“I am thrilled to welcome these two exceptionally qualified media experts to the Telemundo team,” said Peter Blacker, EVP, Chief Commercial Officer, and Head of DTC Licensing. “Ezequiel and Malu each bring a unique and deep set of media expertise in Spanish and English, which will help us expand the formats and multilingual experiences across AVOD, SVOD, and DTC platforms that Telemundo has pioneered for over ten years in the US and across the globe.”

Fonseca Zas will be responsible for growing and fostering Telemundo Enterprises’ content monetization and distribution strategies, in close coordination with Telemundo’s Content Owners (Entertainment, Global Studios, Sports and News) as well as NBCUniversal Distribution and Licensing teams. He will also oversee sourcing and development of future large-scale revenue-generating projects across the business, taking advantage of the transformation of the U.S. and global media markets.

Carmona-Botana will be responsible for strategic planning and managing key partnerships including development, implementation, and short to long-term growth strategies. Carmona-Botana will also work closely with the content teams to align the network content strategies and NBCUniversal’s Peacock team in order to increase the company’s income across all platforms.

Fonseca Zas has held several leadership roles overseeing emerging businesses, multiplatform and digital strategies. As General Manager of Streaming Platforms and Senior Vice President of Mobile Partnerships, Fonseca Zas led the international streaming/OTT strategy and business plans for AVOD (Pluto TV) and SVOD platforms (Paramount+ & Noggin). Prior to that, Fonseca was at La Nación newspaper in Argentina for over a decade, where he held multiple positions in the company’s marketing, branding and digital divisions.

Carmona-Botana has worked all around the world including Gedeth in Shanghai, Zebra Producciones in Madrid, Televisa in Mexico City and Viacom in New York. She joins the Telemundo team from A+E Networks, where she was previously Director of Content Distribution Strategy where she provided strategic support to the President of Distribution.

— Latin Heat Media Services

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In Wander Darkly, a traumatic accident leaves a couple, Adrienne (Miller) and Matteo (Luna), in a surreal state of being that takes them on a disorienting journey through the duality of their shared moments.  They must rediscover the love that truly binds them together. Writer/director Miele offers a profound new perspective on the delicate nature of relationships with this emotionally moving story about a couple who must reflect on their past in order to face their uncertain future.

Rooted in Miele’s personal experiences, the film was lauded at Sundance for its bold vision and emotional depth. RogerEbert.com says, “…Miele directs her two leads to excellent performances.” The Hollywood Reporter called Miller’s “impressive range.”

“I am thrilled that Wander Darkly has found its home with Lionsgate,” said Miele. “It was a dream to bring this story to life with such an incredible team and the ever-brilliant Sienna Miller and Diego Luna. Seeing audiences’ powerful reactions at Sundance was moving and humbling and we can’t wait to share the film with audiences later this year.”

“Tara weaves mystery and intrigue into a modern-day parable and we could not be more excited to work with her and the rest of the filmmaking team on the release campaign,” said Lauren Bixby, Vice President of Acquisitions at Lionsgate.

Wander Darkly was produced by 51 Entertainment and ShivHans Pictures.  The producers are Lynette Howell Taylor, Samantha Housman, Shivani Rawat, and Monica Levinson, and executive producers are Mark D. Katchur, and Connor Flanagan.  Sienna Miller is represented by WME and Diego Luna is represented by WME along with Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.

The deal was negotiated by Endeavor Content on behalf of the filmmaking team along with Lauren Bixby from Lionsgate.

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Disney Pays Lin Manuel Miranda $75 Million for worldwide film rights to his hit musical Hamilton

Lin Manuel Miranda’s phenomenal hit Broadway show Hamilton which won two Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama will be distributed theatrically by Disney. The theatrical production was filmed and Disney dished out a cool $75 million for the exclusive worldwide distribution rights. The staged performances will release in theaters in the fall of 2021.

The original show and cast was filmed over three days with an audience much in the same way that the groundbreaking film version of Luis Valdez’s classic musical play Zoot Suit was filmed by Universal  way back in 1981. Lin Manuel Miranda stars in the title role that made him a star, much like Edward James Olmos was catapulted to stardom with his Tony Award nominated role as El Pachuco in Zoot Suit.  Miranda next will be seen in the big screen version of his musical play In The Heights, directed by Jon Chu and released by Warner Bros on June 25, 2020.

Emilio Estevez returns to The Mighty Ducks for Disney + series

Emilio Estevez (Young Guns, St. Elmo’s Fire) will be reprising the role of Coach Gordon Bombay from the original 1992 The Mighty Ducks hit movie in a new Mighty Ducks Disney + series.  In the original movie, Estevez played attorney Bombay who’s arrested for DUI and ordered to coach a youth hockey team as part of his court ordered community service and leads them to a championship. The series will run for 10 half hour episodes that will connect the new show to the original movie trilogy.  In recent years Estevez, the son of actor Martin Sheen and brother to Charlie Sheen has steered away from acting to concentrate on a behind the scenes career as a feature film director (Men at Work, Bobby, The Way).

Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street To Be Made Into a TV Series

Gaumont Television, the producer of the hit series Narcos, is developing Sandra Cisneros‘ classic novel The House On Mango Street into a television series with Cisneros attached as executive producer. Published in 1984, The House on Mango Street is a best-selling novel made up of a series of vignettes about the characters that populate a blue-collar Chicago neighborhood as seen through the eyes of a Mexican-American teenager who acts a narrator.

