Veteran executive lines up four initial projects at multi-platofrm content creator.
Brad Weston, who most recently served as president of production for New Regency, has launched global content creation company Makeready backed by eOne.
The venture will develop and produce original features and high-end television for premium cable, OTT and emerging platforms on a worldwide basis.
The plan is to release two features a year starting in 2018, with Universal handling worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution, while eOne will directly distribute in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
eOne will also handle international distribution on all television content. JPMorgan Chase will lead the production facility for the new enterprise, which is fully funded for the development and financing of premium content.
The first projects are television series Saigon from Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson’s Appian Way and writer David James Kelly; Black Lives Matter limited series They Can’t Kill Us All; a series based on the graphic novel Old City Blues; and a series about young people with Chloe Grace Moretz on board as executive producer.
Weston (pictured at right with New Regency head Arnold Milchan at left and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) hailed Universal and eOne and said he anticipated a “long and successful future together.”
Recent president of production for New Regency Pam Abdy will head Makeready’s executive team, alongside the television and digital executives that will be announced shortly.
In five years at New Regency Weston led the company to 12 Oscar wins for a slate that included 12 Years A Slave, The Revenant, Birdman and The Big Short.
Before that he was president of production at Paramount and shepherded a slate that encompassed Star Trek, Cloverfield, The Fighter, and Shutter Island.
No comments yet