both Duel (1971) and The House That Jack Built (2018) vibes, has dropped online. Check out the brand-new footage from Strange Darling below:

Directed by J.T. Mollner, Strange Darling will make its world debut...