MGM Looks to Produce for Home Entertainment Market

CANNES,
April 18: At MIPTV, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios (MGM) announced plans to develop and produce content based on its
established franchises for the home-entertainment market, focusing on proven
hits with young adult consumers.

Jason Weiss, who is
driving the new initiative as VP, noted: “We're targeting today's savvy media
consumer who demands quality video entertainment regardless of where that
entertainment experience takes place. By leveraging film and television
franchises, which have already proven to be popular with specific targeted
demographic groups, we're able to both continually replenish our library while
also maximizing revenues from our existing film and television programming.”

MGM plans to release 12 or
more projects per year, primarily based on popular film and television
franchises with wide appeal to today's young adult entertainment consumers.

MGM will develop a new
installment of the corrupt-cop thriller Dark Blue, written by John Herzfeld (2 Days in the Valley). The studio will also develop Audrey Rose, a remake of the 1977 supernatural suspense film.

Continuing to target young
adult males, MGM will produce genre fare projects based on original
screenplays. The studio will release Pet, a horror-thriller written by Jeremy Slater and the action-packed Angelmaker, written by Alexander Vesha.

Aiming at the young female
audience, MGM will be producing Legally Blondes, written by Chad and Dara Creasey and starring
British twins Camilla and Rebecca Rosso as cousins of the Elle Woods character,
made famous by actress Reese Witherspoon. The studio will also release the
figure skater themed Cutting Edge
3.

Focusing on young adults
in general, MGM will develop a new show based on the acclaimed Showtime series Dead
Like Me. The new edition will be
written by Steven Godchaux and directed by Stephen Herek. MGM will also start
production shortly on Captive,
a claustrophobic thriller written and directed by Amanda Gusack.

MGM had previously
announced the soon to be released science fiction adventure Species: The
Awakening and the high-tech themed
Wargames: The Dead Code. The
studio is also beginning production on two films based on its Stargate franchise, the longest-running science-fiction
series in U.S. TV history: Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.