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March 19, 2007
Warner Premiere Names Matt Bierman Vice President, Production And Jon Kuyper Vice President, Physical Production
(March 19, 2007 - Burbank, CA) — Warner Bros. Entertainment’s recently formed direct-to-platform division Warner Premiere has hired Matt Bierman as Vice President, Production and Jon Kuyper as Vice President, Physical Production. The announcement was made today by Diane Nelson, President, Warner Premiere, to whom both will directly report.
Warner Premiere’s production focus is releases that are either sequels or prequels to existing titles or brands in the Warner Bros. library; titles that expand the storyline of projects currently in production on the Studio’s feature slate; or projects that leverage an established creator, talent, character or brand equity, which may or may not be from the Warner Bros. library.
“Both Jon and Matt possess a great breadth of experience in producing the type of films that we make,” said Nelson. “They are ideal executives to shepherd the Warner Premiere agenda to fruition.”
In his new post, Bierman’s mandate is to build a long-term creative strategy and a slate of original releases for Warner Premiere, overseeing projects from script to screen. Bierman’s most recent studio role was as a production executive with Paramount’s DVD Premieres group, serving in a similar role as their head of development, overseeing such films as "Broken Bridges," VH1’s "Totally Awesome" and "Save the Last Dance II." Prior to that, Bierman served as executive vice president of production at Phoenix Pictures and was a senior vice president of production at Village Roadshow Pictures. In-between his run at Paramount and Warner Premiere, Matt co-wrote and executive produced the poker comedy "The Grand," directed by Zak Penn, starring Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano and Cheryl Hinds and premiering at the TriBeca Film Festival. Bierman holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan.
Bierman replaces Warner Premiere’s previous vice president of production, Geoff Shaevitz, who left the studio to pursue an opportunity with Houlihan Lokey.
As Vice President, Physical Production, Kuyper will be responsible for all aspects of physical production for the new division. He started his production management career working for Roger Corman and has held production posts at Hometown Films, Concorde/New Horizons, Playboy Entertainment and was the co-founder and executive in charge of production at Bauhaus Entertainment Group. As a freelance line producer, he’s worked on more than 40 films of all budgets and genres. Among the most recent films he’s produced are "Employee of the Month," "Bring It On: All or Nothing," "Bug," "Lonely Hearts," "Happy Endings," and Fox’s forthcoming "The Sandlot: Heading Home." Kuyper holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Pomona College in Claremont, California.# # #