Four months after WarnerMedia’s company-wide pact with J.J. Abrams, NBCUniversal also has leveraged its multiple outlets to land Seth MacFarlane.
The creator of multibillion-dollar franchise Family Guy left his decades-long home at 20th Century Fox TV on Jan. 10 for what sources say is a five-year, $200 million overall TV deal. Under the pact, MacFarlane will create new content for the company’s entire portfolio — and have the ability to sell to outside buyers like Netflix — while maintaining his status as a free agent on the film side.
The MacFarlane deal is NBCU’s biggest since the overalls market exploded in late 2017 (although Dick Wolf will soon easily top it) and offers the prolific producer and The Orville star — who is expected to continue acting — freedom to create what sources describe as a varied slate that includes musicals, political dramas, historical anthologies and animated shows. MacFarlane (Joy Fehily, Jackoway Austen) already has multiple projects in the works for NBCU, and he is particularly interested in developing for ratings-challenged basic cabler Syfy.
“What is exciting about working with a multifaceted talent like Seth is that we as a studio can give him the latitude to create across both internal and external platforms,” says Dawn Olmstead, president of cable- and streaming-focused Universal Content Studios, who played a key role in the deal. “Seth’s scope and desire is impressive. He and [production company Fuzzy Door topper] Erica Huggins want to create for broadcast, cable and streaming. It’s going to be a very busy and fruitful partnership.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter