News round-up: FilmRise adds Urban Home titles; CBC & HBO Max renew ‘Sort Of’; Cream hires John Ealer

Streets

FilmRise adds Urban Home titles

New York-based streamer and producer FilmRise has acquired the North American AVOD and FAST rights to more than 60 titles from Urban Home Entertainment.

The deal gives FilmRise rights for its apps and FAST channels in the US and Canada and includes films and series such as Comedy Central’s Laffapalooza, as well as Streets, Anchor Baby, Fatima’s Revenge and The Urbans.

Max Einhorn, SVP of acquisitions and co-productions, at FilmRise, said: “As we continue to grow our global streaming network it has been a major priority for us to super-serve diverse audiences.

“Urban Home Entertainment’s titles are high-quality programming starring incredible talent which we are excited to feature on multiple channels within the FilmRise Streaming Network, including our flagship FilmRise app, as well as FilmRise Comedy, FilmRise Black TV, FilmRise Free Movies apps and FAST channels and more, giving the content much real estate and discoverability.”

Sort Of

CBC & HBO Max renew ‘Sort Of’

Canada’s CBC and HBO Max have renewed comedy series Sort Of for a third season.

The CBC original series is a co-production with HBO Max and Sphere Media. Created by Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, the show follows a gender fluid millennial in transition in every aspect of their life.

Bilal Baig, co-creator, co-showrunner, executive producer and star, said: “It’s been such a creative and rewarding pleasure to sink deeply into the mess of the lives of these characters in season two. And I look so forward to continuing and expanding the mess, alongside Fab, our gifted writers, the generous teams at Sphere Media, CBC and HBO Max, and our gorgeous cast and crew!”

John Ealer

Cream hires John Ealer

Cream Productions has hired producer, showrunner, and director John Ealer as a senior production executive.

Ealer will run point on a slate of productions – from development to delivery – supervising showrunners while executive producing multiple projects for major networks. He will report directly to David Brady, CEO, and Kate Harrison, president.

Ealer has a long history with Cream having served as showrunner, director and head writer on Cream’s CNN titles, The History of the Sitcom, and The Story of Late Night.

“John is among the most diversified, respected and ambitious production executives in the business,” said Brady. “A longtime collaborator with Cream, he already knows our business and brand, and identifies with our values and vision for what’s next. I couldn’t be happier to make him a full-time fixture at the company.”