Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has appointed Big Talk managing director Matthew Justice to the newly created role of EVP, head of UK & Europe.
Justice, who announced earlier this week that he was stepping down from The Outlaws producer Big Talk after 16 years, will report into Wayne Garvie, SPT’s president of international productions.
Justice will manage SPT’s international studio operations and European co-productions business, and work closely with SPT production labels and joint ventures. These include: Bad Wolf (His Dark Materials), Eleven Films (Sex Education), Left Bank Pictures (The Crown), The Whisper Group, Eleventh Hour Films, Blueprint TV, Fable Pictures, Stellify Media and France based The Satisfaction Group.
Justice will also oversee the studio’s senior international production creative team led by Brendan Fitzgerald, SVP, international co-productions, Michaela Fereday, SVP, international scripted productions, and Lucy Robinson, SVP original production and development, who develop scripted drama to be produced directly by SPTIP or through international co-productions.
Justice has been managing director Big Talk since 2007, joining Kenton Allen to co-run the film and TV production company. He led the negotiation for its sale to ITV Studios in 2013.
Big Talk credits over the past 16 years include films Attack the Block. Sightseers, Cuban Fury and Man Up and TV shows including Free Agents, Rev, Him & Her, Raised by Wolves, Mum, Cold Feet, Friday Night Dinner, The Goes Wrong Show and The Outlaws.
Most recently Justice has been executive producing season three of Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws for BBC1/Amazon, a Dick Turpin series starring Noel Fielding for Apple TV+ and Dinner with the Parents for Amazon Freevee.
Before joining Big Talk, Justice founded his own production company, Lunar Films, producing David Mackenzie’s Berlin Silver Bear-winning Hallam Foe, and in 2005 Cedric Klapisch’s César-winning comedy drama, Les Poupées Russes.
Garvie said: “A smart operator, a strategic thinker and, just as importantly, a very good person, Matthew brings just what we need to build our UK and Europe business into an even greater force.”
Justice said: “The SPT labels are outstanding, so it is a rare honour to get to work with them and the people behind them. Helping to grow the SPT UK and European business is an extremely appetising prospect and I cannot wait to get stuck in. I leave Big Talk, my home for the past 16 years in the very best of hands and will look on with admiration and pride as they continue to excel in everything they do.”
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