NEVERLAND NOSTALGIA
The Royal Shakespeare Agency is about to enchant London audiences with its 2025/26 Barbican season, headlined by “Wendy & Peter Pan,” a reimagined sort out J.M. Barrie‘s primary tailor-made by Ella Hickson and directed by Jonathan Munby. RSC affiliate artist Toby Stephens will play Captain Hook when the manufacturing runs Oct. 21-Nov. 22.
The season continues with Prasanna Puwanarajah’s acclaimed “Twelfth Evening time” change from Stratford-upon-Avon, that features returning stars Freema Agyeman, Michael Grady-Hall, and Samuel West. The Shakespeare revival, full with genuine score by Matt Maltese, performs Dec. 8, 2025-Jan. 17, 2026.
RSC co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey known as the dual offering “good productions” that may ship “pleasure and magic” to the Barbican stage.
The productions symbolize the RSC’s ninth and tenth London reveals for 2025, following worthwhile transfers along with “My Neighbour Totoro” and the upcoming “Born With Enamel” starring Ncuti Gatwa.
BOARD BOOST
India’s Zee Leisure Enterprises Ltd. shareholders have accepted the appointment of Divya Karani as neutral director and Saurav Adhikari as non-executive director with an “overwhelming majority” by way of distant e-voting concluded July 8.
Karani brings over three a very long time of media and selling experience, beforehand serving as CEO of Dentsu Media South Asia for 12 years. She presently chairs Kulfi Collective as chair and authorities director.
Adhikari gives three a very long time of expertise all through experience, FMCG and shopper durables sectors, with senior roles at HCL, Unilever and PepsiCo. He’s presently founder and senior companion at Indus Tech Edge Fund I.
Chair R. Gopalan said the appointments replicate shareholders’ confidence throughout the board’s potential to “enhance value-creation and assemble a powerful improvement trajectory.”
SCRIPTED SHUFFLE
BBC Studios Productions has launched a search for a model new London-based managing director of scripted, as Mark Linsey switches to a faithful place spearheading the company’s scripted operations in Los Angeles.
The incoming MD will oversee BBC Studios’ drama and comedy fashions, along with titles akin to “Dying Valley,” “Trying,” “Inside No.9,” “Silent Witness,” “Father Brown” and “EastEnders,” plus majority-owned labels Clerkenwell Films, Youngster Cow Productions and Lookout Stage.
Linsey, LA-based since 2023, turns into president, LA scripted, focusing fully on growing the company’s scripted footprint from Los Angeles, establishing on successes like adapting “Ghosts” for CBS.
CEO Zai Bennett praised Linsey’s “unimaginable administration” over 5 years, delivering “daring, distinctive, and award-winning drama and comedy titles” along with “Youngster Reindeer” and “Conclave.”
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Within the meantime, UKTV chief creative officer Richard Watsham will step down in September after 14 years with the broadcaster. Changing into a member of as commissioning editor in 2011, Watsham served 9 years as director of commissioning sooner than his current twin place overseeing UKTV’s content material materials pipeline and fundamental BBC Studios’ world acquisitions.
Under his administration, UKTV transformed from lifestyle originator to multi-genre commissioning powerhouse, virtually tripling spend and programming hours. His group commissioned hits along with “Taskmaster,” “Dynamo: Magician Inconceivable,” BAFTA-winner “Huge Zuu’s Huge Eats,” and dramas “Annika” and “Bergerac.”
CEO Marcus Arthur said Watsham’s “contribution to UKTV has been immense,” noting his “creative imaginative and prescient and administration have transformed the standing and scope of UKTV’s content material materials.”
FESTIVAL FINDS
Two shorts from the Asian Film Awards Academy‘s inaugural Worldwide Film Camp have landed prestigious competitors slots. Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir‘s “A South Going via Window” enters the 78th Locarno Film Pageant‘s Pardi di Domani rivals, whereas Chinese language language director Music Dongxu‘s “Expertise Your Horse” joins the nineteenth First Worldwide Film Pageant rivals.
Purev-Ochir known as Locarno’s selection “every exhilarating and humbling,” whereas Music said “It feels good” about First’s nod. Two totally different IFC 2024 shorts premiered at Italy’s Udine Far East Film Pageant in April.
IFC 2025 runs Sept. 10-16 in Macao, offering eight HK$300,000 manufacturing grants ($38,220) for 15-25 minute shorts exploring the theme “My Best Pal.” Capabilities shut July 20.