Amazon Studios is making a big shift in its TV leadership ranks.
Marc Resteghini, head of series development and eight-year veteran at Amazon, is leaving the e-commerce giant/streamer.
The executive, who first joined Amazon’s drama team in 2014 when the streamer’s entertainment offering was overseen by former boss Roy Price, has played a key role on the company’s original, having overseen production on series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jack Ryan, Patriot, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Terminal List, Underground Railroad and Them, among others.
Sources say TV boss Vernon Sanders is restructuring his ranks after being tapped last year as a lone executive overseeing the TV crew. With the reorganization, Resteghini’s job has been eliminated and his responsibilities will be split between Nick Pepper, the studio’s Head of Creative Content, and Laura Lancaster, Head of Series. Both will report to Sanders.
Amazon officials have dismissed the comment.
The news comes after Amazon recently packaged the first of a planned five-season series of The Lord of the Rings TV series in a package that cost the company an estimated $1 billion if you own the rights to the ownership, production and marketing costs are taken into account.
Sources also point out that Resteghini, whose fingerprints can be found all over Amazon’s most successful program, is negotiating a production deal with the streamer.
Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, who recently appointed Sanders as sole TV boss after tasking former co-head Albert Cheng to focus on his duties as chief operating officer, has been on the streamer’s creative ranks since its acquisition several times restructured repressed price. In early 2021, Salke reorganized her team into an end-to-end leadership built on development, series and IP/talent management. Then-drama head Resteghini was promoted to US/global head of development at the time, as Amazon also hired Alcons Lancaster to head the series.
For his part, Pepper joined Amazon a month after the reorganization that saw Resteghini rise with the former legendary TV exec to the newly created role of head of studio content.