Known for its award-winning comedy commercials, World War Seven has diversified with the formation of WW7 Entertainment, led by producers Peter Kline and Alex Needles. The new venture has a full slate of films, episodic offerings, and podcasts set to debut this year, starting with its first feature film, Pavements, which rolls out this week at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
Pavements, a prismatic doc-musical hybrid from director Alex Ross Perry, is a cinematic deep dive into the enigmatic world of the iconic ‘90s band Pavement and features a cast including Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker, Joe Keery, Zoe Lister-Jones, Nat Wolff, and Fred Hechinger. Pavements was produced in collaboration with Vice Films, Rick Yorn, and Matador Records.
The new WW7 Entertainment shingle is emerging with a full slate of titles to be announced shortly, including a documentary on an iconic musician with Sony Pictures Classics, and a true crime podcast series with Wondery. In addition to the unscripted projects, WW7 Entertainment is actively developing a slate of scripted comedy projects, a natural evolution of the work WW7 has long been doing on the commercial side.
With the launch of WW7 Entertainment, the company is building on 14 years of producing captivating commercials, and Kline and Needles are well positioned to help translate this legacy into long-form. With backgrounds straddling features and advertising, Kline and Needles have the ability to bridge traditional entertainment with brand storytelling, which has led to successful partnerships with clients like Lyft, Pepsi, and Coinbase.
“This is a big moment for WW7, “ said David Shafei who’s partnered in the overall company with Josh Ferrazzano and Sloane Skala. “Peter and Alex are incredibly talented, and their experience in both branded work and entertainment is exactly what we wanted for this new venture. I’m eager to share what we’ve been working on, but we’ll let the work speak for itself–you’ll see. We’re all really excited about this new chapter.”
Kline said, “We feel very fortunate to be joining David, Josh, and Sloane who have built a really special company. We look forward to growing with them, making stories that break boundaries, and ask questions, which surprise, delight, amuse, and challenge. Our evolution into feature films and comedy projects is a natural extension of WW7’s exceptional commercial work. We have a lot to share in the coming year and beyond, and we can’t wait!”
