FOX ANNOUNCES TEN WRITERS SELECTED FOR "FOX WRITERS INTENSIVE"
Hart Hanson, Davey Holmes, Patrick Massett, Roy Lee and Virgil Williams Among Esteemed Writers and Producers To Headline "Fox Writers Intensive" Sessions
Fox Audience Strategy today announced the 10 writers it has selected as the inaugural class for the Fox Writers Intensive (FWI), a distinctive new advanced writer's program designed to nurture experienced writers who have diverse voices, backgrounds and life experiences and create a strong pipeline of well-rounded talent for potential staffing on Fox productions.
The ten FWI finalists were selected from more than 300 nominations and submissions by talent representation and arts organizations across the country, including National Hispanic Media Coalition, Sundance Institute, New York Foundation For The Arts, Outfest, Film Independent, Writers Bootcamp, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, and Visual Communications. They will spend the next four months honing their craft and establishing deeper connections with a wide range of Fox staff writers, showrunners, screenwriters, directors and creative executives across television, feature films and digital entertainment. This year's FWI writers and their respective representatives are:
· Nick Citton (Advance Talent Management)
· Alessia Costantini (Artist International Management)
· Jan Eliasberg (Rain Management Group)
· Jason Gavin (The Alpern Group)
· Nicole Jefferson Asher (The Gersh Agency)
· Tina Mabry (Independent)
· Eric Nazarian (Creative Artists Agency)
· Mark Valadez (Brant Rose Agency)
· Thomas Wong (The Gersh Agency)
· Iris Yamashita (The Gersh Agency)
In addition, Fox revealed that Hart Hanson (BONES, THE FINDER), Davey Holmes ("Awake," "In Treatment"), Patrick Massett ("Friday Night Lights," "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"), Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (FAMILY GUY), Virgil Williams ("Criminal Minds," "24"), Peter Sollett ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," "Finding Victor Vargas"), Eli Dolleman (THE CLEVELAND SHOW, AMERICAN DAD), Laurence Andries ("The Pacific," "Supernatural"), Jessica Sharzer ("American Horror Story") and Roy Lee ("The Departed," "The Grudge") are among the writers and producers who will engage in collaborative sessions with this year's FWI finalists.
"These ten incredibly gifted writers represent the high-caliber talent we're looking for at Fox, and we're extremely excited to work more closely with them through this initiative," said Nicole Bernard, Senior Vice President, Audience Strategy for The Fox Group. "This is an important step toward ensuring that our film, TV and digital productions better reflect our broader audience, and we're thrilled that so many writers and producers have signed on to lend their expertise."
"It's been an amazing experience working with Nicole and all the folks at Audience Strategy on the Fox Writers Initiative, as we share a major goal of increasing diversity in all aspects of the entertainment industry. The writers selected truly have strong, creative visions that will be further helped along with this program, and we can't wait to see their work shared with a larger audience," said Film Independent Co-President Josh Welsh.
Administered by Film Independent, a non-profit arts organization supporting artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision, the Fox Writers Intensive offers trained writers a rigorous, four-month curriculum focused on 1) developing original material, 2) learning and honing writing skills for multiple mediums and 3) exploring the business of media and entertainment. Selected writers will have the opportunity to receive detailed feedback and guidance on their scripts through interactive "master classes" and will engage in intimate guest speaker sessions with experienced writers, showrunners and directors to discuss case studies of their films and television shows, and learn about their writing processes. Upon successful completion of the program, Fox will work to staff participating writers on Fox projects and provide each writer with a first look on his/her original script(s).
At the conclusion of the intensive, Fox will select one outstanding participant as the Fox Writers Intensive Fellow. The Fox Writers Intensive Fellow will be announced across all Fox units and will receive one-on-one meetings with network and studio heads as well as priority staffing efforts across Fox properties. In addition, Fox will purchase and develop the Fellow's original submission. Fox will also award the referring 501(c)(3) charitable organization of the winning Fellow a financial grant to be earmarked for its writing program.
For more information about the Fox Writers Intensive and a list of referring organizations, please visit: www.fox.com/audiencestrategy.
Fox Audience Strategy is a recently formed department at The Fox Group designed to identify programming and operational opportunities that reflect diverse perspectives across all of its entertainment platforms.
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