Apatow taps new development chief
Nicky Weinstock to oversee creative operations
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Weinstock will oversee Apatow Prods.' creative operations -- including script acquisition and development and feature production.
Weinstock will also grow Apatow's TV division. Apatow Prods. has signed a first-look deal with Weinstock's 20th Century Fox TV alma mater for smallscreen projects. (Twentieth Century Fox TV declined comment.)
"Nicky is a rarity in this business: He is a comedy development executive that writers love," Apatow said. "Being a writer-driven company, we are lucky to have him join our team."
Weinstock is a scribe himself, having penned novel "The Golden Hour" and two other books. He joins a company that is coming off a big year, having been behind "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
Apatow cut his teeth in TV, exec producing the cult classics "Undeclared," "Freaks and Geeks" and "The Ben Stiller Show," among other shows. The scribe-director has spent more time in features recently; with Weinstock aboard, the company is once again looking to tackle TV, where comedy, Apatow's specialty, continues to struggle.
"At a time of such daunting transition in the film and television businesses, it's an enormous privilege to join an operation that's thriving on the sheer courage of its comedy," Weinstock said. "Judd is a visionary supplier of unvarnished truths and genuine human beings to the screen."
As VP of comedy development at 20th, Weinstock developed the current Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton laffer "Back to You," as well as the upcoming midseason entry "Miss/Guided."
Prior to taking that gig in 2004, Weinstock was VP of corporate communications at News Corp., serving as chief speechwriter for Rupert Murdoch and Peter Chernin.
Weinstock's credits also include stints as an editor at Spy magazine, Random House and Riverhead Books. He's also contributed to National Public Radio and has written stories and essays for the New York Times, the Nation, Vogue and other publications.
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