Paul Wesley Inks Overall Deal With Warner Bros. TV, Sets 4 Projects As Producer
The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley has signed a pod deal at Warner Bros. TV for his production company, Citizen Media, with partner/former The Vampire Diaries executive producer Bob Levy.
Under the pact, Wesley and Levy will develop new television projects for the studio, starting with a darkly comedic single-camera half-hour based on a non-fiction article by Jason Smith called Confessions Of a Drug-Addicted High School Teacher.
Citizen Media has three other series projects in the works that preceded the WBTV deal, including a limited series at ABC produced by Robert Redford.
Titled Pecos, the ABC limited series, produced by ABC Signature Studios, is inspired by the true story of a 29-year-old rookie journalist who takes down one of the richest, most powerful men in Texas, proving his gigantic business empire is a complete fraud, in 1962 Pecos, Texas. Shawn Christensen, Oscar winner for his short film Curfew, is writing. Citizen Media’s Wesley and Levy executive produce alongside Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn of Sundance Productions.
At Fox 21 TV Studios, Citizen Media has Finding Natalie, a drama about a young Mexican woman searching for her 17-year-old sister Natalie who was recently kidnapped by a sex trafficking cartel. NY playwright and The Americans writer Hilary Bettis will write.
At Freeform, Wesley and Levy is developing one-hour series Shanghai Summer, about 20-something Americans pursuing their dreams in Shanghai, China. Oanh Ly (The Catch) is on board to write the script.
Wesley, as well as fellow Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder, landed overall deals with the series’ producer WBTV as part of their most recent talent pacts for the long-running CW drama.
Wesley is hitting the ground running, having already started building a development slate with veteran producer/executive Levy, who also has served as an executive producer on such series as Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl.
Wesley is repped by ICM Partners and Management 360. Christensen, who has the upcoming feature Sidney Hall, is repped by Verve. Bettis is repped by CAA.
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