- Mattel and Sony Pictures-owned TriStar Pictures are developing a live-action/animated feature film based on popular carnival game Whac-A-Mole. Elizabeth Bassin and Steve Spohr from Mattel and TriStar’s Shary Shirazi and Kelseigh Coombs are overseeing the project, which joins Masters of the Universe (June 5, 2026) and Matchbox (fall 2026) on Mattel’s slate.
- Distributor Sola Media has sold Mediawan Kids & Family’s buzzy new family-friendly feature film Twisted (pictured) in territories including the Baltics (ACME), Commonwealth of Independent States (MJM Group), Greece (Tanweer), Israel (Red Cape), LatAm (Imagem), Middle East (Selim Ramia), Poland (Kino Swiat), Portugal (Cinemundo), Spain (Flins y Pinículas), Turkey (Bir Film) and Ukraine (Green Light). Twisted is in production and on track to wrap in Q1 2027. Frozen‘s head of animation Lino DiSalvo is directing this pic about a teen who ruins her town’s festival by unleashing an army of mischievous magical creatures every time she lies.
- Channel 4 has become the first UK broadcaster to license its video content to audio platform Spotify. Programming from Channel 4.0, the broadcaster’s digital platform for 13- to 24-year-olds, is available to all users starting this week on mobile and desktop apps. Spotify has 170 million monthly podcast listeners, but UK consumers are also increasingly going there for video podcasts, which have seen a 95% increase in consumption year over year. And forging this deal now takes advantage of the new Spotify Partner Program that launched in the UK in January to help creators monetize video and audio programming through both ad and premium video revenue.
- Rainbow has teamed up with Massachusetts-based Spaceport on a Winx Club game (name TBA) on Roblox in Q3 2025. Based on the upcoming CG-animated series Winx Club: The Magic is Back (26 x 24), the game will roll out globally on Netflix in October, letting players attend magic classes, explore locations featured in the series and interact with characters from the Winx universe. Spaceport is Rainbow’s exclusive licensing technology and agency partner on Roblox.
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