Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Temple Hill, which just snapped up former Xbox Entertainment Studios exec Albert Page as head of its TV division, has inked a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV Studios. The team of Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey and Page will develop new projects for the studio in addition to the picked up Fox drama pilot Rosewood. Prior, Temple Hill had an overall deal with ABC Studios.
Universal Cable Productions has signed Dark Horse Entertainment to a first look deal with an emphasis on developing and producing scripted programming from their comic book library along with new material. New projects include Harrow County, Umbrella Academy, Back Up and Concrete.
German media powerhouses ProSiebenSat and Axel Springer are in talks to merge. ProSiebenSat is worth over $10 billion and has a 28% share of Germany’s free-TV market while Alex Springer, valued around $5 billion owns the country’s bestselling daily newspaper Bild.
Jane Tranter has left BBC Worldwide Productions & Adjacent Productions which she’s headed since 2009 to launch her as of yet unnamed production company together with Julie Gardner who executive produced Doctor Who. She will be replaced by Matt Forde, BBC’s EVP TV Sales & Digital Distribution, who will head both LA-based production units as their EVP of Content Production, Sales and Distribution and report to Ann Sarnoff.
FILM
Broad Green Pictures has signed on Marc Danon as President of acquisitions and co-productions. He was previously the SVP of acquisitions and business development at Lionsgate. He will now oversee a team bringing in both wide commercial release as well as prestige platform pre-buys and organize the studio’s festival acquisition strategy and the preparation for such festivals.
Universal Filmed Entertainment Group has snagged Clarissa Weirick as their General Counsel after 18 years at WB. She most recently worked in WB’s Home Entertainment division. At Universal she will manage all legal issues impacting the Filmed Entertainment Group and jointly oversee the various legal departments and work closely with the NBCUniversal corporate legal resources on corporate transactional, litigation and other legal matters.
Todd Cohen has been promoted from SVP to EVP of Development at Karga Seven Pictures. Suzanne Rauscher has been upped from VP to SVP of Current Programming. Angela Teed has been named the VP of Production at Karga. She was previously their Executive in Charge of Production. Scott Hunter has been promoted at Karga from Coordinator to Manager of Development.
Fox Searchlight Pictures has upped Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum to EVP’s of production. They will jointly lead all aspects of the production department and continue to report President of Production Claudia Lewis. Formerly Greenfield was a senior exec at Fox Searchlight as was Greenbaum. Additionally Greenbaum was involved in the Fox Innovation Lab where he oversaw the studio’s first virtual reality production, Wild: The Experience.
Ian Dalrymple has been hired by Pascal Pictures to run a New York outpost. He was formerly a creative exec at Scott Rudin Productions. He will report to O’Connor, who left her Sony position as SVP to join Amy Pascal in her new production company.
Casey O’Brien has moved from The Koch Company to Code Entertainment where he retains the same position as a CE.
TV
CBS TV Studios has named Alec Botnick as their VP of Comedy Development. Previously he spent six years as a TV lit agent at WME. He will report to EVP Comedy Development Kate Adler in his new role.
Carolyn Cassidy has been named the SVP of Current Programming at 20th Century Fox TV, taking over for Jeffrey Glaser. Glaser will be on hand as a consultant during the transition. Cassidy joined Fox in 2009 as VP of Comedy Series and was promoted in 2013. She recently oversaw the development of ABC’s hit Fresh Off the Boat and Fox’s anticipated The Grinder.
Raymond Dooley was named VP of Marketing for truTV.
Jordanna Guarino is a new Manager of Development at Universal Cable Productions. She was previously Jeff Wachtel’s executive assistant at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.
Lori Hall has been named TV One’s SVP of Marketing. She was previously the VP of Consumer Marketing at UP TV.
Albert Page has been named the Head of TV at Temple Street Productions. He was previously the VP of Creative at Xbox Ent. Studios.
Benny Reuven has been hired at Oxygen Media as their VP of Development and will develop lifestyle programming for the network’s multicultural female audience. Based in Los Angeles, Reuven will report to Cori Abraham, SVP Development & International at Oxygen Media.
