World Screen

NEW YORK: TV Land has fast-tracked a production to be written by Darren Star, the creator of Sex and the City. The single-camera comedy is based on the novel Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran. It follows the story of a newly single New Jersey housewife and mother in her early …

NEW YORK: 21st Century Fox has purchased a 5-percent stake in Vice Media, which has assets spanning print, online video and TV production, for $70 million. The deal will allow Vice Media to expand into Europe and India. The arrangement values the company at $1.4 billion. Around 25 percent of …

BURBANK: Shed Media in the U.S. has appointed Dan Snook as senior VP of development and Dave Kuba as VP of development. Snook previously served as the senior VP of development at Firecracker Films, where he contributed to such series as TLC’s Gypsy Sisters, Discovery’s Zombie Apocalypse and Lifetime’s The …

BEVERLY HILLS: Michael Thornton has been elevated to the newly created role of chief revenue officer at Starz, where he will work out of Englewood, Colorado, under Glenn Curtis, the company’s president. In his new position, Thornton will handle the network sales and affiliate marketing group. He will also manage …

CHEVY CHASE: Next month Travel Channel is scheduled to begin airing its third annual Weekends to Die For, a Halloween-themed programming event. The lineup will include new seasons of Making Monsters and The Dead Files. It will feature such one-hour specials as Ghost Adventures: Up Close & Personal, Halloween Night …

DURHAM: The 13 largest multi-channel video producers in the U.S., representing about 94 percent of the market, lost around 345,000 net additional video subscribers in the second quarter of 2013, according to new findings from Leichtman Research Group. The top pay-TV providers account for 94.6 million subscribers; the top 9 cable …

BEVERLY HILLS: A new multi-year licensing pact sees Netflix become the exclusive U.S. subscription TV service for first-run films from The Weinstein Company starting in 2016. The deal kicks off with its 2016 theatrically released feature films. New titles from TWC and Dimension Films will be made available for Netflix members …

NEW YORK: Leslie Farrell and Jeff Oliver have been appointed as the new VPs of current production for Bravo Media. Both Farrell and Oliver will work out of New York under Shari Levine, the senior VP of current production and original programming for Bravo Media. Farrell will serve as executive producer …

NEW YORK: HISTORY has greenlit the new four-hour scripted mini-series Houdini, in which Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody will take on the title role as the ace magician. Brody (The Pianist) is joined by Kristen Connolly (House of Cards, The Cabin in the Woods), who plays his wife Bess. The mini-series …

NEW YORK: NBC News Digital Group has established an original video unit, with an in-house production team dedicated to creating video for social media, mobile and the web. The unit will create video for brands such as NBC News Digital and TODAY Digital. Bill Smee will be leading the team as executive …