Variety: WWE parts ways with Fox, Lionsgate, studio inks deal with Samuel Goldwyn, Vivendi. Part 1
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H-Mogul
Jan 19 '10, 01:06
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Vince McMahon isn't giving up on pinning down the box office.
After setting up films at Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox over the last decade, the colorful chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment is taking full control over the distribution of the company's future slate of movies, inking a deal with Samuel Goldwyn Films to oversee theatrical releases, while Vivendi Entertainment will handle pics across various homevideo formats in North America.
As part of the move, WWE Studios, the company's film arm, will finance and produce nine movies through 2012, that it can fully own and exploit in theaters, on homevideo, through licensing deals and eventually on its own WWE TV network that it wants to launch.
After self-producing four of its own theatrical releases, "we've learned a great deal that brings us to where we are now," McMahon told Daily Variety. "This is an opportunity for us to completely control everything from the production all the way through to release. We're putting our money where our mouth is."
Budgets of each film will hover around $5 million in order to reduce the company's risk but also increase the potential upside from hits.
The pricetag is far smaller than what WWE's other films have cost. Last year's actioner "12 Rounds," helmed by Renny Harlin and produced with the now shuttered Fox Atomic banner, was made for $24 million, but only earned $17 million worldwide.
It's saving considerable production coin from tax incentives and startup costs by lensing each pic nearly back-to-back in New Orleans, with crews moving from one film to the next once production wraps.
The slate deal with WWE is a first for Samuel Goldwyn. In the past it's focused on distributing one-off projects for producers, like "The Squid and the Whale" and "Supersize Me."
It scored a major win for Sherwood Pictures last fall with the Kirk Cameron-starrer "Fireproof," that was made for less than $1 million and surprised the biz when it opened to $6.8 million and wound up at $33 million after being heavily marketed to Christians.
McMahon wants to replicate that kind of success by overhauling the way its movies are made and marketed.
That means straying away from having its wrestlers star in traditional R-rated genre fare like actioners or horror films, and instead surround them with more established actors in PG-rated family fare.
It needs to considering it has yet to produce a breakout hit. Previous releases like "See No Evil," "The Marine" and "The Condemned" have collectively earned $49 million worldwide, although recent direct-to-DVD title "The Marine 2" is performing well.
"We didn't just want to put (our wrestlers) in just any genre movie where they play cliched characters," said Mike Pavone, executive VP of WWE Studios. "They have to be used carefully to protect them."
WWE is now passing on movies like "The Marine 3" and instead making "Brother's Keeper," a family drama about a teen, with no apparent athletic talents, who tries to reunite his mother and estranged older brother, a college wrestling legend, by joining the high school wrestling team. Think "The Blind Side" with grapplers that stars John Cena, Patricia Clarkson, Danny Glover and Devon Graye ("Dexter"). Mel Damski ("Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies") helms from a script by John Posey.
"Brother's Keeper," which bows sometime this summer, will be followed in the fall by the comedy "Knucklehead," starring the Big Show, Dennis Farina and Mark Feuerstein. "Big Red," a coming-of-age drama that features Randy Orton, as well as a thriller penned for Dave Batista and two more comedies, one with Cena, described as "Midnight Run" with a kid, are also in the works.
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Part 2
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H-Mogul
Jan 19, 01:09
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