GEORGE CLOONEY, KERRY WASHINGTON, MINDY KALING LAUNCH FILM INITIATIVE: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Don Cheadle, Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling, Nicole Avant, Eva Longoria, Working Title Films founders Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and Creative Artists Agency Co-Chairman Bryan Lourd are partnering on an initiative they describe as a “drive transformational change across the entertainment industry for students from underserved communities.” They have created the Roybal School of Film and Television Production, a specialized academy housed within the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, providing Los Angeles Unified teachers with access to storytellers, industry professionals and experts, while training students for a future career in Hollywood.
SNAKE EYES DROPS TRAILER: A full trailer for Snake Eyes dropped Monday morning. The highly anticipated Paramount film shares the origin story of the mysterious commando from G.I. Joe. The film stars Henry Golding, Andrew Koji and Samara Weaving. Snake Eyes drops July 23rd in theaters.
LOCARNO TO HONOR JOHN LANDIS: Comedy directing maestro John Landis, whose classics include National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Trading Places (1983), will be honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Locarno International Film Festival. The 74th Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 4-14, 2021.
UNIVISION JOINS STREAMING WARS: Univision is launching a two-tier streaming service next year in the U.S. and Latin America. It will feature more Spanish-language originals than any other streamer. Pierluigi Gazzolo, President and Chief Transformation Officer at Univision said: “Today’s announcement is a quantum leap in Univision’s transformation as we aggressively scale and expand our streaming capabilities to bring thousands of hours of premium, original content to the nearly 600 million Spanish speakers around the world. We are excited to announce our new SVOD service as a powerful cornerstone of this strategy, providing us the opportunity to reach global audiences with high-quality, original programming from distinguished producers and top talent not available anywhere else. With PrendeTV, and now with our SVOD offering, Univision is uniquely positioned to satisfy the global demand for premium Spanish-language content, the last truly meaningful open lane in global video streaming.”