Steve Stark Extends MGM Television Deal and Widens Amazon Pact
Steve Stark's Toluca Pictures will stay with MGM Television for several more years.
The company has signed a multi-year extension of its exclusive overall deal, meaning the studio funds development in return for first rights to its projects, with MGM Television. A separate first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, meaning Amazon gets first refusal on new ideas, has been widened beyond scripted television to include feature films and documentaries, according to Deadline.
The renewals keep Stark's production organisation inside the Amazon MGM family. Lindsay Sloane is Head of MGM Television.
Leadership is changing too. Max Kisbye has been named President of Television & Film at Toluca Pictures. He succeeds Stacey Levin, who recently left the company. Toluca has also promoted Jessica Farrelly, Elan Fingles and Mia Stelling to expanded roles.
Kisbye is a long-time Stark hire. Stark brought him in as vice-president of television production in 2012, when Kisbye was a television literary agent at CAA. Kisbye most recently served as senior manager of creative development in MGM's TV scripted group.
Stark launched Toluca Pictures in 2021 with a five-year overall deal at MGM Television. That followed a nine-year run as president of MGM Television. He had been recruited by Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Roma Khanna to relaunch the division after the studio's 2010 bankruptcy.
Series ordered during that rebuilding period included The Handmaid's Tale for Hulu, Fargo for FX and Vikings for History. Earlier in his career, Stark ran his own Steve Stark Productions under an overall deal with Universal Television before joining MGM in 2011.
Since 2021, Toluca's credits include The Consultant starring Christoph Waltz for Prime Video, Vikings: Valhalla for Netflix, and The Bombing of Pan Am 103 for Netflix and the BBC. The company also produced the documentary The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.
The current slate spans four platforms. Netflix series Wednesday recently wrapped principal photography, meaning the main shoot, on its third season. Nordic historical epic Bloodaxe is slated to premiere in January on Prime Video, where Stark serves as executive producer alongside Morgan O'Sullivan, according to Amazon MGM Studios.
Toluca also has the Mexican superhero series El Gato Negro for Prime Video, where Stark is an executive producer on the ordered drama series, according to Amazon MGM Studios. The company is in production on the second season of The Testaments for Hulu. It is set to begin production in 2027 on Fear Not, a true-story thriller starring Anne Hathaway for Paramount+.
For viewers, this means continuity. The same team stays in place, and several finished and filming series have a home to return to.
