They will lose 4% of their tax credit allocation.   Under a proposal from the California governor's office, entertainment productions that fail to meet their diversity goals will lose 4% of their tax credit allocation. The provision - writes Variety - is part of a five-year extension of the state's $330 million tax credit. Productions that receive the credit will be required to submit a diversity "work plan," under which they must commit to hiring a crew that is "broadly [...]

Will the streaming service become what CW is for cable?   New successes such as Wednesday, Ginny & Georgia, Outer Banks, Shadow and Bone, Heartstopper, Never Have I Ever, and The Kissing Booth trilogy, classics such as Stranger Things, projects in development such as XO, Kitty, the manga-based pirate adventure One Piece, True Spirit, and Damsel, starring Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. Netflix decided to invest in and promote programming about young adults and teens, as it fights to [...]

Image courtesy of Disney Italia. The real story of the women who dare to defy the Italian mob.   U.K. - Italian mafia series The Good Mothers won the inaugural Berlinale Series Award at the 73° edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. The title forms part of the first European slate by Disney+ international streaming service Star, and it's a female take on the Calabrian mob. Led by Italian director Elisa Amoruso (Chiara Ferragni: Unposted) and U.K.'s Julian Jarrold [...]

A big labor unrest is growing in Hollywood.   A gray cloud is looming. Strikes have occasionally punctuated the history of Hollywood's film industry. Still, this year almost all unions (Writers, Directors, and Actors' guilds) are contemplating them, and this time DGA is setting the page. In a recent message to its 19,000 members, the Directors Guild's leaders signaled they have decided not to go into contract talks early. They will wait until later this spring, closer to when its [...]

The company ignores live sports but embraces sport-docs.   Sports on TV is expensive, but it pays. So why has Netflix resisted paying for the rights to carry live sports for years, even as streaming rivals like Amazon, Apple, and YouTube have chased them aggressively? This is a question The New York Times tries to answer in an article by John Koblin and Alan Blinder. Netflix's strategy on sports has been different from the competitors, yet the results are winning. [...]

The deal was confirmed at the Berlinale Series Market.   Coming-of-age Italian thriller The Gymnasts has been licensed to over 30 territories, London-based super indie All3Media International confirmed at the Berlinale Series Market. Based on Ilaria Bernardini's Italian bestselling novel Corpo Libero, the six-part series features a team of elite female teen gymnasts competing in the snowbound Italian Alps. The stakes in career terms could hardly be higher: selection for the Olympics. "As tensions and obsessions escalate within the team, [...]