News

Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment, has announced that Snowflakes has been picked up as a series. The first season will premiere next year.

The half-hour series was created by Ben Kronengold & Rebecca Shaw (The Tonight Show), who wrote the pilot and serve as executive producers with comedy veterans Nick Kroll, Jonathan Krisel, who directed the pilot, and Stefani Robinson.

Snowflakes is a twenty-something ensemble comedy about a group of codependent housemates who try to be good people despite being neither “good” nor “people” yet. The series stars Malik Elassal as Samir, Lucy Freyer as Billie, Jack Innanen as Paul Baker, Amita Rao as Issa, and Owen Thiele as Anton.

“We are excited about the exceptional cast and powerhouse comedy team we’ve assembled for Snowflakes,” said Grad. “Not only does it give us a chance to introduce our audience to Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw’s brilliant comedic voice,...

FX is picking up “Snowflakes” for a series order. The upcoming comedy from executive producers Nick Kroll, Jonathan Krisel and Stefani Robinson is set to premiere next year.

The half-hour series comes from Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw (“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”) and follows a group of 20-something housemates “trying to be good people, despite being neither ‘good’ nor ‘people’ yet,” a press release for the series reads. The comedy stars a relatively unknown cast that includes Malik Elassal (“Joe Pickett”) as Smir, Lucy Freyer (“Paint”) as Billie, Jack Innanen (“The Dessert”) as Paul Baker, Amita Rao (“Emperor of Ocean Park”) as Issa and Owen Thiele (“Theater Camp”) as Anton. The pilot was written by Kronengold and Shaw and directed by Krisel.

“We are excited about the exceptional cast and powerhouse comedy team we’ve assembled for ‘Snowflakes,'” Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment, said in a statement to press.

FX has greenlit the comedy series “Snowflakes,” Variety has learned.

The half-hour show was originally picked up to pilot at FX back in January. It is slated to premiere in 2025. The official logline states that “Snowflakes” is a “twenty-something ensemble comedy following a group of codependent housemates trying to be good people, despite being neither ‘good’ nor ‘people’ yet.”

Former “Tonight Show” writers Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw wrote the pilot and serve as executive producers. Nick Kroll and Alicia Van Couvering executive produce via Good at Business, with Jonathan Krisel and Stefani Robinson also executive producing. Krisel directed the pilot as well. FX Productions is the studio.

“We are excited about the exceptional cast and powerhouse comedy team we’ve assembled for Snowflakes,” said Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment. “Not only does it give us a chance to introduce our audience to Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw’s brilliant comedic voice,...

FX has picked up half-hour comedy pilot Snowflakes to series for a 2025 premiere. The project was created by The Tonight Show writers Ben Kronengold & Rebecca Shaw, and the order puts the 20-somethings among the youngest series creators, having both graduated from college in 2018.

Snowflakes is a twenty-something ensemble comedy following a group of codependent housemates — — Billie (Lucy Freyer), Samir (Malik Elassal), Anton (Owen Thiele), Issa (Amita Rao) and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) — trying to be good people, despite being neither “good” nor “people” yet.

On the series, Kronengold and Shaw, who wrote the pilot and serve as executive producers, are partnered with comedy veterans Nick Kroll, Jonathan Krisel, who directed the pilot, and Stefani Robinson.

“We are excited about the exceptional cast and powerhouse comedy team we’ve assembled for Snowflakes,...

Melissa Joan Hart is being slammed online after complaining that Hurricane Maria canceled her family vacation to the Caribbean.

“And just like that, our family vacation is canceled,” Hart captioned a now-deleted screenshot of a weather alert on her phone on Tuesday. “Such a bummer but we plan to hit the @nickresortpuntacana resort another time this year.”

The update warned that Hurricane Maria had made landfall on the Caribbean island of the Dominica as a Category 5 hurricane.

CNN reports 14 people in Dominica died, while 3 million people living in Puerto Rico are completely without power after the storm pummeled the U.

Exclusive: Nicole Perna and Melissa Raubvogel are leaving their executive vice president posts at Baker Winokur Ryder to create a new bicoastal public relations agency they’re calling Imprint PR. The pair ran the talent department for the agency for the past four years and spent nearly two decades at Bwr. This comes as Paul Baker and Larry Winokur plan their retirement at year’s end. Perna and Raubvogel will be founding partners, and joining them as founding members will…...

Exclusive: Nicole Perna and Melissa Raubvogel are leaving their executive vice president posts at Baker Winokur Ryder to create a new bicoastal public relations agency they’re calling Imprint PR. The pair ran the talent department for the agency for the past four years and spent nearly two decades at Bwr. This comes as Paul Baker and Larry Winokur plan their retirement at year’s end. Perna and Raubvogel will be founding partners, and joining them as founding members will…...

David, Devindra, and Jeff discuss the principle of finders keepers, losers weepers; talk about the difficulty of choosing a baby name; and delve into the scourge of eating during movies. In the After Dark, we discuss the Assassin’s Creed trailer and Dave unburdens himself about Kimmy Schmidt. Check out Paul Baker’s Summer Movie Wager board and read up on other racial issues in Kimmy Schmidt. […]

The post /Filmcast Ep. 366 – High-Rise appeared first on /Film.

