Two executives whose résumés span Apple TV, Sony, 20th Television, Mattel and Bad Robot have launched their own shop. Michelle Mendelovitz and Cory Bennett Lewis unveiled Warrior Productions on 29 July 2026, a film and television company building projects from both original ideas and existing intellectual property, working with established and emerging creators, according to Deadline (Deadline).

Both carry the title of co-founder and CEO. They first worked together at Mattel Television Studios, where Bennett Lewis joined as Head of Production in April 2024 and Mendelovitz served as Head of the studio before departing in August 2024 (Deadline).

Mendelovitz's background reads like a map of peak-era streaming. She was part of Apple TV's founding executive team as Senior Creative Executive for Scripted & Unscripted Programming, then moved to VP Scripted Programming at Sony Pictures Television, followed by SVP and Head of Drama Development at 20th Television. Her development credits include Severance, For All Mankind, Dopesick, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Good Doctor. At Mattel, she brought M. Night Shyamalan on board to executive-produce the live-action scripted series Magic 8 Ball alongside Brad Falchuk, a relationship she built while working with Shyamalan on Servant at Apple TV (Deadline).

Bennett Lewis came to Mattel from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, where he was Head of Production. His producing credits span HBO's Lovecraft Country, Apple TV's Lisey's Story and Little Voice, Hulu's Castle Rock and the Netflix film Lou. His franchise work includes Star Wars, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Alice in Wonderland, Jack Ryan and Cloverfield (Deadline).

The company's opening development slate — the list of projects a new company brings to market first — runs three titles deep.

DeMonica is a supernatural horror feature written and directed by Miguel Angel Ferrer. Set on the Mexican border, it follows a former sicaria — a cartel assassin — who returns to Matamoros to rescue her sister from a brothel run by a narco and a malevolent force. Ferrer's feature The Shadow of the Sun was Venezuela's official submission to the Academy Awards in 2026, and his short film My Father's Son screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival (Deadline).

The Continuers is a sci-fi drama adapted from a novel by Yair Eisenberg, a former Israeli investigative journalist. Warrior optioned the book for television — meaning they acquired the screen rights — before the novel has even been published in English (Deadline).

Bordello Princess is a series based on the life of Marguerite Alibert, a Parisian courtesan whose biography has already drawn attention from other producers and writers across film and television (Deadline).

What stands out is the range. A border-set horror film from a Venezuelan filmmaker with Oscar and Cannes credentials. A sci-fi adaptation optioned before the source novel reaches English-language readers. A historical drama about a figure who moved through the highest levels of Parisian society. One slate, three genres, no single lane — which is the point for a company betting it can move across film and television simultaneously.

Whether Warrior's first projects reach screens depends on the next step every independent company faces: finding a buyer. A development slate is a starting position, not a green light. What it gives Mendelovitz and Bennett Lewis is something they have each spent careers building from the other side of the table — material to bring to platforms, studios and financiers, and the relationships to open those doors.