As J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot yesterday announced the hire of TriStar head Hannah Minghella as head of film, TriStar EVP Nicole Brown was named as her replacement at the Sony label, supervising TriStar’s film development and production activities.
However, for the past nine months of her 14-year Sony tenure, Minghella had a dual role as President of TriStar Pictures and TriStar Television as she added oversight of TriStar TV in January, reporting to Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group boss Tom Rothman on the film side and to Chris Parnell and Jason Clodfelter, co-presidents of Sony Pictures Television, for TV.
The head of TriStar TV position is now vacant. I hear Sony plans to keep TriStar Television, with Parnell and Clodfelter running the division until they name a replacement.
After being dormant for more than a decade, the TriStar Television brand was revived in 2015 as a boutique production unit within Sony Pictures Television run by Suzanne Patmore Gibbs. She led the division until her sudden death last year, evolving it into a place focused on female-driven projects in front and behind the camera. TriStar TV had been without .a leader for 10 months before Minghella took over in January.
TriStar TV currently has one series on the air, Showtime’s dark comedy series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, starring and executive produced by Kirsten Dunst, which was just renewed for a second season. It was one of the last projects developed by Patmore Gibbs.