Sony Pictures has hired Ballantine Bantam Dell senior editor Ryan Doherty for the newly-created position of vp, literary development, based in Sony’s New York headquarters. Doherty will pursue “book-to-film-and-television opportunities for all content divisions across Sony Entertainment” and the hire is designed to “deepen and expand the studio’s efforts in these areas.”
President of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group Doug Belgrad says in the announcement, “By bringing Ryan in to this new executive position in New York, we are strengthening our commitment to finding the highest quality and most commercial source material for each of our divisions. Ryan is a rising star in the publishing world, with great taste and strong relationships in that community.”
Sony Pictures last had a New York-based director of development focused on literary properties in early 2013, when Mark James left to start James Literary Consulting (with Sony’s Columbia Pictures as a client).