News

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, New Regency has secured rights to “They’re Still Here,” a short story from Stephen Herman that he will adapt for film, with Phantom Four and Good Fear (Mulan) producing alongside New Regency.

They’re Still Here follows a family struggling to put their lives back together in the aftermath of a brutal home invasion.

News of the acquisition comes following a couple of recent hires at New Regency: Tesha Crawford as EVP, Head of International Television, and Colin Greten as Vice President of Film.

Herman is perhaps best known for writing Black Box, a 2020 sci-fi horror film starring Mamoudou Athie, which was exec produced by Jason Blum under his Blumhouse Television banner and released on Prime Video. He also currently has projects in development at Paramount and Netflix.

Phantom Four has worked on shows like Murderbot (Apple TV+) and The Sandman...

New Regency has hired former 20th Century Fox creative production executive Colin Greten as vice president of film as the company grows its production ambitions.

Greten will report to president of motion pictures and television Natalie Lehmann as New Regency assembles a feature slate that includes John Hillcoat’s Blood Meridian adaptation, Ubisoft video game adaptation Watch Dogs to star Tom Blyth and Sophie Wilde, and Psycho Killer with Georgina Campbell in the lead.

Lehmann called the new hire “a sharp, forward-thinking executive with a strong creative sensibility and valuable industry experience”. Greten’s arrival follows the recent appointment of Tesha Crawford as EVP,...

New Regency has hired Colin Greten as Vice President of Film in an ongoing expansion of its leadership team and global footprint.

The company recently added Tesha Crawford as EVP, Head of International Television.

Greten, who reports to Natalie Lehmann, president of Motion Pictures and Television, was most recently a creative production executive at Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. He joins during a period of growth for New Regency as the company builds out a slate of high-profile film and TV projects, including Blood Meridian based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, written by John Logan and directed by John Hillcoat; Watch Dogs, an adaptation of Ubisoft’s best-selling video game franchise starring Tom Blyth and Sophie Wilde; and Psycho Killer, written by Andrew Kevin Walker and starring Georgina Campbell. Additional recent and upcoming titles include Steve McQueen’s Blitz (Apple TV+); The Bikeriders (Focus Features), untitled Elon Musk documentary from Alex Gibney (HBO); 2073,...

Exclusive: In what might be the last big one in a flurry of pre-holiday material auctions, 20th Studios has bought the Kevin McMullin short story Bomb, an action thriller with franchise potential and a killer role for a young actor. Ridley Scott has attached to direct, with his Scott Free producing. McMullin will write the script.

This was a very competitive landscape with 10 bidders, including Apple, Netflix, Sony and Warner Brothers. Deal closed at low seven figures for the short story and the writing deal. Ultimately 20th prevailed when Scott attached to direct, and due to Scott Free’s relationship with McMullin.

Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and Michael Pruss are producing. Scott is coming off the hit Napoleon and is currently at work finishing Gladiator 2. This would come a ways down the line, since it has to be scripted and developed.

Short story is a template for an...

Walt Disney-owned 20th Century Studios has added four new creative executives to its roster under production president Steve Asbell.

Asbell, who succeeded Emma Watts in the top job last March, welcomes a slew of pedigreed creatives to his team including Sarah Shepard, Brian Dukes, Rashonda Joplin and Catherine Hughes.

“They are all stellar executives, and we’re fortunate to have them on board at a pivotal moment in our studio’s history, as we prepare to greatly expand our streaming output alongside our slate of theatrical films,” Asbell told Variety.

The upcoming 20th slate includes the Ryan Reynolds comedy action film “Free Guy,” the ensemble murder mystery “Death on the Nile,” “The King’s Man” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” The four new hires complement a creative team that includes Scott Aversano, J. R. Young and Colin Greten.

Shepard joins 20th as senior vice president of production, moving over...

20th Century Fox is in the early stages of developing a prequel to the 1993 baseball comedy “The Sandlot” with the original director and writer David Mickey Evans scripting the project along with Austin Reynolds.

The studio is keeping the logline on the prequel under wraps. “The Sandlot” was re-released on Blu-ray and Digital HD on March 27 as part of the film’s 25th anniversary and the cast re-united on “The Today Show” and at Dodger Stadium.

The original film was set in Los Angeles during the summer of 1962, pivoting off an adolescent boy named Scott Smalls seeking to fit into a new neighborhood and trying to play on a sandlot baseball team — even though he can’t play. After being humiliated, Smalls is taught how to play by the team leader Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez, and joins the team. The boys have to deal with losing a ball autographed by...

Exclusive: 20th Century Fox is in early development on a prequel to the 1993 cult classic The Sandlot, with David Mickey Evans, the original’s writer and director, attached to co-write the script with Austin Reynolds. Details on the film’s plot are under wraps, but I hear it involves the legend of the beast from the first iteration.

The news comes as the film recently hit the 25-year mark since its release. Set in 1962, the coming-of-age comedy centered on Scottie Smalls (Tom Guiry) who, after moving to a new neighborhood, befriends a group of boys who play baseball at the sandlot and get into a series of touching adventures.

It also starred Mike Vitar (Benjamin “Benny” Franklin Rodriguez), Patrick Renna (Hamilton “Ham” Porter), Chauncey Leopardi (Michael “Squints” Palledorous), Victor Dimattia (Timmy Timmons), Marty York (Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan), Shane Obedzinski (Tommy “Repeat” Timmons), Grant Gelt (Bertram Grover Weeks), Brandon Quintin Adams...