Paul Baker, the 11th defendant in a sham movie-financing scheme that defrauded investors out of more than $17 million, has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution. Baker was convicted in 2012 on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and the sale of unregistered securities as part of a boiler room telemarketing operation run by Cinamour Entertainment. The company bilked investors who put money into independent…...

Existing production rebate, which has drawn Stars Wars and Fast & Furious 7, may be complimented with an infrastructure incentive. Warner Bros, Sony, Paramount heading to the region next week.

Abu Dhabi’s twofour54 and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (Adfc) are mulling the introduction of a Louisiana-style infrastructure tax rebate, to compliment its existing production rebate.

“The infrastructure tax credit in Louisiana was instrumental in building the industry there,” said Adfc chief Michael P Flannigan at a networking event at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on Monday.

Flannigan, who previously headed up Millennium’s Shreveport Louisiana studio operations before moving to Abu Dhabi, and Adfc head of finance Neil Hitchen said the idea was in its infancy but under serious consideration.

The commission’s existing incentive – available to film, TV, documentary, advertising and music video production — consists of a 30% production rebate on qualifying spend in Abu Dhabi which includes goods and services related to shooting as well as...

Cinema professionals debate whether the cinema investment drive of past decade has achieved anything for local industry.

Key figures in the Gulf’s fledgling film industry gathered at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on Monday to discuss what had been achieved after more than a decade of investment in cinema in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“Does the UAE have an industry yet, in my personal opinion, no - we have a movement,” said Samr Al Marzooqi, market manager at the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff).

“For me the definition of a successful film industry is where you have films that make enough money to pay those involved a proper wage so they can make a living out of it. This has yet to happen.”

Paul Baker, executive manager of Intaj, the production division of Abu Dhabi’s media and creative industries hub twofour54, was more upbeat.

“I think we are building an industry here. It’s embryonic...

This summer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—also known as Als and Lou Gehrig's Disease—got a big awareness boost with the Als Ice Bucket Challenge. Sunday morning, the Als Association hosted its Walk to Defeat Als event, keeping that momentum going. "Our goal for today is to raise awareness of Als and raise funding to support people who are living with Als and to support research," said Fred Fisher, President and CEO of the Als Association Golden West Chapter. "The more money that we can raise, the more people we can help and the more research we can fund." The walk,...

With production in full swing for Star Wars: Episode VII, there's all kinds of little nuggets dropping around the web. Nothing too juicy, of course, with Darth Abrams lurking in the shadows, Force-choking anyone that dares utter a story element, but little things. For one thing, why are they filming in Abu Dhabi if the original Tatooine set was in Tunisia? Simple, it's cheaper! And for a production that's sure to cost as much as Episode VII is going to, filming in a place that offers films attractive rebates is quite appealing.

Paul Baker says:

"Obviously, straight off the bat, you’ve got to get the creative right. We have a great selection of locations that appeal to those guys. Then, there is everything else that falls into place: production infrastructure, crew, equipment suppliers, and obviously a big one in the rebate."

The Metro UK article that discusses this also...

After 17 years, top Hollywood publicist Leslie Sloane and Bwr have come to a mutual decision to part ways, multiple individuals familiar with the situation have told TheWrap. At Bwr, Sloane's clients included Katie Holmes, Blake Lively, Megan Fox, Zoe Saldana and Melissa McCarthy. Sloane's future plans were not immediately clear, as she did not immediately reply to a request for comment. As of right now, no other staff members have joined Sloane in leaving the company, where she spent 17 years and helped build the talent department. Paul Baker, Larry Winokur and Nanci Ryder co-founded Bwr, where Sloane served as co-president based in.

Though he's a actor of many genres, veteran performer Crispin Glover doesn't like to be defined by any single one of them. He's known worldwide, of course, for playing George McFly in Back to the Future, the villainous Thin Man in Charlie's Angels and more recently the Knave of Hearts in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. But whenever he has the opportunity, Glover, who turns 50 next month, marches to the beat of his own drummer. In fact, the film that Glover has declared as his greatest piece of work is a film that probably most people will never get a chance to see because it was shot independently and has never been distributed on video. Co-directed by Glover and David Brothers, the 2007 psychological horror thriller It is Fine! Everything is Fine. has to date only been seen at its Sundance Film Festival premiere, and after that, at Glover's touring...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Release date: 30th July, 2012

*

I like shoegaze and shoegaze likes me. I think. I haven’t been ill after a session on it, anyway. Not like Strongbow or neat vodka. It leaves none of that horrible aftertaste and you don’t wake up with a searing hangover, either. You can use shoegaze anytime you want as well. Like, say you feel like having a bit of shoegaze while you’re at work – go ahead. Do it. Have some. The opposite can’t be said for Strongbow, or vodka. You’ll probably get sacked. Try it if you want – many have – but shoegaze is a much safer alternative to ensure you keep your job and keep the pounds rolling in.

Shoegaze has been a vice of mine for a number of years. One of those bands that just wouldn’t let me kick the habit was, and is,...