Edinburgh will have a TV festival in August after all.

Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic, Màiri McAllan, has today confirmed an initiative aimed at developing a new festival that will sit alongside the other Edinburgh festivals, including the film and comedy events.

This confirms Deadline’s scoop from last month. This outlined how Screen Scotland had commissioned a piece of work aimed at exploring an industry event that would replace the Edinburgh TV Festival, which is next year moving to Manchester after 51 years.

A launch event attended by Baby Reindeer and Half Man creator Richard Gadd was held today in Scotland’s capital, as many of the UK’s TV sector attended the final Edinburgh TV Festival, which is held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Gadd and the likes of Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge were discovered by the TV industry while performing their shows in the city during August.

As we previously reported, the initial development work was funded by Screen Scotland and completed in early summer 2026. Per a news release today, this was undertaken “with fresh eyes” and explored “how Edinburgh’s August festivals partner to present a new offer to the global content industries, in response to the increasingly blurred boundaries between the different creative artforms and the way creative talent, IP and ideas move fluidly between them.”

Former Edinburgh TV Festival Creative Director Rowan Woods, who oversaw the initial development, has been appointed to lead the next stage of development, which will again be funded by Screen Scotland and delivered through The Fringe Society.

Working with the Fringe Society, Screen Scotland and a broader advisory group, she will consult widely across the August festivals and with venues, broadcasters, platforms, content creators, publishers and other potential participants and audiences to establish the shape of the new initiative. This will include “how it can best support the connection of new talent and IP to content commissioners worldwide.”

This consultation phase is expected to conclude in early spring 2027, with an initial pilot planned for next August. This will likely place it in direct competition with the Manchester event, whose details haven’t yet been announced.

Edinburgh is awash with energy during August, with the Fringe attracting hundreds of comedy acts, who perform in venues across the city during the month. Alongside that is the Edinburght Film Festival, the Edinburgh TV Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, making the city a hive of activity. Many TV professional bemoaned the plan to move the TV fest out, even though costs have become prohibitively high in many cases.

The Scottish Government is providing funding support for the new event’s development via Screen Scotland. More details will follow next year.    

David Smith, Director of Screen Scotland, said: “Edinburgh has a unique role to play in bringing together the people, ideas and creative work that will shape the future of the screen and wider creative industries. Every August, the city becomes a remarkable meeting place for talent from around the world, alongside audiences, producers, commissioners, artists and creative thinkers.

“We have an opportunity to build on that extraordinary concentration of talent and energy and create something new, ambitious and genuinely distinctive for the global industry.” 

Separately, Screen Scotland is establish the Lynda Myles Debate as a keynote element of the August festivals from from next. This will “honour the contribution” of Lynda Myles, formerly Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and co-creator of the Edinburgh TV Festival, to the city’s festival month.   

“I’m deeply touched and honoured to have the debate named after me,” said Myles. It’s exciting to see the importance of ideas and discussion being recognised in the plans for the new event, especially as this was the initial intention of the creation of the Edinburgh Television Festival in 1976.” 

Christina Lauren fans have an early Christmas present to anticipate. Netflix’s film adaptation of the author duo’s In A Holidaze will arrive on the streamer Dec. 2.

Written and directed by Tiffany Paulsen (Winter Spring Summer Fall), the story centers “a directionless twentysomething” who “after making a romantic mistake of epic proportions” becomes trapped in a holiday time loop, “forced to relive the same Christmas at her family’s cabin until she discovers what makes her happy.

Billed as Love Actually meets Groundhog Day, it’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones, who’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions. While on a Christmas trip at her family’s favorite snowy Utah cabin, she pleas to the universe to help her turn things around, which results in a holiday time-loop that she cannot escape.

The film stars Maddie Ziegler, Rob Lowe, Graham Phillips and Elias Kacavas, as Deadline first reported. Patton Oswalt, Jackie Sandler, Gil Bellows and Andrea Anders will also appear.

Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs posted the news to their Instagram.

“We can’t wait for you to see the cabin, the sad but gorgeous Christmas tree (it really is gorgeous!), Maisie and Andrew, Uncle Benny, and the whole gang,” they wrote. “Watch party with Christmas cookies and matching pjs yes/yes??”

RELATED: Expanding The Book Adaptation Pipeline: How Production Companies Like Temple Hill & Alloy Entertainment Are Turning The Page To Develop New IP

In A Holidaze was the first film project to emerge from Alloy Entertainment’s multi-year first-look deal with Netflix. The novel came out in 2020.

Alloy’s president and chief creative officer Leslie Morgenstein is producing In a Holidaze alongside the company’s EVP Film, Elysa Koplovitz Dutton, with Lowe exec producing.

Christina Lauren also have their book The Paradise Problem in development with Rebelle Media, and their book Love and Other Words is in the adaptation process with Magic Hour Entertainement, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

RELATED: Co-Founders Of Magic Hour Entertainment And Rebelle Media Plus Author Duo Christina Lauren Advise Studios & Streamers To Devote Resources To “Elevated” And “Prestige” Romance Through Casting, Chemistry & More

Eleven years ago, NBC delivered one of the most memorable moments in upfront presentation history when the head of the network, Robert Greenblatt, sat behind the piano to accompany Dolly Parton‘s performance of “I Will Always Love You.” Following Parton’s death at the age of 80, the former top Showtime, NBC and WarnerMedia executive Greenblatt recalled how that stunt came about and reflected on the duo’s 23-year friendship that started when he approached her about turning her classic movie 9 to 5 into a musical. Greenblatt executive produces HBO Emmy-nominated hit The Gilded Age and just won his fourth Tony Award for Ragtime.

The loss of Dolly Parton is profound. A wound that people all over the world are feeling. It’s as if collectively we lost a guiding light in the middle of a storm, someone who could bring simple common sense to the chaos of life. She was a prolific songwriter and a galvanizing performer who somehow appealed to literally everyone, whether you liked country music or not. But to me she was a beautiful human being all about love, and just being able to call her a friend is something for which I will always be eternally grateful.

Back in 2003 when I was about to take over running Showtime, I had decided to also put my mind to producing a Broadway musical someday. I loved musicals as a teenager back home in Illinois and Broadway had always been a dream. And I thought the classic movie 9 To 5 could make a great musical. Not only is it hilarious and empowering to women, but it also has that incredible title song by Dolly herself. So to me it was inherently “musical” already.

My big idea was to somehow get Dolly to write the score for the show. But getting her on board would prove a little more difficult than I thought. After my first letter to her lawyer went unanswered, I assumed she had no interest in Broadway. But then fate — and my friend, Melissa Etheridge — stepped in. Turns out she and Dolly were about to work on a TV special together and Melissa offered to introduce me to her if I dropped into rehearsal.

“Dolly,“ Melissa said, “I want you to meet a great producer and friend of mine, Bob Greenblatt.” As Dolly shook my hand warmly, I stammered something like: “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, I’m a huge fan and I want to produce a Broadway musical based on 9 To 5 and I want you to write the score.” She looked at me for a second and then a little lightbulb went off — “Oh you’re Bob Greenblatt. My lawyer told me about you. I love this idea, and I want to do it. He’ll call you to work out all the details and I’ll see you real soon.” She went back to rehearsal and I had my composer!

In less than a year I was sitting with Dolly in Nashville along with writer Pat Resnick (who also wrote the movie), and we all got to work on crafting the show. We embarked on the joyous process alongside director Joe Mantello, my good friend from high school, who at the time was just about to open a new show on Broadway called Wicked. (We all know how that turned out!)

