20th Century taps Grease talent

Twentieth Century Fox Television has signed a first-look deal with the man behind the musical hit Wicked and the recent Fox special Grease: Live.

The arrangement will see the US studio have exclusive first look at any projects, live action or scripted, which Broadway, film and TV producer Marc Platt develops for television.

Platt has produced numerous successful film, theatre and television projects during the last 30 years, including the Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies.

He is also responsible for Wicked, which, by 2013, had out-grossed every other Broadway production in history and is currently being developed as a movie due out in December 2019.

Fox Television Group chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman said in a joint statement that Platt has an “unparalleled track record of identifying and overseeing spectacular artists and marrying them with incredibly commercial ideas and properties.”

The studio has also tapped the director of Grease: Live, Thomas Kail, to develop, supervise and potentially direct broadcast and cable television projects for the studio.

Kail has created his own company Old 320 Sycamore, which will be housed within Twentieth Century Fox Television, as part of the deal and hired Kate Sullivan as its head of development.

Sullivan worked as an assistant director on Grease: Live in January this year, having previously worked on films such as The Spiderwick Chronicles, (500) Days of Summer and Bridesmaids.