Company Launches & Partnerships
Deadline founder and former EIC Nikki Finke has officially launched Hollywood Dementia, a website devoted to fiction showbiz stories written by industry insiders with a paywall of a $1 per story to pay contributors. Writers include lawyer Bertram Fields, David Letterman’s head writer Bill Scheft, Antonio Bogdanovich and TV and feature writers Peter Lefcourt, Cynthia Mort, Jay Abramowitz & Tom Musca.
Comedy writer-producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger have inked a two-year overall deal at 20th Century Fox TV Studios to develop projects with the studio and join Fox’s fall comedy Grandfathered as supervising producers. The pair first wrote on the Fox show Friends With Benefits and then worked with Grandfathered EP Dan Fogelman on ABC’s The Neighbors for two seasons.
Fusion teamed up with Surreal to produce a virtual reality episode for The Chris Gethard Show broadcast on Aug. 6. The show will be viewable with Google Cardboard available at TheChrisGethardShow.com and on YouTube.
International network Vibrant TV launched on streaming service KlowdTV. The service is available on Roku, Amazon FireTV, Sony Smart TVs, TiVo, iOS and Android devices.
NBCUniversal is in talks with BuzzFeed to invest $250 million in the publisher per Re/Code. In addition, NBCUniversal will invest in Vox Media (owner of Re/Code) to bring its value to $850 million. The deals are part of an effort to target millennial audiences.
Members of Glenn Beck’s digital network TheBlaze have launched a new media company called Red Seat Ventures. Chris Balfe, former TheBlaze CEO, Joel Cheatwood, former chief content officer of TheBlaze, Carolyn Polke, ex-COO of TheBlaze and Kevin Balfe, previous SVP of publishing at Beck’s Mercury Radio Arts were the team behind the launch. The company, whose launch partners include Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions and radio network Premiere Networks, will work to connect content creators with their consumers.
Film
John Wallace has left NBCUniversal as the President of Operations and Technical Services and is now the President and CEO over at Deluxe Ent. Services.
David Glasser has made his resignation to the board of The Weinstein Company official after seven years at the company. He will stay on to help transition a replacement.
Isaac Robert Hurwitz has been upped from Consultant to SVP of Fox Stage Productions.
JoDee Freck has left Lionsgate as their SVP of Mastering & Technical Services and is now the SVP of Home Ent. Operations at Broad Green Pictures. Tania Wood has also joined as the VP of Finance. Tania was previously the VP of Marketing and Distribution Finance at Overture Films.
TV
Lleni Sandoval has been upped from Human Resources Director to VP of Human Resources Hispanic Enterprises and Content at NBCUniversal. Ian Trombley has been upped from EVP to President Operations & Technical Services, NBCUniversal.
Award-winning producer and executive Dante Di Loreto has been named President of Television at Chernin Entertainment, where he will oversee the day to day development and production for the company in the television arena. He joins Chernin Entertainment from WatchWorks Entertainment, a production entity he started earlier this year after Di Loreto and partner Ryan Murphy completed Fox’s Glee, which he executive produced with Murphy.Lee Bartlett has left Discovery Communications’ Studio Group as President to pursue other opportunities.
Zack Beckman has left as Manager of Development at Olive Bridge Ent. to be Head of Development at Lucid Road Prod.
Kelly Goode has left her post as VP of Current Programming at ABC Family. Jennifer Gerstenblatt has been named the new VP of Current Programming, upped from Executive Director and will oversee ABCF’s current programming team, digital series and TV series Baby Daddy and the upcoming Kevin From Work. Brooke Bowman has also left her post as SVP Original Programming but will continue to consult.
Kiel Elliott is the new VP of Creative Affairs at A+E Studios. Kiel was previously VP of Current and Development at Hazy Mills Prod.Juliana Janes is the new SVP of TV at Gulfstream Pictures. She was previously a Partner/Producer at Vandalia Films.
Mina Lefevre is the new EVP and Head of Scripted at MTV, she was promoted from SVP.
Warner Bros distribution exec Dan Fellman will retire late this year after 37 years. Sue Kroll will now also be the WW distribution head in addition to WW marketing chief. Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, who previously headed overseas distribution, will now be president of WW distribution and report to Kroll.
