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Variety
‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Marks 8 Years in London’s West End – Global Bulletin
By Naman Ramachandran, Leo Barraclough, Patrick Frater and Nick Vivarelli,
3 hours ago
POTTER PLAY PERSISTS
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” celebrates its eighth anniversary at London’s Palace Theatre on July 30. The production, currently booking until Apr. 6, 2025, has drawn over 1.7 million viewers in the West End and 11 million worldwide.
The story follows Harry Potter’s son Albus as he struggles with his family’s legacy while grappling with unexpected forces at Hogwarts. The current cast features David Ricardo-Pearce as Potter, Thomas Aldridge as Ron Weasley and Jade Ogugua as Hermione Granger.
The two-part play has clocked 2,740 performances, totaling 6,432 hours on stage. Since its 2016 debut, 256 cast members have performed in the London production, supported by 215 backstage crew members.
Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling , Jack Thorne and John Tiffany , the play is written by Thorne and directed by Tiffany. It’s produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.
As part of this year’s Back to Hogwarts celebrations , fans can enter to win a spot in a workshop to learn the show’s “Wand Dance” on Sept. 1.
“Cursed Child” continues its global run with productions in New York, Hamburg and Tokyo. A North American tour is set to launch in September 2024 at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre.
Thorne said: “Making ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was a beautiful experience, working with John and our talented creative team and cast has been a wonderful journey. It really has been a team effort from every person involved in the show, and we are all proud to still be here eight years on.”
LIONSGATE LURES LOCALS
Nepal telecom provider Ncell has partnered with Lionsgate Play to offer premium streaming content to subscribers to Biz Sadhain ON plans. The deal brings Lionsgate’s library of movies, shows and originals to Nepal. Customers on Biz Sadhain ON plans above NPR499 ($3.72) gain access to the service.
Rohit Jain , president of Lionsgate Play Asia, touted the platform’s “world-class streaming experience.” Ncell’s chief commercial officer Umair Mohsin noted “overwhelmingly positive feedback” since launch.
The partnership aims to boost customer engagement through bundled subscription offers. Biz Sadhain ON users also receive free access to the Mero Lagani App for tracking investments.
WBD BACKS WOMEN DIRECTORS
Warner Bros. Discovery is backing a program that will support women directors in the North of England and attempt to redress the gender imbalance in the U.K. television industry.
The Warner Bros. Discovery Access X Waterloo Road Directors Program will be led by WBD Access, Warner Bros. Discovery’s talent development division for under-represented creatives, Rope Ladder Fiction and Wall to Wall North , and delivered in partnership with the BBC .
The program will allow successful candidates to hone their skills on the set of the popular BBC series “Waterloo Road,” furthering the show’s commitment to investing in talent in the North of England.
Director Angela Griffin is now in prep for her fifth episode of “Waterloo Road.”
The five selected participants will be under the guidance of industry professionals including Cameron Roach (executive producer), Lindsay Williams (series producer) and Jesse Quinones (director) as they are immersed in practical workshops, masterclasses and industry standard training covering essential skills from developing episodic television, prep expectations and working collaboratively with cast and crew.
According to a recent report published by Creative Diversity Network , women represented only 25.3% of directors in the U.K. TV industry, compared with their male counterparts, who hogged 74.5% of these roles.
SYDNEYSIDE SOON
SXSW Sydney , which will hold its second edition, running Oct. 14-20, has added an entertainment-heavy contingent to its lineup of speakers. They include Camera d’Or-winning director, Warwick Thornton (“The New Boy,” “Samson and Delilah,” “Sweet Country”) presenting a live director’s commentary session; composer and musician Jed Kurzel (“Monkey Man,” “The Babadook,” “Alien: Covenant”), discussing his approach to scoring various film opening sequences; LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara to discuss the company’s recent production slate, including hit films “Barbie,” “Saltburn” and “Promising Young Woman”; and Mark Andrews, director of “Brave.”
The sessions are part of a broader industry program, which also includes ‘From Animators to Entrepreneurs,’ in which two of the co-founders of New Zealand CG company Floating Rock examine the journey of forming their independent studio; ‘ Making the Unreal Real: Women in VFX and Animation ,’ a roundtable discussion on the work of Nerissa Kavanagh (Studio Blackbird), Barbara Stephen ( Flying Bark Productions ), Alexandra Daunt Watney (MPC Adelaide) and Lara Hopkins (Framestore); the inaugural ‘90 Minute Film School’; case study section ‘Distribution on the Fringes’; and ’Beyond Australia: Screening at SXSW’, a roundtable discussion with local filmmakers who’ve taken their projects abroad to SXSW Austin.
KCON-FIRMATION
Last week’s KCON LA 2024 convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center , Gilbert Lindsay Plaza and Crypto.com Arena, drew the involvement of over 5.9 million fans from more than 170 countries both at the festival site and through digital platforms, organizers reported. It also enjoyed a first-ever national primetime broadcast of a K-pop concert with The CW Network’s live broadcast on Sunday night. Fans enjoyed performances and appearances by acts including ENHYPEN , JEON SOMI, ROWOON, TAEMIN, ZEROBASEONE and ZICO.
BeIN, FRONT ROW RE-UP
Qatar’s BeIN media group and Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment have re-upped their ongoing first run agreement for another three years through 2027.
Under the deal terms beIN has secured exclusive pay one window rights to up to 300 movies for its linear and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Titles covered by the deal include upcoming Robbie Williams-biopic “Better Man”; “Priscilla”; “Anatomy of a Fall”; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” and the upcoming “Cliffhanger” reboot, on which Front Row is a backer.
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