Greg Berlanti
signs with Disney

Everwood creator Greg Berlanti has signed a three-year production deal with Disney's Touchstone Television under a mid-seven-figure pact that marks a major transition for the TV veteran. The openly gay Berlanti spent the past three years at Warner Bros. Television, the studio behind the WB Network's Everwood. He got his start on the WB's Dawson's Creek and went on to create Everwood and executive-produce the WB's short-lived Jack & Bobby. Berlanti also wrote and directed the feature film The Broken Hearts Club.

The deal with Touchstone TV was in the works for months, with the preliminary agreement between the two sides preceding the surprise late-January announcement of the upcoming shutdown of WB and UPN and the launch of the CW. On the day of the new network's announcement, Everwood was not listed among the WB and UPN series expected to make the switch to CW, but Berlanti hoped the acclaimed family drama would continue beyond its current fourth season. (Nellie Andreeva, Reuters)