Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, Inc. (www.es.tv), which produces and distributes 38 television programs worldwide, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations and owner of eight 24-hour HD cable networks, has announced its acquisition of the global media rights to "Deconstructing Sammy," Matt Birkbeck’s critically-acclaimed biography of legendary entertainer, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Entertainment Studios will produce the Davis story as a motion picture, a scripted television series, and a documentary. The scripted television series will look at the world of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s from the point of view of Sammy Davis, Jr.

“I personally knew and worked with Sammy Davis, Jr.,” said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios. “Sammy hired me to open for him at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas when I was a 19-year-old standup comedian, and that’s where my fascination with his incredible story began. ‘Deconstructing Sammy’ is an amazing work of literature. It is the perfect foundation for a movie, a scripted television series, and a documentary about this legendary global icon.”

Global distribution of "Deconstructing Sammy" will be handled by Entertainment Studios’ recently-acquired motion picture finance and distribution company, Freestyle Releasing. 

Production is set to begin in the second quarter of 2016.

No word on casting for the film or TV series, or whether the same actor/actors will be cast in both.