APPOINTMENT
Netflix has appointed Tara Woodbury as the company’s first content executive in Canada. Working from the company’s Toronto offices, the “Transplant” executive producer is charged with commissioning and developing English- and French-language scripted content for the streamer. Her remit also includes establishing and growing relationships with creative talent from across the country.
Most recently, Woodbury was VP of development at Sphere Media, working on projects such as “Transplant” for CTV and the post-apocalyptic feature “Night Raiders” from director Danis Goulet, who won the Emerging Talent Award at the Toronto International Film Festival for her work on the film.
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ITN has appointed Esme Wren as the new editor of Channel 4 News starting in the new year. Wren comes to Channel 4 from the BBC where she has been at Newsnight for the past three years. Before that, she was with Sky for 12 years, working in a number of senior editorial roles. She was selected from a crowded field of potential candidates from across the industry, according to ITN. Wren will replace Ben de Pear, who stepped down as senior editor in August of this year after close to a decade in the role, becoming the network’s most awarded editor in the process.
THEATRICAL
“The Banker” from Apple TV Plus will hit Chinese screens on Oct. 26. Directed and co-written by George Nolfi, the film tells the story of how wealthy club owner Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson) and real estate investor Bernard S. Garrett Sr. (Anthony Mackie) became two of the first African-American bankers in the U.S. by using a white man (Nicholas Hoult) as their stand-in when doing business.
The film premiered in N. America in limited theatrical release on March 6 of last year before heading to streaming two weeks later. It had been delayed from a planned December 2019 release date amidst sexual abuse allegations against Bernard Garrett Jr., the son of Garrett Sr., who was also a co-producer on the film but whose credit has since been removed.
MUSIC
OneRepublic is slated to headline “MTV World Stage Hungary,” a concert to close out this year’s “MTV Music Week” on Nov. 13 ahead of the “2021 MTV EMAs” the following day. MTV World Stage is an international series of shows which highlight top performers from around the world by recording live concerts and music festivals, allowing audiences to experience the events from wherever they may be watching. This year’s “MTV EMAs” will broadcast on the network’s linear channels in more than 180 countries, featuring performances by Maluma, Måneskin and Kim Petras, among others.
