Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Alibaba Group has partnered with Chinese film company DMG and Hunan TV to bundle subscription-based Internet, cable and mobile entertainment, along with gaming, film and TV content, to Chinese consumers for the first time. The service will be offered to Hunan TV’s six million cable TV subscribers first and then roll out to China. Alibaba Pictures has been making strides as of late, co-financing Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
Cynthia Cidre has signed a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios. That’s the same studio that produces Blood and Oil which she executive produces in addition to being the showrunner. During her new deal she will develop new projects for network, cable, and streaming services.
Vivendi has acquired French video sharing site Dailymotion, which offers a high end, more B2B focus and synergies with Vivendi’s other media assets Canal Plus and, chiefly, Universal Music Group. It also offers the opportunity to potentially build a pan-European OTT rival to Netflix ahead of the SVOD giant’s continued expansion into Southern Europe later this year.
Empire EP and co-creator Lee Daniels has signed a multiyear overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television, which produces the Fox drama. Under the broad pact, Daniels will continue as an executive producer on Empire and develop, write, direct and supervise new projects under his Lee Daniels Entertainment banner. In addition he’s signed on to direct The Ten Commandments Project ordered to series by WGN America.
XLrator Media has joined Parkside Pictures and Tadross Media Group in a deal to co-produce and distribute worldwide a multi-picture production slate. Their first film is the action thriller If, with shooting to start in fall. Xlrator’s other co-production deals include one with New Artists Alliance for three sci-fi thrillers and Benattar/Thomas for three action-thrillers. Additionally, Parkside is financing some of the pictures in those deals.
WB has signed a global multi-series deal with Turner Broadcasting for Boomerang and will involve Boomerang’s classic animation portfolio from the Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Warner Bros. Animation collection, around 3,500 titles. The first of Boomerang’s new original series from Warner Bros Animation is Bunnicula, an animated comedy series based on the bestselling children’s book to debut in fall.
Danny Chun has re-upped his overall deal with ABC Studios for another two years. His series Grandfathered was picked up to series for fall and will star John Stamos, and was developed at ABC Studios. In addition he also wrote and executive produced another ABC Studios comedy project that went to pilot, ABC’s Delores & Jermaine starring Whoopi Goldberg.
Veena Sud has signed a premium development deal with Fox 21 TV Studios where she developed The Killing, on which she is the series creator and EP that ran for four seasons on AMC and then Netflix. Under the deal she will develop a new cable drama series.
AMC Networks has separated out AMC Studios and placed it under the leadership of Rick Olshansky and Stefan Reinhardt and they will oversee production and business affairs functions across AMC and SundanceTV. Olshansky is the current AMC head of business affairs while Reinhardt is AMC Networks SVP of Finance and Studio Operations. Joel Stillerman who was previously running the Studio has part of his role as the original programming chief will have an increased focus on development. The AMC Global channel, which launched in late 2014 will premiere AMC Studios’ series, Fear The Walking Dead this summer to be followed by Into The Badlands. As part of the shift, VP of Business Affairs Scott Stein will be upped to SVP of Business Affairs for AMC and head the negotiation of development and production agreements for AMC Studios original productions.
Kin Community has launched branded content house Kin Studios. The studio will be headed by longtime Kin executives Lauren Merriam, VP of sales, and Beth Le Manach, VP of programming. The studio has already lined up branded content deals with Beiersdorf, P&G and Wilton. Jennifer McDonnell, Kin’s VP of partnerships, will oversee the network of creators at the new studio. Services will include content ideation and in-house production services, along with customized campaigns, premium media and social activations.
Cinedigm has invested in Shout! Factory and the agreement will extend their DVD and video distribution deal. Shout! Factory currently runs Shout!Factory TV, an ad supported video streaming channel that will be revamped.
FILM
DreamWorks Animation has snagged former Fox executive Dan Berger as their Sr. VP Corporate Communications. Prior to Dreamworks, Berger spent nine years at Fox, during which he was a VP Communications for News Corp. and separately held that position for Fox Interactive Media.
Jody Arlington has been named Head, Film Press & Publicity, SXSW Film. She was previously the Director of Communications of IFP in New York.
Sean Berney has been named Fox Searchlight’s Manager of Acquisitions. He formerly had that role at IFC Films/Sundance Selects/IFC Midnight.
Disney has upped Christine McCarthy, their Treasurer for 15 years to CFO, replacing Jay Rasulo with a contract running through 2019. She’ll oversee Investor Relations, Corporate Planning and Control, Tax, Corporate Treasury, Corporate Real Estate, Facilities, Integrated Supply Chain Management, and Corporate Citizenship. They also promoted Kevin Mayer to Chief Strategy Officer, up from Corporate Strategy and Business Development EVP. He will report to Iger and COO Thomas Staggs. Leslie Ferraro and Jimmy Pitaro have been named Co-Chair, Disney Consumer Products & Interactive Media and President, Disney Consumer Products.
Emmy Chang has been named the VP of Publicity at Broad Green Pictures. She previously held that title at The Weinstein Company.
Paramount Pictures is losing their president of domestic distribution, Don Harris, after 14 years. He will exit and the studio expects to find a replacement within 60 days. He will stay through the release of Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation on July 31st.
