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EXCLUSIVE: A change in the business model at Sony Pictures TV has put a number of top non-writing executive producers in play.
I hear Sony TV recently opted not to renew its deals with Tantamount, Apostle and Timberman/ Beverly Prods. It is part of a new direction, in which the studio is largely getting out of the pod business with two exceptions: pods that are profitable and have multiple series on the air, like Jamie Tarses’ Fan Fare, whose deal was recently renewed, and pods whose auspices are key players on the feature side at Sony, including Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, Sam Raimi’s Stars Road and Neal Moritz’s Original Television. (pods are production companies headed by non-writing executive producers that function autonomously within TV studios, working with writers to develop and produce projects)
In trimming significantly its pod portfolio, Sony TV is now focusing on deals with high-level writing talent. Two examples of the studio’s new strategy are the recent overall deals it signed with Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough and with Ron Moore, creator of the SyFy series Battlestar Galactica.
As for Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly and Apostle’s Denis Leary and Jim Sepico, I hear all are close to landing new studio deals and might end up on the same lot again.
Tantamount had been at Sony since its launch 3.5 years ago. Timberman and Beverly had been at the studio for 5 years, while Apostle had been there for more than 6 years, since the shingle started co-producing with Sony the FX drama Rescue Me, which is gearing up for the premiere of its penultimate sixth season. Timberman and Beverly also has an outstanding FX series at Sony – new drama Justified, which was recently renewed for a second season. Tantamount produced a number of pilots while at Sony as well as two series, Fox’s Brothers and Sit Down, Shut Up. Their new comedy series at Fox, Running Wilde, is being produced through Lionsgate TV after Sony pulled out at the pilot order stage. Tantamount also has the ABC pilot Wright vs. Wrong set up at Sony. The project starring Debra Messing is getting reworked and reshot as a pilot this summer.
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Mosko is a sales guy – not a strategist. There is no way in hell he should be running that group.
what’s a pod?
What’s a pod?
A pod is a company run by a fired executive who can’t write. Studios make expensive deals with pods to find writers then work with these writers to develop pilots. (Kind of what studios should be doing on their own.) It’s a way executives cover each other’s asses and stay employed after they’ve been fired for being incompetent as actual executives.
Then, when they get a show on the air, they suck a lot of money out of the above-the-line budget while contributing next-to-nothing, because instead of helping the show get made they’re off working with another batch of writers to get more pilots made.
God bless Sony TV if this is true. Writers should be the focus of development, not creating an unnecessary additional layer of executives.
Excellent news. Someone has to pay for extra layers of non talent. The rise of “development execs” who cannot write has crippled this industry since 1990.
Sort of like why we don’t need extra layers of bureaucracy in Health Care or in any other business, but I don’t want to open a can of worms.
Sony is being $mart and other studios should follow suit. They gambled with development execs because they thought it increased their odds at a hit, finding out too late they basically hired good for nothing apparatchiks (whose only loyalty was to their own egomania).
a pod is corporate welfare for fired execs. All execs know they’ll be fired eventually, so they give sweetheart deals to other fired execs to become “producers” under the guise they will work with writers to create shows. They do this so when THEY’RE fired, they’ll get a pod deal from the new guy. It’s kind of “pay it forward,” the the only one who’s paying is the shareholder.
How does a pod producer add value to a show, script, or pilot? They don’t. Their selling point to writers is that they’re chummy with the network execs, and that these execs will pick up their shows because of their personal relationships. It’s just like how lobbyists work in Washington DC. However, they never really come through. They’re like bad lobbyists.
It’s all a scam, and it’s only possible because people in power at large corps. are irresponsible with the shareholders’ money. They’re furthering their own personal agendas — not the company’s.
Same here…what’s a pod?
So from the sound of this, it sounds like Tantamount is being asked to take a paycut because they have yet to really deliver a hit since teaming up with Hurwitz.
Am I reading this right?
No. Because Mitch Hurwitz can write and produce shows without the help of a fired TV executive’s wife.
Then why did Hurwitz partner with the Tannebaums? For some reason, people keep giving shots to him even though he can deliver a commercial, broad appeal hit. He should be creating shows for HBO or Showtime where ratings don’t matter.
Hurwitz originally took that job because he was burned out on showrunning. They were working seven days a week on Arrested Development. He wanted to step back for a while. Even though he was still developing his own shows, I think his plan was to find someone else to run them day-to-day if they’d gone to series. (Although he probably never could’ve actually handed over the reigns when it came down to it.)
Does this also include the managers that ‘produce’ and kill their clients deals when they can’t be an EP?
Yes.
Thank God. Non Writing EPs are a joke, they do absolutely nothing except take money from the people who actually create the shows, write the shows, edit the shows and do all the work. There are hundreds of examples of nonwriting EPs who don’t even have offices at the shows they allegedly “exec produce” and who don’t go to a meeting or read a script having to do with a show over a five year run. Studios are morons for paying these frauds a penny.
Carl Beverly is a bad example of a creative. He should have been an agent, actually would have been bad there too. Maybe he should retry to be an exec…
As a non-writing producer with a studio deal I take great pride in being able to support to writers and directors with which I am partnered. As someone with a foot in the creative and a foot in the business I grew up watching all of the same Lucas, Spielberg films and carry the same sense of wonder and respect for the art of film making, my skills just showed up as more of a stratagist and hopefully storyteller. As a producer I’ve turned something as a basic as an articles into a movies and as a result many people have been hired and been able to put food on their tables. I’ve got to Walter Reed Hospital and through my relationship with one of our great actors had them shine the light on some of our forgotten men and women back from our wars. My deal as allowed me to do this kind of work in the world and I never take a moment of it for granted. This is a town where we were all little kids with the same dream, to tell stories, but it just shows up for us all a bit differently. Oh, and, Mitch Hurwitz rocks and we haven’t even begun to see what he has to give! Whoo hoo!
From a storyteller’s – writer’s perspective…if you’re a non creative exec. and / or producer — a podder –you’d better know your writing. Really know your storytelling. As in knowing how to sit down with the writers and help them find solutions to problems.
Because you love stories. You love movies. Long before you love taking someone else’s money and running with it. It’s that simple.
Or get the heck out. And take all the corporate congloms with you.
You way of doing so called business has been broken for a long time.
And thanks to the internet — going right to the audience–your business model
is on its way to the grave.
Write on, right on.