Gail Berman's Jackal Group Inks First-Look Deal With Fox 2000

by Austin Siegemund-Broka via The Hollywood Reporter 02/09/2015

The deal comes less than a year after Berman founded the joint venture with Fox Broadcasting.

Gail Berman's the Jackal Group is expanding its relationship with Fox.

The joint venture between Berman, who once served as Fox Broadcasting's president of entertainment, and Fox Networks Group, has signed a first-look film deal with Fox 2000. The agreement comes less than a year after Berman founded the company. The Jackal Group already has a pact to develop scripted and unscripted television shows for Fox and its sibling channels and operate a live theatrical division.

Berman's experienced in both film and TV. Following her tenure at Fox, she served as president of Paramount Pictures and founded the multimedia company BermanBraun with Lloyd Braun. Previously, she founded Regency Television (Malcolm in the Middle) and produced series including Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel.

Her new company is already developing several TV projects. The Jackal Group is a producer on Dig, which USA will debut in March. It is developing Park Row, a drama that centers on Joseph Pulitzerand William Randolph Hearst's yellow journalism battle in New York in the 1890s, with Falling Skies creator and Saving Private Ryan writer Robert Rodat. Fox handed the joint venture its first pilot order a week ago for the college comedy Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life. 

In film, Berman's film producing credits include the Ben Stiller paranormal comedy Rentaghost and an adaptation of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, both in the works at BermanBraun, and a biopic of Jesse Owens.