Lava Bear Films unveils production execs

David Linde's recently minted Lava Bear Films has tapped production exec Zachary Studin as its VP of production and promoted Jennifer Semler to director of production.Lava Bear, formed earlier this year as a production/financing entity, made the announcement Thursday.Studin's been assigned to find new projects and manage ongoing development and production while Semler, a long-time member of Linde's team, will coordinate post production. Both will report to head of production Tory Metzger.Studin joins Lava Bear following three years with Lionsgate as director of development. Prior to Lionsgate, he served as the director of development for Alli Shearmur's production shingle. He also worked at Paramount as an assistant to the co-president of Production as well as assistant to Scott Rudin.Semler started with Linde as his executive assistant when Linde served as chairman for Universal Pictures. In 2010, prior to the founding of Lava Bear, Semler worked closely with Linde on "Biutiful," "360" and "Heroes on Nanking." She was also a writers' assistant for "America's Funniest Home Videos" for five seasons.Reliance Entertainment is a major equity partner in Lava Bear, which has a production and distribution agreement with Universal. Lava Bear also has output partnerships in several territories with companies including Entertainment One, Reliance, Italia Films, Nordisk Film, Revolutionary Releasing, Sun Distribution, and Tele Mnchen Group. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com