Carlos Morales
With Sony’s great power comes Lord and Miller’s great responsibility to expand the Spider-Verse on to television!
In a gargantuan 9-figure deal with Sony Pictures Television, writing, directing, producing, and Oscar-winning duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller have signed on with the company for five years. In a very competitive market with multiple independent studios and a streaming platform bidding for them, the pair will be moving their overall deal with 20th Century Fox to Sony Pictures TV.
Under this new agreement Lord and Miller will able to create and develop their own live-action or animated comedy and drama projects for a broadcast network, cable, and streaming platforms, as well as develop and supervise other writers’ projects. The duo will also be instrumental in developing a suite of television series based on Sony’s universe of Marvel characters. Characters that include Spider-Man (and all his villains); Venom (a sequel with Tim Hardy is in the works); Morbius (which has a live-action feature in the works starring Jared Leto); and Black Cat and Silver Sable (both in development on the feature side).
Aubrey Lee will stay on as VP of TV development and production to oversee all of Lord and Miller’s projects that will be produced under the Lord and Miller Productions banner. Select TV projects related to Sony’s Marvel characters will be produced in partnership with Amy Pascal, former Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman.
Lord and Miller have a deep history with Sony Entertainment, it is where the pair made their writing and directorial debut on the film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. The collaboration with Sony continued on 21 and 22 Jump Street and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The pair have multiple projects in the works with the feature studio, including The Last Human. While at 20th Century Fox the pair executive produced several series, including The Last Man On Earth, Making History and Son of Zorn. They remain in business with the studio, now part of Disney, as executive producers on two upcoming animated series, Bless the Harts from showrunner Emily Spivey for Fox and Hoops for Netflix.
In a joint statement, Lord and Miller said, “We are so grateful to everyone at Sony Pictures Television for choosing to partner with us and expand our enduring relationship with the studio. Together we aim to make groundbreaking work of the highest quality and integrity, and to place that work in convenient proximity to your eyeballs and earholes, wherever you may be.”
Lord and Miller’s move to Sony marks the second time in April that the company has snatched up some of 20th Century Fox talent as Homeland duo Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa have inked a deal to also move their overall deal to Sony after the pair took their leave from 20th Century Fox TV, now owned by Disney.
“This is a significant milestone for our television business, having the opportunity to work with two of the most creative forces in the industry in both our film and television businesses,” SPT chairman Mike Hopkins said Monday in a statement. “Building on our strong IP and creating new franchises has been a key focus for SPE, and the best way to do that is to invest in remarkable storytellers like Phil and Chris. We are thrilled to welcome them to the SPT family, and I want to thank [SPT co-presidents] Jeff Frost, Chris Parnell, and Jason Clodfelter for all their hard work in pulling this deal together.”