Warrior Productions Launches With Three-Project Slate
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- Michelle Mendelovitz and Cory Bennett Lewis launched Warrior Productions, a film and TV company focused on developing movies and series from original ideas and existing IP with established and emerging creators.
- Warrior Productions set its initial development slate of three projects: supernatural horror feature DeMonica, sci-fi drama The Continuers, and the Marguerite Alibert series Bordello Princess.
- Mendelovitz previously served as SVP and Head of Drama Development at 20th Television, Senior Creative Executive on Apple TV's founding team, and VP Scripted Programming at Sony Pictures Television, with credits on Severance, For All Mankind, Dopesick, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Good Doctor.
- Cory Bennett Lewis was Head of Production at J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, with credits on Star Wars, Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Alice in Wonderland, Jack Ryan, and Cloverfield franchises, plus Lovecraft Country, Lisey's Story, Castle Rock, and the Netflix film Lou.
- The pair previously worked together at Mattel Television Studios, where Lewis joined as Head of Production in April 2024 and Mendelovitz ran the studio before departing in August 2024.
- DeMonica writer-director Miguel Angel Ferrer's most recent feature The Shadow of the Sun was Venezuela's official 2026 Academy Awards submission, and his short My Father's Son screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Why it matters: Warrior enters a crowded independent production landscape armed with heavyweight resumes from Apple TV, Bad Robot, Mattel, 20th Television, and Sony, giving the new banner immediate access to high-level talent — Mendelovitz already serves as EP on M. Night Shyamalan and Brad Falchuk's Magic 8 Ball at Mattel. The debut slate mixes a buzzy Cannes-adjacent horror, a literary sci-fi property optioned ahead of English publication, and a prestige period drama centered on a real historical murder case, signaling the founders are targeting both genre and awards-track buyers from day one.
