Sony Pictures Television is broadening the creative circle – by a lot – in its comedy division.
The studio has signed first-look deals with nine writers and cartoonists: Scott Aukerman, Karen Chee, Shaun Diston, Chris Garcia, Chris Gethard, Lisa Gilroy, Lacey Jeka, Julie Klausner and Alok Vaid-Menon. They will all work on developing new comedy series projects and potentially collaborate with other writers and producers who have deals with Sony.
Lauren Stein, chief creative officer of Sony Pictures TV, and Colin Davis, executive vice president of comedy development, said the deals are part of an effort by the studio to bring what Davis calls a “spectrum of sensitivity” to development comedy.
“The roster is a collective of diverse creators and multi-hyphenates who we believe each have unique voices and a successful show at their core,” Davis said in an interview with The Hollywood journalist. “They really represent the comedy community at large, and we're excited to become the third-party studio that gets to sell their visions to a variety of places.”
Stein said THR that the chords are also a signal to “come and play” in the studio: “It's our way of saying: 'Come here'. You're not tied down here because it's just a first look. You still have the flexibility to work in other places, on the staff of other shows. But bring us those passion projects. Bring us the idea that you don't think you could get another study done. Thanks to our independence, we have maximum flexibility and you will have maximum freedom for your creativity.”
Top row: Alok Vaid-Menon, Chris Garcia, Karen Chee. Bottom row: Lacey Jeka, Shaun Diston, Lisa Gilroy
Celeste Sloman; Kim Newmoney; Brigida Badore (2); Eleonora Boschi; Kristina Ruddick
The nine people involved in this wave of deals are a mix of more established writers and artists like Gethard (The Chris Gethard Show), Aukermann (Comedy Bang! Bang!) and Klausner (Difficult people, Schmigadoon!) and up-and-comers like Vaid-Menon (from Netflix Gender agenda comedy special) and actor-writers Gilroy and Jeka (who, incidentally, have worked with Aukerman and Gethard respectively in the past). Chee was nominated three times for an Emmy as part of the Late Night with Seth Meyers writing staff, Diston has written episodes of Peacock Twisted metal and Hulu's I woke upand Garcia is a writer and co-producer of the new animated series from Sony and Fox Universal basic guys.
After signing first looks, writers were encouraged to meet and talk with other writers and producers working at Sony. “For us, it's important to the creative process that people meet and talk — you don't know where an idea will come from,” Stein said. “A producer may have the idea that a writer has a very specific connection to: You learn these things just by bringing people together.”
Davis also noted that Gethard has already begun working with Jessi Klein (Dead to me, Big Mouth), which has an existing deal with Sony, on an idea.
Like most other studios, Sony has pushed to mine its IP library in recent years to reboot and update titles like CBS's. SWAT and Netflix/Pop TV One day at a time. The incoming writers, all of whom have fairly specific sensibilities, will be free to come up with new takes on Sony-owned properties, but they will also be encouraged to develop original ideas.
“It's not a departure from [IP],” Stein said of the new agreements. “I think it's just an extension. There's no mandate, so if you have an original idea, great. If you have an idea based on the existing IP we have, that's fine too. We don't tell people that you have to be original or that you have to be based on something.