Following a year of rapid growth and success in its Alternative Programming Division, Entertainment One (eOne) is expanding the unit further by entering into a first look agreement with veteran unscripted television and film producers Mark Ford and Kevin Lopez and their Creature Films banner.
Under the deal, Ford and Lopez will bring their industry expertise and instinct for innovative, fresh content to develop and produce unscripted programming with eOne. The announcement was made today by Tara Long, SVP of U.S. Alternative Programming, eOne Television.
“We have strategically built out eOne Television’s Alternative programming business in a way that supports our partners and serves as a creative home for top producers to innovate, and we are proud to forge this partnership with Creature Films. We look forward to joining forces with Mark and Kevin to develop and produce a slate of new, original and inspired projects,” said Long.
“We’re thrilled to join the stellar team at eOne. We feel like it’s a match made in heaven and we’re excited to dig in and get started on a bunch of interesting projects together,” said Ford and Lopez.
Ford and Lopez founded Creature Films as a full service film and television production company in 2004, and together they have produced over one hundred hours of television for many networks including MTV, VH1, Bravo, Oxygen, TV Land, History Channel, and TLC. Their producing and show-running credits include MTV’s Laguna Beach and Taking the Stage, VH1’s long running Emmy nominated series Behind the Music, Bravo’s Kandi Factory and upcoming There Goes the Motherhood. They have also produced and directed acclaimed music documentaries like NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group, Let’s Spend the Night Together, and Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and won multiple awards. They are currently producing a new music biography series called The Ride for MTV International and they have more than a dozen projects in development.
Creature Films joins an esteemed group of producers focused on Alternative programming who hold first look deals with eOne Television, including Kevin Healey (Scare Tactics), who is developing and executive producing David Spade’s reality prank show Fameless for TruTV under his deal with eOne, and Riaz Patel (How Do I Look?).
Since eOne Television’s US Alternative Programming division launched in 2012, Long and her team have developed and produced an impressive and successful slate of shows, with many additional series in various stages of production and development. The division’ slate of successful projects includes Nellyville (garnered BET’s #1 non-scripted series among 18-49 year olds over the past two years); It’s A Mann’s World (BET); Ball Up: Search for the Next (Fox Sports Net); Mary Mary (WE tv); SWV Reunited (WE tv); The Sheards (BET); a series of specials of Big Surprise! on E! Entertainment featuring stars such as Nick Cannon and Macklemore; one-hour biographical special Knight Life with Gladys on OWN; and Chill for TruTV, among others.
