MarVista’s Beyond the Break Heads to Brazil

LOS ANGELES, December 12: MarVista Entertainment has inked
its first deal with Brazil’s Globo, which has acquired the prime-time drama
series Beyond the Break for the Globosat
channel Multishow.

The 17-hour series was created by Michael D. Jacobs and
Brookwell McNamara Entertainment’s (BME) David Brookwell and Sean McNamara (That’s
So Raven, Even Stevens, Raise Your Voice).
It centers on four girls and their dream to become world-class professional
surfers. The show’s executive producers are Michael D. Jacobs, Fernando Szew,
David Brookwell, Sean McNamara and Matt Dearborn. It premiered in June 2006 in
the U.S. on The N. In Europe, the series has been licensed to the U.K.’s Five,
Italy’s RAI, Spain’s La Sexta, France’s M6, Norway’s TV2, Denmark’s TV2 and
Belgium’s Club RTL and SBS, reaching over 85 million households. In October of
this year, the series launched across Asia on Star World, reaching more than 25
million homes throughout 30 countries. Furthermore, MarVista recently granted
exclusive free-TV and home video rights for the series to Japanese distributor
Twin Co., who will license the rights locally to reach the country’s 45 million
TV households.

With the international success of the show, MarVista has
appointed Marc B. Lorber to the newly created position of senior VP of
production, with the mandate of developing this and other series into formatted
programming. In his role, Lorber will helm the expansion of the company’s
original productions and acquisitions, including feature films, TV movies and
series, for broadcast both in the U.S. and internationally. Initially, his
focus will be on developing local versions for Beyond the Break and a number of other kids’ titles and movies in the
MarVista library. He will report to the company president, Michael D. Jacobs.

Since 2002, Lorber has provided program consultancy services
to various companies, most recently to Disney-ABC International TV. Based in
London, Lorber oversaw format sales, development and production for titles such
as The Amazing Race and Golden
Girls. His career has also included stints
at Sony Pictures Television International, Carlton America and Phoenix Pictures.

“Since inception four years ago,
MarVista has produced the prime-time teen series Beyond the Break, a co-production with the MTV Networks, and has
served as executive producers for several movies licensed to a number of U.S.
cable networks,” commented Jacobs. “We have had a great deal of enthusiasm from
our international broadcast partners to localize not only Beyond the
Break, but a number of our top-rated
television movies that have aired on the SCI FI Channel, ABC Family and
Lifetime Television, and we are delighted that Marc, given his extensive
background in production and television formats, has joined us to drive this
growth.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski