Matt Hastings Signs First-Look Deal With Neshama
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- Matt Hastings signed a first-look development and production agreement with Canada's Neshama Entertainment to develop and produce original scripted and unscripted programming across TV and film.
- Fox Entertainment Global will handle international distribution of projects developed under the deal, leveraging Fox's existing ownership stake in Toronto-based Neshama, while Neshama retains local Canadian rights.
- Hastings brings a résumé that includes Emmy winner Fallen, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, Apple TV's Circuit Breakers, Shadowhunters, The Originals, Eureka, and Alphas, with more than 300 hours of TV and feature film production to his name.
- Neshama Entertainment is best known as the producer of Hallmark Channel's long-running one-hour drama The Way Home.
- Neshama EVP Dayna Zipursky called Hastings "an exceptional storyteller with a remarkable ability to build emotionally rich, commercially compelling worlds," while Hastings cited the company's "shared ambition to tell bold, ambitious stories" alongside Fox's distribution reach.
- Hastings is represented by The Gotham Group and Bob Getman at Jackoway Austen.
Why it matters: The deal gives Neshama — historically tied to Hallmark's family-friendly one-hour drama lane — a showrunner with genre and prestige credentials (Shadowhunters, The Originals, The Handmaid's Tale), signaling a slate diversification beyond *The Way Home*. Fox's distribution arm gets first international rights to whatever Hastings develops, giving the U.S. studio a conduit into Neshama's new creative output built around a producer with 300-plus hours of credits.
