RHI Lines Up NBC, SCI FI Productions

NEW YORK: RHI Entertainment has clinched a deal with NBC for two summer productions, Meteor and The Storm, and has lined up SCI FI Channel as a partner on Riverworld, Phantom and Alice for its 2009-2010 season. 

"In this and any media market environment, as networks contemplate how they are going to fill their programming schedule, we offer a solution that provides tremendous value and the potential for strong ratings," said Robert Halmi Jr., the president and CEO of RHI. "The good news for our customers is that they don’t need to surrender quality to keep their own costs in line.  RHI offers events that push the envelope artistically, and have more attractive economics attached to them.”

Halmi continued: “We are excited about our film slate for 2009 and believe that these films, along with the others that we will be distributing this year, will provide value to us in terms of the first license, but will also refresh the value of our library.”

Riverworld and The Phantom are backdoor pilots for potential series that RHI will distribute, as part of the company’s efforts to broaden its slate beyond TV movies and mini-series into series programming. "The company believes that we have the business affairs, production and distribution infrastructure already in place to more aggressively and successfully enter this segment of the business without significant investment.  Further, the use of certain movie and miniseries projects as backdoor pilots allows us to transition to this new model from a position of strength.”

Premiering on NBC on June 7, the mini-series Meteor stars Christopher Lloyd and Marla Sokoloff as scientists who discover that two massive rocks have collided in space and are hurtling towards Earth. The cast also includes Billy Campbell, Jason Alexander and Stacy Keach.

The Storm, premiering July 19, features Treat Williams, James Van Der Beek, Teri Polo, David James Elliott, Marisol Nichols, John Larroquette and Luke Perry in a tale of man against nature when a man-made weather experiment goes out of control.  

Riverworld, based on the bestselling, award-winning novels by the late Phillip Jose Farmer, comes to SCI FI in 2010 as a four-hour epic event, telling the story of a combat photojournalist who awakens in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth has been “reborn” along the banks of a seemingly endless river.  

The Phantom has been revamped for today’s audiences in a heroic event scheduled to premiere on SCI FI in 2010. And premiering this year is a reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.