JLO and Shakira Music Sales go right through the roof right after their explosive Super Bowl Halftime Show

Due to their rock the house performances at the Super Bowl LIV Halftime show this past Sunday, both Jennifer Lopez and Shakira saw major sales gains for their entire catalog of songs according to Billboard reports from Nielsen Music/ MRC data. Music sales and streaming figures have continued to spike since Sunday’s show. It’s no surprise that both artist’s biggest selling songs were the ones performed during the halftime show. Shakira’s top three biggest sellers were Whenever, Wherever (4,000; up 1,264%), Hips Don’t Lie (3,000; up 1,201%) and Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (2,000; up 1,456%). As for Lopez, her top three sellers were On the Floor (2,000; up 1,193%), Let’s Get Loud (1,000; up 861%) and Waiting for Tonight (1,000; up 1,266%). All songs sold a negligible sum on Feb. 1, the day before the game.

 The first All Latino Super Bowl halftime show headlined by Latinas, certainly brought Latino music and culture center stage to a national and worldwide viewing audience.

Many viewers may not have been familiar with either JLo or Shakira’s music. Their show stopping dance and music performances introduced them to a new audience segment. Shakira’s curves and sexy gyrations and JLo’s sliding down the pole in her shimmering body hugging outfits are some of the memorable moments that also included Lopez wrapped with a Puerto Rican flag in recognition of her heritage and a subtle reminder of the border crisis where children are imprisoned in cage-like cells when she was joined in song by her young 11 year old daughter with a children’s all girl chorus.

 SuperBowl Sunday has become a yearly American family tradition and it garnered the highest ratings in five years watched by over 140 million people nationwide and another 50 to 65 million worldwide. Elevating Latinos on a worldwide level.

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The Success Story of Kiki Melendez’s Kiki Mobile Featured at NAPTE

Miami, FL — NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) is the premier global business forum for content creators, distributors and buyers across all platforms.  Attendees include media buyers, broadcast and cable networks and channels looking to acquire programming, program distribution companies, financiers, advertisers, technology companies, and content producers.
So if you are a content creator, you should be at NATPE this week.  It’s where shows like Oprah were sold into syndication and the rest, as they say, is history.  American Latino and Latination are two Latino themed shows that were originally sold into syndication by Robert Rose, producer and founder of AIM Tell-A-Vision Group and which continue to air on LATV to this date (Rose currently has his travel show Raw Travel at NAPTE).   These are only two examples of NATPE success stories, there are countless with a long list of successes dating back to its founding in 1963.
The NATPE 2018 Marketplace & Conference takes place at the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc in Miami Beach and will run for three days, Tuesday, January 16th – Thursday, January 18th; its theme fittingly,   “A Changing Industry In A Changing World”
Where once the biggest syndication deal were made at NAPTE, in the ever changing world of content creation and distribution, has manage to stay relevant.  This year NATPE is gearing up to boost international content, reality and Local TV.  And this year, as the trend continues, content from Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market are what is trending.
Alon Shtruzman, CEO of Keshet, the Israeli production and distribution company of such shows such as Homeland and The A Word, told the trades. “For us, NATPE became a great market for Latin America. NATPE was reborn thanks to the Latin American and Hispanic market.”
In that vein, actress/producer Kiki Melendez fits the bill. A true success story Melendez took her idea for the Kiki Mobile to Miami last year and got connected in a big way.  Melendez returns in 2018  having secured a time slot for her mobile talk show, the Kiki Mobile, on A&E Network’s FYI lifestyle channel which aired thirteen episodes.  She will speak to that accomplishment on Tuesday, January 16 on the ROI or FYI: Stop Interrupting & Start Entertaining Panel; about the true opportunities for brand-generated from the differing platform and distribution options now available to independent producers.
Executive producers Melendez and Julia Carias-Linares will also be meeting with international buyers and connecting with national and local media outlets about further distribution for the Kiki Mobile.
The Kiki Mobile is the only talk show on wheels with Melendez (creator of Hot Tamales Live) hosting and driving force behind this unique, first-of-its-kind show. WATCH HERE
Programming making its debut this year will be the NATPE Streaming Summit, which will take a holistic look at the current OTT and streaming landscape and its outlook for the future. Facebook’s Head of Global and Creative Strategy, Ricky Van Veen, will be lending his voice to the OTT conversation during NATPE Miami at a session breaking down what is in store for Facebook Watch, their new content platform.

Other highlights from the Conference include a planned spotlight conversation with Roma Khanna who was recently named CEO, Revolt TV, as well as multiple sessions covering the topics of diversity, inclusion and empowerment. Panels include one on how innovative creators are engaging the LGBTQ community across multiple platforms and another on the business of inclusivity.
The Station Group Forum will return and cover topics such as how ATSC 3.0 will change the business of broadcasting. An additional session titled OTT and Me: A Station Group Research Report, presented by PromaxBDA is also on the schedule.
The nine tracks for this year’s Conference include Brands & Advertisers, Music+Vision, Development, Deals & Data, Platforms & OTT, Scripted, Unscripted, Station Groups, Global and Latin America.
A full robust group from independents to major studios, networks and broadcast stations will be exhibiting during NATPE Miami.
NATPE has made sure that the presence of Latino, both U.S. Latinos and from Latin America is felt.  The conference opens with a concert by Elvis Crespo; Soledad O’Brien, Host of Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien & CEO of Starfish Media Group will be one of the participants in the Keynote Conversation with Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment; Cesar Conde, Chairman of NBCUniversal International Group & NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises is one of the six recipients of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award Reception and joins an illustrious group which includes actress Jane Fonda, writer Greg Berlanti,  Kevin O’Reilly, President of TNT & TBS, and actor Tom Selleck.  There is also a high attendance from buyers and sellers from Latin America and an increasing presence of U.S. Latinos.
There are various forward looking panels, and networking events schedule packed into three days where a lot of deals will be made that will make their way to you viewing screen.  For a full list of events and information on the who is who of attendees CLICK HERE.
 

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