Brightlight Pictures Co-Founder Stephen Hegyes Exits Canadian Producer

TORONTO – A shakeup at Canadian indie producer Brightlight Pictures has seen co-founder Stephen Hegyes leave the company.

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Fellow co-founder and long-time business partner Shawn Williamson is staying on at Vancouver-based Brightlight at chairman as the company takes an unspecified new direction in 2013.

Both Williamson and Hegyes were unavailable for comment Friday, but a spokesman for Brightlight confirmed Hegyes’ departure.

The company principals in a statement said they are “moving on to launch new corporate structures, while continuing to work together on future projects.”

“It’s been an amazing experience building Brightlight with Steve over the past eleven years, and I look forward to collaborating with him on new projects in the future.” Williamson said in a statement.

“It will be great to continue to work with Shawn in a new capacity as we both evolve to seek out new opportunities. There has never been a better time to be producing Canadian television that is being celebrated at home, internationally and in the US market,” Hegyes added in his own statement.

Brightlight Pictures in 2010 established a partnership with Los Angeles-based Essential Pictures to make TV shows for the world market.

Williamson and Hegyes brought to the table a long track record structuring movie and TV projects as international co-productions, and destined for the world market.