Expectation Hires Kirstie Macdonald; DFI Boards ‘Loving Vincent’; Sky, A+E Extend Deal – Global Briefs

Expectation has appointed Kirstie Macdonald as Creative Director, Drama. She joins from World Productions where she script edited the first series of hit show Line of Duty and she’s worked on a number of programs as script executive including BAFTA-nominated series Outlaws and The Fear as well as a new Sky Atlantic show Save Me, written by Lennie James and starring Suranne Jones. Macdonald was also an exec producer on Dark Angel, with Joanne Frogatt and In Plain Sight starring Martin Compston and Dougie Henshall. She’ll take up the position from September 2017.

Doha Film Institute has boarded Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s Loving Vincent as co-financier. The film, which features actors such as Douglas Booth, Armand Roulin, Saoirse Ronan and Chris O’Dowd, narrates the story of Vincent van Gogh through oil paintings. Each of the 65,000 frames of the film is one of the oil-paintings by 125 professional artists who travelled across the world to the project’s studios in Poland and Greece. The film will have its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France this year, competing in the fest’s Official Selection. Doha Film Institute has been a long-term partner on the project since the early stages of production. Written and directed by Kobiela and Welchman, Poland’s BreakThru Films and UK’s Trademark Films produce.

Sky and A+E Networks have extended their long-term partnership, which will see Sky air A+E’s portfolio of entertainment brands to Sky’s 22.4 million customers across the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. The deal will give Sky customers access to programs such as Ronnie O’Sullivan’s American Hustle and Britain’s Next Top Model in the UK; Mafia Queens in Italy; and History Hunters in Germany. In addition, A+E Studios’ re-imagining of iconic TV series Roots will come to History in the UK this summer, following its recent premieres on History in Italy and Germany.