THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010449
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
International Family Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday that it's going into the motion-picture business and that it's hired a prominent Hollywood executive to spearhead the venture.
IFE, Beach-based parent of The Family Channel cable-TV network, said that it plans to produce four G- or PG-rated feature films a year under the name Family Channel Pictures.
Anthony D. Thomopoulos, president of the TV-production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment company, will head the film venture as chief executive of IFE's MTM Entertainment Inc. subsidiary.
Thomopoulos, who previously held senior positions at ABC and United Artists Pictures, will also be in charge of all entertainment programming for The Family Channel. And he will be responsible for the creative elements of IFE's newly acquired Ice Capades, as well as its Great American Entertainment music theaters.
``The really big news here is Tony,'' said Timothy B. Robertson, IFE's president and chief executive officer. ``I've been looking for a while now for somebody with his kind of credentials to fill this role for us.''
Robertson said that the hiring of Thomopoulos is ``something of a shift in the focus of the company.''
To date, IFE's programming decisions have largely been made in Virginia Beach. ``We are admitting that to take our company to the next level,'' Robertson said, ``we've got to work more within the Hollywood system.''
Thomopoulos will be based out of MTM's Hollywood offices. Robertson said that it is too early to say if any IFE executives in Virginia Beach will move to California as part of the shift in authority.
IFE's decision to enter the motion-picture business is no surprise. It has been hinting in recent months that it was considering with the idea. IFE already commissions original movies for The Family Channel and last month announced a joint venture with Hallmark Entertainment, the leading producer of made-for-TV movies, to expand The Family Channel's original-movie lineup.
In entering the world of theatrical releases, Robertson said that IFE's plans are modest: films that cost from $8 million to $12 million each. He said that the company has commissioned a few scripts already, but likely won't start filming unless it has signed on partners who'll share the cost. The likely first release, he said, will be mid-1996.
Robertson said that films from Family Channel Pictures will have ``themes of hope, redemption, positive values.'' After theatrical release, he said, IFE will sell the movies for home video and pay TV and probably also run them on The Family Channel.
Part of Thomopoulos' job, Robertson said, will be coordinating the premiers of various IFE programs and live shows to capitalize on one another. For instance, he said, the Ice Capades might share themes or characters featured on Family Channel movies or TV shows.
In his most recent job, at Amblin, Thomopoulos placed four shows on network TV: ``SeaQuest,'' ``ER'' and ``Earth 2'' on NBC, and ``Fudge,'' a Saturday morning live-action series on ABC. ILLUSTRATION: Color logo
by CNB