Sony Pictures And Wizard World Teaming Up To Develop Comic-Inspired Projects

Comic convention company Wizard World announced Monday it would be teaming with Sony Pictures Entertainment to find the next generation of movies.

The announcement came from by John D. Maatta, CEO of Wizard World, and Jeffrey Godsick, Executive Vice President, Brand Strategy and Global Partnerships, Sony Pictures Consumer Marketing, who will oversee the relationship for the studio. It will also aim to engage in a number of strategic initiatives.

Wizard World and Sony Pictures will option and develop original IP. Wizard World brings together many of the country's top artists and story creators as a showcase for their original work, showcasing comics at event around the country. Under the new deal, Sony Pictures and Wizard World will jointly scour the convention's top talent, optioning their work to incubate and develop these stories into various media.

"We are always looking for new ways to find that next generation of great IP," said Jonathan Kadin, Executive Vice President of Production for Sony Pictures, who will be involved in developing the new projects. "This deal gives us unique access to the incredible talent that Wizard World can bring to the table, putting us in a prime position to find the stories that break through the clutter."

"Sony Pictures Entertainment is uniquely aligned as a studio with dominance in the motion picture, television, and electronics spaces," Maata said. "As Wizard World expands into a full spectrum media company from our roots in live exhibition, the partnership with Sony Pictures allows for an exceptional array of new opportunities and initiatives across many business extensions. It also creates a new and powerful voice in the pop culture."

"As Wizard World continues to grow its brand across the globe, we see IP development as only the first step in the relationship," Godsick said. "We will work with Wizard World to develop opportunities across several areas, including licensing, retail and location based entertainment. There are tremendously talented artists and storytellers presenting their properties at the conventions, and this relationship with Wizard World will afford us direct and early access to what might turn out to the next great idea for a film."

Wizard World Chairman Paul Kessler added: "Working with Sony Pictures to leverage our live events to create content and to enter into new business extensions will create an original and unique enterprise in the live event and entertainment space."

Wizard World board member Jordan Schur, who organized the venture by bringing Wizard World and Sony Pictures together, said, "With the alignment of Wizard World and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Wizard World takes the next step in its agenda to establish itself in the media business landscape. Transporting storytellers of tomorrow from Wizard World's dominant film and TV driven fan convention business will be realized as Wizard World and SPE launch new content providers off the floors of Wizard World's shows to the global screens of the world."

As far as comic book movies go, Sony previously developed Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, the Amazing Spider-Man films which rebooted it, and has a hand in Spider-Man: Homecoming and the character's involvement with Marvel Studios films. Later this year, the studio will release the Tom Hardy-lead Venom movie.