Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Dick Cook is launching Dick Cook Studios, a new media company. Citic Guoan Group Co. Ltd., a division of the Chinese conglomerate Citic Group will invest $150 million. Cook was formerly a chairman of Disney from 2002 to 2009 and spent a total of 40 years at the studio. Per the announcement the new venture will focus “on the production, marketing and distribution of multi-generational family entertainment including live-action and animated motion pictures as well as television, digital/mobile product, video games, stage plays and related licensing.”
Media powerhouse Gannett is splitting its company. Their share of big-market network affiliates (largest in the U.S.) will now be under the name Tegna while its newspaper publishing assets will remain under the Gannett name. Tegna will be traded publicly under the symbol TGNA.
Modern Family’s Vali Chandrasekaran has signed a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. As part of the deal he will remain co-EP next season and will be promoted to executive producer the following season. His overall deal with ABC Studios is set to expire next month.
STX Entertainment has named Horizon Media its “agency of record” and will handle its media planning and buys, strategy, research and analytics and partnerships with promotions across all platforms with an estimated media budget of $350-400 million per year. EVp Serena Duff, Senior VPs Eric Geiger and Erin Foxworthy will oversee the account for Horizon. At STX, Amy Elkins who oversees media and marketing innovation will run point and collaborate with worldwide digital marketing and technology head Andrew Runyon on strategy.
Leftfield Entertainment, founded by Montgomery in 2013, houses Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Loud TV and Outpost Entertainment has launched a new production company, Riot Creative. Stephanie Angelides will serve as president to develop television programming with a focus on digital platforms. She was previously SVP of Development for All 3 Media’s production company, Optomen.
Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts have left Continental Media to form the new entertainment venture Concourse Media. Funded by private equity group MCG, their divisions will include film sales under Concourse Film Trade and a marketing firm under The Industry & Co. Concourse Film Trade, to package and acquire movies for worldwide distribution and pre-buy rights to U.S. distributed films. They also have plans to launch Concourse Pictures as a distribution arm to acquire and release an estimated three films a year in the U.S.
Film
Cathy Schulman is moving to STX Entertainment and will oversee production on an estimated 12 to 15 films on their slate as well as feature development. STX snagged her from Mandalay Entertainment where she previously oversaw their production slate for eight years.
Paramount Pictures has appointed Jill Brody to Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing Partnerships & Brand Integration and will report to LeeAnne Stables, President of Consumer Products & Executive VP, Worldwide Marketing Partnerships. In her new post, Brody will be responsible for securing global marketing partners, developing opportunities and managing brand integration for Paramount’s theatrical releases. Previously, she served Paramount Pictures as a consultant through her own firm for more than 13 years.
Christopher Tricarico is now the EVP, Business Affairs and General Counsel, Broad Green Pictures. He was previously the Founding Partner of Tricarico Chavez LLP.
TV
BET Networks has picked Zola Mashariki as their new EVP and head of original programming. She hails from Fox Searchlight where she was a production executive. She will handle scripted and unscripted programming and development as well as casting for the cable network, reporting to BET Networks president of programming Stephen Hill.
Susan Kesser is the new VP of Media Relations at FX Networks, she was previously Executive Director, Publicity at Warner Bros. Television.
Sales and Marketing EVP Sean Bratches will end his 27-year career at ESPN at year’s end. He’ll serve in what the network calls “an advisory capacity” until then. During his tenure he led the distribution effort for ESPN HD and helped launch WatchESPN in 2010.
Eric Norsoph is the new head of development and production at Jim Parsons’ shingle, That’s Wonderful Productions. He was previously a CE at Paramount Insurge.
Longtime producer Chris Brancato has signed an overall deal with ABC Studios. Under the deal, Brancato will be the EP of ABC drama pilot Of Kings And Prophets. Previously Brancato’s partnership with Bert Salke was based at ABC Studios under Brancato/Salke for six years until 2010. Brancato recently executive produced Hannibal.
Jonitha Keymoore is now the Director of Program Sales at 4K Media, a production company currently owned by Konami and formerly a subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment. Keymoore was previously the Director of Acquisitions at Cinedigm.
Bilai Joa Silar is the new SVP of programming and production for NBC Universo in Miami where he was previously stationed as VP of content for Discovery U.S. Hispanic Networks.
Fox Broadcasting has nabbed Ariff Sidi to be their new senior VP of digital products and platforms. He previously co-founded the social-video startup Mainstream, and founded Pairental, a technology startup develop parental controls for apps. He will report to David Wertheimer, Fox’s president of digital, and will be responsible for developing programs and products designed to up the performance of programming across nonlinear platforms.
Reality and scripted production company DiGa named Michael Maniaci as Director of Programming and Development. Maniaci was previously Development Executive at CMT.
Management, PR, Agencies
In a move to rebuild their comedy department after the shake-up, CAA has snagged two assistants from management-production company Mosaic. Luke Esselen and Molly Mandel will join CAA’s motion picture talent department as agents.
Veteran ICM Partners agent Meredith Wechter, whose clients include Josh Gad and Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot, has parted ways with the agency. She hasn’t confirmed plans to move to another agency as of press time.
Jackie Knobbe has been promoted to partner at APA where he is the SVP of Comedy Touring.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Kelsey Balance, previously a manager of original programming at Pivot will now be the manager of content, digital enterprises at NBCUniversal.
Previous head of U.S. Hispanic Audience Sales for Google in Miami, Mark Lopez is the new EVP, general manager for Univision Digital and will remain in Miami.
Nancy Tellem, previously the President, Xbox Entertainment Studios is now the Executive Chairman, Chief Media Officer at Interlude, a start-up focused on interactive music videos founded in 2010 by the Israeli rock star Yoni Bloch.
Longtime visual effects specialist Richard Kidd, with credits on Titanic, Matrix and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be Artemple-Hollywood’s new creative director and senior VFX supervisor. Artemple also hired award-winning commercial director Scott McCullough as in-house director and cinematographer.
Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck's media company, has promoted Jonathan Schreiber to president. He was previously the head of strategy and special projects. As president, Schreiber will oversee the company's digital, radio and publishing assets, and he will consult on Beck's news site TheBlaze and its TV operation.
Creative content studio Framestore promoted Christine Cattano to Executive Producer of the Virtual Reality Studio. Previously, Cattano had been Producer.
Epic Rights has promoted Lisa Streff to Executive Vice President, Global Licensing.
Trixie Ferguson Gray has been recruited as MediaCom‘s Senior Partner, Branded Content & Experiences. Gray was previously at Maxus, a GroupM sister agency.
Johanna Maska, who previously was a Barack Obama staffer for eight years beginning with his campaign, has been named VP of Marketing and Communications for the Los Angeles Times.
Domenica Alioto has been promoted to senior editor at Penguin Random House where she was previously an editor.