EXCLUSIVE: We’ve heard from sources that Jason Seagraves has exited Cavalry Media as their SVP of Development.
Seagraves is the second executive to leave the management and production company following co-founder Dana Brunetti, which we first reported.
Seagraves, I understand, has both Brunetti and Cavalry Media co-founder Keegan Rosenberger’s approval to transition to a producorial role on his projects, one being the teen drama series Motorheads which is set up at Amazon Studios with John A. Norris as showrunner.
Motorheads is a coming-of-age ensemble drama, set in blue collar steel town that’s trying to reinvent itself. The show follows as its denizens navigate the hierarchy and rules of high school, while others are running from a dark past looking for new beginnings.
Before Cavalry Media, Seagraves was at Cross Creek Pictures as VP of Production and Development. There he steered such movies as the Oscar nominated Denzel Washington movie Roman J. Israel, Esq. and the award lauded Black Mass starring Johnny Depp. He’s served as a producer and co-producer on such titles as the Gerard Butler title The Vanishing, the Tom Cruise pic American Made and the Oscar nominated Hacksaw Ridge.
Following Brunetti’s exit, Deadline learned extensively that Cavalry Media is in the throes of a financial mess: They haven’t paid their employees’ over the last four pay periods, some not paid since summer. Third party vendors and talent are also owed monies. Cavalry eliminated their 14-person staff’s health insurance on Nov. 1. Rumors of Cavalry Media’s bankruptcy were rampant at the premiere of Amazon’s Daisy Jones and the Six on Thursday night from those we’ve spoke with.
Rosenberger told Deadline yesterday that “The company is not in a state of financial distress”, that they’re on the verge of a major acquisition in the audio podcast space, and that they have close to $3M of their seed funding left — the latter a very perplexing and upsetting detail for those who remain unpaid, having had to dip into their savings or borrow money to make ends meet. Rosenberger is not drawing a salary, we’ve been told. He’s always overseen the finances of Cavalry Media. As we told yesterday, staffers are making wage claims against Cavalry Media and lawyering up. They remain in limbo: Cavalry Media hasn’t filed bankruptcy or let them go. Meanwhile, they’ve been advised legally to stay at the company to let the wage clock tick. They’re also trying to get their projects extracted from the company. Still, expect more exits.