Film Production
Barco & Fox ink deal to release films in panoramic movie format
MUMBAI: Digital cinema company Barco and 20th Century Fox have inked a five year, multi-title per year agreement to release movies in Barco’s multi-screen, fully immersive movie format Barco Escape.
Fox will be working with its filmmakers to produce new projects for the format beginning with the September release of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.
As part of the deal, a Barco Escape setup will be installed in a theater on the 20th Century Fox studio lot.
Fox was an early endorser of the Barco Escape technology, working hand in hand with Barco throughout the last year to further develop the format and showcase new theatrical content to audiences. Director Wes Ball’s The Maze Runner was the first film to release in Barco Escape, featuring approximately 10 minutes of footage in the format. It debuted at five Barco Escape Cinemark theaters in the US and two Barco Escape Kinepolis theaters in Belgium. For The Scorch Trials,Barco is targeting 25 locations, and Fox is targeting approximately 20 minutes of the film to be converted into the format.
“The audience reaction from the Barco Escape footage on The Maze Runner was overwhelmingly positive. We started working with Barco on this technology because we believe immersive experiences are the future of cinema. Now that Barco has upgraded its Barco Escape systems to be fully DCI compliant, we are further interested in finding tent pole movies for the format that will inspire audiences to leave their homes and go to the theater to share in this unique experience,” says 20th Century Fox president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson.
“Twentieth Century Fox has been an incredible partner for Barco Escape from the very beginning. The common theme from audiences that saw The Maze Runner with select scenes in Barco Escape was ‘we want more!’ We are thrilled to extend our relationship with the studio and its filmmakers to continue pushing the envelope and creating these new cinema experiences you can’t get anywhere else,” added Barco VP of global entertainment Todd Hoddick.
Barco Escape’s next project, a special performance event with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga filmed natively for the format, will be released later this year.
Film Production
Priyanka Kaur Dhillon joins SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution
A seasoned content dealmaker with 16 years in digital and satellite media joins the Bengali entertainment powerhouse as it pushes into the pan-India music market
Mumbai: Priyanka Kaur Dhillon has made her move. The content acquisitions and commercials veteran, most recently commercial manager at Sony Pictures Networks India, has joined SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution, stepping into one of the more interesting briefs in regional entertainment right now.
SVF is no ordinary regional label. Over 30 years it has built a formidable legacy in Bengali cinema and music, driven by culturally resonant storytelling and a catalogue that consistently punches above its weight. Its recent success with Chiraiya underlines the point. But the Kolkata-based powerhouse now has its sights firmly set beyond Bengal, most visibly through Legacy, a rap reality series produced in collaboration with hip-hop label Kalamkaar that signals a deliberate push into the pan-India music ecosystem.
Dhillon brings precisely the kind of muscle SVF needs for that expansion. At Sony Pictures Networks India, she led film acquisition and commercials and handled music licensing across the entire satellite network. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years at Hungama, rising to assistant general manager and leading strategic content licensing for the platform’s digital entertainment business, with a particular focus on international markets. Her label relationships span the full roster: Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, Believe International, Tunecore, The Orchard and a clutch of smaller aggregators. She has negotiated and closed deals with Hollywood studios, Bollywood production houses and regional content players alike, building pricing models and deal structures off data analysis rather than instinct.
Announcing the appointment, Dhillon said she was “thrilled to begin this journey with an iconic Bengali music label and content powerhouse,” adding that SVF’s “constant drive to push boundaries” was what drew her to the role.
SVF has spent three decades proving that regional does not mean limited. With a sharp commercial operator now steering its music distribution, its bid to go national just got a good deal more serious.
