‘Hatfields & McCoys’ Producer Joanne Rubino Launches Be Brave Media With Biopic Of “Chocolate King” Milton Hershey

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. producer Joanne Rubino (Hatfields & McCoys), former President of Production at Think Factory Media, is launching LA-based Be Brave Media, with a slate of projects including a biopic of 'chocolate king' Milton Hershey.

Be Brave will develop, package and produce between three to six projects a year. Budget ranges of the films and TV series will vary.

Hershey will chart how Milton Hershey's journey began as a teenager in rural Pennsylvania and went on to see him found and run one of the world's leading confectioners and become a leading businessman and philanthropist. The M.S. Hershey Foundation, the Hershey Company, and the Hershey Trust Company have granted the producing team access to the Hershey Community Archives, including images, documents, and other private archive material.

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Rubino is producing with frequent collaborator and partner Darla Marasco of Marasco Media. Rubino also co-wrote the script with Sam Juergens and David Juergens who first brought her the project.

As announced last week, Rubino is also lining up movie Slinky, about the true story behind the iconic toy and how Betty James took over the struggling business after her husband left her with their six children and a nearly bankrupt company but managed to turn it into a goldmine. Tamra Davis (Billy Madison) is aboard to direct. Be Brave Media is producing in association with toy firm Just Play.

Prior to founding Be Brave, Rubino was President of Production for LA-based Think Factory Media, which was bought by ITV in 2013. Her producing credits include Hatfields & McCoys, America's Feud: Hatfields & McCoys, Sun Records and Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le.

Said Rubino: "In launching Be Brave Media, I've chosen to leave the beaten path and challenge the misnomer that to succeed, people must stay in a particular lane. Successful producers are flexible, collaborative and change agents with an understanding how the industry is shifting. How and where we consume media as well as how we access media has forever changed the landscape of film and television, but one thing that will never change is the audiences desire to lose one self in a great story and the need to simply be entertained."

Source: deadline.com