News

Updated with more signatories: Reaction continues to The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech after his film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film this month.

Some 1,215 Jewish show business professionals now have signed a letter denouncing the filmmaker’s speech, in which he decried the “dehumanization” of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. See the updated full list below.

“We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” the letter states (read it in full in full below).

This list includes among its signatories Eli Roth and Amy Sherman-Palladino, Amy Pascal, Debra Messing, Gail Berman, Hawk Koch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gary Barber, Lawrence Bender, Tovah Feldshuh and Rod Lurie.

You can watch Glazer’s speech here,...

Exclusive: HBO Max has acquired streaming rights to the family film Brie‘s Bake Off Challenge, from writer-director Emily Aguilar, for release today.

The story follows Brie Hayes (Devyn Leah), an aspiring 12-year-old baker who does everything she can to win first place in her school’s annual Spring Bake Off Challenge. Brie and her Bffl Millie (Mallory Vertman) must practice and motivate each other in order to win. On top of the actual baking challenges, Brie faces her “archnemesis” and bully, Vanessa Weiler (Delaney Disque), who also wants to win first place. Pressures and tensions rise as the stakes get higher and Vanessa’s crush, Jody (Camden Zapf), is also competing to win. The winner of the Spring Bake Off Challenge will win a whopping 5,000 and tickets to Cosmo Land.

Emily’s Bake Off Challenge also stars Stefannie Smith, Pry’ce Jaymes, Isaiah Givens, Sandy Lisiewski, Tony Amante, Adam Cooley,...

Screen Media has acquired U.S. digital rights to After the Murder of Albert Lima, a true-crime documentary thriller directed and produced by Aengus James and which counts Meredith Vieira among its executive producers. With the deal, it will be released as a Crackle Original in the first quarter of 2021.

The pic tells the story of a son obsessed with capturing his father’s killer. After years of the legal system failing him, Paul Lima takes the unorthodox step of hiring two bounty hunters to travel to Honduras to track down and capture his father’s killer. This riveting, and at times darkly comedic, thriller explores both the importance of family and the dangers of taking the law into your own hands.

The film screened in the past year at Doc NYC and Woodstock Film Festival among other fests. It is executive produced by Gunpowder & Sky’s Van Toffler,...

In today’s TV news roundup, Showtime announced the premiere date for Season 3 of “Desus & Mero,” and Rooster Teeth and All Elite Wrestling unveiled plans for a podcast premiering Jan. 18.

Dates

Showtime revealed that “Desus & Mero” will return for Season 3 on Jan. 31. The late-night talk show — which marked the first venture into late-night for Showtime — will air at 11 p.m. each Sunday and Thursday. Co-hosts Desus Nice and The Kid Mero bring guests on each episode to discuss relevant topics from politics, sports, entertainment and other pressing moments from the week. The series is executive produced by Desus Nice, The Kid Mero, Lilly Burns, Tony Hernandez, Victor Lopez, Suzanne Fagel and Mike Pielocik.

Executive News

Allen Media Group announced the hiring of April Ryan to the position of White House correspondent and Washington, D.C. bureau chief for broadcast network TheGrio.TV. She will take on the position starting Jan.

Niki Koss, best known for co-starring on the Freeform series Famous in Love, will make her feature directorial debut with Night, Night, a psychological thriller about a woman who wakes up from a horrific car accident and must find a way to survive a recovery from hell. Descendants actress Brenna D’Amico is attached to star in the film which was written by Robert Johnson. Additional cast includes Tony Todd, Eric Roberts, Brooke Anne Smith, Adam Budron, Nick Marini, Matty Cardarople, and Neels Visser. Filming will commence this month in Corsicana, Texas. Koss, Johnson, Austin Seltzer, and Ryan DeLaney are producing while Amber McNutt will serve as executive producer. Koss is repped by Abrams Artists and Mckeon Myones.

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Producer and Green Book actor Mike Hatton has secured a seven-figure revolving fund for his production shingle, Ton of Hats, Inc., through The Magnolia Financial Group, LLC. The fund will go towards the...