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Sean Bailey, longtime head of global film production for Disney, has opened the doors to B5 Studios. He will serve as CEO to an executive team that includes producers Justin Springer and Jeff Silver as Head of Creative and Head of Production, respectively. B5 will make content for film, TV and emerging formats. The studio is backed by RedBird Capital Partners (“RedBird”). B5 launches with an array of relationships, including several R&D projects with Meta, along with numerous active content projects with top creatives. “B5 is poised to take advantage of a major market opportunity, giving great artists a new set of tools and opportunities to share their stories with audiences. We are already collaborating with some of the industry’s best creatives, equipping them with the innovative technologies and business models of a future-facing studio. The deep experience of our executives and advisors will be invaluable as we not only create excellent films and television series, but also trailblaze new entertainment formats that open doors for storytellers. We have a fantastic slate of artist-driven partnerships and projects in the works, and we can’t wait to share them with audiences around the world,” said Bailey. “I have known Sean for over twenty years, and we have a shared view on how technology can support and further enable the creative community to generate great content, expand formats and reach consumers,” said Gerry Cardinale, Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird. “RedBird will lean into supporting Sean and the exceptional team at B5, bringing our business building resources, including capital and operating expertise, to help scale the business.” B5’s advisory board consists of Ed Catmull, Pixar Co-founder and former President of Pixar and Disney Animation; Jason Blum, acclaimed producer and Blumhouse Founder & CEO; Dr. Maneesh Agrawala, Stanford professor and Director of Stanford’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation; Dr. Georgia Gkioxari, Caltech professor and Meta AI researcher; Yair Landau, former Sony Pictures Vice Chair and former Partner at MK Capital; Doug Shapiro, Senior Advisor at BCG and former Chief Strategy Officer for Turner; and Kareem Daniel, Executive Advisor at KKR and Former Chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution. Bailey served for 14 years as President of Disney Worldwide Production, shepherding several billion-dollar blockbuster releases, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. For roughly half of Bailey’s tenure, Disney was the world’s #1 studio at the box office, and in 2019, The Walt Disney Studios had the most successful year in the history of the film industry. Bailey was on the launch team of Disney+, and he was the Executive Sponsor of Disney StudioLAB, an innovation hub dedicated to advancing storytelling through emerging technologies. Bailey exited the studio in February 2024, and focused on producing Tron: Ares which is currently in theaters, having grossed over $124 million worldwide. Springer was most recently in a long-term overall deal with The Walt Disney Company, producing feature films as well as developing, consulting, and producing across television, animation, publishing, theme parks, and games. He is known for the Oscar-nominated Tron franchise, Tim Burton’s Dumbo, and Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion. He served as a resident producer for Disney’s StudioLAB, overseeing projects in AR, VR, and real-time, as well as the first-ever interactive content on Disney+. Silver has produced or executive produced 34 films, topping $6 billion at the global box office. He is recognized for pioneering innovative technologies across the film production pipeline to produce blockbuster hits, such as the Academy Award-nominated live-action remakes of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, as well as The Little Mermaid, 300, Terminator: Salvation, and Edge of Tomorrow.
