SANTA MONICA, Calif. and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 15, 2015 /CNW/ -- Reflecting the continued growth and evolution of the Company's motion picture operations, Patricia Laucella has been promoted to President, Business & Legal Affairs for Lionsgate's (NYSE: LGF) Motion Picture Group, it was announced today by Lionsgate General Counsel & Chief Strategic Officer Wayne Levin, to whom she continues to report.
In her expanded role, Ms. Laucella oversees a business and legal affairs division responsible for negotiating the production and talent deals of a broad portfolio of films that have propelled Lionsgate into a major force at the global box office, generating approximately $2 billion worldwide each of the past three years.
Ms. Laucella has handled production and talent deals for the last two Hunger Games films, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the 10th highest-grossing domestic box office release of all time, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 as well as the upcoming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. She has also structured and negotiated talent deals for director Francis Lawrence and Academy Award-winning superstar Jennifer Lawrence as well as many of the other principal Hunger Games cast members.
In addition, Ms. Laucella has structured and negotiated production and talent deals for the first two installments of Lionsgate's newest franchise, Divergent and Insurgent, the upcoming Allegiant and other upcoming event films such as Gods of Egypt, the epic re-imagining of ancient Egypt, the live action Power Rangers series, Peter Berg's action thriller Deepwater Horizon, starring Mark Wahlberg, the supernatural thriller The Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin Diesel, Damien Chazelle's La La Land and Wonder, based on the long-running New York Times best-seller.
"Patricia is a skilled financial strategist, superb negotiator and a great team leader," said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger and Mr. Levin. "She and her team are providing critical legal support to an expanding portfolio of high profile event pictures, and her multidisciplinary business and legal skills combined with her leadership abilities have earned the respect of her colleagues throughout the Lionsgate family."
"I'm fortunate to work within the dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial studio environment created by our amazingly talented senior management team, and it's a thrill to play a role in assembling such an exciting pipeline of films," said Ms. Laucella. "I'm also very lucky to work with such a skilled business and legal affairs team, and I'd like to extend particular thanks to my colleague and counterpart Robert Melnik, who is a pillar of Lionsgate's business affairs activities and an incredibly adept talent negotiator."
A summa cum laude graduate of New York University and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Ms. Laucella began her studio career as a production lawyer at Warner Bros. She subsequently held business and legal affairs executive positions at MGM, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures before joining Summit Entertainment as head of Motion Picture Production Legal Affairs. During her four-year tenure at Summit before it was acquired by Lionsgate in January 2012, she negotiated deals for the four Twilight sequels (New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2) as well as blockbuster hits such as Now You See Me. She has negotiated deals for films collectively grossing approximately $8 billion at the worldwide box office.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, channel platforms and international distribution and sales. The Company currently has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show, the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New Black and new series such as The Royals, Manhattan, Deadbeat, Casual and Chasing Life.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first three installments of The Hunger Games franchise, the first two installments of the Divergent franchise, Now You See Me, John Wick, Warm Bodies, CBS Films/Lionsgate's The DUFF, Roadside Attractions' A Most Wanted Man, Lionsgate/Codeblack Films' Addicted and Pantelion Films' Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world. www.lionsgate.com
For further information, please contact:
Peter D. Wilkes
(310) 255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
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SOURCE Lionsgate
