SANTA MONICA, Calif. and
VANCOUVER, British Columbia,
April 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/
-- Reflecting the continued growth and evolution of the
Company's motion picture operations, Patricia Laucella has been promoted to
President, Business & Legal Affairs for Lionsgate's (NYSE:
LGF) Motion Picture Group, it was announced today by Lionsgate
General Counsel & Chief Strategic Officer Wayne Levin, to whom she continues to
report.
In her expanded role, Ms. Laucella oversees a business and legal
affairs division responsible for negotiating the production and
talent deals of a broad portfolio of films that have propelled
Lionsgate into a major force at the global box office, generating
approximately $2 billion worldwide
each of the past three years.
Ms. Laucella has handled production and talent deals for the
last two Hunger Games films, The Hunger Games: Catching
Fire, the 10th highest-grossing domestic box office
release of all time, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part
1 as well as the upcoming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay –
Part 2. She has also structured and negotiated talent deals for
director Francis Lawrence and
Academy Award-winning superstar Jennifer
Lawrence as well as many of the other principal Hunger
Games cast members.
In addition, Ms. Laucella has structured and negotiated
production and talent deals for the first two installments of
Lionsgate's newest franchise, Divergent and
Insurgent, the upcoming Allegiant and other upcoming
event films such as Gods of Egypt, the epic re-imagining of ancient
Egypt, the live action Power
Rangers series, Peter Berg's
action thriller Deepwater Horizon, starring Mark Wahlberg, the supernatural thriller The
Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin
Diesel, Damien Chazelle's
La La Land and Wonder, based on the long-running
New York Times best-seller.
"Patricia is a skilled financial strategist, superb negotiator
and a great team leader," said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group
Co-Chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick
Wachsberger and Mr. Levin. "She and her team are providing
critical legal support to an expanding portfolio of high profile
event pictures, and her multidisciplinary business and legal skills
combined with her leadership abilities have earned the respect of
her colleagues throughout the Lionsgate family."
"I'm fortunate to work within the dynamic, innovative and
entrepreneurial studio environment created by our amazingly
talented senior management team, and it's a thrill to play a role
in assembling such an exciting pipeline of films," said Ms.
Laucella. "I'm also very lucky to work with such a skilled business
and legal affairs team, and I'd like to extend particular thanks to
my colleague and counterpart Robert
Melnik, who is a pillar of Lionsgate's business affairs
activities and an incredibly adept talent negotiator."
A summa cum laude graduate of New York
University and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School,
Ms. Laucella began her studio career as a production lawyer at
Warner Bros. She subsequently held business and legal affairs
executive positions at MGM, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures
before joining Summit Entertainment as head of Motion Picture
Production Legal Affairs. During her four-year tenure at Summit
before it was acquired by Lionsgate in January 2012, she negotiated deals for the four
Twilight sequels (New Moon, Eclipse,
Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2) as well as blockbuster hits
such as Now You See Me. She has negotiated deals for
films collectively grossing approximately $8
billion at the worldwide box office.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader
with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production
and distribution, television programming and syndication, home
entertainment, digital distribution, channel platforms and
international distribution and sales. The Company currently has
more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks
spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication
businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the
multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie,
the comedy Anger Management, the broadcast network series
Nashville, the syndication
success The Wendy Williams Show, the critically-acclaimed
hit series Orange is the New Black and new series such as
The Royals, Manhattan, Deadbeat, Casual
and Chasing Life.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent
successes as the blockbuster first three installments of The
Hunger Games franchise, the first two installments of the
Divergent franchise, Now You See Me, John Wick, Warm Bodies, CBS
Films/Lionsgate's The DUFF, Roadside Attractions' A Most
Wanted Man, Lionsgate/Codeblack Films' Addicted and
Pantelion Films' Instructions Not Included, the
highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the
U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the
foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
www.lionsgate.com
For further information, please contact:
Peter D. Wilkes
(310) 255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
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SOURCE Lionsgate