Parthenon Expands into Feature-Doc Arena

LONDON, July 9: Parthenon Entertainment has made its first
foray into the arena of feature-film finance and distribution, aligning with
Germany’s NDR Naturfilm for two family-friendly wildlife films.

Knut and His Friends,
produced by DocFilm and directed by Michael Johnson (Divided, The Nutcracker & The Mouseking), telling the story of Knut, a polar bear reared by
staff at the Berlin Zoo. The
film also follows the lives of bears in the wild, including a polar bear mother
and her three cubs in Northern Canada and a pair of orphaned brown bears in
Belarus.

Serengeti, from
documentary filmmakers Intervista, follows lions, gnus, cheetahs and hyenas as
they migrate across the plains through the course of a year. The film is
directed by Reinhardt Radke (Europe, a Natural History, Mutual of
Omaha’s Wild Kingdom).

Carl Hall, the
CEO of Parthenon Entertainment Group, stated: “We have been looking at getting
into feature film distribution for some time, and have acquired these two
stellar films to kick start the division in style. NDR Naturfilm has played a
pivotal role in setting up these deals with us, and are principals on both
projects. We look forward to getting more involved in feature projects and to a
steady growth of Parthenon’s feature films distribution business.”

—By Mansha Daswani