Sarah Bremner, Noah Oppenheim, Lloyd Braun Launch Film and TV Production Banner

What’s a suitable next act for a former broadcast executive turned talent agency chief, a former network news division executive that also pens screenplays and a veteran film and television producer?

For Lloyd Braun, Noah Oppenheim and Sarah Bremner it’s putting together their own production banner to finance and co-finance feature films and scripted TV series, with cash provided by Jeff Zucker’s vast war chest courtesy of RedBird Capital. “My investment philosophy has always been driven by working with the best in the business. Lloyd, Sarah and Noah are prime examples of that, and they fit into our growing portfolio well,” stated Zucker on Thursday.

The trio have sealed a deal to formally unveil their shingle, Prologue Entertainment, and reveal an initial slate of four projects — three features and one six-part series — that the company is going to market with.

Three of those titles already have a home: Zero Day, starring Robert De Niro as a former president charged with responding to a crippling cyberattack, is a Netflix series co-created and executive produced by Oppenheim, Eric Newman and New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt. 

Then there’s Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled Netflix feature, which centers on White House officials dealing with an incoming missile attack (sense a ripped-from-the-headlines theme in these titles so far)? That movie, written by Oppenheim, is in post-production currently.

Prologue is also backing The Root of All Evil, set up at  Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, which is described as a psychological thriller based on former New York Times correspondent Ravi Somaiya’s work reporting on an exorcism in Mexico City. That feature is being adapted by Sean Tretta.

And the shingle has the rights to Jill Blankenship’s 2024 Black List entry Trapped, whose logline reads, “A woman trapped in a tight cave shaft must fight to escape when the shaft starts unexpectedly filling up with water.” That title is repped by WME and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and is looking for a studio.

Sarah Bremner is launching the production banner after having most recently served as president of Ava DuVernay’s Array Filmworks and earlier spending five years at Netflix’s film division leading development on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Two Popes, Rebecca and more titles.

For Braun, this marks his latest turn after exiting as chairman of WME at the end of 2022. The exec, who joined its parent company Endeavor in 2019, had previously founded Whalerock Industries, the digital media company that was formerly BermanBraun and had earlier chaired ABC Entertainment Television Group from 1999 through 2004 where he was credited with greenlighting Lost and Grey’s Anatomy.

Prologue marks the next chapter for Oppenheim, who wrote the Oscar-nominated Natalie Portman feature Jackie as well co-wrote The Maze Runner and The Divergent Series: Allegiant. For five years, the executive led NBC News group as president, steering the division through the first Trump administration. Oppenheim exited in 2023 with a film and TV production deal with NBCUniversal.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Jeff Zucker and RedBird to launch Prologue Entertainment,” said Braun, Bremner and Oppenheim in a joint statement. “Together, we aim to create compelling fictional films and series, often drawing inspiration from real-world characters and events resulting in projects that both entertain and engage.”