Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Joel Silver is joining Canadian entrepreneur Daryl Katz to form Silver Pictures Entertainment, a new venture that will develop, produce and provide or arrange financing for its own slate of feature films, TV and digital projects. Hal Sadoff has been named the CEO; he was previously head of International & Media Finance at ICM Partners, before leaving in 2012. Under the deal Silver will continue with the projects previously set up at Warner Bros. including a third Sherlock Holmes film, a sequel to Project X, Logan’s Run and The Nice Guys which will release on May 20, 2016. Katz’s Katz Group which covers sports, entertainment and real estate will assist in expanding SPE’s entertainment platform. Veteran indie filmmaker Cassian Elwes, has teamed up with Pelican Point Capital Partners' media arm Pelican Point Media to launch Golden Gate Media. They plan to produce 2-5 films per year in the $2 million-$15 million budget range. Formerly he headed William Morris Independent.
NBCUniversal is partnering with AOL and will provide video clips from its networks including NBC and USA to AOL’s streaming platform starting this summer. They plan to co-develop original videos for both of their Web platforms and potential weekly live programming as well.
Vice Media will be getting their own cable channel as A+E Networks rebrands their channel H2 into Vice. A+E has a 10% stake in Vice Media in a $250 million valued deal, led by A+E Networks topper Nancy Dubuc.
Weinstein Co-president of acquisitions Mark Gooder and former Focus Features International head Alison Thompson have partnered to create Cornerstone Films, a production-finance and sales company with offices in LA and London. The company will make its sales debut at Cannes this year and focus on both wide releases and indies. As part of the deal, Cornerstone partnered with Potboiler Films in London and X Filme in Berlin to begin filling the pipeline with up to two films a year for financing and sales.
Comedy writer-producer Kristin Newman has inked a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios. She’s the current EP/showrunner on ABC Studio’s comedy pilot, Delores and Jermaine. She’s served as co-EP on ABC Studios comedy series The Neighbors and Galavant.
ITV Studios Global Entertainment has inked a deal with Monumental Television for a minority stake in the company and to exclusively distribute all their television productions. The indie production house was formed last fall and founded by Oscar nominated producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward.
FILM
Scott Bedno has been named VP of International Sales & Distribution, Voltage Pictures. He was previously president of international at Spotlight Pictures. John Fremes will be President of International Sales & Distribution at Voltage, he was previously president of International Sales & Distribution at Nu Image / Millennium Films.
Andrew Walter is in a newly created role at MGM as EVP of Corporate Development. He previously worked with MGM and other entities as managing director at investment company Evolution Media Partners. He will report to chairman and CEO Gary Barber and handle corporate and business development, acquisitions, investments and strategic transactions in film and TV.
Sarah Bremner will become an executive of Original Film Group at Netflix in early May, she was previously director of Creative Affairs at A+E Studios.
Jeffrey Greenstein takes over as president of International Sales & Distribution, Nu Image / Millennium Films, upped from the VP position.
Kate Ritter has been upped to creative executive at Bold Films, from the assistant level.
Taylor Zea has been promoted to the creative executive position at Thunder Road Pictures, up from assistant.
Mitra Darab is the new SVP of marketing for Capitol Music Group, he moved from the VP position of marketing at Warner Bros. Records.
TV
Chip Sullivan has been named EVP of communications at NBC Entertainment. He left DreamWorks Animation where he was head of global brand integration & publicity.
Matthew Wiseman has been upped to COO of BAFTA LA, he was previously director of operations.
Craig Cegielski has been named the Co-CEO of FremantleMedia North America, upped from his EVP of Scripted Programming position there. He will be joined by Jennifer Mullin who’s also been named a Co-CEO, she was previously the EVP of Current Programming. Colleen Mende has been named director of research, upped from manager.
Danny Feldheim has been promoted from manager to director of Drama, development and programming at FOX Broadcasting Company.
Jonathan Goldberg has been upped from VP to Director of Post Production at A. Smith & Co. Productions.
Jamie Horowitz will be in a newly created post as President of Fox Sports National Networks. Previously he was an ESPN executive. In the new role he will handle programming, marketing and scheduling for Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 and oversee management and development of original programming and day-to-day operations for Fox Sports 1’s news and studio programs.
Sharoan R. Harris has been promoted from VP to SVP of Pricing & Planning at Fuse Media, Inc. in New York.
Michael Maniaci has been named the director of programming and development at DiGa (NY), he was a development executive at CMT previously.
Zola Mashariki will be the EVP and head of original programming of BET Networks. She was snagged from Fox Searchlight where she was the SVP of production.
Ken Segna has been upped to SVP of original programming at Starz where he was the VP.
Management, PR, Agencies
CAA promoted the following trainees to the agent level: Olivia Blaustein/Hannah Kuzniecky/Matt Olson (TV), Sam Bringardner (Motion Picture Talent), Rhys Broussard/Josh Rahm (Motion Picture), Tommy Bruce/Ben Coles/Caitlin Davidson/ Kasey McKee/Spencer Sherman/ Emily Wright (Music), Roman Di Somma/Matt Elefant/ Heather Grosz (Sports), Kevin Lin (Theatre), Adam Paulsen (Film Finance). In addition Sylvia Friedel, Farrell Ulrich and Chris Yenn have been promoted to executive levels in marketing. Giselle Leon has been promoted to Executive in CAA’s Lifestyle department.
Luke Esselen has been swooped up by CAA and named an agent in their Motion Picture Talent department, he was previously an assistant at Mosaic.
Harold Frogét is the latest to make the move from CAA to UTA. She will be in the touring department, which was her department at CAA.
Jennifer McCann has been named VP of Operations for Forefront Media Strategies, she was previously the sr. coordinator at TNT Originals.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Erik Huggers has been named president and CEO of online music-video distributor Vevo. With 20 years experience in digital media, his most recent role was as senior VP at Verizon Communications. He takes over for Vevo founding CEO Rio Caraeff, who left late last 2014.
Jordan Bortolotti has been named the new Executive Vice President, Collective Digital Studio in their Toronto offices. She was previously the director of digital solutions at Blue Ant Media in that city.
Warner Bros. Blue Ribbon Content in charge of creating new live-action, short-form content for digital outlets has added to its team. Peter Girardi has expanded his role as SVP of creative affairs at Warner Bros. Animation to include Blue Ribbon Content. He will report to Blue Ribbon president Sam Register. Zoe Friedman will be named SVP of Development and handle development and production of comedy series. Lance Sloane will be the VP of development and production, shifting from WB’s home entertainment department. Alexandra Davis will be the director of development & production, she was previously a producer at DreamWorks Animation-owned AwesomenessTV
Ben McLean is the new SVP of digital enterprises at NBCUniversal, snagged from business affairs at Xbox Entertainment Studios where he was also SVP.
Andy Schuon has been named partner of Ocho, a social video startup. He will assist in shaping the company's content strategy and expand entertainment industry relationships in LA as their headquarters are in New York. Ocho is funded by investors that include Mark Cuban and the company debuted last winter. The app allows people to share eight-second videos that play in a continuous stream on their homepage.
Dan Silver is joining ABC News as Executive Producer of ABC News Digital. He will oversee the digital editorial team and work closely with Colby and Subrata to create, produce and develop new forms of journalistic storytelling and further engage our growing digital audience.
Peter Hamby will be heading the news department at SnapChat. He was previously a CNN national political reporter. He will still be featured on CNN, but now as a head at SnapChat.