One thing you should know about Philip Byron is that he is not a sports fan. Like, not at all. He knows it’s a little weird that he recently left LeBron James’ production company for Tom Brady’s.
“From one GOAT to another”, as Byron said The Hollywood Reporter. Roughly.
At SpringHill Company, James’s banner, Byron was responsible for unscripted series and docuseries. For Brady’s Shadow Lion, he will oversee all original content: unscripted, scripted, features, documentaries and live programming. It’s been a great success story from humble beginnings for DanceOn, which in 2012 was selected as one of YouTube’s 100 “funded channels” (officially: YouTube Original Channel Initiative). He got a taste of screenwriting with Lloyd Braun, first at BermanBraun (also with Gail Berman), who later moved to Whalerock Industries.
In 2016, the sports-blind Byron joined James’ SpringHill, where he was a “one-man band” for the unscripted documentary department for four years; he would later add scripted. In these roles, Byron produced CBS competition series One million dollar thousandthe HBO documentary Muhammad Ali What is my name? and about 50 other projects, literally.
It’s a good thing James is “such a good guy,” in Byron’s words, because the hiring wasn’t a breeze. (Pause for laughter.)
“I tell people frankly that I’m not a sports person, which confuses them,” Byron said. THR – and, it seems, James and his business partner Maverick Carter. “But I like a good story and I feel like I have a good eye for what can sell and get made.”
Byron’s sales pitch says it’s better for matters he is not in sport, despite the masters (at least of their sports) he serves. “I think it helps, ultimately,” Byron said.
Although there are many die-hard sports fans in the United States, there are even more. not-die-hard sports fans, and this is the POV that Byron brings to his GOATs or at least his close associates. Byron says the “biggest misconception” about working with these high-profile athletes is attending all the pitch meetings.
“I very rarely needed LeBron’s time,” he said. When THR I spoke with Byron, he was on day 4 of his tenure at Shadow Lion, so TBD on TB
At Brady’s banner, Byron, channeling TLC (the girl group, not the cable channel), says he plans to “stick to the rivers and lakes you’re used to” – in this case, that’s football – “the space we should clearly own” – not basketball. But he also wants to create “super wide” stuff.
“To me, the NFL audience is families, women, men, young, old — it’s all over the country, all over the world,” Byron said. “All these people who watch NFL games have other interests, in terms of movies and television and documentaries. So how can we think about creating things for them?”
Still, Brady, now an NFL analyst for Fox Sports and co-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, will be Byron’s “north star” — as James was at SpringHill.
What does this mean? Well, one thing Byron wants to do is bring back the “great youth sports movies” that he (and I, and maybe you) “grew up with.”
“I want to get into these big youth sports movies that I grew up with,” Byron said. “There were so many at the time: The sandy ground, Angels in the outfield, Little giants, avant-garde – it was endless.
Also on his list: competition series “à la Alone Or Survivor”, which, according to Byron, “seems very mature to us”.
“But I really don’t put any safeguards in place,” Byron said.
Neither does Shadow Lion. Brady’s banner has “no traditional Hollywood deals in place,” Byron said, leaving him and Tommy “free and clear” in the story space.
Byron and Brady seem like a winning combination. As long as they don’t meet the New York Giants. (Sorry, not sorry, Tommy.)
