Sean Bailey, who recently exited Disney after 15 years as the motion picture group’s president of production, is launching a new production company.
His venture, B5 Studios, is backed by RedBird Capital Partners and is described as a “multi-format studio positioned at the intersection of premier creativity and technology,” with a goal to create content across film, television and “emerging formats.”
“B5 is poised to take advantage of a major market opportunity, giving great artists a new set of tools and opportunities to share their stories with audiences. We are already collaborating with some of the industry’s best creatives, equipping them with the innovative technologies and business models of a future-facing studio,” Bailey said in a statement. “The deep experience of our executives and advisors will be invaluable as we not only create excellent films and television series, but also trailblaze new entertainment formats that open doors for storytellers. We have a fantastic slate of artist-driven partnerships and projects in the works, and we can’t wait to share them with audiences around the world.”
B5 is launching with several research and development projects at Meta, as well as “numerous active content projects with top creatives,” according to a release that didn’t provide any specific details. In addition to Sean Bailey, B5’s executive team includes producers Justin Springer and Jeff Silver, as head of creative and head of production, respectively.
“I have known Sean for over twenty years, and we have a shared view on how technology can support and further enable the creative community to generate great content, expand formats and reach consumers,” said Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird. “RedBird will lean into supporting Sean and the exceptional team at B5, bringing our business building resources, including capital and operating expertise, to help scale the business.”
B5’s advisory board consists of Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull; Blumhouse founder Jason Blum; Dr. Maneesh Agrawala, Stanford professor and Director of Stanford’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation; Dr. Georgia Gkioxari, Caltech professor and Meta AI researcher; Yair Landau, former Sony Pictures vice chair and former Partner at MK Capital; Doug Shapiro, senior advisor at BCG and former chief strategy officer for Turner; and Kareem Daniel, executive advisor at KKR and former chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.
More to come…
