Twentieth Century Fox has tapped a familiar face to co-run its new writers program — Nicholas Weinstock, a top deputy of former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin
The studio announced on Monday that Weinstock, formerly executive vice president of Chernin Entertainment, will help oversee the in-house initiative.
He will be paired with Steve Tzirlin, former vice president of development at Lucasfilm. They will report to Emma Watts, president of production, Twentieth Century Fox.
Weinstock will focus on comedy development, while Tzirlin will spearhead action/adventure development. Five writers in each discipline will be hired initially.
The pair has been tasked with developing original ideas (not rewrites of existing scripts or the development of library titles) from emerging writers. Weinstock and Tzirlin will hire the writers, coordinate relationships with producers, and supervise the development process of ideas generated from the program.
It's a home-coming of sorts for Weinstock, who had previously served as the studio's vice president of comedy development before leaving Fox in 2007 to become the creative head for Judd Apatow's production company.
Mogulite first broke the news of Weinstock's departure.
Tzirlin has been with Lucasfilm for the last five years, working directly with George Lucas and Rick McCallum on live-action television, film, video game, and animation projects.