What fun we all had together! I fondly remember the times we would gather at my home in Los Angeles, and needless to say, Dolly was always camera-ready — wig, full makeup, and five-inch stilettos. Even for just a work session in jeans and a sweater, that sweater had more sparkle than anything you’ve ever seen. If we needed a new song, she would write it overnight and play it for us on her guitar the next day. She wrote a couple dozen songs in all, always eager to throw something out that didn’t quite work and start over if need be. No one ever worked faster — or harder — than Dolly Parton!

It eventually was time for our pre-Broadway run at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2008 with an incredible cast led by Allison Janney (in the Lily Tomlin role), Stephanie J. Block (Jane Fonda), and newcomer Megan Hilty (as Dolly). Dolly was crazy about all of them. But the automation for our lavish set was so complicated that it didn’t always work and rehearsals were slow. Dolly sat out in the darkened theatre and would sometimes call out a funny comment in the middle of a scene to ease the pressure. She also knew that I had a sweet tooth and would sometimes bring us homemade fudge, just one of the many kind gestures from the little country girl at heart. We all cherished our time with her.

Opening night in L.A. finally arrived and the curtain went up to monstrous applause! We got a full 15 minutes into act one before we had set troubles and had to stop the show and bring up the house lights. Mortified, I ran backstage to see how long it would take to get started again. Unfortunately it was going to be at least ten minutes, and then came the awful sound of hammers and drilling that bled through the curtain. That’s when I ran to Dolly and asked her if she would get up in front of the audience to distract everyone until we could get the show running again.

To resounding applause, she “distracted” the hell out of the audience with her inimitable charm and wit. After many people shouted out their love for her, she explained that we were still “workin’ out some of the bugs” and then she led everyone in a sing-along chorus of 9 To 5. With still more time to kill, she sang “I Will Always Love You” acapela to a crowd that was in heaven.

The rest of the show went without a hitch, but you can imagine that the buzz at the opening night party was all about Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! This kind of thing only happens in live theatre, but if your set is going to break down, there’s nothing better in the world than having a national treasure get up and take control of the room.

Next we were on to a thrilling opening night on Broadway that I’ll never forget, with Dolly accompanied by both Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She performed on the Tony Awards that season with our whole company and I’m proud to say she was a first-time Tony nominee for her wonderful score. Every step of the way she was there with her positive disposition and that bright light, bringing everyone into her orbit of love.

A few years later, after I went to NBC, I wanted more Dolly. So we produced a television movie with her and Sam Haskell about a young girl growing up in the Tennessee mountains finding her voice as a young singer. It was inspired by her iconic song “Coat of Many Colors” and I asked her to join me on stage at the NBC upfront at Radio City Music Hall to get the advertisers excited about it. I knew they would all go wild seeing her there, but I wanted to up the ante even more and asked if she would sing something too. She agreed, on one condition — that I accompany her on the piano as I sometimes did at my house when we were working on 9 To 5. How could this kid from the cornfields of Illinois say no to that kind of pipe dream?

On the day of the upfront she appeared wearing a bedazzled, form-fitting dress in “peacock” colors and we bantered about the movie. Then I asked her if she would sing for us before departing and, on cue, a 9-foot Steinway grand appeared. With me (nervously) at the piano, she proceeded to deliver a beautiful rendition of her signature song, “I Will Always Love You,” and the audience was putty in her hands. By the end, she had the whole room singing along with her. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. She was the pied piper in rhinestones who had cast a spell over everyone. What joy it was to be under that spell.

I had many wonderful times with this great lady over the years, and I cherish each one. Now, more than ever I suppose. She was such a radiant life force that fans of every kind adored her — young, old, male, female, gay, straight, democrat, republican, you name it. I think she was the great equalizer because she simply treated everyone equally. She was plain-talking, truthful, inclusive, spiritual, hilarious, and fundamentally just a believer in the power of human goodness.

There was never anyone like Dolly Parton before she came along, and I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of her again. As they say, God broke the mold after creating her. Over the last two days countless people have said she was simply an angel on Earth. I don’t think truer words were ever spoken.

Rest in Peace, Dear Dolly. We will always love you.