One of the nation’s most colorful sports advertisers says it plans to launch its own sports-talk show because consumers are growing wary of the commercials that have helped it capture so much attention over the decades.
Anheuser-Busch and Panay Films will launch “Not A Sports Show,” a six-episode series that features host and comedian Lil Rel Howery chatting with athletes like former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce, snowboarder Shaun White and Los Angeles Sparks WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike. The program can be watched via Ficto, a free streaming-video service. The show will not be interrupted with beer ads, but the host and his guests hash things out at a bar filled with dozens of A-b beverages, and even drink some of them as their conversations progress. The show, produced with Stampede Entertainment, is slated to debut March 25, with new episodes surfacing Thursdays in April.
The giant brewer isn’t...
Anheuser-Busch and Panay Films will launch “Not A Sports Show,” a six-episode series that features host and comedian Lil Rel Howery chatting with athletes like former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce, snowboarder Shaun White and Los Angeles Sparks WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike. The program can be watched via Ficto, a free streaming-video service. The show will not be interrupted with beer ads, but the host and his guests hash things out at a bar filled with dozens of A-b beverages, and even drink some of them as their conversations progress. The show, produced with Stampede Entertainment, is slated to debut March 25, with new episodes surfacing Thursdays in April.
The giant brewer isn’t...
- 3/15/2021
- by Brian Steinberg
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Mobile streaming service Ficto has formed several new content partnerships and fleshed out its content offering of more than 50 shows as it prepares to go live in the first quarter of 2020.
Led by CEO and co-founder Mike Esola, a former agent at UTA and Wme, Ficto was first announced about a year ago. The service is free to download and supported by revenue from advertising as well as data monetization, artist contributions, e-commerce and other areas.
Programming ranges from unscripted sports and lifestyle shows to interactive and Ya properties to scripted thrillers and comedy. (See slate highlights below.) Entire shows run about 30 minutes, with episode lengths in the 5- to 7-minute, “snackable” range.
Ficto will launch just before the April debut of Quibi, a high-profile, mobile-focused startup overseen by Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman. While Quibi gained notice by raising $1 billion in initial financing,...
Led by CEO and co-founder Mike Esola, a former agent at UTA and Wme, Ficto was first announced about a year ago. The service is free to download and supported by revenue from advertising as well as data monetization, artist contributions, e-commerce and other areas.
Programming ranges from unscripted sports and lifestyle shows to interactive and Ya properties to scripted thrillers and comedy. (See slate highlights below.) Entire shows run about 30 minutes, with episode lengths in the 5- to 7-minute, “snackable” range.
Ficto will launch just before the April debut of Quibi, a high-profile, mobile-focused startup overseen by Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman. While Quibi gained notice by raising $1 billion in initial financing,...
- 12/18/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Fiction Riot has launched Ficto, a subscription-based platform that delivers short-form premium programming designed to be consumed through mobile usage. Ficto launches with 20 series currently in production, available to consumers early next year. Fiction Riot will be meeting with content creators to secure and develop its second cohort of series to follow its consumer launch.
Three of its original series, based on upcoming feature films, will be released in advance of the theatrical releases: Can You Keep A Secret, the best-seller by Sophie Kinsella; Hush, Hush, based on Becca Fitzpatrick’s bestselling book series; and Project Extraction, an original Chinese production starring Jackie Chan and John Cena. Much more than a value add promotional tool for feature films and omni-channel properties, Ficto also opens up a new realm of original storytelling options that enable content creators to more quickly and cost-effectively bring new ideas, characters, and serialized shows to market.
Three of its original series, based on upcoming feature films, will be released in advance of the theatrical releases: Can You Keep A Secret, the best-seller by Sophie Kinsella; Hush, Hush, based on Becca Fitzpatrick’s bestselling book series; and Project Extraction, an original Chinese production starring Jackie Chan and John Cena. Much more than a value add promotional tool for feature films and omni-channel properties, Ficto also opens up a new realm of original storytelling options that enable content creators to more quickly and cost-effectively bring new ideas, characters, and serialized shows to market.
- 12/19/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Days after leaving Wme, lit agent Mike Esola has landed at UTA, in the agency’s motion picture literary department. He had a strong list of writers and directors, and is expected to bring many of them once the dust cleared. As Deadline revealed last week, Esola decided to leave Wme where he began his career in the mailroom in 2002. His clients at Wme included directors David Robert Mitchell, Scott Waugh, Bryan Buckley, Dowdle Bros., Javier Gutierrez, Clay Kaytis, Tony…...
- 11/5/2015
- Deadline
Veteran literary agent Mike Esola has joined UTA after leaving Wme last week, an individual with knowledge of the situation has told TheWrap. Esola left Wme after his request to become a partner at the agency was rebuffed by his superiors, though the split was described as “amicable” by insiders. The well-respected dealmaker got his start at the agency in the mailroom 13 years ago prior to its merger with Endeavor, when it was simply known as the William Morris Agency. Also Read: Sarah Early Joins UTA's Digital Media Department Esola has a reputation for being adept at selling spec scripts at a.
- 11/5/2015
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
Longtime Wme lit agent Mike Esola has left the agency. Word is that Esola and the agency came to a parting of the ways over a number of issues, including wanting to become a partner right away. As a result, Esola decided to leave. Unlike most agents who make that kind of a stand, Esola chose not to have another agency lined up, but I’m sure he is already talking to them now and I expect him to land quickly. The move ends a a 13-year run that began in the mail room back…...
