Armando Iannucci Tallinn Black Nights Award; Shane Stanley Sets ‘Double Threat’ Cast; Naked Hires Features Exec – Global Briefs

Tom Grater
·2 min read
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The Personal History Of David Copperfield filmmaker Armando Iannucci and Escape From Pretoria director Francis Annan will be the recipients of the inaugural DDA Spotlight Award at 24th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. The honorary prize was set up to time with the 50th anniversary of comms company DDA and will honor honours artists and filmmakers whose recent work takes a concerted step forward in improving diversity and inclusion in the film industry and cinema culture. The pair will accept their awards virtually on November 15.

EXCLUSIVE: Danielle C. Ryan, Matthew Lawrence, Dawn Olivieri And Kevin Joy will star in action-comedy feature Double Threat for director Shane Stanley, whose Break Even releases December 1 via Vision Films and Artist View Entertainment. Mo Gallini and Andrea Logan are also on board the pic which follows a forensic accountant (Lawrence) whose quiet pilgrimage to travel cross country to scatter his late brother’s ashes turns precarious when he crosses paths with a young woman (Ryan) who has an unpredictable psychological condition, and they both must outrun ruthless mobsters on her tail. A mob enforcer (Olivieri) and the mob boss’s son (Joy) bicker about honor and tradition while in hot pursuit. Stanley, Ryan, Kurt Patino and screenwriter CJ Walley are producing. Shoot is planned for Los Angeles this month and next.

Jay Blades, presenter of BBC show The Repair Shop, has launched Hungry Jay Media, an independent television production company formed in partnership with Hungry Bear Media, which is led by Dan Baldwin and Juliet Denison Gay. The company will develop and produce TV formats with Blades in front of and behind the camera.

Naked, the unscripted company owned by Fremantle, has hired Natalie Rose as its new Head of Features. She joins in January 2021 from UKTV, where she was Commissioning Editor for Factual and Factual Entertainment,

Sky has boarded To Olivia and will release the movie in February 2021 in cinemas and on Sky Cinema. The pic stars Hugh Bonneville as novelist Roald Dahl and Keeley Hawes his American actress wife Patricia Neal.

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