Imagine Entertainment has promoted longtime producer Karen Lunder as its new EVP of production, overseeing the company’s film production and development slate.
Lunder’s promotion follows the Erica Huggins’ decision to exit Imagine after 14 years, the last five as president, to head of Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door production company
Lunder, who joined Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s company last year, most recently executive produced and oversaw the production on the Mila Kunis-Kate McKinnon comedy “The Spy Who Dumped Me” and is currently overseeing Andrew Adamson’s new adaptation of “Curious George” and David Gordon Green’s “Friday Night Lights” reboot.
Lunder came to Imagine from Filmnation Entertainment, where she was EVP of production. She executive produced Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated hit “Arrival,” John Lee Hancock’s critically acclaimed drama “The Founder” and produced Fox Searchlight’s “Gifted,” starring Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer.
She also developed and co-produced Gavin Hood’s 2016 political thriller “Eye in the Sky,” starring Helen Mirren.
“Karen is an exceptional creative force who seamlessly navigates between varying genres and budgets. She has great taste in material, unique vision, and is the consummate collaborator. We are excited for her to lead us in this new direction,” Grazer and Howard said in a statement.
Since moving to an independent model, Imagine has been using its own resources to develop and package a slate that includes the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy, “A Journey of a thousand Miles” and the musical “Tick, Tick…Boom!” that is slated to become Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut.