Sony Pictures Renews Deal With ‘Peter Rabbit’ Producer Will Gluck

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Sony Pictures has renewed its first-look deal with “Peter Rabbit” producer Will Gluck through his Olive Bridge production company.

Gluck’s history at Sony includes directing the Emma Stone comedy “Easy A” ($75 million worldwide), “Friends With Benefits” ($150 million worldwide), the 2014 musical “Annie” ($134 million worldwide) and “” ($351 million worldwide). Gluck is in post-production on “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway,” which hits theaters on April 3.

Olive Bridge has been developing two projects at Sony: “Steal Away,” a remake of the French romantic comedy “The Last Diamond,” written by Gluck and Chris Bremner; and “Move On,” a sci-fi romance spec script by Ken Kobayashi.

Gluck and the studio also announced several new projects on Wednesday — an ensemble comedy inspired by the Ubisoft video game “Just Dance,” with a screenplay by Amelie Gillette, Brian Gatewood & Alessandro Tanaka for Screen Gems; “Much Ado,” a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” from a pitch by Ashley Bradley; and an English-language adaptation of the bestselling Japanese book and hit film “If Cats Disappeared From the World,” which Olive Bridge is producing with Masi Oka.

Gluck also has a two-year overall TV deal at eOne that includes “Encore” on Disney Plus, “Woke” on Hulu and an animated series in production at Netflix.

Gluck and producing partner Jodi Hildebrand also announced the hire of Gabby Zemer. Zemer has spent the last three years at Blumhouse Productions, where she most recently worked alongside Couper Samuelson on the “Black Christmas” remake.

Olive Bridge is repped by UTA and Sloane Offer.