Nat Geo: Celebs Rumors

EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ and National Geographic have set the lead cast for Genius: MLK/X, the fourth installment in the anthology series, which will focus on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Kate Ward, Vice Studios Global President and the boss of Pulse Films, has joined BBC Studios to oversee factual.

EXCLUSIVE: Bobby Bones, television and radio host, has signed with UTA.

National Geographic Documentary Films has acquired the rights to “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” a political documentary about the Ugandan opposition leader that premiered at the Venice Film Festival this weekend. Nat Geo acquired the film ahead of Bobi Wine appearing at the Telluride Film Festival when the film will make its North American debut this weekend.

National Geographic has added a special guest to its upcoming five-part docuseries America’s National Parks – first lady Jill Biden.

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The ever-expanding Blink49 Studios is moving into the non-scripted game.

Elita Adjei has been promoted to the newly created role of Vice President of Corporate Communications for National Geographic Content.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy Award-winning director and producer Ben Simms has signed with WME.

EXCLUSIVE: Nat Geo is expanding the Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted franchise with spinoff series Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted Showdown. The new three-part series, which also will feature Ramsay’s daughter Tilly, will premiere at 8 pm on Monday, July 25. It will be followed by previously announced four-part series World of Flavor with Big Moe Cason at 10 pm, making for an all-culinary night.

National Geographic Content has appointed Karen Greenfield to the newly created position of senior vice president of content, diversity and inclusion.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNational Geographic Content has promoted Karen Greenfield to the newly created position of senior vice president of content, diversity and inclusion.Most recently Nat Geo’s SVP of business operations while also serving as diversity and inclusion council chair, in her new role, Greenfield will “develop and execute programs and initiatives to produce diverse and inclusive content and contribute to a culture of belonging across all Nat Geo Content teams,” per the Disney-owned brand.Greenfield will lead the Nat Geo Content creative teams in producing inclusive programs “for a multicultural and multigenerational audience,” and collaborate closely with marketing and communications leaders to tap into “a broader array of fans.” She will also work with fellow Disney execs to ensure Nat Geo talent and programming are integrated into companywide DEI initiatives. She will report directly to Nat Geo Content president Courteney Monroe and will continue to be based at Nat Geo headquarters in Washington, D.C.Along with the news of Greenfield’s promotion to the new role, Nat Geo announced a second year for its Nat Geo Media Scholarship program for students who attend historically Black colleges or universities (HBCU), an initiative led by Greenfield.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an intriguing development in the burgeoning sports docs and entertainment space: UK-based soccer content specialist Copa90 has formed a studio production business with Race to the Center of the Earth creator Dan Lewis and set a strategic partnership with U.S. filmmaker Evan Rosenfeld to build a slate of premium docs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterFormer HBO chief marketing officer Pamela Levine has been tapped as the new head of marketing for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content.Levine, who is replacing the recently exited Jayanta Jenkins, will lead an integrated internal agency across brand and creative marketing, strategy, publicity, media planning, digital/social, events, talent relations and awards, supporting content created for Disney+, as well as the Disney and National Geographic-branded linear networks, per Disney General Entertainment.In her new role, which she will begin June 27, Levine will jointly report to Disney Branded Television President Ayo Davis and National Geographic Content President Courteney Monroe. Levine’s direct reports include Chris Albert, executive vice president, Marketing and Publicity; Chris Spencer, executive vice president, Creative Marketing; Kristin Corrigan, senior vice president, Marketing Strategy; Jessica Bodaken, vice president, Marketing Production; Abby Ho, vice president, Social Media & Engagement Strategy; and Katie Morrow, vice president, Media Planning.

Former 20th Century Fox and HBO marketing chief Pamela Levine is joining Disney General Entertainment as head of marketing for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content. She replaces Jayanta Jenkins, who exited the post earlier this month after a year and a half.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeI’ve long banged the drum that television is better than film, yet even now, the TV industry still carries a bit of an inferiority complex.It’s why those of us who cover TV cringe at filmmakers who finally enter the episodic world — only to proclaim their series is actually a “10-episode movie.”It comes from decades of the small screen being seen as the stepping stone to true stardom and success in the movies. But of course, “prestige TV” has always been around, and it only intensified in the past two decades.The industry has itself to blame for playing second fiddle.For a long time, the Television Academy included a loophole in which Oscar doc contenders could turn around and try again for sloppy seconds at the Emmys — even though the Motion Picture Academy didn’t allow Emmy titles to do the same.

