Gail Berman Inks Overall Deal With Sony Pictures Television

Raven-Symoné is extending her partnership with Disney!

Ethan Shanfeld Raven-Symoné has signed a multiyear overall deal with Disney Branded Television that includes a pilot greenlight for a “Raven’s Home” spinoff series titled “Alice in the Palace.” Disney also announced that “Raven’s Home,” itself a spinoff of “That’s So Raven,” will not return for a seventh season. The sixth and final season aired from April to September 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: Raven-Symoné is extending her relationship with Disney, which she has called home for many years, with a new multi-year overall deal at Disney Branded Television. Under the pact, she will produce, direct, and develop projects across linear and streaming, with a focus on multi-cam comedies.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has seen operating income fall nearly 10% for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Group Corporation saw its sales climb by 19% to JPY13.0 trillion in its financial year to March 2024, boosted by a sharp depreciation of the Japanese currency. Net profits for the group were down 3% to JPY971 billion. It was a similar scenario at Sony’s ‘pictures division,’ which comprises theatrical film, TV networks and television content production.

Fresh from skewering his employer, Seth Meyers has been rewarded with a new contract at NBC.

EXCLUSIVE: Three and a half decades into his career as a playwright and film and TV writer, Jon Robin Baitz has never been busier, coming off one series, with three others in production or preproduction. Baitz has now signed a big multi-year deal with 20th Television, the studio behind the four series, which all hail from Ryan Murphy Productions. Noone is commenting but I hear the pact — said to be in the premium top range for writing talent — spans five years.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nebula is aiming to break into the big-league movie biz with the launch of Nebula Motion Pictures, the new studio arm of the creator-community-focused indie streaming service, and tapping director and cinematographer Valentina Vee as the company’s director of motion pictures. Under her new overall deal, which marks the first pact of this kind for Nebula, Vee will move in-house at Nebula and focus on the formation of the new film studio alongside Nebula Production vice president Trenton Waterson, an alum of Marvel Studios, to build and scale Nebula Pictures.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Sony Pictures Entertainment has completed state-of-the-art upgrades to its mix stages. Among the soundstages that underwent substantial improvements are the Cary Grant, William Holden, Kim Novak, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn and Jimmy Stewart theaters, as well as Dub Stage 17.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Cinemart, the production company behind Amazon’s “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” and Netflix’s “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” has signed an overall deal with Banijay‘s Truly Original. Under the new pact, The Cinemart will expand its development and production operations in premium documentaries and other genres of unscripted programming through Truly Original, a subsidiary of Banijay backed by co-CEOs Steven Weinstock and Glenda Hersh.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran Sony Pictures Television (SPT) executive Steve Kent is leaving his role to focus solely on The Young and the Restless.

Sony Pictures Television has brought on Kate Gill as SVP, Comedy Development. In her new role, she will focus on developing new comedy series for all platforms for the U.S. scripted division. Reporting to Colin Davis, EVP, Comedy Development, Gill will be based in SPT’s Culver City, CA headquarters and starts her new role on May 13.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has signed a one-year deal that is a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive library titles for the Pakistan market with streamer Begin. Backed by venture accelerator Z2C Limited, Begin is an SVOD platform that serves the Southwest Asian region, with licensed deals in live sports and entertainment.

EXCLUSIVE: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice writers and creators of the smash hit Netflix series Wednesday, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, have signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures to develop films through the duo’s Millar Gough Ink banner, Deadline has learned.

Sony’s SVP of Corporate Communications for the Motion Picture Group, Tahra Grant, has been upped to EVP, Chief Communcations Officer for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has hired Jill Ratner as their EVP and General Counsel, overseeing all of the studio’s legal functions, compliance and labor relations, SPE music affairs, government/external matters, and corporate social responsibility teams. 

William Earl Variety and Sony Pictures Television will host an invite-only FYC Showcase in Los Angeles on May 7 featuring activations and three panel conversations with creatives from “Gen V,” “For All Mankind,” “Justified: City Primeval,” “Platonic,” “Twisted Metal,” “Outlander” and “The Wheel of Time.” All conversations will be moderated by a Variety editor and available on Variety.com following the event. Programming includes: Building a Television Universe A conversation between showrunners and key below-the-line talent on how to successfully build a universe in the competitive television landscape.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney deputy general counsel Jill Ratner has exited the Mouse House to join Sony Pictures Entertainment as executive vice president and general counsel. Beginning in her new role May 28, Ratner will be overseeing all SPE’s legal functions, compliance and labor relations, SPE music affairs, government/external affairs and corporate social responsibility teams. She will report directly to CEO Tony Vinciquerra.

EXCLUSIVE: The new 28 Years Later trilogy from director Danny Boyle and Sony Pictures is gaining momentum, and some serious star power. Sources tell Deadline that Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes have boarded the first pic, a sequel to the original 28 Days Later.

EXCLUSIVE: Nina Lederman, Sony Pictures Television’s (SPT) global scripted boss, is exiting amid the slowdown.