Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Jenny Daly’s T Group Prods has inked an overall co-production deal with long-time producer Ann Lewis Roberts, and her new shingle Roberts Media which will relocate to T Group’s Santa Monica office. Under the agreement, Roberts will create, develop and produce unscripted programming to be co-produced with T Group in the U.S., Canada and UK and they’ll serve as EPs on all series.
Moroccan-born billionaire Patrick Drahi Luxembourg-based telecom company, Altice, has made a deal to buy 70% of Suddenlink in a deal that values $9.1 billion including debt. If approved, the deal would give Altice 1.5 million cable customers across the U.S. marking the company’s first customers in the country.
Greek businessman and ship owner Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis has launched the Hercules Film Fund and will finance three to five wide-release films a year. It’s first film out of the gate is Mena, starring Tom Cruise which Universal Pictures is distributing. Kasidokostas-Latsis’ partner Terry Dougas is starting new production banner Rhea as the production company for films financed by Hercules and will co-produce Mena. The two companies will operate independently from 1821 Media, the multimedia production and finance company, already owned by longtime business partners Kasidokostas-Latsis and Douglas.
Alex Garcia, Latin America’s largest indie film producer-financier, has launched AG Capital, an equity-backed fund that will fully fund English language films in the $5 million-$25 million range and co-produce films above $25 million dollar budgets. AG Capital will be under Garcia’s controlling company AG Studios and will be run by him and Laura Walker, formerly an agent at CAA for seven years. Walker has worked in production, serving as assistant director to Richard Linklater, Peter Berg and Robert Rodriguez.
Broadcasters and cable networks are partnering to form a new organization named the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), formerly the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, focused on maximizing advertising potential through quality content on traditional TV outlets. Sean Cunningham will serve as President and CEO. Joe Abruzzese, president of advertising sales at Discovery Networks has been named an inaugural co-chair of the VAB. The VAB will include 110 networks and the 11 largest MVPDs combining the biggest broadcast networks, cable networks and distributors to advance the power of video advertising.
Ben Latham-Jones has fully bought Ealing Studios Entertainment, the production entity of the legendary London-based studio. The former creative director for Fox will serve as the head of studio. Previous head Barnaby Thompson will focus on directing. In 2012, Latham-Jones raised $50 million in financing to produce films.
FILM
Broad Green Pictures has hired Travis Reid as President of Theatrical Distribution. In his new role, Reid will oversee the theatrical distribution of the company’s current specialty, and forthcoming wide release slates, including theatrical sales, exhibitor relations, in-theatre marketing, and all associated operations in these areas. Emlyn Barrios has been named the SVP of Home Entertainment Sales. Barrios was previously at Paramount. Marco DiSilvio will be the VP of Home Entertainment Sales, formerly he worked at Redbox Instant. Vincent Gatewood has been hired as a CE. He was previously Lawrence Bender’s assistant. Dustin Howard has been named the new SVP of Home Ent. Sales, snagged from Cinedigm. Tom Parker has been hired as the VP of Promotions, Events & Field Publicity and was previously at Relativity Media. The company has also tapped Kathleen Kennedy’s previous assistant, Shary Shirazi to become a new CE.
Michael Dwyer is the new SVP International Sales & Distribution at IM Global. He previously served as VP, International Sales & Acquisitions at Screen Media.
New Line Cinema has named Catherine Nam as their VP of Publicity and Communication and will spearhead communications across all of the company’s operations and provide communications support for Warner Bros Theatre Ventures. She’s a veteran having spent 13 years in international PR at Warner Bros. Pictures. In the new role she will work closely with the publicity teams at Warner Bros. She reports to Toby Emmerich, President & COO of New Line Cinema.
Ennis Hensley has been promoted from EVP to President, International Sales & Distribution at The Weinstein Company.
Patrick Chu has been promoted from Director of Development to VP of Productions & Acquisitions at FilmNation Entertainment. Jennifer Fradlin has been promoted from Director to VP of Business & Legal Affairs at FilmNation Entertainment. Selena Saldana has been promoted to VP of Publicity, up from Director.
Mike Weatherley has been named the EVP, Director of the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation in LA/London. He previously served as British MP and Intellectual Property Rights Advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
TV
ITV Studios America has upped Paul Reaney to SVP Development. Based in Los Angeles, Reaney will still focus on the growth of the company’s West Coast development slate for broadcast, cable and digital. He’ll report to Bruce Robertson, EVP of Creative Strategy.
Chetan Dave has been promoted from Coordinator to Manager of Comedy Development at 20th Century Fox Television. Jenna Dim has likewise been upped from Coordinator to Manager in the Drama Development department.
Michael Jackson is the new Head of Global Sales at Banijay International in London. He was previously Senior Sales & Acquisitions Executive at DCD Rights in the city.
Josh Levy has been named SVP of Television at Boom! Studios. He was formerly VP of Creative Affairs at Far Field Productions.
