According to Deadline.com, Broadway and Smash executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Storyline Entertainment have just signed a two-year contract with Sony Pictures Television to produce several TV movies and miniseries.
"[Sony TV president] Steve Mosko is a one of a kind executive and a true inspiration and supporter of our longform work, while others have walked away from the genre," Zadan and Meron told Deadline.
Read the original report
here.
Zadan and Meron plan to move forward on a Lifetime movie about Anna
Nicole Smith, written by
John Rice and Joe Batteer, plus a biopic of FLDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, written by Art Monterastelli. Other projects include a History Channel Bonnie & Clyde miniseries, also penned by Rice and Batteer, a
Bob Fosse biopic for HBO, written by
Matthew Wilder, a miniseries by Gary Lennon based on Studio 54, and more.
The pair began their work with Sony Pictures Television in 1994 with the film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, and have gone on to create more than 12 TV projects together, including their approaching revamp of Steel Magnolias for Lifetime, starring
Queen Latifah and
Phylicia Rashad. Zedan and Meron are also about to begin development on a Sound of Music TV special, to air live on NBC.
Neil Meron and
Craig Zadan began at
The Public Theater working for
Joseph Papp. Zadan also wrote the acclaimed book Sondheim and Co. They recently produced the Tony Award-winning Promises, Promises on Broadway, as well as the Tony Award-winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring
Daniel Radcliffe and
John Larroquette. Their films have garnered six Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, 11 Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards and a Grammy Award. Their feature films include "Chicago" (Six Oscars including Best Picture), Hairspray, The Bucket List, and Footloose. Their television projects (69 Emmy nominations) include: "Gypsy", "Cinderella", "Annie", "The Music Man", "Life With
Judy Garland", "Martin and Lewis", "Serving In Silence", "
The Beach Boys", "Brian's Song", "
The Three Stooges", "The Reagans", "A Raisin In The Sun", plus the hit television series "Drop Dead Diva." They are currently producing with
Steven Spielberg the NBC television drama "Smash," about the behind-the-scenes creation of a Broadway musical.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.
