After spending five years advocating for the best unproduced screenplays with The Black List, Franklin Leonard has taken a leap to become a moneyed backer who can now turn those gems-on-paper into feature films. In April, Leonard, a former development exec for companies including Appian Way and Overbrook, struck a…

EXCLUSIVE: Meridian Entertainment and The Black List have formed a multi-year partnership that will empower the screenplay advocacy service founded by Franklin Leonard to produce and finance three to five English language films each year. Pictures $15M budget and under can be fully financed by Meridian, but the…

Meridian Entertainment has picked up Chinese theatrical distribution rights for Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara. Meridian will release the pic, which is produced and financed by LD Entertainment, through its distribution arm, United Entertainment Partners, in the fourth quarter of this year. Sierra/Affinity handles…

EXCLUSIVE: Director Brandon Camp’s retelling of his father Joe Camp’s 1974 Benji movie has unveiled its cast including Kingdom and Purge: Anarchy actress Kiele Sanchez, Gabriel Bateman, Darby Camp, Will Rothhaar, Angus Sampson and Jerod Haynes. Pic, which is already in production in New Orleans, LA, also boasts…

FremantleMedia North America has bought Penguin Random House’s Random House Studio and teamed with China’s Meridian Entertainment to produce movies and TV shows based on works by the publishers’ authors. FMNA will handle TV productions while Meridian picks up theatrical. Random House Studio projects currently in the…

James Schamus, the longtime head of Focus Features, has set his production company Symbolic Exchange in a first-look and strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese start-up Meridian Entertainment. The agreement will provide development and production funding for Symbolic's English-language slate, while also…