Julie Candelaria has been promoted to SVP Marketing at indie distributor Gravitas Ventures. Nancy Sanchez also signs on as Marketing Manager from creative marketing industry firm InSync + BemisBalkind where clients included Universal, The Weinstein Company, Fox and HBO. The company has also hired AJ Feuerman as director of public relations and will oversee social media strategy, planning and executing publicity campaigns. She previously was at AEG Live, Millennium Ent. and Crown Media Family Networks.
JJ Meyers has been upped to Creative Executive at Voltage Films. JJ was previously a coordinator.
Francis Ford Coppola has been named president of The 15th Marrakech Film Festival to be held December 4-12. The acclaimed director follows Martin Scorsese, who was president in 2013, and Isabelle Huppert, who was president in 2014.
Paris Barclay has been re-elected president of the Directors Guild of America by 138 delegates representing more than 16,000 guild members. Barclay joined the DGA in 1992 was elected VP in 1999, serving in that role until he was elected president in 2013.
TV
Owen Shiflett has been named Parkes + MacDonald’s new head of TV. In his new role he will handle TV development and production under Parkes + MacDonald’s first-look deal with Universal TV. One of the first projects they’re developing is a TV drama adaptation of RASL, the Sci-Fi noir comic book by award-winning creator Jeff Smith.
Jason Serota has made the leap from Executive Assistant to Director of Development at Dark Toy Entertainment.
21st Century Fox has hired Brian Sullivan as their President of Digital for Fox Networks Group and will handle strategy in the direct-to-consumer digital video category, tasked with driving growth across FoxNow, FXNow, Fox Sports Go and FNG’s international Fox Play products. Previously he was the CEO of Sky Deutschland since 2010.
Alison Engel has been named Director of Original Series at Netflix. She was formerly the VP of Creative Affairs at Gaumont International Television.
Jesse Daniels has been named the Director of Development, Alternative Programming, Entertainment One. Previously Jesses was the Manager of Development at Maverick TV. Mark Herwick has been named the Head of Current, U.S. Alternative Programming. His credits include EP and showrunner on Botched. Ben Megargel has been named the Senior Director of Development, Alternative Programming. He was snagged from Karga Seven Pictures where he was Director of Development. Elliot Schwartz has been upped from Executive Assistant to Manager of Development in Alternative, Programming at Entertainment One.
Annie Roberts has been promoted from Executive Director to VP of Casting & Talent Development, E! Entertainment.
Adam Stern has been hired as the Director of Gotham Group’s TV Development department. He was previously a manager of Scripted Series Development at Xbox Entertainment Studios.
Jose Luis Ortega has been named Fox Deportes’ Director of Digital. He was formerly the Director at Red Viacom, Viacom International Media Networks. Sandra Rojas has been named the Director of Marketing there. She was previously the Director of Marketing at A&E Networks Latin America. Mark Simmons has been named the VP of On-Air Promotions. He was formerly the Executive Creative Director, FOX Sports Australia.
Management, PR, Agencies
Magnet Management has upped literary manager Christopher Mills to Partner. He’s been there since 2005. It coincides with the partner promotion of Jennie Frisbie, Bob Sobhani, Mitch Solomon and Zach Tann as well. The company’s also added literary manager Chris Emerson, who previously ran his own company, E-Squared.
A.J. Harris is the new head of Literary at The Savage Agency. He was previously an assistant in their commercial department.
Martin To has been hired on a lit agent at Equitable Stewardship for Artists. He was previously a coordinator at UTA.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Creative marketing agency Pongo has snagged former Disney Channel VP of Marketing, Ron Pomerantz, to become VP Content & Strategy. He will handle the new creative content division for Pongo, and develop and produce interstitial content, PSAs, commercials and business-to-business integration as the company expands its client offering to philanthropic arms.
Innocean Worldwide Americas has named Steve Jun CEO, replacing Tony Kim on July 29. Jun has been chief executive for Innocean’s European operations.
Team One has named Jon Ruppel creative director, and will focus on creative technology and digital product development. Ruppel was previously at TBWA/Chiat/Day and Schematic.
Magic Leap, a “mixed reality” based in Florida has hired Vevo‘s former president and Chief Executive Officer Rio Caraeff as their Chief Content Officer. Caraeff will bring over 20 years of experience in entertainment, video and media to Magic Leap. Magic Leap first got noticed as a developer for a physical device to view augmented reality. The company continues to expand into the development of VR-friendly formats.
Nicholas Blechman was named creative director of The New Yorker.
TBWA Worldwide has hired Chris Garbutt as global creative president, working with global clients including Nissan, McDonalds and Adidas. Previously he was chief creative officer at Ogilvy & Mather East in New York.
Meredith Gardner who is the VP of Digital Marketing at Capitol Music Group has expanded her role to include Product. Josh Kahn has been named VP of Digital Marketing & Product, up from Head of Digital Design.
Marketing consultancy Gain Theory has named Karen Kaufman managing partner for client development, to handle the North America and Latin American regions. Kaufman previously worked in GroupM’s consulting practice.