Paramount unveils new specialty film unit

Friday May 19 9:26 AM ET

Film studio Paramount Pictures on Friday unveiled a new division called Paramount Vantage aimed at releasing low-budget films with broad appeal to capture audiences in the expanding independent film arena.

The unit's formation is the first major move for John Lesher, who recently took the reins at Paramount's specialty film unit, Paramount Classics. It also comes as studio chairman Brad Gray continues to revamp Paramount Pictures.

Paramount Vantage aims to release eight to 10 films a year, ranging from low-budget comedies and horror films to sophisticated art house fare such as "Babel," starring Brad Pitt, which premieres this week at the Cannes film festival.

"Investing in a specialty division so that we can become competitive in this area has been a part of Brad Grey's overall vision for turning around the studio," Lesher said in a statement.

The low-budget, or "specialty" divisions of major studios have become increasingly important in recent years because the movies they produce and release are made for relatively small amounts of money, but can reap huge profits if successful.

Last year's award-winning gay romance "Brokeback Mountain," for instance, was produced for about $14 million by Universal Pictures' Focus Features specialty unit and took in $178 million at box offices worldwide.

When Gray took the reins of Paramount Pictures in 2005, one of his main goals was revamping and expanding the studio's specialty unit, Paramount Classics. Gray hired Lesher to come in and remake the division.

As part of Friday's announcement, the company said Paramount Classics would continue to exist, but now focus on films with a more narrow appeal such as foreign-language movies and documentaries like the upcoming global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth," which also is screening at Cannes.

Both Paramount Classics and Paramount Vantage will be overseen by Lesher.

Other films to be released by the new Paramount Vantage label in 2007 include Joel and Ethan Coen's "No Country for Old Men," and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood."

Paramount Pictures and the two specialty divisions are part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc..

Link to article on Yahoo

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TV writers want to be involved with product placement talks

Here's an interesting article from Media Daily News about TV writers' desire to be involved in talks about product placement out of concerns about content. From a WGA press conference yesterday.

Remanded Entertainment: TV Writers Ask To Be Part Of Product Placement Talks

by Wayne Friedman, Thursday, May 18, 2006 7:45 AM EST

IT'S NOT ABOUT MONEY, TV writers say, in their concerns over newfangled brand integration and product placement deals: They just want to be part of the discussions.

This was the message from the Writers Guild of America press conference yesterday in New York City, in the midst of the broadcast networks' week of upfront program presentations.

"We just want to be part of the dialogue," said John Wells, executive producer of "The West Wing" and "ER." "We want to be part of the conversation."

But the network and studios may not be hearing this call. When asked how management responded to the writers' request for meetings about product placement, WGA West President Patric Verrone said there was "a roaring silence. The sense we get from reading the trades is that it's a problem solvable by bargaining. But we haven't been given a time and a place."

"It's not about compensation," said David Young, interim executive director of WGA West. Writers say it's the creative rights issues. "The problem for us is the quality of the content."

Neal Baer, executive producer of "Law & Order: SVU," said: "There's a huge difference with being presented with a list of product and how many times it needs to be run--and being given the opportunity to have real creative input in how it's being done. Our concerns are about the well-being of the product."

What is a good product placement? A couple of years ago, "Days of Our Lives" had an episode about the death of a child, said one panelist. Kleenex sponsored the episode--but with no product placement in the episode itself. Kleenex didn't force its brand name inside the episode--say, when the mother needed a tissue when she began crying.

Still, there are payment issues over product placement--and questions, say the WGA. Do the actors get a piece of the product placement? What about the network? The production company? A lot of paid product placement still varies greatly. Should there be specific rules?

"Desperate Housewives" creator and Executive Producer Marc Cherry said some companies can have certain demands. For instance, one car company didn't want one character on the show driving its specific sexy car. This deal was turned down.

"We have to make sure we are still driving the train," said Cherry. "We are very respectful of the writers on our show. We [also] don't want to promote something that may be at cross-purposes with our advertisers."

Link to article

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