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Thunderbird Entertainment Announces New Senior Vice President, Global Development, for Great Pacific Media

Thunderbird Entertainment Announces New Senior Vice President, Global Development, for Great Pacific Media

National Post6 days ago
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Laura Crowson, former VP of Development at Warner Bros. Discovery, has been hired to lead the Company's international unscripted efforts
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV:TBRD, OTC – THBRF) ('Thunderbird' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce Laura Crowson has been hired as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Global Development, for Great Pacific Media ('GPM'), the unscripted arm of the Company. As SVP of Global Development for GPM, Crowson will report to GPM CEO David Way and be a key part of the senior leadership team.
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Based in Los Angeles, Crowson will identify global market opportunities, drive co-productions and joint ventures, and work closely with GPM development and business teams to create shows that are creatively ambitious and commercially viable.
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'With a background in development, high-level casting, business strategy, and pitching, Laura will bring creative leadership to shape existing concepts and spearhead new projects and partnerships,' says Way. 'Her experience with major U.S. networks, and time in the UK, gives her sharp insight into evolving market needs and trends, ensuring GPM remains at the forefront of international content. We are thrilled to welcome her to our team.'
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Crowson joins GPM from Warner Bros. Discovery, where she served as Vice President of Development and oversaw series and specials for Discovery Channel, Science Channel, Animal Planet, and Max. She played a key role in developing many of the network's successful titles, including Expedition Files, The Last Woodsmen, and Mud Madness, as well as Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, which was Discovery's highest-rated special in over five years. Her portfolio includes work on major global franchises like Deadliest Catch, Naked and Afraid, and Gold Rush. She was also an integral part of WBD's co-production & acquisition strategy, securing more than 500 hours of content and providing creative leadership across a diverse slate.
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'I'm incredibly excited to join the talented team at GPM and help drive its unscripted strategy forward,' says Crowson. 'There's so much opportunity to create bold, engaging content that resonates with global audiences, and I look forward to building on GPM's momentum, collaborating with new partners, and bringing fresh, entertaining ideas to life for audiences around the world.'
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For information on GPM, visit https://greatpacifictv.com/. For more information on Thunderbird Entertainment Group and to subscribe to the Company's investor list for news updates, go to www.thunderbird.tv.
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About GPM
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Great Pacific Media programs are seen in more than 180 territories, and the Thunderbird company specializes in the financing, development, production and co-production of factual, documentary, and reality television, with a growing slate of scripted projects that include Syfy series Reginald the Vampire and feature films Boot Camp and Sidelined: The QB and Me. Additional productions at Great Pacific Media include the highly rated USA Network Canada series Highway Thru Hell, new series Rocky Mountain Wreckers (The Weather Channel, USA Network Canada) and Timber Titans (USA Network Canada), with new seasons of Deadman's Curse (The History Channel, Hulu) and Wild Rose Vets (produced in association with Wapanatahk Media for APTN, Blue Ant Media) on the way. www.greatpacifictv.com About Thunderbird Entertainment Group Thunderbird Entertainment Group is a global award-winning, full-service production, distribution and rights management company, headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Los Angeles and Ottawa. Thunderbird creates award-winning scripted, unscripted, and animated programming for the world's leading digital platforms, as well as Canadian and international broadcasters. The Company develops, produces, and distributes animated, factual, and scripted content through its various content arms, including Thunderbird Kids and Family (Atomic Cartoons), Thunderbird Unscripted (Great Pacific Media) and Thunderbird Scripted. Productions under the Thunderbird umbrella include Mermicorno: Starfall, Super Team Canada, Molly of Denali, Kim's Convenience, Highway Thru Hell, Boot Camp and Sidelined: The QB and Me. Thunderbird Distribution and Thunderbird Brands manage global media and consumer products rights, respectively, for the Company and select third parties. Thunderbird is on Facebook, X, and Instagram at @tbirdent. For more information, visit: www.thunderbird.tv.
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Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
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Certain statements contained in this news release may contain forward-looking information or may be forward-looking statements (collectively, 'forward-looking statements') within the meaning of applicable securities laws.
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Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as 'anticipate', 'continue', 'estimate', 'expect', 'forecast', 'may', 'will', 'plan', 'project', 'should', 'believe', 'intend', or similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Crowson's ability to generate new unscripted content, identify global market opportunities and drive co-productions and joint ventures, and GPM's ability to produce new shows that are commercially viable. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; product capability and acceptance; international risk and currency exchange rates; and technology changes.
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The forward-looking statements or information contained in this document represent Thunderbird's views as of the date hereof and as such information should not be relied upon as representing Thunderbird's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this document. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.
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Contacts
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Media Contact
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Finch Media
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Julia Smith
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julia@finchmedia.net
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Abel Tesfaye returns to Toronto to kill The Weeknd
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CBC

