Global content distributor Beyond Rights has struck first-time representation deals with four new producer partners, including Toronto’s White Pine Pictures.

U.K.-based Beyond Rights will rep White Pines’ feature documentary The Con: Churchill and Roosevelt’s Secret War and the Birth of the ‘Deep State’ (1 x 90 minutes/1 x 60 minutes), which was co-produced with Beetz Brothers Film Productions and PMA Productions for Arte and Super Channel.

The project tells the story of British Security Coordination (BSC), a blandly named department of the British government that actually served as a covert propaganda and intelligence organ within the then-neutral U.S. beginning in 1940.

The other three partners include Lou Reda Productions in the U.S. for the event miniseries Eyewitness WWII: Invasion Italy (2 x 60 minutes); Australia’s Ronde Media with Aussie Truck Rehab (6 x 60 minutes); and New Zealand’s Magnetic Pictures for wildlife series Wild Heroes (9 x 30 minutes).

Forté Entertainment

Threewise Entertainment has optioned the original children’s photography competition format Snapshots from Toronto-based Forté Entertainment.

Created by Forté’s founders and executive producers, Andrea and Mitch Gabourie, Snapshots (pictured) was originally produced for CBC Kids in 2016 with support from Canada Media Fund (CMF), Bell Fund, and Shaw Rocket Fund. It won the 2017 International Emmy Award for Best Kids Non-Scripted entertainment.

Threewise Entertainment’s head of content Michael Ford said the format was “exactly what we’d been looking for in the U.K. and European markets” in a statement on the deal. 

Tubi

Fox’s free, ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, has partnered with Calgary-based Shaw Communications to make its services available to Shaw TV customers.

The partnership means Shaw TV customers are now able to use their voice-powered remote and find any title provided through Tubi’s library of movies, TV shows, and Tubi Originals including Corrective Measures, Sins of The Father: The Green River Killer, and Titanic 666.

Recently, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has inked a distribution deal with Tubi to stream 29 of its Canadian titles across Canada, the U.S., and Australia.

Spin Master Entertainment

Toronto’s Spin Master has signed a global licensing deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) to launch toys based on Sony’s PlayStation brand.

SIE owns the IP and has developed a wide range of consoles, accessories, services and video game titles since releasing the original PlayStation console in 1994.

As a part of this new agreement brokered by Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Spin Master will be the global master toy licensee for PlayStation games including popular titles such as God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. The toyco’s first range of  PS figures, playsets, plush, vehicles, games and puzzles will launch in spring 2024.

Image courtesy of Forté Entertainment

With files from Kidscreen and Realscreen