Long-time TV programming exec Holly Hines has joined Dynamic Television as SVP Content, and will develop and sell new scripted series and mini-series to U.S., UK, Canadian and Australian networks. Previously she was SVP Scripted Programming at Pivot. Hines will work with Managing Partners Daniel March and Klaus Zimmermann in handling Dynamic’s produced television series.
Kelli Raftery has been upped to SVP Communications at CBS Corporation, will help manage media relations for the CBS Corporate Communications Department and work closely to support the communications teams at each of CBS’s business segments. Shannon Jacobs, who was previously the SVP Communications at CBS Corporation will be the senior consultant to the department. She’ll continue in her current role through the launch of the new fall season.
Lindsey Springer has been named the new President of Carlton Cuse Productions. She was previously at Amblin TV as head of development. At Carlton, her series portfolio will include A&E’s Bates Motel and The Returned, FX’s The Strain and USA’s upcoming Colony. Carlton Cuse inked a three-year first-look deal with A+E Studios last fall.
Long-time comedy writer-producer Donick Cary has inked a two-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. In the first year he’ll serve as a consulting producer on Silicon Valley while developing for CBS Studios. Cary began his writing career on Late Night and Late Show With David Letterman before moving to The Simpsons.
Robert Atwood has been named VP of Television Development at Fazekas & Butter. Formerly he was the Director of Development & Talent at TV Land.
Martha Sepulveda is the new Director of Development & Production in Kids and Family Entertainment at Breakthrough Entertainment in Toronto. She was previously the Development Manager at Sinking Ship Ent.
Antonio Pacheco has been promoted from Director to VP of Program Planning & Scheduling at Starz.
Simon Raikes will be the new Creative Director at Red Planet Pictures in London. He formerly served as a Commissioning Editor in Factual at Channel5 in London.
Jim Schubert has been promoted from Executive Director to VP of Program Planning & Scheduling at Encore.
René Santaella has been promoted from VP to SVP of Global Ad Strategy & Operations, Digital Networks at Sony Pictures Television.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Deadline Hollywood founder Nikki Finke has announced plans for a new site called HollywoodDementia.com, centering around the creation of fictional stories about living and working in Hollywood. She will write and curate content for the site with a launch date planned for late June.
Tiffani Manabat has been tapped to be VP of Advertising & Games at Digital Domain 3.0. Previously he served as an Executive Producer of Post Production at Caviar.
Michael Brittain is the new Creative Director at Ignition Creative. He previously served as Director of Print Design at FX Networks.
Dan Clivner is now the Co-Managing Partner at Sidley Austin. He was previously Managing Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Machinima has just named former Sony and Fox digital marketing exec Joseph Epstein SVP, Marketing. At the studios he oversaw strategies and campaigns for films including The Croods, Good Day To Die Hard and The Wolverine. In the new role, he’ll report to COO Daniel Tibbets. Joerg Bachmaier has been named the SVP of Content Strategy & Co-Productions at Machinima. He was previously the EVP of International Production, BBC Worldwide.
Jarryd Gonzales, previous spokesperson at Verizon will head Public Relations & Communications for The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Entertainment Weekly has tapped Ellie Duque as their new publisher, replacing Melissa Mattiace who stepped down. Duque will oversee the development and execution of advertising sales and marketing initiatives on all platforms for the magazine, website and digital offerings. She will report to People and EW Group Publisher, Karen Kovacs. EW has also promoted Lana LoRusso to vice president and associate publisher of sales and will report to Duque.
Richard Van Syckle has been named the Nashville Local Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA in the city. Previously he gained experience as a freelance producer and project manager.
Brian Hunt is now the EVP and head of Development at Believe Ent. Group in NYC. He was previously the head of Creative Development at Yahoo!
Viz Media, a North American distributor of manga and anime, has tapped Brad Woods as its new chief marketing officer and will develop marketing and product strategies to expand the Viz Media brand across multiple channels across all of the company’s imprints. Previously, Woods was at DreamWorks Animation and held senior positions at Mattel and Warner Bros.
Angela Megrey has shifted to VP of Social Media at Crown Media Family Networks, she previously served that role at Blaze PR.
Marketing Agency, Razorfish just hired Samih Fadli as its first chief intelligence officer. Fadli will lead Razorfish Global’s Data Intelligence Practice and expand marketing intelligence and data sciences practices. Prior to taking the Razorfish gig, Fahli was SVP of global engineering at Gravity4, an ad tech company with a problematic CEO who just got sued for gender discrimination.
Rolling Stone has hired Josh Swade as executive producer of film and video starting May 26. Swade will manage Rolling Stone’s team of about 10 recently hired employees. He was previously a senior producer at MaggieVision Prods. Where he produced ESPN’s “The ESPYs” and “NFL Honors” awards shows.
Amazon-owned Audible.com has tapped Eric Nuzum as the SVP of Original Content. He hails from NPR where he was VP of Programming.