 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media, Film & Television |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founder | Reese Witherspoon Seth Rodsky |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, |
Key people | Reese Witherspoon (Principal) Sarah Harden (CEO) Lauren Levy Neustadter (President, Film & TV) |
| Services | |
| Owners |
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| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | hello-sunshine |
Hello Sunshine is an American media company founded by actress Reese Witherspoon and Strand Equity Founder and Managing Partner Seth Rodsky in 2016.
In 2000, Witherspoon founded production company Type A Films, which she merged with Bruna Papandrea's Make Movies banner to create a new production company entitled Pacific Standard in 2012. [1] Together, they produced the Oscar-nominated films Gone Girl and Wild , and the HBO drama series Big Little Lies . In 2016, Witherspoon and Papandrea split up, with Witherspoon gaining full control over the company. [2]
In November 2016, Witherspoon and Seth Rodsky formed Hello Sunshine as a joint venture with Otter Media, the joint venture between media executive Peter Chernin's The Chernin Group and AT&T, with a focus on telling female-driven stories on film, TV and digital platforms. [3] [4] Pacific Standard has since become a subsidiary of the company. [5] The company hired media and tech industry executive Kerry Tucker to lead as CEO. [6] Sarah Harden replaced Tucker as CEO the next year. [7] In March 2017, Lauren Levy Neustadter was appointed Head of Film and Television. [8] She has since been promoted to President of Film and TV. [9]
Pacific Standard, the production company Witherspoon co-founded with Bruna Papandrea in 2012, is now a subsidiary of Hello Sunshine. [5]
In addition to producing content, Hello Sunshine also curates a book club called Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine . [10] Witherspoon announces a new book pick every month on her Instagram and the book club is aimed to bring women's stories forward. The book club has over 500,000 followers on Instagram, and more than 70,000 followers on Facebook. Hello Sunshine also had a Filmmaker Lab to teach 20 girls aged 13–18 the art of film making. [11]
On July 10, 2018, its co-owner, AT&T, through its communications division, announced the launch of a Hello Sunshine-branded cable and satellite television channel, Hello Sunshine Channel, which will be focused on women, similar to Oprah Winfrey Network. [12] [13] [14] [15]
On social media platforms Facebook Watch and IGTV, Hello Sunshine has released three short-form unscripted series focussing on female successes. In April 2018, Hello Sunshine launched the podcast How It Is, hosted by American actress Diane Guerrero. [16] A second season of the podcast launched in October 2018. [17] In November 2018, the third season of How It Is premiered with Kelly McCreary taking over as host. [18]
In July 2018, Hello Sunshine launched the talk show Shine On with Reese on DirecTV hosted by Witherspoon in her first unscripted series. The show presents one-on-one interviews between Witherspoon and various female guests focussing on how they achieved their dreams.
In October 2018, Hello Sunshine launched a new podcast titled My Best Break-Up which is hosted by Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. [19]
In November 2018, Hello Sunshine partnered with Together Live to create the tour Hello Sunshine x Together Live. The tour went to ten different cities across the United States and featured multiple guest speakers telling their story including Halima Aden, MILCK, Yara Shahidi, Uma Thurman, Nicole Byer, Cameron Esposito, Sonequa Martin-Green and Sophia Bush. Highlights from the tour will be featured in the third forthcoming podcast And Especially You which will be hosted by guest speaker Sophia Bush. [20]
In February 2019, Hello Sunshine received an investment from Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective. Otter Media has also increased its stake in the company. [21]
In early August 2021, Witherspoon (after considering selling the company and hearing the interest of Apple [22] ) sold part of the company to a Blackstone backed media company, Candle Media, led by former Disney executives Kevin A. Mayer and Tom Staggs for $900 million. [23] The transaction resulted in Witherspoon and Harden retaining a stake in the new company and a seat on the board. [24] Hello Sunshine shut down its kids and animation unit in February 2023, with the company expected to work with fellow Candle Media subsidiary Moonbug Entertainment moving forward. [25]
Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea will continue to produce the projects they have in development together including Luckiest Girl Alive at Lionsgate/Summit, All Is Not Forgotten at Warner Bros, and Ashley's War at Fox 2000. They also will continue to work together under Pacific Standard's overall deal at ABC. [2]
In May 2017, it was reported Hello Sunshine has set up to produce two novels, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. [26] Furthermore, it was announced that Hello Sunshine was filming a documentary about Martina Navratilova. [27]
Hello Sunshine has acquired film rights to the novel The Gilded Years. Zendaya has signed to star in the adaptation which will be called A White Lie and Witherspoon will star and produce Legally Blonde 3 which was scheduled to premiere on Valentine's Day 2020, [28] [29] but has since been delayed indefinitely. [30] In November 2018, it was announced that Hello Sunshine will produce the novel League of Wives as a feature film with Fox 2000 but due to the dissolution of Fox 2000 following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the fate of the project is unknown as of February 2020. [31]
As of February 2020, Hello Sunshine has six television series in development at six different networks including Apple TV+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, ABC, Starz and Netflix. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] Witherspoon will star in one show and will serve as an executive producer on all six shows.
