EXCLUSIVE: Lauren Abrahams has joined Disney as an executive vice president at the studio’s Live Action Film Group headed by Sean Bailey. She ended a 15-year run at Sony Pictures in February. Abrahams is just getting started at Disney after taking some time to stay home with her 3-year-old son. Now’s she’s positioned…

EXCLUSIVE: Disney film production chief Sean Bailey’s effort to retool and relaunch the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is back in uncertain waters after the defection of Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, the hot-shot writing team behind Fox’s mighty Deadpool franchise. Disney insiders say Reese & Wernick are no longer…

Now that Disney has set the hierarchy of Fox TV executives who’ll be part of the merged entities, next comes the film division. Sources said there shouldn’t be much surprise when an announcement is made as early as later this week. Alan Horn, the veteran exec who was unceremoniously pushed out at Warner Bros and then…

When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn't about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysteri…

EXCLUSIVE: The Disney streaming service is beginning to crystallize, and Deadline can provide some details of the initial slate. The studio has been conducting meetings within the creative community to give a sense of its new OTT service that will launch in fall 2019. Perhaps not surprisingly at this point, there was…

EXCLUSIVE: Even when you run Disney’s most tenured moviemaking division, it is easy to feel overshadowed when you are a silo alongside Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Animation Studios. But this past weekend marked a watermark moment for Sean Bailey and his Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and forgive…

Some Hollywood players were having a good time and a few fine stogies last night in Beverly Hills. UTA's Charlie Ferraro and DreamWorks' Mark Sourian were among a gang out at the Grand Havana Room on Thursday. Also spotted hanging out with Ferraro and Sourian at the members only club on Canon Drive were Summit Senior…

  Los Angeles, CA —May 24, 2012 –  Sundance Institute today announced three new members of the Institute's Board of Trustees: Sean Bailey, Anand Mahindra and Jacki Zehner. Under the guidance of President & Founder Robert Redford and in close collaboration with Executive Director Keri Putnam, the 23-person Board is…

UPDATE: This Disney deal for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book keeps getting more interesting. I’ve learned that Henry Selick, who helmed Gaiman’s Coraline, is now attached to direct The Graveyard Book at Disney. Selick, best known for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Pea…

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: I’m hearing that Disney has set The Lone Ranger to start production February 6, 2012. That re-establishes one of the most intriguing examples of a star-driven film that was unplugged because of high budget and put back together in a way that gives the studio a chance to recoup its costs. Though The Lo…

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline told you a week ago that things were looking up for The Lone Ranger for the first time since we broke the shocking news on Aug. 12 that Disney had pulled the plug over budget. I'm hearing that the studio is likely to have everything resolved by next week, and can start rehiring crew so that the…

Veteran casting director Randi Hiller has been named VP Casting at The Walt Disney Studios. She will report directly to production president Sean Bailey. Disney hasn’t had an in-house casting executive since EVP Marcia Ross left last spring. Hiller’s job is to advise on casting for Disney's live-action films. She has…