News

Giant Leap Accelerator has officially launched its first 12-week developmental program that will focus on cultivating new Asian/Pacific American (APA) stories, Variety has exclusively learned.

Over the course of the 12-week program, eight emerging Aapi writers will be mentored by seven television and film writing veterans. Each writer will meet with their dedicated mentor once a week to elevate the scripts, create pitch materials and set up pitch practices. Final Draft also provided a copy of its screenwriting software for all the mentees.

The first set of mentees are Lisa Sanaye Dring, writing duo Lee Hubilla and Tea Ho, Ben Kim, Ryan Kim, Julie Lew, Kevin Ramlal and Ivan Tsang.

Writing mentors include Lana Cho, Sasie Sealy, Matt K. Turner, Dennis Lee, Diane Paragas, Matthew Okumura and April Shih.

The program also consists of six panels, fireside chats and masterclasses that are created to help the mentees learn how to navigate the industry.

The popular Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits has inspired a television series.

Jumpcut, a new studio launched earlier this month, is developing the project, which takes its name from the group dedicated to memes about the Asian diaspora experience. The high school-set narrative will be penned by Ivan Tsang and Justin R. Ching and produced by John Zhang alongside Jumpcut.

Zhang, a former development associate at Justin Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment and an alumnus of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment’s Leaders Fellowship, secured the right to shop a project about Subtle Asian Traits from its nine Chinese-Australian ...

The popular Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits has inspired a television series.

Jumpcut, a new studio launched earlier this month, is developing the project, which takes its name from the group dedicated to memes about the Asian diaspora experience. The high school-set narrative will be penned by Ivan Tsang and Justin R. Ching and produced by John Zhang alongside Jumpcut.

Zhang, a former development associate at Justin Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment and an alumnus of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment’s Leaders Fellowship, secured the right to shop a project about Subtle Asian Traits from its nine ...

Following up on his Top 50 placement in the 2018 Launch Pad Features Competition as well as his selection to the HBO Access Writing Fellowship last month, Ivan Tsang has signed with Jermaine Johnson and Luke Maxwell of 3 Arts Entertainment. Tsang’s Launch Pad script Finding Cumberbatch is a hilarious and over-the-top ride following a [...]

The post Launch Pad Alum Ivan Tsang Signs with 3 Arts Entertainment appeared first on The Tracking Board.

In today’s roundup, Fox Nation announces a fresh slate of programming for the summer and HBO announces the recipients of its HBOAccess Writing Fellowship.

Development:

HBO has announced the recipients of its 2019 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship. The eight writers selected out of the 3,000 submissions will participate in an 8-month program of master classes and ongoing mentorship with HBO executives as they develop a pilot script for the network. The winners are: Darnell Brown, Elaine Loh, Melody Cooper, Danielle Iman, Lucy Luna, Eddie Mujica, Jessica D. Shields, and Ivan Tsang.

Executive News:

Igal Svet is set to become Discovery Channel’s new vice president of production and development where he’ll oversee the network’s documentaries, specials, and Shark Week. The executive comes from National Geographic and was previously the head of development at 2C Media.

Programming:

Fox Nation has announced a fresh slate of programming for this summer, including new...

HBO has selected eight writers for its 2019 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship, an eight-month program that offers master classes and mentorship with a creative executive as writers develop a pilot script for the premium network.

The program, done in conjunction with the WGA, begins with a week-long intensive workshop covering story structure, character development, genre writing, getting an agent and other topics before fellows turn to their pilots. Previous participants have gone on to work on HBO series including The Deuce, The Nevers and the upcoming Lovecraft Country.

“Selecting our fellows is always an exciting time for us,” Kelly Edwards, HBO’s Svp Talent Development, said in a release Thursday announcing this year’s class, selected from more than 3,000 submissions in the program’s third year. “This process introduces us to so many incredibly talented, emerging writers. We know they all have bright futures ahead of them.”

The HBOAccess writing program runs every other year,...