Sean Bailey

As a co-founder and executive of LivePlanet,[4] Bailey served as executive producer for The Emperor's Club, the Emmy Award-nominated Project Greenlight, Push, Nevada (which he also co-wrote with Ben Affleck), and as producer of Best Laid Plans, Matchstick Men, and Gone Baby Gone.[5]

From 2004 to 2008, Bailey continued as chairman and board member of LivePlanet while under a writing-producing deal at ABC Studios.[6] In 2008, the film wing of LivePlanet was dissolved and Bailey teamed with Disney to form the production banner Ideology Inc, which produced Tron: Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 film Tron.[7]

In November 2009, it was announced that Bailey would produce a remake of the 1979 film The Black Hole, which never materialized.[7] He co-wrote (with Ted Griffin) the original screenplay for the 2016 film Solace, starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell.[8]

In January 2010, Bailey was named president of production at Walt Disney Studios, overseeing live-action films produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures.[2] Under Bailey, Disney has pursued a tentpole film strategy, which included an expanded slate of large-budget films, including franchise sequels, original films, and live-action adaptations of their animated films. The studio found particular success with the latter type of films, which began with the commercial success of Alice in Wonderland (2010), and continued with Maleficent (2014), Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), Pete's Dragon (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), The Lion King (2019), and The Little Mermaid (2023). Bailey has overseen the release of five films that have surpassed $1 billion in global box office: Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, as well as The Lion King, which earned nearly $1.7 billion worldwide.[9][10] The division has also produced reimaginings of other fairy-tale and classic stories such as Oz The Great and Powerful (2013), Into the Woods (2014), and Cruella.[11][12]

Other tentpole films including The Lone Ranger (2013), Tomorrowland (2015) and literary adaptations of John Carter (2012), The BFG (2016), and A Wrinkle in Time (2018), became box-office disappointments. Despite the renewed focus on tentpole films, the studio continued to produce smaller, "brand-deposit" films, such as The Muppets (2011) and Saving Mr. Banks (2013), a period drama which was the first time the studio had depicted its namesake co-founder onscreen.[13]

With the launch of Disney's streaming service Disney+ in November 2019, Bailey expanded the studio's output with a mix of projects from reimaginings of classic titles such as Lady and the Tramp and Pinocchio, featuring Tom Hanks as Geppetto; character-driven films such as Togo; inspirational sports dramas such as Rise, about NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo; and sequels to popular originals as Hocus Pocus 2, Enchanted follow-up Disenchanted, and Peter Pan & Wendy.[14][15][16] The studio also produces adaptations of children's and young adult books such as Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, Flora & Ulysses, Stargirl, and Better Nate Than Ever for Disney+.

Bailey is noted for transforming Disney's live-action film slate with female-led tentpoles featuring empowered, contemporary heroines and expanding representation in these roles. Notable examples include Halle Bailey as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell in Peter Pan & Wendy, Storm Reid in A Wrinkle in Time, and Rachel Zegler as Snow White in the studio's 2024 live-action reimagining of the Disney classic. Throughout his tenure, he has also championed female directors for major projects, including Ava DuVernay, Mira Nair, and Julia Hart.[17]

In 2012, Bailey was named to the board of Sundance Institute, where he serves as Vice Chair.[18][19] In 2015, he joined the Board of Trustees at Caltech, serving on its JPL Committee.[20][21]