Nina Jacobson & Brad Simpson’s Color Force Inks Producing Deal With Sony Pictures Entertainment
Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson and their Color Force production company have singed a producing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, putting the Culver City lot in business with the producers behind such hits as The Hunger Games franchise, Crazy Rich Asians and award winning TV series Pose and American Crime Story.
“We are thrilled to have this overall film deal with Color Force. Nina and Brad have an amazing track record finding incredibly compelling stories, A+ (plus) relationships in town, the best taste and are just all-around terrific humans who know how to make film franchises,” said Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group Presidents Josh Greenstein and Sanford Panitch.
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“We love making movies. That is why we are excited to make Sony Pictures our home base for feature films. Sanford, Josh, Tom, and the whole team have shown their commitment to filmmakers and the theatrical experience time and time again. We feel fortunate to have studio partners who are as energized about making movies as we are,” Jacobson and Simpson said jointly.
Color Force’s The Hunger Games franchise has minted $2.9 billion worldwide, with the next installment in the franchise from author Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, in the works. Recently, Color Force and Liosngate released the first prequel in the series, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which went on to make close to $340M worldwide. Jacobson and Simpson also produced the romantic comedy event, Crazy Rich Asians, based on Kevin Kwan’s international best-seller for Warner Bros., which grossed close to $240M WW. Color Force was also behind the critically acclaimed, Ben Is Back, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Jacobson began Color Force in 2007; Simpson joined in 2012, with the pair’s first collaboration together being Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), which spawned three beloved sequels.
On the TV side, Jacobson and Simpson won Emmy and Golden Globes Awards for Color Force’s first foray into television, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. The show counts 22 Emmy Award nominations and nine wins. The anthology series’ second installment, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, received 18 Emmy nominations and seven wins. Their other credits include the limited series Clipped, about the downfall of LA Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling, released earlier this month on FX and ranked No. 1 on Hulu; critically acclaimed series Pose for FX; Impeachment: American Crime Story and Y: The Last Man; and are currently in post-production on FX’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, and the limited series, Say Nothing, adapted from writer Patrick Radden Keefe’s book, “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory.”
Prior to starting Color Force, Jacobson was President of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, where 15 of her projects grossed over $100 million domestically, including Pirates of the Caribbean; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and The Princess Diaries.
Prior to teaming with Jacobson on Color Force in 2012, Simpson was President of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. He began his career as a producer and executive at legendary New York indie production company Killer Films.
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