Monday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Lionsgate alum joins facilities firm

Nicola Pearcey, former president of UK & Europe at Lionsgate, has joined UK production services provider Facilities by ADF as chief exec.

Facilities by ADF has provided facilities for productions including Netflix series The Gentlemen, The Witcher, and The Crown, Apple TV’s Slow Horses and Ted Lasso, and Severn Screen-produced Welsh film Mr Burton.

Pearcey, who was also chief exec of UK media consultancy Picnik Entertainment, takes over from Marsden Proctor, who stepped down in July.

WBD alum joins New Zealand Film Commission

The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has appointed former Discovery exec Glen Kyne to its board of directors.

Kyne’s career includes stints as senior vice president and general manager at Discovery ANZ, chief commercial officer at MediaWorks NZ, and most recently senior vice president and head of network at Warner Bros Discovery for Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

The exec will work with NZFC to champion local film and position Aotearoa New Zealand as a leading destination for international productions.

Jane Meares has also been reappointed for an additional three-year term on the NZFC board, while David Wright is stepping down.

Stranger Things S5 performs for Netflix in UK

Netflix’s sci-fi titan Stranger Things returned for its fifth series with 1.9m viewers.

The opening episode of the Duffer brothers’ dropped on the streamer at 1am on Thursday, and comfortably surpassed the 944,000 who watched the Adolescence overnight back in March.

Stranger Things S5’s first ep, titled Crawl, has garnered 135m viewing minutes since its launch, and was the leading title among most demographics including 16-24-year-olds, 35-44s and 45-54s, according to Barb data from overnights.tv.

It was also well ahead of fellow Netflix international juggernaut Squid Game’s third series debut episode, which collected around 600,000 UK viewers after one day on the platform. Read more