News round-up: Cineflix strikes Nancy Buirski deal; RTS London gets Baz Luhrmann; MSNBC buys Anchor doc

Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy

Cineflix strikes Nancy Buirski deal

American Pickers outfit Cineflix Productions has signed a development deal with Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story, The Rape Of Recy Taylor).

The deal comes after Cineflix and Buirski partnered on feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, which explores the enduring 1960s film, the people who created it and its impact on both cinema and society.

Cineflix Productions will finance the development of original content and provide production support for Buirski’s future projects. The deal was negotiated on behalf of Cineflix by J.C. Mills and Augusta Films by Susan Margolin, Buirski’s longtime producing partner.

RTS London unveils Baz Luhrmann

The Royal Television Society has unveiled the full programme for its London Convention 2022, with director, producer and writer Baz Luhrmann leading the line-up.

The Elvis director will discuss creativity with TV presenter Edith Bowman, while other additions include Tom Burton, head of interactive at BBC Studios, Vicki Dobbs Beck, VP of immersive content at Lucasfilm & ILMxLAB, and Jan Koeppen, president of The Walt Disney Company EMEA.

Netflix’s UK unscripted manager Daisy Lilley is also set to speak, alongside others including ITV’s Kevin Lygo, Jane Turton, RTS chair and CEO at All3Media, and Natalka Znak, CEO of Banijay’s Remarkable TV Entertainment/Initial/Znak TV.

The biennial one-day event takes place on 27 September, 2022, at Kings Place, London. Priya Dogra, president & MD of Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA is this year’s chair.

MSNBC buys Anchor doc

MSNBC Films has ordered a four-part series that dissects America’s complicated relationship with race through the lens of the people of Teaneck, New Jersey.

Model America is from Anchor Entertainment, Psycho Films and NBC News Studios Production, and has been co-directed by Michelle Major and Dani Goffstein.

It explores how the town has changed since 16-year-old Phillip Pannell was shot and killed in 1990 by a white police officer, Gary Spath.

Rashida Jones, MSNBC president, said: “Before Ferguson, Baltimore and countless other cities plagued by racial injustice and police shootings, there was Teaneck.

“Model America tells the painful story of a fatal encounter that shocked a nation and transformed Teaneck into a symbol of racial strife. Three decades later, we’re still seeing the same narrative play out again and again across the country. As the first documentary series at MSNBC, this story ties our past to our present, reminding us of how far we still have to go.”