EXCLUSIVE: Former Gulfstream Pictures exec Matt Phelps has moved on to Ubisoft Motion Pictures as the studio’s new VP Development. He is heading up the opening of the company’s Los Angeles offices as selected staff relocate to Southern California from Paris.
While at Warner Bros-based Gulfstream, Phelps worked on the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy Blended, as well as the Open Road animated film The Nut Job. Upcoming Gulfstream projects he oversaw before moving to Ubisoft include a cinematic retelling of the biblical King David story; Antarctica from writer Michael Werwie; and the action thriller Down Range, written by Michael McGrale (The Following), currently in talks to be acquired from Gulfstream by Voltage Pictures.
Ubisoft Motion Pictures was created in 2011 to expand Ubisoft’s various video game properties to television and film. Upcoming projects from the studio include the live-action adaptation of the Assassin’s Creed series, starring and co-produced by Michael Fassbender and directed by Justin Kurzel from a script by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, Scott Frank, and Michael Lesslie. Ubisoft Motion Pictures is also responsible for the Rabbids animated TV series, which is in its third season, and has begun to expand into theme parks with rides based on popular Ubisoft brands. A full-scale theme park concept is also in development.
Starting out in the UTA mailroom, Phelps worked as an assistant in Motion Picture Literary before joining the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Creative group, assisting in the development and production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.
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