EXCLUSIVE: Vince Gilligan & Sony TV Renew Overall — ‘I’ve Got it Pretty Great’
‘I’m proud (and a little sad) to be working for Hollywood’s last independent studio,’ the ‘Breaking Bad’ & ‘Pluribus’ creator tells me
I cover TV from L.A. I scooped Julie Plec & Andre Agassi’s YA tennis drama in development at Amazon, spoke to ATX TV’s founders about buying their festival back from Penske and interviewed Sony TV’s Katherine Pope & Wiip’s Paul Lee. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
Sony Pictures Television continues to bet on Vince Gilligan.
The creator behind Apple TV+’s upcoming Pluribus has signed a new, four-year overall deal, I’ve learned, to remain at the studio behind his Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul hit series.
Gilligan inked his first exclusive overall deal with Sony in 2009, the year after Breaking Bad launched on AMC and helped to make him one of the most well-known and well-respected showrunners in the industry. Under his new pact, the award-winning TV creator and director will continue to develop and produce scripted series for all platforms under his High Bridge banner — named for a historic bridge in Farmville, Va., where he grew up.
“Every three or four years I figure it’s time to try someplace new... but then I remember I’ve got it pretty great at Sony Pictures Television,” Gilligan tells me in a statement, calling out studio chief Katherine Pope and Sony CEO Ravi Ahuja. “I really like Katherine, Ravi, and all the folks there. They’re excellent partners who treat me well — and they do a fine job of looking out for Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and now Pluribus. Therefore, I’m proud (and a little sad) to be working for Hollywood’s last independent studio. I think our industry would benefit from more of them.”
Gilligan has called Sony home since his first script deal with the studio in 2002 (for the cop show Battle Creek, which finally made it to series more than a decade later, lasting one season). He enters his newest pact working alongside the third different regime at the indie studio. He first signed with Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht — who now run Apple TV+ and picked up his new show, Pluribus, with a big two-season commitment — then with Jeff Frost (who oversaw Breaking Bad movie El Camino and serves as an exec on Pluribus via his own shingle, Bristol Circle Entertainment); and now with Katherine Pope, who took the reins of the studio after Frost’s exit in 2022.
“Beyond being a legend and a true giant in our business, Vince Gilligan is an incredible human being, who is always looking out for and shining the spotlight on others,” Pope says in a statement. “He’s a humble genius, the rarest of the rare, and we couldn’t be prouder to continue our unprecedented partnership with him.”
Related:
Read on for what Pope earlier revealed to me about Pluribus and what Gilligan and star Rhea Seehorn have teased about how it takes the iconic showrunner into new territory and his view on antiheroes vs. heroes (pretty timely stuff if you ask me). You’ll also get my analysis of what’s so extraordinary about Gilligan’s relationship with Sony as ever-fewer creators are scoring this kind of overall deal in the current landscape.
Paid subscribers get the story behind the scoop, below.
