#nicely entertainment

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Shooting is underway at locations in Brisbane on A Vintage Christmas, a new romance movie from Jaggi Entertainment and Nicely Entertainment.

Written by Jennifer Snow and directed by Colin Budds, the movie will be distributed by Nicely Entertainment worldwide, excluding Australia, which will be handled by Jaggi Entertainment. Steve Jaggi and Kylie Pascoe are producing. Vanessa Shapiro is the executive producer.

The film stars Canadian actors Merritt Patterson (The Royals) and Christopher Russell (Reacher).

In the small town of Oak Creek, Noah Harrington’s (Russell) unpopular construction plans take a surprising turn when he discovers a cache of old Letters to Santa from the 1990s. Seeing an opportunity for redemption, he enlists the help of town historian, Tessa Findlay (Patterson), to fulfil the long-forgotten Christmas wishes. The pair embark on a heartwarming journey, rekindling the spirit of Christmas in the community, and before too long, an undeniable spark develops. But Noah is hiding a secret: Tessa’s own childhood wish is among the letters. Can Noah salvage his job and the love of his life with a Christmas wish?

Patterson commented: “I’m delighted to be back in Brisbane filming A Vintage Christmas with the Jaggi Entertainment team. I feel very at home here.”

Jaggi said: “It’s fantastic to be back in production here in Queensland. The Jaggi Entertainment team has a busy year ahead, and we’re thrilled to have Merritt and Christopher on board, along with our talented production team to create some Christmas magic.”

Shapiro, Nicely Entertainment’s CEO and executive producer, added: “We are thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with the whole production team at Jaggi Entertainment as this marks our tenth movie together! This is going to be a beautiful Christmas film, and we’re excited to have both Merritt and Christopher starring in A Vintage Christmas. We cannot wait to share it with audiences around the world!”

Screen Queensland’s chief creative officer, Dr. Belinda Burns, said A Vintage Christmas will be 100 percent made in Queensland with the support of the Screen Finance program and Post, Digital, Visual Effects (PDV) Incentive. “We are excited to see production underway on the latest film by Brisbane’s own Jaggi Entertainment. We are proud to provide end-to-end support in Queensland, with filming through to post-production taking place exclusively in our state. The film delivers benefits on a local scale, injecting a minimum $1.25 million into the local economy and providing employment for Queensland cast and crew. We are committed to supporting Queensland-based production companies like Jaggi Entertainment, who generate locally retained IP which reaches international audiences.”

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LA’s Nicely Entertainment has acquired campy telemovie Ladies of the ‘80s: A Divas Christmas, and is bringing its soap opera shenanigans to the Cannes Market.

The film stars Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati), Morgan Fairchild (Falcon Crest), Linda Gray (Dallas), Donna Mills (Knots Landing) and Nicollette Sheridan (Knots Landing) as five glamorous soap opera stars who reunite to shoot the final Christmas episode of their long-running show. Producer Alex (Travis Burns) and director Nell (Taylor Ann Thompson) do their best to keep things on the rails but old rivalries resurface and threaten to tear the production apart. The divas are forced to put their differences aside and the show becomes an unexpected ratings hit, creating a new TV format for them and a romance for Alex and Nell.

The movie’s score and theme song ‘Ladies of the ‘80s’ was written by Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Steve Dorff and Michael Jay and is performed by ‘80s pop sensation Tiffany, best known for ‘I Think We’re Alone Now.’ It debuted on Lifetime over the past holiday season.

Nicely, the company run by former Gaumont TV distribution chief Vanessa Shapiro, has taken the international rights and will launch the telefilm in Cannes this week. Buyers will also be targeted at the LA Screenings and NATPE Budapest. Nicely has carved out a niche as a go-to seller of Christmas romance and destination romance films .

“We’re thrilled to bring Ladies of the ‘80s: A Divas Christmas to the international marketplace,” said Shapiro. “It is so fun to see all these legends of the small screen united in this film, from Dallas’ Linda Gray to Knots Landing’s Donna Mills, I’m personally a huge fan and very excited to share this very original movie.”

“The beauty of an original, outrageous, Christmas story combined with my longtime respect and friendships with Donna, Morgan, Loni, Linda, and Nicollette, blessed me with the opportunity to produce this holiday movie. Few film producers find a gift like that under their tree, and Nicely Entertainment is the perfect Santa Claus distributor to deliver it to the world,” said executive producer Larry Thompson.

Ladies of the ‘80s: A Divas Christmas is produced by Larry Thompson Entertainment. Christie Will Wolf (Christmas on Candy Cane Lane, The Art of Passion) directs from a script by James Berg and Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls, Gilmore Girls) with Robert G. Endara II and Ed Polgardy producing.  

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In the four years since its launch amid a global pandemic, Vanessa Shapiro’s Nicely Entertainment has been steadily expanding its slate, rolling out a raft of feel-good movies and thrillers and a growing assortment of series to broadcasters and platforms worldwide. While not immune to the challenges faced by the global content sector, the market for TV movies is proving to be robust, especially as consumers increasingly turn to free services for their entertainment needs. Scott Kirkpatrick, executive VP of distribution and co-productions, talks to World Screen Weekly about why he’s bullish on connected TV and AVOD and the niche Nicely has carved for itself as an indie supplier.

