Entertainment Lawyers

  As streamers look to international pushes to help bolster their bottom lines, we see WarnerMedia announce not one, but two, exciting new content leads. Brandon Blake, our resident entertainment lawyer Los Angeles , unpacks these new appointments.                                             Brandon Blake - Entertainment Lawyer May-Yi Lee, the newly appointed head of unscripted content for WarnerMedia’s Asian efforts, is no stranger to the regional industry. Based in Taiwan, she has over two decades in the industry and will be moving over from National Geographic. She will now lead development and production for unscripted originals in Southeast Asia, Korea, and India. This puts her alongside Magdalene Ew, their head of content for the area. HBO Asia VP, Garon De Silva, will lead development and production for scripted originals. These appointments come as WarnerMedia queue...

  As a new cycle of content distribution agreements and renewals takes place, our resident entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake , pulls back the curtain on the latest deal announcement from Lionsgate and Spyglass media. As seems to be the theme of this cycle, the precise terms of the deal have been kept very tight. However, the new deal will see Lionsgate acquire a 20% investment stake in Spyglass. This will not dethrone former MGM chief Gary Barber from the lead of Spyglass, however, and it seems other key senior leadership will also remain in place.  Spyglass assets, of course, include the ever-popular Project Runway , the iconic Scream franchise, Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds, and Hellraiser and its upcoming spinoffs. A key part of the new deal will be the multi-year first-look TV deal, covering a nice chunk of their library titles too. This should nicely bolster Lionsgate’s existing push into the streaming space through Starz. These 200 Spyglass titles join Li...

  Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV have this week reached an agreement with Universal Films to license blockbusters after their Peacock streaming run ends. This multi-year agreement will give them access to blockbusters like F9 and Jurassic World . BLAKE & WANG P.A entertainment lawyer Los Angeles takes a look. We’ve already seen Universal outline the first part of its planned pipeline for its content. This involves moving theatrical titles to Peacock within the first 4 months of opening, following an 18-month window to divide between Peacock and other partners. With the new info about licensing with Amazon, it’s clear the plan is for the first 4 months to go to Peacock exclusively, while the following 10 months will be allocated to IMDB and Prime exclusively. Presumably, films will return for their final 4 months run to Peacock.  It’s an unusual arrangement but will prove more lucrative for Universal in the long run than merely hogging content to Peacock alone. As of 2022...

The British Film Institute, or BFI, has announced a £500,000 funding grant to support international independent titles in the UK. This will be administered by the existing BFI Audience Fund. Here’s what BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Lawyer Los Angeles has found out for our interested indie producers. Brandon Blake - Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A. This project is specifically for indie producers working outside of the English language framework. It has been developed in consultation with several interested industry partners, including the UK Cinema Association and the Film Distributors Association. Sources for the unexpected project funding appear to have come through the budgetary extras from the slowdown in market attendance/international travel during the 2020 season, making it quite an unanticipated windfall. Eligible projects must align with the Audience Fund’s stated goals of broadening diversity and opening audience choice. Since its inception in 2017, the Audie...