DIVERSITY SELLS TICKETS: A new study released by Movio and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that more diverse movie characters bring in audiences to movie theaters. “The relationship seems to be stronger for race/ethnicity cohorts than age or gender cohorts, where a higher percentage of characters of a given Race/Ethnicity on screen results in a higher percentage of moviegoers of the same race/ethnicity in the audience,” the report said. “Within race/ethnicity it does seem to be most apparent for the Black cohort than other race/ethnicity cohorts.”
SONY CLASSICS SNAGS THE DUKE: Sony Classics is scooping up The Duke after its bow at the Venice Film Festival. The film is directed by Roger Mitchell, and stars Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren; the story follows a taxi driver who steals a Goya from the National Gallery in London.
AMAZON BACKS NEW DIVERSE TALENT FUND: Amazon, BAFTA, BBC Studios, Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment andViacomCBS are donating to the U.K.'s Film and TV Charity fund, which will distribute more than $1.5M to creatives hit by COVID, and will also launch a fund to increase diversity in the film industry. “We know that diverse talent – including women, those who are Black Asian or minority ethnic, and those who are disabled – are now being disproportionately impacted by the crisis due to a range of factors. So we have a real concern that without urgent support we will lose these people from our industry,” said Film and TV Charity CEO Alex Pumfrey.
CANNESERIES UNVEILS LINEUP: The 2020 edition of French television festival CanneSeries will feature a world premieres of Amazon's Simon Pegg/Nick Frost horror series Truth Series, the period crime drama Shadowplay starring Taylor Kitsch and Michael C. Hall, and the fourth season debut of Netflix's hit French series Call my Agent!, according to The Hollywood Reporter.