time2 hours ago

  • CBC

Abel Tesfaye returns to Toronto to kill The Weeknd

Social Sharing Unlike Taylor Swift's meteorite-like crash landing in the sweaty city of Toronto, there were no friendship bead-wearing police horses at The Weeknd's first showing in the Six. Instead, a more subdued air surrounded Rogers Centre as fans funnelled in: Low-key Starboy tracks warbling into the 30 C drippingly-wet air blanketing the stadium in the heart of The Weeknd's hometown. But that doesn't mean a lack of excitement, despite the weather. "God damn, it's hot," Canadian producer and DJ Kaytranada even exclaimed, towelling himself off onstage during a well-done if not earth-shattering opening. That was as sweltering fans at the first of four sold-out nights in the 50,000-seat venue braved the heat in requisitely dark clothes to match the R&B superstar infamously dark music. Just a day before, Mayor Olivia Chow dubbed the preceding days "The Weeknd weekend." That was because, she said, "Abel (The Weeknd) Tesfaye represents the best of our city." The Scarborough-raised artist also received a key to the city. And it was all just before audience members, eager to experience what is often still described as a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience, were uncharacteristically chatty with journalists — throwing themselves into on-camera interviews instead of waiting for the insistent coaxing of harried producers. "Everyone here, we are The Weeknd," a fan named Perry told CBC News. "He represents Canada." But as Tesfaye took the stage, the seemingly incongruous mix of emotions instantly made sense. Decked in a black robe encrusted with glittering gold rhinestones and a golden half-mask, you could see he embodied that caustic mix of the charismatic and subdued that, for anyone else, would not fit in the same person at the same time. As he has proven since releasing anonymous and unsettling dance-themed mixtapes in the 2010s all the way to this seemingly last tour under The Weeknd moniker, this is the space where Tesfaye thrives. While not retiring from music, he plans to no longer perform under the name he has become famous for. A return home Quickly barrelling through classic tracks The Abyss to Wake Me Up to After Hours, he was flanked by similarly masked, enrobed backup dancers — moving in unison around a slowly spinning golden statue of a giant, nude woman (imagine a female Oscars statuette, but with visible nipples). They stood beneath large gold rings, in front of a mocked up golden skyline of a crumbling city. Even Tesfaye's microphone was gold, a particularly heavy-handed metaphor that, early on, he stumbled chaotically toward. While roughly 30 women walked in sync around the statue and then behind to him, and as jets of fire shot up 20 feet into the air, Tesfaye held his hands up to the mic as if in prayer. None of them had to dance or even move much to earn the deafening applause that came next, as Tesfaye revealed the tiniest bit of his face, slightly peaking over the top of the mask. "Well that's a warm welcome home, isn't it?" he asked to another roar. It wasn't the last call out to his hometown. Later, he remarked the stadium is where he used to come to watch Blue Jays games "as a little baby," let out a long and extended "Toronto" in the middle of his track Sacrifice and managed to sneak both CN Tower and Rogers Centre references into São Paulo. But the focus was the gold, the ceremony and the performative reverence of it. The effect is impressive if eerie. A consummate musical professional with four Grammys under his belt and more Junos than anyone but Anne Murray, Tesfaye knows how to set a scene. He also knows how to sing, and — more than that — perform. He never failed to lead the tens of thousands of cheering attendants in song or just rapturous applause. It all gives the impression of some club-themed religious ceremony: A gigantic and enormously budgeted cultic worship service, except here the god is hedonism, sex and all the more outrageous scenes of Wolf of Wall Street. Of course, this is by design — both why The Weeknd can define himself as a generational sex symbol without gyrating or even revealing a sliver of his body under baggy robes and ostensibly why he's choosing to leave the schtick behind after this tour. In his shows and music, he's playing a club kid, fame-obsessed semi-satirical character invented way back in his debut mixtape House of Balloons days — itself a mask, Tesfaye explained in a 2013 Reddit AMA, he chose in order to hide his name and, by extension, himself. Vanity and nihilism In person, it all comes together like a magic trick. At a Weeknd concert, we're both sick of materialism, and sick of being sick of it. We're letting go of every inhibition, forgetting love, revelling in sex and giving up on self-control. It's all a statement about nihilism, you see. Or maybe, it's not. "It seems exorbitant when it all ends. A pointless, uncomfortable exercise from an artist who believes vanity means no stone of excess can be left unturned," music journalist Hanif Abdurraqib wrote of a 2013 Weeknd show in his book They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us. "The Weeknd tells the same tale: It's never about love, but then again, how can it be about anything but love, even if the love is just the love you have for your own ravenous desires." How much the separate entity of The Weeknd exists for Tesfaye to explore and mock his most self-destructive tendencies — instead of just revelling in them — isn't exactly clear. You would've been hard pressed to find any hints of displeasure from the seemingly ecstatic Tesfaye on Sunday. He hit hits old and new out of the park, and was grinning ear-to-ear as he held the microphone to nearly fainting fans, screaming out the ad libs of Out of Time. Still, it's perhaps a strange message to brand, as Chow did, the best of the city — and a strange one to have drawn as many barely five-foot middle-schoolers as Sunday's all-ages show did. At the same time, it's a theme that has offered diminishing returns. There was the 2022 Los Angeles concert in which Tesfaye infamously lost his voice due to stress. Then the ill-fated series The Idol, a Tesfaye-fronted series about the relentless pursuit of fame that was widely panned by critics and even The Weeknd himself. And then there was Hurry Up Tomorrow, the absurdly, incomprehensibly stupid filmic tie-in of his most recent album. 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