Homeland co-creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa have a new studio home.
The longtime collaborators have signed a rich new overall deal at Sony Pictures TV, leaving their previous home at the now Disney-owned 20th Century Fox TV. Gordon had been at 20th for more than two decades, and Gansa for about 10 years.
Gordon and Gansa are forming a new production company together and will develop new projects at Sony, where they landed after multiple studios, including 20th, bid for their services. Their deal runs for four years.
The two have a long history dating back to their college days at Princeton. They started in the industry as a writing team, working on Beauty and the Beast, Sisters and The X-Files. They reteamed on later seasons of Fox’s 24 before co-creating Homeland, based on the Israeli drama Prisoners of War. The Showtime series is set to air its final season in 2019.
The deal is a coup for Sony, which has in recent months lost a couple of high-profile creators to other studios. John Legend’s company Get Lifted relocated from Sony to ABC Studios; Fast and Furious director Justin Lin decamped to Apple; and CSI showrunner Carol Mendelsohn went to Universal.
Sony’s roster does include big names like Vince Gilligan, David Shore and Shawn Ryan. SWAT creator Aaron Rashaan Thomas and comedy writer Hilary Winston (Happy Endings, Dr. Ken) recently renewed their deals, as well.
The overall deal market remains extremely hot, with lots of movement and high-dollar deals in recent months. Hitmakers Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy left their longtime homes (ABC Studios and 20th TV, respectively) for megadeals with Netflix; the uber-prolific Greg Berlanti signed a massive $400 million pact to remain at Warner Bros.; Mindy Kaling left Universal for an eight-figure deal at Warner Bros.; and Westworld‘s Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan departed Warners for Amazon, among many others.
Gordon and Gansa’s deal at Sony was negotiated by WME and attorney Michael Gendler.
Deadline first reported the news.