- 10/30/2015
- Deadline
Updated With Full List Of Scripts, Writers, And Reps: Catherine The Great, about the rise and life of the famous (sometimes notorious) 18th-Century Russian monarch, was the top vote-getter among 70 scripts chosen for the 2014 Black List of the year’s best un-produced scripts. The screenplay, by Los Angeles writer and producer Kristina Lauren Anderson, was announced as part of an hour-plus process on Twitter and YouTube this morning.
Each of the 70 screenplays on this 10th annual list was chosen by a group of 250 development executives, agents and other Hollywood insiders as among the year’s best un-produced scripts in a process overseen by Franklin Leonard of http://www.blcklst.com. Anderson’s screenplay received 51 votes.
Other notables in the list include writer/actor/director Kenneth Lonergan with Manchester-By-The-Sea, which is being produced by Matt Damon and Chris Moore. Randall Green had two scripts make the list, The Swimsuit Issue and Cartoon Girl.
Each of the 70 screenplays on this 10th annual list was chosen by a group of 250 development executives, agents and other Hollywood insiders as among the year’s best un-produced scripts in a process overseen by Franklin Leonard of http://www.blcklst.com. Anderson’s screenplay received 51 votes.
Other notables in the list include writer/actor/director Kenneth Lonergan with Manchester-By-The-Sea, which is being produced by Matt Damon and Chris Moore. Randall Green had two scripts make the list, The Swimsuit Issue and Cartoon Girl.
- 12/15/2014
- by David Bloom and Jen Yamato
- Deadline
Just in time for Halloween! Independent Lit manager, Hollywood Hustler, and all around nice gal Miss Kailey Alexis Marsh has just dropped the annual Blood List!
The Blood List is the top 13 most liked, unproduced dark genre screenplays of the year, released annually on Halloween. This is the 5th anniversary. Over 100 feature film executives vote on their top 3 favorite dark genre (horror, sci-fi, thriller) screenplays of the year. Seventy-seven of them earned votes, with screenplays requiring a minimum of four votes in order to make the final cut. I’m looking forward to reading some of these. Patrol and Family Vacation seem to be scripts that are in my wheelhouse. Coming in at number one is Ink and Bone, Zak Olkewicz’s horror spec script about a writer held hostage by his own creations that Dimension purchased earlier this year according to Deadline. Meet the 2013 class of The Blood List:...
The Blood List is the top 13 most liked, unproduced dark genre screenplays of the year, released annually on Halloween. This is the 5th anniversary. Over 100 feature film executives vote on their top 3 favorite dark genre (horror, sci-fi, thriller) screenplays of the year. Seventy-seven of them earned votes, with screenplays requiring a minimum of four votes in order to make the final cut. I’m looking forward to reading some of these. Patrol and Family Vacation seem to be scripts that are in my wheelhouse. Coming in at number one is Ink and Bone, Zak Olkewicz’s horror spec script about a writer held hostage by his own creations that Dimension purchased earlier this year according to Deadline. Meet the 2013 class of The Blood List:...
- 10/31/2013
- by El Mayimbe
- LRMonline.com
Each year Kailey Marsh and her ghoulish creation The Blood List pick the 13 best un-produced horror scripts in Hollywood and from there the terrors come on hot and heavy! Just the way we like 'em! That being said this year's winner(s) have been picked!
In the past 2012 Blood List winner The Disciple Program was picked up by Universal with Mark Wahlberg attached to star for Morten Tyldum, and Barbara Curry’s 2011 selection The Boy Next Door is now in production under the Blumhouse banner with Jennifer Lopez starring.
This year's Big winner is Ink and Bone, Zak Olkewicz’s horror spec about a writer held hostage by his own creations that Dimension has already snapped up earlier this year. Check out the full list below.
For more visit the official The Blood List website, "like" The Blood List on Facebook, and follow The Blood List on Twitter.
Ink and...
In the past 2012 Blood List winner The Disciple Program was picked up by Universal with Mark Wahlberg attached to star for Morten Tyldum, and Barbara Curry’s 2011 selection The Boy Next Door is now in production under the Blumhouse banner with Jennifer Lopez starring.
This year's Big winner is Ink and Bone, Zak Olkewicz’s horror spec about a writer held hostage by his own creations that Dimension has already snapped up earlier this year. Check out the full list below.
For more visit the official The Blood List website, "like" The Blood List on Facebook, and follow The Blood List on Twitter.
Ink and...
- 10/31/2013
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
There is either a couple of football fans or Jerry Maguire/Moneyball with this year’s most liked unproduced screenplay. Close to 300 hundred film executives provided with the Black List creators a top ten of their favorite screenplays of the year and the consensus first overall pick (with 65 votes) comes from the recently featured in Variety (10 Screenwriters to Watch 2012) tandem of Rajiv Joseph & Scott Rothman and their drama which has nothing to do with enlisting in the armed forces. Draft Day – about the day in the life of a fictitious Buffalo Bills Gm appears to currently be in turnaround — which only means I expect to see this greenlight perhaps a little later than sooner – worth noting: top spot almost guarantees that the film will indeed go into production (2006, 2010 and 2011 are the exceptions.) Among the more alluring logline subjects we find on the list, I’d be keen on reading the...
- 12/18/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
This story originally appeared in the March 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. The most committed members of Hollywood's sweat set will be going the distance yet again at the 27th annual Honda L.A. Marathon on March 18. Like Shia Labeouf, Alanis Morissette and Flea before them, they'll run with a 25,000-strong herd -- the fourth-largest such race in the country -- for purposes of philanthropy, self-actualization and even just to publicly display that hard body. From Gordon Ramsay to Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine, rank-and-file Sony employees to Wme agents Mike Esola, David Stone
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- 3/16/2012
- by Gary Baum
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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