WS: How do you assess the state of the content distribution business at present? KIRKPATRICK: The current distribution market is a bit strange. For some distributors, business has never been better, yet for others, the market has been relentlessly cruel. The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes caused a standstill for major U.S. broadcasters and studios, delaying their 2024 strategies. This has had ripple effects not only across the U.S. market but internationally as well. Interest rates remain high, which has disrupted cash flow patterns. Major mergers and acquisitions are taking place among industry giants (and mid-tier companies) and the cord-cutting trend has now officially taken hold in Europe. However, streaming numbers are going through the roof—and the demand for content is there—but the dollars required to produce fresh content remain scarce (or at below-market levels). These are all symptoms of a market in transition, which is probably the best word to describe 2024 as a whole. That said, I’m very bullish on AVOD and connected TV; although I expect 2024 to continue its rocky path, things will pan out for a very lucrative future for the companies that get their streaming strategies into shape.

WS: What new approaches are you taking to finance new content? KIRKPATRICK: As an independent, Nicely’s always been a bit out of the box in terms of financial models—you have to be at the indie level. During periods of transition—as we’re experiencing now—being open to alternative financial models is the only way to continue our growth curve. Partnerships, co-productions and elevated acquisitions are what’s on our radar. Our recent Lifetime original Hunting Housewives, starring Denise Richards, was a product of a co-pro relationship that we shared with co-producer Brain Power Studio. Those who know how to operate in a nimble way can keep delivering original content regardless of economic shifts. The other major benefit is that Nicely Entertainment—which was founded by our CEO, Vanessa Shapiro—is 100 percent independently owned; we have no investors to appease, and, as a result, we have the freedom to finance projects in a way that we feel makes the most sense on a project-by-project basis.

WS: Is AVOD playing a greater role in your overall monetization strategies? KIRKPATRICK: AVOD plays a great role in Nicely’s monetization strategies, but we’ve been bullish on AVOD for years. Nicely has been progressively evolving its overall AVOD strategy, and it’s been a priority for the company since it was founded. When I joined the company, one of my priorities was to level up our streaming initiatives. We’ve seen major revenue coming in from AVOD, and I only see those numbers growing over the next decade. As a U.S.-based company, we’re well-positioned to enjoy North America’s high-CPMs and its connected audience base. We see that trend growing in Europe, LatAm and Asia (especially as the cord-cutting trends have already started to noticeably impact Westernized foreign markets). We had an amazing Q4 with our Christmas romance films, but added to this, we released our first disaster action film, Super Icyclone, as a U.S. digital premiere, and the numbers have been steadily climbing. AVOD outlets are where eyeballs are looking; this is especially telling when every major SVOD outlet has added an ad component to their platforms.

WS: What’s your sense of what broadcasters and platforms are looking for in both new commissions and acquisitions? KIRKPATRICK: This is the age-old question that always gets asked, but in my 20-plus years of experience, the answer never changes: broadcasters and platforms simply want good content. And they want it from the same basic genre conventions: thrillers (female-driven), romance (especially ones set in a beautiful destination), action (with a recognizable male lead), Christmas content (there’s always a home in several key territories), YA content (either tween-girl romance or young-boy adventures) and “creature feature” type movies. Broadcasters and platforms have built their entire business models on these genres, and advertisers love them. Add in a strong cast, and you’ll have a great project to pitch. At Nicely, we focus on Christmas romances, destination romances and female-driven thrillers. We have also dabbled in the YA tween girl space with our Netflix YA original series Dive Club and Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance. What’s exciting is that Nicely can dabble in some off-brand genres via its brand-new sub-label, Darkly Entertainment.

WS: What trends are you seeing in licensing fees? KIRKPATRICK: License fees have stagnated if you’re lucky, but many are dealing with downgraded license fees. This is even more problematic as the costs associated with production have increased (and companies pay over longer and longer periods, which only compounds interest in a negative direction). All of this erodes profit margins. Nicely’s growth in the digital realm has been an illuminating experience; we’ve seen AVOD numbers exceed traditional license fees (all while allowing our rights to remain non-exclusive to us without holdbacks). This has given us the incredible freedom to explore new opportunities in the digital space, allowing us to finance our new productions without necessarily needing a prebuy.

WS: Amid the sea of content, do you, as an IP owner, have to play a greater role in ensuring your content is discovered on your broadcast or streaming partner? KIRKPATRICK: Most distributors have had to pivot slightly, taking on D2C marketing efforts in addition to B2B. The reason is that there is simply so much content in the marketplace—and so much competition for slots/streaming real estate—that we’ve had to make our titles truly pop to gain secured placement. Some see this as a burden, but at Nicely, we see so much opportunity in taking on this D2C marketing role. As streaming continues to become the dominant mode of content viewership, we get to directly increase watch hours and improve our impression ratios. It’s incredible. I think a solid D2C strategy will be a filter between those companies that flourish over the next five to seven years compared to those that flounder. At Nicely, we’ve been diving head-first into growing our D2C initiatives and have seen some incredible results thus far.

WS: FAST was one of the buzzwords of 2023. What’s your sense of that market at present? KIRKPATRICK: FAST channels are fantastic verticals for super-fans and can generate very strong revenue if managed well—but that doesn’t mean they’re for every distributor to get behind. Here’s the problem: so many FAST channels are littered across the streaming landscape that platforms must prune their offerings (or enormous amounts of cash must be spent to make the channel rise to the surface). At Nicely, we’ve successfully focused on one title at a time, taking the effort to grow each title directly across each platform and not getting into the cycle of acquiring titles just to keep a FAST channel’s cycle rate high. We’re much more focused on finding the right titles for our company as a whole. Our library is growing, but it’s growing with films we know are completely on point for us. Our most recent acquisitions have performed extremely well on AVOD and FAST, including the Christmas romance film The Christmas Venue and our IMAX documentary Beyond the Reef.

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