BuzzFeed Studios has signed with WME as it looks to ramp up its film and television output, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The agency will work with BuzzFeed Studios, the Los Angeles-based video production arm of the digital publisher, to sell projects across digital, television and film. The deal comes days after BuzzFeed announced that it had hired MTV veteran Lauren Dolgen to lead the studio, replacing Matthew Henick, who left for a job at Facebook earlier this year. Dolgen, who officially started in her new role on Monday, is said to have been active in the decision to work with WME.
BuzzFeed began its push into Hollywood in 2014 when it established BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, its Los Angeles-based digital and traditional video production division. It has gone through some reorganization over the years as BuzzFeed has evolved and was most recently renamed BuzzFeed Studios with a focus on adapting BuzzFeed IP for film, television and digital.
The 40-person group has sold one traditional television project, Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers, to Oxygen and is also producing the shortform series Follow This for Netflix. It has been developing a film adaptation of its Brother Orange articles with Warner Bros. for the last two years. It is also developing film and documentary projects based on the BuzzFeed News investigation “From Russia With Blood.”
On the digital front, BuzzFeed has produced interactive dating show RelationShipped for Facebook and weekly live morning show AM to DM for Twitter. The Studios group also oversees digital series Worth It, Ladylike and BuzzFeed Unsolved.
