Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Hollywood Reporter: John Goldwyn, Karen Rosenfelt Reunite With Warner Bros. TV First-Look Deal

Story from Hollywood Reporter:

Former Paramount Pictures duo John Goldwyn and Karen Rosenfelt are reuniting at Warner Bros. Television.

The feature executives-turned-independent producers have formed production company Goldwyn/Rosenfelt Productions and have entered into a first-look television deal with the studio overseen by Channing Dungey.

Under the multiple-year deal, Goldwyn and Rosenfelt will develop original scripted programming for the studio’s internal portfolio, including HBO Max, as well as outside streaming services, cable and broadcast networks.

In addition to exec producing Hulu’s Emmy-nominated limited series Dopesick, Goldwyn and Rosenfelt spent more than a decade together at Paramount Pictures, where the former served as president and then vice chairman of the studio’s motion picture group. During his tenure atop the studio, Goldwyn oversaw features including Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Mission: Impossible and Forrest Gump, among countless others. On the TV side, he launched the original Dexter at Showtime and was credited on the revival of the cabler’s signature series as well as Peacock’s MacGruber and Discovery’s Harley and the Davidsons. In the film arena, Goldwyn exec produced The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Baby Mama and I’m Not There.

Goldwyn and former CBS Films president and DreamWorks marketing boss Terry Press were recruited as advisers to help Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav navigate Hollywood as he oversees the newly merged conglomerate. Goldwyn’s relationship with Zaslav dates back to the Discovery days where the former exec produced two seasons of scripted anthology series Manhunt.

For her part, Rosenfelt previously served under Goldwyn as co-president of production at Paramount Pictures. She, like Goldwyn, shifted to work as an independent producer following her departure from the studio. Her producing credits include the Twilight, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Percy Jackson franchises as well as The Devil Wears Prada, Me Before You and Marley & Me, among others. On the TV side, she exec produces Amazon’s recently renewed The Summer I Turned Pretty. Rosenfelt continues to have a feature film deal at Paramount Pictures, where she has the highly anticipated film trilogy Children of Blood and Bone in the works via Temple Hill Productions and her Sunswept Entertainment banner.

Goldwyn (who previously had a first-look deal with Lionsgate TV) and Rosenfelt bring their decades of experience and deep relationships with talent in front of and behind the camera to the studio at a time when Zaslav has been focused on cutbacks as part of a larger effort to find $3 billion in cost savings from the merged media titan. Thus far, Warner Bros. Television Group has been immune from layoffs after Dungey joined the studio in late 2020 and reshaped her executive ranks after taking over for longtime chief Peter Roth.

Goldwyn is repped by TFC Management and Hansen Jacobson. Rosenfelt is with Goodman Genow.

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