Graham King takes the reins at GK-tv after Craig Cegielski exit

Movie producer Graham King has taken over the running of his company’s TV department after the departure of its president, Craig Cegielski.

TBI understands that Cegielski left GK-tv late last year. He is now running a new entertainment firm called Open Circle, which is based in LA.

GK moved swiftly to deny that his exit meant the production company was winding down its TV unit. “GK-tv is very much an active division at GK Films,” a spokesman said. “Mr. King is currently overseeing the Televsion division until he finds the right person to take the [president] position.”

The spokesman added that the TV unit has several projects in the works including the TV version of Gangs of New York, which is being developed with Miramax and Martin Scorsese, who directed the movie. King was a producer on the 2002 feature.

It is also continuing to develop Hurt People, the drama for US cable net Cinemax, starring William Petersen as a dysfunctional hitman. It marks the star’s return to TV after his long stint as the lead in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

GK is also still actively working up Norwegian author Hanne Wilhelmsen’s Anne Holt detective novels for TV, according to its spokesman.

GK’s representative added that Port Royal, remains in development. The pirate series is being made by Gale Ann Hurd’s Valhalla and GK for FX. A period drama series based the life of the founder of the Hollywood Reporter, and produced by GK and Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil for Lifetime, is also still in development. Both were originally announced in 2011.

King, producer of The Departed and numerous other big-ticket movies, launched GK-tv in late 2009, bringing on Cegielski as president. Prior to joining GK, Cegielski had been executive VP, programming and sales, at Lionsgate and director, production, at CBS International Television.