EXCLUSIVE: Steve Michaels’ Asylum Entertainment Group has launched drama label Clovis Entertainment and has brought in Sony Pictures Television exec Derek Stoops to run the division.
The company will develop and produce one-hour drama, particularly focusing on character-driven English language dramas as well as local language dramas for international channels and platforms. It will aim to be a cost-effective approach to series production for creative talent and offer them the opportunity make passion projects and receive uncommon financial upside with shared profit alongside Asylum.
This comes after Michaels (right) formed Asylum Entertainment Group, under whose banner his The Content Group sits, in January. In 2003, Michaels launched Asylum Entertainment, which he sold to Legendary in 2014. Last year, he bought back Asylum and launched a new company, The Content Group, using the Asylum slate, staff and infrastructure.
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Stoops, who will report to Michaels, joins from Sony Pictures Television Networks, where he was Senior Vice President of Original Programming. His credits include Amazon’s Absentia, WGN’s Carter, AXN’s Reckoning and NBC’s Hannibal, Crossing Lines and The Firm. He also worked on the division’s local language production efforts in Poland, Hungary, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.
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“We are fortunate to have Derek on board,” said Michaels, “While at Sony, he was a driving force at the forefront of emerging television models. For this venture, Derek brings exactly the right experience and expertise to the company.”
He added, “With our commitment to being lean and adaptive, our partners are investors alongside us, so when Clovis makes money, our partners do as well. That entrepreneurial philosophy and focused production approach is in line with our overall stated mission which spans across all of our current companies and those yet to come.”
“I am fortunate to have had an extraordinary education and built so many solid relationships within the worldwide creative community over the last decade I spent at Sony,” said Stoops. “I am beyond excited to bring all of it bear in an exceptional entrepreneurial venture like Clovis.”