After news that E! veteran Giuliana Rancic would be leaving her E! News anchor chair, Maria Menounos is now the one to be stepping up to the plate and will join co-anchors Jason Kennedy, Terrence Jenkins and Catt Sadler. She had been a fill-in anchor on the show for more than a year and regularly appears on E! Online’s daily roundtable series Live From E!
Tom Coan has been promoted from VP to SVP of Scripted Programming at NBCUniversal International Studios
Eric Lehrman is the new VP of Original Scripted Programming at USA Network. He was previously VP and Head of Scripted at All3Media America.
Philippe Maigret is the new President of ITV Studios America. Philippe was previously CEO of Endemol Studios.
Angela Courtin has left Relativity Media for greener pastures at Fox Broadcasting Co. to be their EVP and Chief Marketing Officer. She will handle on-air and off-air promotion and advertising, national media, multi-platform & affiliate marketing, design and social media, reporting to Joe Earley, COO, Fox Television Group, and Fox TV Group Chairmen and CEOs, Dana Walden and Gary Newman.
Gabriel Marano has been upped from VP of Drama Programming to SVP of Scripted Programming at A&E Network.
Rob O’Neill is the new SVP of Programming & Promotion Strategy, Comedy Central, up from VP.
Digital distributor Cinedigm Corp has appointed four new independent directors to its board, effective immediately. They are Zvi Rhine, Blair Westlake, Andy Schuon and Patrick O’Brien. They also named Ron Chez as special adviser. Chez spent the last six years as the Co-Chairman of Merriman Holdings, the parent company of Merriman Capital.
James Stephenson has switched from SVP of Content Development, Digital Media at Nickelodeon to SVP of Animation and Games.
Erin Wanner has been promoted from Sr. Director of Production to VP of Production at Animal Planet. Andy Weissberg has been upped from VP to SVP of Programming.
Management, PR, Agencies
David Lillard has left his post as a talent agent at Paradigm and is now a talent manager at Industry Ent. Partners.
Nicholas Mohebbi and Sara Nestor have both been upped from assistant to coordinator in the motion picture dept. at Verve.
Christy Grosz has been named LTLA Communications’ VP of Publicity. She was previously a freelance writer.
Meryl Katz and Julie Tustin have formed Film Circuits. They were both previously Consultants of Awards & Events at Paramount Pictures.
Brad S. Small has left his EVP TV Business & Legal Affairs post at The Weinstein Co. to become a Partner at Greenberg Glusker.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
U.K.-based Little Dot Studios has hired Dan Jones as its director of content, Rich Payne as its head of social and Alex Hryniewics as head of multi-platform. All three previously held positions at Maverick Television. Little Dot was founded in 2013 originally as a studio to produce YouTube content for traditional Brit broadcasters but later began creating its own channels of original content, such as Daily Mix, Tonic and Dead Parrot.
Rob Manuel as been named Editor-in-Chief at Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry. Geek & Sundry is a digital entertainment company recognized for providing the best in award-winning Internet television content featuring leading voices in geek culture and lifestyle. In Manuel's new role he will oversee all editorial content for the site. A former editor for G4’s X-play, Rob has covered game reviews and worked as a features editor. During his time at Gamestrailers, Rob produced original content for both the website and YouTube channel.
Ivana Kirkbride has left YouTube Originals as their head of Unscripted and become Vessel’s VP of Content Acquisition.
Shiv Bhaduri, former GM of media at mobile marketing and strategy company Weve, has been named the chief product officer at U.K. multi-platform media company Rightster. He will develop product strategy and create new initiatives for Rightster, which specializes in acquiring, developing and distributing digital content and networks for niche audiences.
Nathaniel Wilson has been named executive vice president of sales and marketing at Adventr, an interactive video platform. Wilson has previously worked in sales at AOL On Network, Demand Media and Fox Digital.
Scott Foundas has left Variety as their Chief Film Critic and shifted to Amazon Studios where he will be their Senior Manager, Acquisitions & Development, Feature Films.
New York Media has hired Daniel Jasper as director of sponsorship sales and Brian Carney director of sales development. Jasper was previously with the Clio Awards, while Carney joins from Bloomberg.
Technicolor expanded the company’s Animation and Games division with the appointment of Sean Mullen as Creative Director and David Kern as Games Technical Director. Mullen was previously at Disney Interactive. David Kern was previously at Nobodinos LLC, a company he founded in 2012. In addition, the studio’s previous Creative Director Owen Hurley was promoted to Executive Director of Creative.