Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and news media organisation Guardian Media Group have announced a strategic creative collaboration which will see SPE gain exclusive first rights to the Guardian’s journalism for audio-visual adaptation.
The collaboration spans the whole of SPE’s television production groups, from its US scripted and non-fiction television divisions to international production, which includes scripted companies Left Bank Pictures, Bad Wolf, and Eleven, and unscripted, sport and factual entertainment producers such as The Whisper Group.
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As well as television, the agreement spans SPE’s feature film division, which includes labels such as 3000 Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, and Screen Gems.
Under the deal, SPE will have access to the Guardian’s current and developing news stories, and to the Guardian archive, containing 200 years of history across articles, blogs, columns, videos and podcasts.
Keith Underwood, Chief Financial & Operating Officer of Guardian Media Group said: “Sony Pictures Entertainment brings industry-leading development, production and distribution expertise on a global scale, and this agreement reflects our mutual commitment and shared passion to bring more Guardian journalism to screen”.
Wayne Garvie, President, International Production, Sony Pictures Television, said: “To be able to draw on The Guardian’s extraordinary journalism, past, present and future, to create a new generation of dramas, documentaries and movies, is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us at Sony Pictures.
The Guardian picked up the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for the film Colette in 2021, following a nomination in the same category for the film Black Sheep in 2019.
The agreement, brokered by London agency group, Curtis Brown, will be overseen by a new executive team appointed by SPE and the Guardian, developing content jointly.
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