A happy synergy exists between the film and television departments at Overbrook. For example, following the 2005 theatrical release of “Hitch,” Overbrook repackaged the concept as a half-hour scripted show for CBS. And the company is developing a reality version of “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Sony and 3 Ball Prods.
“I think a large part of the television business is about finding properties that have awareness,” says Overbrook’s TV head Heather Courtney-Quinn. “Movies that have done well parlay themselves nicely into television.”
Courtney-Quinn herself has plenty of experience on both sides of the film/TV fence: She started out at CAA in the TV and talent departments before working at Bel Air Entertainment on the film side and then at George Tillman’s State Street Pictures. She joined Overbrook in August 2006.
Since then, she’s developed several original projects, including “I Hate Pink,” a coming-of-age comedy about a teenager who is at odds with her mother, and a half-hour scripted show with sports personality Jim Rome, loosely based on Rome’s life that the shock jock will produce.
Jada Pinkett Smith, she says, is especially involved when it comes to television, and Overbrook has sold her ideas to FX Networks and the Cartoon Network, among others. “Jada is a force to be reckoned with,” says Courtney-Quinn.
And Will Smith’s pedigree helps in meetings with network execs. “When Will’s involved — and he is involved a lot — it always adds a great deal of credibility to whatever we’re doing.”
