News

Exclusive: Fat City, the nascent production company set up by Licorice Pizza producer Sara Murphy and War Pony producer Ryan Zacarias, has a new director of development.

The company, which has a first-look deal with Anonymous Content, has hired Sofia Paz in the role.

She recently worked with artists at the Inhotim Institute of Contemporary Art but before that she was in the development department of Rt Features, on films such as Robert Egger’s The Lighthouse, Antoneta Kusijanovic’s Murina, Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network and Karim Ainouz’s The Invisible life of Eurydice Gusmao. She began as an EP on Mike Cahill’s I Origins.

“We feel very lucky to have Sofia join us as the Director of Development at Fat City,” said Murphy and Zacarias in a joint statement. “Her taste is exceptional and her enthusiasm for story and bringing films to life is infectious.”

“I am just...

Begho Ukueberuwa, a director of development at Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias’ production company Fat City, has died. He was 27.

Ukueberuwa died Sunday in Providence, Rhode Island, of complications from heat stroke while running a half-marathon.

“We are utterly heartbroken by the recent passing of our friend and colleague. He was joyful, insightful, wonderfully disruptive. He was kind,” Murphy and Zacarias said in a joint statement. “And, more than anything, he loved people and brought them together. Everyone who knew him felt special for the simple fact of knowing him. He was Begho. And there was an immediate camaraderie if you met someone else who knew Begho.”

Ukueberuwa began his career in entertainment as an agent in CAA’s motion picture literary department. He joined the newly launched Fat City in August.

Ukueberuwa was raised in West Windsor, New Jersey, and graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South. He then attended NYU.

Updated throughout: This is news that has come as a shock to many. Begho Ukueberuwa, an executive and former agent, died May 7. He was just 27. Ukueberuwa died of complications from heat stroke while running a half-marathon in Providence, Ri, according to his family.

Last fall, Ukueberuwa was appointed to head up development across film and television for Fat City, the then-newly launched production company of Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias based at Anonymous Content with a first-look deal.

“We are utterly heartbroken by the recent passing of our friend and colleague. He was joyful, insightful, wonderfully disruptive. He was kind,” said Murphy and Zacarias in a joint statement. “And, more than anything, he loved people and brought them together. Everyone who knew him felt special for the simple fact of knowing him. He was Begho. And there was an immediate camaraderie if you met someone else who knew Begho. Our...

Exclusive: Licorice Pizza and If Beale Street Could Talk producer Sara Murphy and War Pony producer Ryan Zacarias have launched their own TV and film production company and have struck a deal with Anonymous Content.

The pair have launched Fat City, which has a first-look deal with Anonymous Content’s AC Studios.

Begho Ukueberuwa, formerly of CAA, will head up Fat City’s development across film and television.

In addition to producing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Oscar-nominated producer Murphy has produced films including Eliza Hittman’s Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Anima, starring Thom Yorke.

Zacarias’s most recent film was Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s debut feature War Pony and has also produced Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara. His next project is John Trengove’s Manodrome, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody, and Odessa Young,...