Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions has hired former Sony TV senior comedy executive Scott Landsman as head of television. Meanwhile, Verve’s Melissa Fried has joined as vice president of film development and production.
Prior to joining Seven Bucks, Landsman served as senior vice president of comedy development at Sony Pictures Television, overseeing series including The afterparty for Apple TV+, Twisted metal for Peacock, I woke up to Hulu, the animated Good times for Netflix, ABC’s syndicated hit The GoldbergsIt is Live in front of a studio audiencethe Emmy-winning live specials executive produced by Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel.
He left Sony in December’s executive shake-up and joined Seven Bucks a few months later, succeeding Kevin Hill, who had left and is now head of TV at Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort.
Earlier in his career, Landsman was vice president of original programming and development at Comedy Central. He serves on the Communication Arts Council of his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fried joins Seven Bucks from Verve, where her appointment to the Motion Picture Literature team made her the company’s first internally promoted female agent. At Verve, she guided the career of two-time Emmy nominee Jac Schaeffer (Wandavision), Oscar nominee Meg LeFauve (Inside out) and Allison Schroeder (hidden figures), and Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4). Also among Fried’s clients were Jon & Erich Hoeber (Theme)Adele Lim (Crazy rich Asians), Hanelle Culpepper (Anansi Boys, Star Trek: Picard) and Andrew Rhymer and Jeff Chan (Another). Fried began her career as an entertainment lawyer.
“Scott has consistently demonstrated his ability to create some of the most compelling programs on television, and his experience will be invaluable as Seven Bucks continues to expand its television ventures,” said Seven Bucks President of Production Hiram Garcia, who made The announcement “On the film side, Melissa’s brilliant instincts regarding content and her unique ability to partner with and cultivate visionary creators will further strengthen our blockbuster slate.”
Seven Bucks has over 60 film and television projects and is in active development. Among the company’s upcoming titles are Red, Amazon greenlit, directed by Emmy nominee Jake Kasdan and starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, JK Simmons and Lucy Liu; Kate Warnealso for Amazon, an action-packed biopic starring Emily Blunt as Pinkerton’s first female agent; Moana, a live-action remake of the animated film, directed by Thomas Kail from a script by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller; new plots in Fast and Furious It is Jumanji franchises; and, in partnership with Vice Studios, a docu-series that investigates the mysterious disappearance of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), once the largest wrestling company in America.
