Sean Bailey, former production president at Walt Disney Pictures, has launched B5 Studios, a new independent production company that will be backed by RedBird Capital Partners.
A statement announcing the new endeavor said that B5 will “empower world-class creatives with cutting-edge technology to create premium content across film, television and emerging formats.” The studio said it already has several active projects with creatives as well as R&D projects with Meta.
B5’s executive team includes producers Justin Springer and Jeff Silver, as Head of Creative and Head of Production, respectively. Springer and Silver worked with Bailey on the 2010 legacy sequel “Tron: Legacy” as well as its recently released follow-up, “Tron: Ares.”
Bailey’s producing career includes films that have combined to gross more than $15 billion at the global box office. During his time at Disney from 2010 to 2024, he oversaw the development of Disney’s series of remake films as well as projects both in the film division as well as with AR, VR and other interactive technology.
“B5 is poised to take advantage of a major market opportunity, giving great artists a new set of tools and opportunities to share their stories with audiences. We are already collaborating with some of the industry’s best creatives, equipping them with the innovative technologies and business models of a future-facing studio,” Bailey said in a statement.
He continued: “The deep experience of our executives and advisors will be invaluable as we not only create excellent films and television series, but also trailblaze new entertainment formats that open doors for storytellers. We have a fantastic slate of artist-driven partnerships and projects in the works, and we can’t wait to share them with audiences around the world.”
B5 also has an advisory board led by Blumhouse founder Jason Blum and Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. It is filled out by Dr. Maneesh Agrawala, Stanford professor and director of Stanford’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation; Dr. Georgia Gkioxari, Caltech professor and Meta AI researcher; Yair Landau, former Sony Pictures vice chair and former partner at MK Capital; Doug Shapiro, senior adviser at BCG and former chief strategy officer for Turner; and Kareem Daniel, executive adviser at KKR and former chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.
“I have known Sean for over twenty years, and we have a shared view on how technology can support and further enable the creative community to generate great content, expand formats and reach consumers,” Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird, said. “RedBird will lean into supporting Sean and the exceptional team at B5, bringing our business building resources, including capital and operating expertise, to help scale the business.”
Prior to his time at Disney, Bailey co-founded LivePlanet, a Silicon Valley–backed media company that combined traditional production with pioneering digital and interactive content, alongside Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore. Bailey is vice chair of the Sundance Institute. He also sits on the board of Arena SNK Studios, a newly launched, fully financed independent studio, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees at Caltech.
