Sony Pictures and filmmaker Will Gluck are extending their longtime partnership as the Culver City-based studio has renewed its first-look deal with Gluck’s Olive Bridge Entertainment. In addition to new deal, the studio also announced two new projects in development: Much Ado, a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing based on a pitch from Ashley Bradley, and an English-language adaptation of the bestselling Japanese book and Toho film, If Cats Disappeared from the World, which Olive Bridge is producing with Masi Oka (Heros).
Gluck is currently in post-production on Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which Sony will release worldwide on April 3. The first installment, released in 2018, pulled in $351 million globally and was Sony’s highest-grossing film ever in the U.K., excluding the James Bond films.
Gluck already has a number of projects percolating at the studio including the ensemble comedy inspired by the popular videogame Just Dance, which Deadline reported last year was picked by Screen Gems in a bidding war, as well as Steal Away, a remake of the French romantic comedy heist The Last Diamond, written by Gluck and Chris Bremner, and Move On, a sci-fi romance spec script by Ken Kobayashi.
On the TV side, Gluck teamed with eOne for a two-year overall deal and has the Kristen Bell-hosted reality series Encore on Disney+, Hulu’s live-action/animated comedy series, Woke, starring Lamorne Morris, and an animated series in production at Netflix.
With the new deal in place, Olive Bridge has hired Gabby Zemer as a new executive who will be working with Gluck and his feature producing partner Jodi Hildebrand. Zemer has spent the last three years at Blumhouse Productions, where most recently she worked alongside Couper Samuelson on the upcoming Black Christmas remake. Prior to Blumhouse, NYU Tisch School grad Zemer worked under Deborah Jelin Newmyer at Outlaw Productions.
Gluck’s history at the studio started with helming the 2009 comedy Fired Up!. He went on to direct the Emma Stone-starrer, Easy A, the Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis comedy Friends With Benefits, and the Annie remake.
Olive Bridge is repped by UTA and Sloan Offer.
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