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Exclusive: Alice Lee (Our Man from Jersey) is set to co-produce and star in the darkly comedic thriller Samson, from director Ruth Du (The Deadliest Lie). She’ll be joined in the indie’s ensemble by Will Brittain (Blow the Man Down), Emilio Garcia Sanchez (The Society) and newcomer Ryan Dance.

The film written by Du and David Harry Yoon follows a recently broken up couple (Lee and Dance) who are forced to work together when they are kidnapped by two masked men (Brittain and Sanchez). Pic’s producers are Ashlee Cohen and Claire Brooks.

Lee recently wrapped a role alongside Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in Netflix’s action-thriller Our Man from Jersey, and previously shared the screen with Jillian Bell in Amazon’s Brittany Runs a Marathon, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The actress was most recently seen on the TV side in...

Fox Entertainment said it acquired MarVista Entertainment, a studio that specializes in, among other things, production for digital platforms. The acquisition is part of a bid to expand the company’s content portfolio as it places more emphasis on Tubi, the ad-supported streaming outlet that parent Fox Corporation bought for $440 million in 2020.

MarVista, founded in 2003, creates an average of 80 titles across different genres and has a content catalog of more than 2,500 hours of programming. It has also developed an expertise in creating holiday-themed content. The company will be led by Fernando Szew, its CEO and founding partner.

“Fernando and his team have built a globally respected studio with a track record of prolific creative output, a vast library of owned titles and an efficient approach to production that’s admired industry-wide,” said Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment, in a statement. “With these key strategic advantages, acquiring and investing in...

Exclusive: Fox Entertainment has acquired MarVista Entertainment, the prolific independent studio which produces and distributes original movies for traditional and streaming networks worldwide. No one would comment but sources pegged the value of the deal at over $100 million.

The acquisition, spearheaded by Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier and MarVista CEO and Founding Partner Fernando Szew, gives Fox production capabilities in the live-action scripted space to complement its production capabilities in unscripted via the in-house Fox Alternative Entertainment and in the animated scripted arena via the acquisition of Bento Box.

In addition to a production infrastructure which is supporting a bustling pipeline of roughly 80 titles annually across all genres, MarVista is bringing its business model for efficient production, an established global distribution operation as well as a catalogue consisting of more than 2,500 hours (about 750 titles) of owned programming, including a deep roster of holiday movies.

Libraries are increasingly valuable amid the...

MarVista CEO Fernando Szew will focus on developing and producing content for Fox’s digital platforms including Tubi.

Fox Entertainment has acquired independent stalwart MarVista Entertainment and its library of more than 2,500 hours of programming.

MarVista CEO and founding partner Fernando Szew and his team will continue to lead MarVista, reporting to Fox Entertainment president of production strategy and operations Stefan Reinhardt, and focus on developing and producing content for Fox’s digital platforms including ad-supported VOD (AVOD) service Tubi.

With a specialty in holiday-themed programming, MarVista said it has produced, distributed and sold 80 films across all genres annually. The...