EXCLUSIVE: Documentaries like Blackfish, The Hunting Ground, RBG, Three Identical Strangers and Oscar-winner Navalny put CNN Films on the map.
It was a map that Amy Entelis, EVP, Talent, CNN Originals and Creative Development had started in 2012 with the launch of the division.
However, a pandemic, corporate changes imposed by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and a changing documentary market led to “somewhat of a hiatus” over the last few years, according to Entelis, who has been with the business for 13 years.
But the unit is hoping to roar back to life with two projects – a Chevy Chase documentary from Marina Zenovich and a cancer documentary from Janet Tobias – signaling a “new phase”.
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Its return follows the appointment of former BBC Director General Mark Thompson as CEO and Chairman of CNN in August 2023 and three high-profile acquisitions including Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story involving some of its corporate siblings.
Last February, CNN Films, along with Warner Bros. Motion Pictures, DC Studios and Max acquired the rights to the Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui-directed doc in a $15M deal done after its Sundance premiere.
It followed this with deals for films about Bill Clinton’s Ragin’ Cajun James Carville – Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid – and Luther: Never Too Much. Earlier this month, it picked up Prime Minister, a documentary about former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern, in a deal done jointly with HBO and Magnolia Pictures.
Entelis told Deadline that the Super/Man deal – the first time that CNN Films had worked with other parts of its business in such a way – was a “really great way to jump start our presence again doing feature documentaries”.
“It was a beginning of a new phase for us and a very important partnership across the company that showed what we could do as one company,” she added.
Now, it has I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, directed by Marina Zenovich, who has directed a slew of high-profile documentaries about troubled men including Lance, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, and In the Prime of Life (w/t) from Janet Tobias, who has directed CNN Films projects including Unseen Enemy and Race for the Vaccine.
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not is an “authorized yet unfiltered” look at comedy legend Chase, who was one of the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players in the first season of Saturday Night Live (he made an appearance at the recent SNL50 celebrations). The film will include interviews with the Chase family, friends and costars and says it will “reveal what is beneath the surface of his superstar bravado”.
The film is produced by CNN Films, West Buttermilk and PMZ Pictures in association with Propagate Content and Five All in the Fifth Productions. Zenovich exec produces alongside P.G. Morgan for PMZ Pictures; James Packer for West Buttermilk; Ben Silverman, Howard Owens, Drew Buckley, Andrew D Corkin and Isabel San Vargas for Propagate Content; Doug Banker for Five All in the Fifth and Entelis and Roxanna Sherwood for CNN Films.
It will launch in 2026, possibly with a theatrical run. “I understand CNN is going to release a documentary about me. I’m delighted and I hope I’m in it,” said Chevy Chase.
“I’ve always loved Chevy’s comedy and have been curious as to what makes him tick. That’s what I’m hoping to find out with this film,” added Zenovich.
Entelis said that CNN Films started working on this last year at an early stage. “[I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not] is a film that builds on another rich legacy of content we have made in the past, whether it’s three seasons of The History of Comedy, Love, Gilda or the comedy show we’re doing now on Saturday night [Have I Got News For You],” she said.
Meanwhile, In the Prime of Life came in the door as a pitch from Tobias. The doc explores the rise of cancers in adults under 50. It follows cancer patients and the doctors, scientists, nurses and social workers who care for them at one of the world’s leading cancer centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
The film, which will also debut in 2026, comes from Global Health Reporting Center and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios. Global Health Reporting Center’s Roger Lopez produces with exec producers including Jared Lipworth and Chad Cohen for HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Entelis and Sherwood for CNN Films.
“It is my privilege to document the journey of a group of younger cancer patients and their families, as well as highlight the work of MSK physicians, nurses, and social workers as they tackle this critical public health issue,” said Tobias.
Entelis highlighted In the Prime of Life’s “fly-on-the-wall” nature. “On the news side, we don’t get to do a deep dive about this kind of a story. We report statistics and we track it and monitor it, but this is a chance to get complete access to Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital, allowing us to film over the course of the year,” she added.
The former ABC News exec said both projects are the start of something new for CNN Films. She said, “After having done that series of acquisitions, we were anxious and eager to get back into the business of getting in on the ground floor with special filmmakers and great subjects, where we have more of a hand in, how the film is shaped and how it is built, which is really how many of the films we did over the last decade were done.”
Entelis added that Mark Thompson, who is set to announce these films at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Upfront on Wednesday morning in New York, is very supportive of the new strategy. “I think he understands that CNN should offer a variety of distinctive content, whether it’s the best reporting in Washington, to the most beautiful, cinematic, engaging travel shows. We have a great audience who responds to all of that on that spectrum,” she said.
The documentary business has shifted over the last few years; pre-pandemic some of the prices companies were spending on docs out of festivals such as Sundance was becoming astronomical and there’s been a contraction in recent years.
Entelis highlights the “drop off” in the number of platforms that are now investing in non-fiction programming. “There’s a distribution issue, there’s a cost issue. Every time I’m with a collection of my peers and colleagues from other parts of the business, I think the conversation is about partners. Everybody is going down that same path. We have found a number of partners for our series and our work, and are now in the midst of finding partners for our films. We’ve been able to defray costs in that way, reduce risk, make sure that we can do as much of the content as we want to do. In other words, it allows us to keep the number of hours pretty steady, but it’s really all about relationships and finding like-minded people who can share something and have a common vision for it,” she added.