Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has re-upped Fake Empire partners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage to a first look feature deal that keeps them at the studio through 2014. The duo has been at the studio since 2010.

Deal comes as the shingle’s first Paramount  film, the Schwartz-directed Fun Size, hits theaters October 26, 2012. The film is based on the Black List script by Max Werner about a teen (Victoria Justice) who loses her oddball little brother on Halloween and has one desperate night to track him down. Savage and Schwartz produced with Anonymous Content.

Paramount hoped Fake Empire would add some youth-centric projects and the producers have responded. The studio last month acquired From What I Remember, the Stacy Kramer/Valerie Thomas young adult novel as well as the novel The Diviners by Bray. Paramount has earmarked the latter as the first in a franchise of films. That adds to such projects as Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, The Luxe and the Tana French novel The Likeness, the latter of which Savage will write. Fake Empire is teamed witih Scott Stuber and Pam Abdy to produce an Endless Love remake at Universal.

Fake Empire continues its television deal at Warner Bros Television and will have four series on the air in 2012-13 television season, including new series The Carrie Diaries and Cult, as well as Hart Of Dixie and Gossip Girl, which wraps its run after six seasons. Schwartz and Savage have used the arms of the company to cultivate new talent. Amy Harris moved from Gossip Girl to create The Carrie Diaries and Leila Gerstein moved from Gossip Girl writer to Hart Of Dixie creator. Chris Fedak, who with Schwartz hatched the series Chuck, wrote the feature Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick. Former WME agent Lis Rowinski is Fake Empire features president and Jay Marcus is features creative exec while ex-WBTV exec Len Goldstein is president of TV production.

Said Paramount Film Group president Adam Goodman: “In the time we have worked with Josh and Stephanie, we have utilized their talents in innumerable ways; from Josh’s directing to Stephanie’s writing and storytelling abilities. The talented producing team at Fake Empire have continued to impress us more and more with each project. They are the true embodiment of the kind of producers who can do it all”.