In March 2022, it was announced that Hello Sunshine would produce Run, Rose, Run, a film adaptation of a novel written by Dolly Parton and James Patterson. Parton will also star in the film. [39] [40]
In August 2022, the company opened an unscripted division in the United Kingdom. [41]
| Year | Title | Director | Gross (worldwide) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Wild | Jean-Marc Vallée | $52.5 million | Produced as Pacific Standard Nominated for two Academy Awards |
| Gone Girl | David Fincher | $369.3 million | Produced as Pacific Standard Nominated for one Academy Award | |
| 2015 | Hot Pursuit | Anne Fletcher | $51.7 million | Produced as Pacific Standard |
| 2019 | Lucy in the Sky | Noah Hawley | $325,950 | Produced as Pacific Standard |
| 2022 | Where the Crawdads Sing | Olivia Newman | $140.2 million | |
| Something from Tiffany's | Daryl Wein | — | Debut film for Hello Sunshine [42] Co-produced with Amazon Studios | |
| 2023 | Your Place or Mine | Aline Brosh McKenna | — | |
| TBA | You're Cordially Invited | Nicholas Stoller | — | |
| TBA | Ashley's War | — | Distributed by Universal Pictures; co-production with Made Up Stories [43] [44] | |
| Year | Title | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–2019 | Big Little Lies | HBO | Produced as Pacific Standard Season 1: Nominated for sixteen Emmy Awards, won eight |
| 2018 | Shine On with Reese | DirecTV | |
| Master the Mess | |||
| 2019–present | The Morning Show | Apple TV+ | |
| 2019–2023 | Truth Be Told | ||
| 2020 | Little Fires Everywhere | Hulu | |
| 2022–present | Surface | Apple TV+ | |
| 2022 | From Scratch | Netflix | |
| 2023 | Daisy Jones & the Six | Amazon Prime Video | |
| My Kind of Country | Apple TV+ | Reality competition series | |
| Tiny Beautiful Things | Hulu | ||
| The Last Thing He Told Me | Apple TV+ | ||
| 2024 | Side Hustlers | The Roku Channel | |
| TBA | Untitled Sara Saedi comedy series | ABC | In development |
| TBA | Kin | Starz | In development |
| TBA | Tiny Trailblazers | Disney Junior | In development [45] |
| Year | Title | Platform | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Handmade*mostly | Facebook Watch | |
| 2018 | Turning Point | Facebook Watch | |
| 2018 | Meet My Mom | Facebook Watch and IGTV |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2018–present | How It Is | |
| 2018 | My Best Break-Up | |
| 2019–present | And Especially You |
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 and 2015, and Forbes listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2019 and 2021. In 2021, Forbes named her the world's highest earning actress, and in 2023, she was named one of the richest women in America with an estimated net worth of $440 million.
Lesli Linka Glatter is an American film and television director. She is best known for her work on the AMC drama series Mad Men and the Showtime series Homeland. For her work in these two shows, she has received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations and 7 Directors Guild of America Awards nominations, winning the latter 3 times. She has also received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Tales of Meeting and Parting (1985).
Lyndon Smith is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Natalie in the NBC drama Parenthood (2013–2015) and Dierdre in the TNT police drama Public Morals (2015).
Type A Films was a film production company founded by actress and producer Reese Witherspoon in 2000.
Blossom Films is a production company founded by American-born Australian actress Nicole Kidman in 2010. The first production by the company was the film Rabbit Hole, based on the play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire.
Bruna Papandrea is an Australian film and television producer and the founder of production company Made Up Stories. Prior to Made Up Stories, Papandrea co-founded the production company Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon.
Big Little Lies is an American black comedy drama television series based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. Created and written by David E. Kelley, it aired on HBO from February 19, 2017, to July 21, 2019, encompassing 14 episodes and two seasons. Originally billed as a miniseries, Jean-Marc Vallée directed the first season, while Andrea Arnold directed the second season. In November 2023, Nicole Kidman stated a third season would be made.
Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013.
Truth Be Told is an American legal/crime drama television series. The series was created by Nichelle Tramble Spellman for Apple TV+ and is based on Kathleen Barber's 2017 debut novel Are You Sleeping. Spellman also acts as executive producer and writes for the show. Unlike the book, Poppy Parnell plays the main role, as a podcaster who revisits the case that made her famous with the hope of finally getting to the truth.
Lucy in the Sky is a 2019 American psychological drama film loosely inspired by the life of NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is portrayed by Natalie Portman. The film was directed, co-produced, and co-written by Noah Hawley in his feature directorial debut. In addition to Portman, the film stars Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Colman Domingo, and Ellen Burstyn.
The Morning Show, also known as Morning Wars in Australia and Indonesia, is an American drama television series starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell that premiered on Apple TV+ on November 1, 2019. The series is inspired by Brian Stelter's 2013 book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV. The show examines the characters and culture behind a network broadcast morning news program. After allegations of sexual misconduct, the male co-anchor of the program is forced off the show. Aspects of the #MeToo movement are examined from multiple perspectives as more information comes out regarding said misconduct. Subsequent seasons focus on other political topics and current events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequality, the Capitol insurrection, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Little Fires Everywhere is an American drama television miniseries, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Celeste Ng. It premiered on Hulu on March 18, 2020 and consists of 8 episodes. The series stars Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, both of whom were also executive producers, alongside Liz Tigelaar, Lauren Neustadter, and Pilar Savone. Set in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, during the late 1990s, it features Witherspoon and Washington as mothers from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Shine On with Reese is an American talk show hosted by actress Reese Witherspoon. The show was announced on July 10, 2018 and had its premiere one week later on DirecTV.
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Pieces of Her is a thriller novel by American author Karin Slaughter, published on August 21, 2018 by William Morrow and Company and HarperCollins Publishers. The novel has been adapted into a television series of the same name.
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Reese's Book Club is a celebrity book sales club run by Reese Witherspoon under her media company Hello Sunshine. Since its founding in 2017, the club has gained a reputation for boosting the careers of female authors such as Delia Owens, Celeste Ng, and Megan Miranda.
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