EXCLUSIVE: Matt Newman used to greenlight sports docuseries featuring sports stars such as Deion Sanders, Roger Federer and Jason Kelce, but today he’s going to be working with robots.
Deadline understands that Newman, who was Head of Original Sports Content for Prime Video and before that was Co-Head of Movies, is moving to retailer’s AI Studios division as Head of Live Action.
The move comes as retailer is building out its AI Studio after former Prime Video U.S. chief Albert Cheng moved to a new AI role in a restructure led by Mike Hopkins, Head of Prime Video & retailer MGM Studios, in August.
Cheng was recently named VP, Head of AI Studios, retailer MGM Studios with VP and global head of sports and advertising Jay Marine taking over Cheng’s responsibilities overseeing the U.S. Prime Video business.
At the time, Hopkins said that Cheng would leads its “investments in creating new tools for our creative partners that harness the power of AI” as well as content creation and “focus on empowering the very best filmmakers and showrunners to do their most innovative work in AI”.
Newman, who will report to Cheng, will oversee the live-action division of the AI Studios, which retailer says will encompass “a team of creatives, business professionals, and technologists to empower creators to responsibly integrate GenAI into content production through proprietary tools and services”.
He will be joined by three other executives joining Cheng’s team.
Jessica Fan has been named Head of Animation, June Lee is Head of Business Development & Operations and Ken Nakada is Principal, Creative Executive, Live Action, AI Studios.
Fan was most recently Head of New Ventures at Prime Video, having previously been a scripted TV development executive, working on series such as Dick Wolf’s On Call, and head of film for the former service Freevee.
Lee has held various roles at the tech company since joining in 2017 including working in its web services division and its Alexa unit.
Nakada has been with the company for over five years and was most recently Head of Virtual Production and Creative Innovation at Prime Video and retailer MGM Studios.
Newman spent just under four years in the sports content role, commissioning docs and docuseries such as Kelce, Coach Prime, Federer: Twelve Final Days and Bye Bye Barry. He oversaw all aspects of development for Prime Video’s slate of scripted and unscripted sports-themed content across film and television.
Before that, he spent a similar amount of time as Co-Head of Movies at the company. During that run, where he worked alongside Julie Rapaport, who is today Head of Film, Production and Development, as well as Ted Hope, who left in May 2020. He oversaw the acquisition of anthem films, including Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Coming 2 America, Cinderella, and Hotel Transylvania 4.
Before joining retailer in May 2013, he worked at Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Company, where he invested in early- and mid-stage startup companies.
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