Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey’s Maximum Effort businesses have been reunited.
The Maximum Effort film and TV studio is re-merging with the brand marketing company that was previously sold to the advertising platform MNTN in 2021, a source familiar with the transaction tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The deal will see MNTN and Maximum Effort continue to work together via a services agreement, and Reynolds will continue to work as chief creative officer for MNTN.
“4 years ago when Maximum Effort Marketing became a part of MNTN, we along with MNTN always contemplated a day when our marketing arm would rejoin Maximum Effort Productions as an independent entity,” a spokesperson for Maximum Effort says. “The original agreements were drafted specifically with this in mind because it’s important for us to maintain our creative freedom. So while we’re structurally going forward as separate entities, the reality is MNTN and Maximum Effort have grown together and will continue our amazing creative partnership. We will remain in lock step with Ryan Reynolds maintaining his role as Chief Creative Officer at MNTN.”
MNTN disclosed in an IPO filing last week that it would be selling its stake in Maximum Effort, though the specifics of that deal have remained under wraps until now. Sources say that the deal will see the film and TV studio and marketing firm, which was founded by Reynolds and Dewey in 2018, once again brought under the same roof.
Maximum Effort received equity in MNTN when it sold the marketing business in 2021, though the current value of those shares is not clear. A source says that the companies had been talking about re-merging the two companies for about nine months, and the MNTN IPO filing just happened to be when they had to disclose it. The deal is expected to close April 1.
Maximum Effort’s film and TV studio has worked on projects like the Deadpool franchise, Free Guy, If Welcome to Wrexham and Shotgun Wedding, while the marketing agency has developed spots for Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile and Match.com.