According to National Geographic, state officials confirmed that timbers from the shipwreck of the 17th-century Spanish galleon were found in sea caves earlier this week.The legend of the Santo Cristo de Burgos reportedly inspired filmmaker Steve Spielberg to dream up the idea for the 1985 movie — about a group of kids out to seek a sunken ship’s pirate booty and save their family homes from foreclosure.For 300 years, tales of the shipwreck spread, with the area’s indigenous tribes passing down the legend of a ship that had vanished off the Oregon coast around 1693, carrying porcelain, beeswax and pricey Chinese silk.The new discovery “confirms that our ancestral people knew what they were talking about,” Robert Kentta, cultural resources director for the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz and a member of the Siletz Tribal Council, told National Geographic.The recovery required a team of archeologists, law enforcers and search-and-rescue specialists, who have been searching for the past 15 years. According to National Geographic, powerful tides made for a tricky and dangerous operation that had to be perfectly timed.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNat Geo’s “SharkFest” is turning 10 and marking the occasion by enlisting sister Disney brands ABC, ESPN and Hulu to help air its largest programming slate ever across the most platforms it has ever been on, Variety has learned exclusively.While “SharkFest” aired during a six-week period last year, making the 2021 edition the longest “SharkFest” ever, that lineup was limited to Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney XD and Disney+.This time around, Nat Geo is putting out nearly 30 hours of new content and 60 hours of “enhanced” programming over four weeks beginning July 10, its most-packed “SharkFest” schedule on record. And that increased content load is spread out not just across Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney XD and Disney+, but also broadcast network ABC, cabler ESPN and streamer Hulu, making it an historic occasion for the decade-old fin-tastic event.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeDana Walden is ready for this moment. On the heels of a shocking Hollywood management shake-up at Disney, the newly promoted chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content now oversees a massive portfolio that includes the programming arms of Hulu, FX, ABC, Freeform, Nat Geo, 20th Century Television, ABC Signature and more.Walden’s ascent at Disney is not a surprise, but the sudden departure of her predecessor and longtime boss, Peter Rice, surely was when the news surfaced on June 9 that Disney CEO Bob Chapek had fired him.Walden has the respect of the Hollywood community, the chops of having run (or co-run) two broadcast networks and multiple studios, plus deep relationships with towering creatives like a certain superstar producer (ahem, Ryan Murphy) who is, by all accounts, itching to reunite with her after a rocky run at Netflix.

Addie Morfoot ContributorHamptonsFilm has unveiled the lineup for its 14th annual SummerDocs series and it includes Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love,” Daniel Roher’s “Navalny” and Jason Kohn’s “Nothing Lasts Forever.” Presented by Alec Baldwin with co-curation from David Nugent, artistic director of the affiliated Hamptons Intl. Film Festival, each screening will be followed by a conversation with that documentary’s director.The series will kick-off on June 25 with “Fire of Love.” Following a successful Sundance debut, National Geographic Documentary Films acquired the worldwide rights to the docu.

EXCLUSIVE: Marque Richardson has been cast as a series regular opposite Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo in the Onyx Collective comedy series Unprisoned, which will be streamed exclusively on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories.

Dog tags belonging to two members of the Band of Brothers, made famous by the 2001 Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks HBO epic, have been discovered in the UK 78 years after D-Day and are being spotlighted for a documentary for Dan Snow’s History Hit streamer.

There are so many animal shows on television right now, that you can count on having a favorite TV vet, outside of your pet’s own doctor.

Carson Burton The world is Nat Geo’s playground with the network’s newly announced slate of unscripted content.Ahead of Disney’s upfront presentation on Tuesday in New York City, National Geographic on Monday announced a new slate of six personality-driven series aimed to showcase various aspects of culture from around the world. The new shows will feature notable personalities Derek Hough, Kristen Kish, Jeff Jenkins, Indy Srinath and Christian Cooper — as well as high school competitors of a global science fair competition.Renowned dancer Derek Hough will guide viewers around the world on an exploration of dance history and trends in the new show “Dance the World With Derek Hough.” In each episode, Hough will team up with a celebrity guest to embark on a journey to uncover the global cultural traditions that shape dance.

Ahead of its Disney’s Upfront presentation Tuesday in NYC, National Geographic has announced greenlights for six new nonfiction series as part of its latest programming slate.

EXCLUSIVE: Nat Geo is developing a new season of explorer format Lost Cities With Albert Lin, with production switching from UK producer Blakeway Productions to The Tinder Swindler indie Raw TV.

Seeing superstar Will Smith visit remote locations on the planet was the hook for the National Geographic docuseries Welcome to Earth. Daniel Pemberton’s job was to provide Smith’s journey with a sound, and he said during a panel for the series at Deadline’s Sound & Screen concert event that he used some he’d never played before.

EXCLUSIVE: The team behind Gloria: I Will Survive, a feature documentary about the artist, has grown strong and learned how to get along.

EXCLUSIVE: BBC Studios is seeking an L.A. exec to help discover the next generation of unscripted formats and collaborate with UK headquarters on new shows for the U.S. market, Deadline can reveal.

Neon said Wednesday that it has come aboard Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s documentary that world premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. That’s where Deadline boke the news that National Geographic Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the pic, which explores the lives and work of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft through rare archival footage.

At Disney’s Investor Day in December 2020, Nat Geo revealed that season four of its anthology series Genius would focus on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

National Geographic has signed up BBC Studios’ Factual boss Tom McDonald, the exec and commissioner behind some of the UK’s biggest natural history series including Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II.

Amanda Warren has been tapped as the lead in the CBS drama pilot East New York.

Sasha Urban editorCBS police drama pilot “East New York” has cast Amanda Warren (“The Purge”) in the starring role of Regina Haywood, a serious street cop turned deputy inspector.“East New York,” written by William Finkelstein and Mike Flynn, was given a pilot order last month. No other cast members have been announced.The pilot’s executive producers are Finkelstein, Flynn, Mike Robin from Skyemac Productions, Christine Holder and Mark Holder from Wonder Street.

Archer Gray, a New York production and finance company known for backing projects like the Oscar-nominated Can You Ever Forgive Me?, is branching out into alternative formats and non-scripted programming.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIn support of the Disney Plus streaming service, Disney has expanded its involvement in local production in Asia-Pacific. The company’s APAC head of content and development, Jessica Kam-Engle, gives the keynote presentation on the first day of Hong Kong FilMart.Ahead of her speech she gave a few pointers to Variety readers.Jessica Kam-Engle: From our extensive research, consumers across most Asian markets have a strong preference for local language entertainment content.