Endemol UK Invests in Pure Grass Films

LONDON, March 18: Endemol
UK has acquired a 40-percent stake
in British digital production outfit Pure Grass Films.

As part of this investment,
Tim Hincks, Endemol UK’s chief executive, and Peter Cowley, Endemol UK’s
managing director of digital media, have joined the board of Pure Grass Films. This
is Endemol UK’s second deal via its digital-media investment fund, which was
established to acquire a portfolio of assets specializing in digital platforms.
In August 2007 Endemol UK announced the acquisition of a 25-percent stake in digital-entertainment producer and
distributor MoMedia International.

Pure
Grass Films specializes in digital entertainment series with spin-off potential
for TV, feature films and console games. Forthcoming
productions from Pure Grass Films include Beyond
the Rave, which will be released
first on MySpaceTV on April 17 and followed by an international DVD release. Beyond
the Rave is a 20-part horror
series financed by Hammer Films. The series stars Sadie Frost (Dracula), Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette), Nora-Jane Noone (The Descent) and Tamer Hassan (Eastern Promises, The Football Factory).

Other recent credits for Pure Grass Films include When Evil Calls, a horror series for mobile phones starring Sean
Pertwee (Dog Soldiers), Dominique
Pinon (Amelie, Delicatessen) and Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf).

Pure
Grass Films was co-founded by managing director Ben Grass and creative director
Tom Grass in May 2005. Prior to
founding Pure
Grass Films, Ben Grass was the
director of Internet and mobile at Sony Pictures in London. He set up Sony’s
mobile group in Europe and was responsible for the distribution of mobile
content for movies such as Charlie’s Angels 2 and Spider-Man 2. Tom Grass wrote Beyond The Rave and has previously created mobile games for movies
such as Charlie’s Angels 2 and Bad
Boys 2.

Endemol UK’s Hincks
commented: “Our digital strategy is simple—we want to work with creative
people who have brilliant ideas. Ben and Tom fit the bill perfectly.”

Grass added, “We are
delighted to receive this backing from Endemol and really excited about the
opportunities it presents to develop our properties for cross-platform
exploitation on a global basis.”

—By Irene Lew