Mark Pesavento has joined Fox Sports Digital as SVP Content and will handle editorial and video content Fox Sports with an emphasis on multiplatform programming and growth through mobile consumption and social media sharing. He was formerly at USA Today Sports Media Group as their VP Digital Strategy and before that at Yahoo! Sports.
Gina Girolamo has been named the SVP of TV Production and Development at Alloy Entertainment. She hails from Working Title Films where she was EVP of TV and before that Wonderland Sound and Vision. She has worked for Ally previously, having executive produced eight projects to pilot and series her three years there.
Mike Kerns has been snapped up by The Chernin Group as their new President of Digital and will work with Chairman Peter Chernin and President Jesse Jacobs. He was previously in charge of Yahoo’s home page and video verticals under CEO Marissa Mayer.
FX Networks has upped five senior marketing executives. Sally Daws has been promoted to EVP, Marketing and Digital Media and will oversee advertising, consumer integrated promotions, and digital media. John Varvi has been named EVP, On-Air Promotions. Todd Heughens has been upped to SVP, Print Design and will give daily oversight of digital media efforts. Jason Phipps is SVP of Digital Media and Lance Reiss has been upped to SVP of Marketing and will handle advertising, content distribution, and finance among other areas. They will all report to Stephanie Gibbons, President, Marketing, Digital Media and On-Air Promotions.
Peter Barnett has left his post as Gaumont International Television’s SVP of Production to pursue producing independent projects.
Univision News, the news division of Univision Communications Inc., has named Keith Summa as their SVP of Content Innovation to report directly to Isaac Lee, president of News and Digital for UCI and CEO of Fusion. He will lead development of journalistic tools, models and narratives for the operation, also working with Fusion, the millennial-targeting joint venture between Univision and ABC. Prior to this new role, Summa was Vice President of News Partnerships for Univision News; he was previously head of the CBS News Investigative Unit.
John Cora has been hired as Sprout’s VP of Insights & Strategy. He previously held the same title at Fox Networks Group.
Benny Reuven has shifted from VP of Development at Wilshire Studios to the same position at Oxygen Media.
Janine Sherman Barrois has inked a multi-year overall deal at Warner Bros. Television to create and develop new drama and comedy series. Previously she was an executive producer on ER and Criminal Minds and was a graduate of Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop. In 2013 she had a deal with ABC Studios.
Marina Williams has shifted from CEO of Central and Eastern Europe and MENA regions, Endemol Shine Group to COO of International Operations for the Endemol Shine Group in London. Matthew Borst was upped to Director of Social Media and Sales Strategy for Endemol Beyond at Endemol Shine North America. He joined ESNA last year as Social Media Manager.
Management, PR, Agencies
Helen Brann who runs a self-named lit agency has made a deal with ICM Partners to bring her writers over to ICM upon her retirement. Brann began her career in 1968 working with Sterling Lord before handling 60 clients and in 1973 and becoming the first woman in the U.S. to have her own independent literary agency representing book writers.
Alex Creasia has shifted from Vol. Unlimited Ent to Dialed-In Ent. and will retain her position as a Literary Manager.
CAA has picked James Burtson as their new CFO, replacing Jeff Berry on July 13. He was formerly a Time Warner SVP, handling global mergers and acquisitions and involved with the spin offs of Time Warner Cable, AOL and Time Inc., and content and new media property buys.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Maxime Saada has been named the CEO of Canal Plus Group in Paris, taking over for Rodolphe Belmer. Maxime was upped from EVP and Head of Pay TV.
Pongo has hired Ron Pomerantz as their VP of Content + Strategy. Pomerantz joins Pongo from the Disney Channel, where he had been Vice President, Marketing + Creative.
Charlotte Koh has been named GoPro’s Head of Features and Series. She was snagged from Hulu where she was Head of Original Content.
iHeartMedia hired Carter Brokaw as President of Digital Revenue Strategy. Brokaw was most recently EVP at Guardian News and Media, where he handled the company’s U.S. commercial strategy, positioning, pricing, packaging and tiered accounts.
Jacqueline Sheehy has been hired on as Edelman’s Director of Brand Partnerships. She was previously Director of Sales & Branded Integrations, Collective Digital Studio.