English Entertainment
Keshet International’s Plan B nominated for 5 Israeli academy awards
MUMBAI: Keshet International’s comedy-drama Plan B is enjoying an action-packed 2016 awards season. It has received five nominations at the Israeli Academy Awards 2016 and has been nominated in the TV Comedy Series category at the 56th Monte Carlo TV Festival.
The nominated categories for the Israeli Academy Awards include Best Comedy Series, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Actress in a Comedy.
At the Monte Carlo TV Festival, Plan B will compete for the coveted Comedy Series Nymph d’Or, alongside some of the world’s most internationally renowned comedies/comedy dramas includingBetter Call Saul (Sony Pictures, US), Catastrophe (Avalon TV/Amazon Studios, UK), Ash Vs Evil Dead (Starz, US and New Zealand), Cradle to Grave (ITV Studios, UK) and Maniac (Rubicon TV AS, Norway). The winner will be announced at the star-studded ceremony on 16 June 2016.
Plan B was created by Ido Rosenblum (BOOM!, Touch ), who also plays the lead character, and Asaf Shalmon. It was produced by July August Productions for Keshet Broadcasting and is available from Keshet International as a 9 x 30’ series or scripted format.
Plan B tells the story of Omri Gordon, a cool, laid-back and self-absorbed rock-star who one day finds an Ethiopian baby on his doorstep, holding a note saying he’s the dad. At first he does everything in his power to resist his fate, but in the process realizes life has given him a whole new song to sing.
Omri’s claim to fame is his ethnically diverse group of band members. This “politically correct” appearance is put to the test when he discovers he has a child of mixed race origin.
Even though Omri had an affair with one of his singer’s sisters, he refuses to believe the child is his. He is not ready to become a dad and in addition believes that a child will ruin his chances of winning back Yael, his great lost love. If Yael finds out Omri fathered a child while the two of them dated, all of the long-stem roses in the world won’t bring her back. But once the paternity test comes back positive, Omri has to face a new reality.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
