Sonar sounds out drama boss

US producer-distributor Sonar Entertainment has appointed a former Mandalay Entertainment executive to oversee the company’s limited and short-run drama output.

Tom Patricia becomes senior VP of limited series, miniseries and movies and takes up what Sonar describes as a “pivotal role” in the firm’s programme development and production cycle.

He will also cultivate and manage collaborative relationships with partners and assist with Sonar’s wider plans to increase its original content.

Gene Stein, CEO at Sonar, said Patricia’s knowledge of writers, directors, actors, broadcasters, agents and authors would “have a huge impact” on the firm’s ability produce “a steady pipeline of original productions.”

Patricia was most recently working as a consultant at Lionsgate Television and before that ran TV divisions for Michael Ovitz’s Artists Television Group and Peter Guber’s Mandalay Entertainment.

He also recently produced Rosemary’s Baby, a four-hour miniseries for NBC and was executive producer of Homeless to Harvard for Lifetime.

LA-based Sonar is currently in production on the Eli Roth-helmed series South of Hell for WeTV, Shannara for MTV, and Taboo, starring Tom Hardy, for BBC1 in the UK and FX in the US.

It bolstered its TV ranks in August after bringing in Jena Glazier from BermanBraun, following Stein’s arrival in May to replace Stewart Till as Sonar’s CEO.