Yahoo Movies WarnerMedia Latin America Shakes Up Leadership Teams Following Turner, HBO Integration – Global Bulletin
In today’s Global Bulletin, WarnerMedia Latin America makes several leadership team changes; HBO Europe announces new true-crime docuseries “Pray, Obey, Kill”; Amazon Prime Video picks up “I Care a Lot” in several key territories; Piece of Magic hires Charlie Kemball as head of acquisitions and business development; San Sebastián opens the call for key sections; and “Mully” will stream free globally this Valentine’s Day.
LEADERSHIP
WarnerMedia Latin America chief content officer Tomás Yankelevich has announced the company’s new General Entertainment leadership team and structure going forward, after integration of regional Turner and HBO properties.
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As part of the restructuring, Mariano Cesar has been named head of programming and content strategy for HBO Max Latin America, ahead of the streaming service’s 2021 launch. Gustavo Grossman is now head of GE Networks, heading the team that handles the company’s linear pay TV brands.
Ricardo Pichetto will stay on in his role of head of production, though his responsibilities have been expanded across the entirety of the GE portfolio, including HBO Max and content for third-party companies in pay TV, free to air and digital. He will also head unscripted development and work on live sports with Fabio Medeiros, who will continue as leader of sports content.
Several other executives have been named to new roles including Andrés Mendozza as head of content acquisitions and negotiations, Flavia Vigio as head of consumer marketing and public relations, and Raul Hernandez as head of creative services.
Others will maintain their current titles, although each has had their responsibilities expanded under the restructuring. Marcelo Tamburi continues in his role as head of scripted content development, Peter Bevan as head of Particular Crowd — the company’s original movie label launched in 2020 — and Francisco Espinoza as head of programming for Chilevisión.
DOCUMENTARY
HBO Europe has announced its new six-part true crime docuseries, “Pray, Obey, Kill,” set to premiere this spring in all HBO Europe territories.
Created by Anton Berg, Martin Johnson and Henrik Georgsson (“The Bridge”), the series unspools in the remote Swedish village of Knutby, where an exclusive Pentecostal congregation becomes convinced that Jesus was returning to the living world to marry the group’s leader. The group gained global attention when one of its young members was murdered, and her neighbor shot several times.
Journalists Berg and Johnson team with director Georgsson to investigate what went down in the lead-up to the 2004 murder and its aftermath, speaking with former members of the community who are speaking publicly for the first time.
The series is produced by Ruth Reid for Warner Brothers ITVP. Anton Berg, Martin Johnson and Martina Iacobaeus executive produce, joined by Hanne Palmquist, Hanka Kastelicová and Antony Root for HBO Europe. It is produced by Warner Bros ITVP Sweden for HBO Europe.
STREAMING
Amazon Prime Video has picked up dark comedy and TIFF title “I Care a Lot,” starring Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González and Dianne Wiest. The film will be available to subscribers in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand on Feb. 19.
The film follows a shady legal guardian who embezzles the savings of those she is tasked with caring, but meets her match when one of the women she targets proves to be much more capable than first appearances suggest.
“I Care a Lot” was written and directed by J Blakeson (“The Disappearance of Alice Creed”) and produced by Black Bear Pictures. International sales rights are handled by STXinternational as part of an exclusive output deal with Black Bear.
HIRING
Global documentary distributors Piece of Magic Entertainment have appointed Charlie Kemball as the company’s new head of acquisitions and business development based out of London. Kemball will report directly to CEO Caspar Nadaud and will work to foster partnerships with international partners as part of the company’s concerted effort to expand its operations in the global theatrical distribution of high-profile films.
Kemball joins Piece of Magic from Altitude Film Sales where he worked as sales director, handling titles such as Asif Kapadia’s “Diego Maradona,” Sarah Gavron’s “Rocks” and Kevin Macdonald’s “Whitney.” He has also spent time working in advertising for clients such as Sony and Inside Pictures.
FESTIVALS
Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival has issued an open call for films hoping to participate in any of the festival’s 2021 sections, excluding WIP Latam, WIP Europa and Nest, which have their own calls for submission over the summer.
In an effort to improve and promote diversity among the festival’s selections, gender details are requested for parties occupying key roles in the films’ productions, including directors, producers, writers, editors, cinematographers and composers.
The submission window is open from Jan. 15 – June 15, with the festival running Sept. 17-25.
*****
Switzerland’s Visions du Réel festival will honor French author, filmmaker and screenwriter Emmanuel Carrère with the event’s Honorary Award – previously the Prix Maitre du Réel – accompanied by a masterclass, a carte blanche and the presentation of his 2003 documentary “Back to Kotelnich.” The award will be presented at this year’s event, running April 15-25.
Carrère is a former Cannes prize winner for his 2005 feature “The Moustache,” also honored at Spain’s prestigious genre festival Sitges that year. The aforementioned “Back to Kotelnich” won the Award of the City of Rome at Venice 2003.
“Whether in his publications, or in his approach to image and film, even fiction, Carrère is primarily concerned with fragments of life, with extracts of ‘reality,’ which emerge implicitly, that he seizes by adopting a position of subjective witness,” said Visions du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujès.
She added, “Talking in the first person of those women and men who don’t resemble him, seeking out the possibility of being a ‘community’ in the writing of this irreducible difference, inevitably brings this author closer to the familiar practices and processes of contemporary non-fiction filmmaking.”
DISTRIBUTION
Scott Haze’s “Mully,” the feature adaptation of the remarkable life of humanitarian Dr. Charles M. Mully, will be made available to stream for free around the world this Valentine’s Day from its website www.mullymovie.com.
Dr. Charles M. Mully is among Africa and the world’s most respected humanitarians, having rescued more than 18,000 Kenyan children from abject poverty. The docudrama feature tracks his life experiences, coming from an impoverished background himself, which saw him gain unthinkable wealth and power for someone with his resources. After facing an existential crisis in the face of his own material wealth, Mully dedicated himself, against the advice of those around him, to better the situation of those less fortunate.
“Mully” is written, produced and directed by Scott Haze (“Child of God”) and executive produced by James Moll (“Foo Fighters: Back and Forth”), John Bardis, and Paul Blavin with producer Lukas Behnken (“American Skin”) of Sterling Light Productions, and Elissa Shay.
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