LGF & Marvel Reach Deal With Striking Writers

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Marvel Entertainment Inc. reached interim agreements with striking Hollywood writers, moves that may lend momentum to union talks with the major media companies. The contracts are similar to ones the Writers Guild of America reached with United Artists, Worldwide Pants, Spyglass Entertainment, MRC, Jackson Bites, Mandate Films and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, the union said yesterday in a statement.

The deals allow the studios to resume work on television shows and movies, including Marvel's "Thor.''

Lions Gate, the largest independent studio, will return to work on several TV shows, spokesman Peter Wilkes said. The company produces ``Mad Men'' for American Movie Classics, a cable channel owned by Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision Systems Corp., and ``Weeds,'' which airs on CBS Corp.'s Showtime network.

Marvel will go back to work on films based on its comic book characters, including "Captain America,'' "Ant-Man'' and "The Avengers,'' the company said in a statement.

The agreements were announced after the close of regular trading in U.S. markets.

The Directors Guild of America reached a 3 year deal with the studios' bargaining group, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, that increases pay for films and television shows sold on the Web.

Critical Points

-Writers have lost about $211 million in pay since walking off the job

-The strike has idled about 11,000 film and TV workers and cost the local economy about $1.6 billion, he estimates.
-The walkout had cost non-writer unionized workers, including stage hands, about $364 million

Lionsgate Films signs deal with IFC!

~The IFC Network (Independant Film Channel) pays $12 million for 70 movies~


The Independent Film Channel has shelled out about $12 million for a package of 70 movies from Lionsgate, many of them TV premieres in the first network window.
"Away From Her," the drama that earned Julie Christie an Oscar nomination, premieres on IFC in the summer of 2010. IFC will get a few other Lionsgate titles later in their network-window run, including "Crash," "Pride" and the "Saw" movies. (FX gets the premiere of "Crash," TNT has the debut of "Pride" and Sci Fi Channel has first dibs on the "Saw" movies.)

"This is one of the biggest movie deals we've ever made," said Evan Shapiro, executive VP and GM of IFC. (IFC opened for business in September 1994.)

The IFC deal represents Lionsgate's third big movie sale in the last four months. The studio harvested $20 million from USA and Sci Fi Channel for "3:10 to Yuma," "Saw II" and "Good Luck Chuck," among other titles. And it chalked up $12 million from Turner's TBS and TNT for four pictures, including two by Tyler Perry: "Why Did I Get Married" and "Daddy's Little Girls."

On the IFC deal, Rand Stoll, executive VP of TV sales for Lionsgate, cited the long-term relationship between Lionsgate and IFC, most notably Lionsgate's production of the "Mad Men" series for IFC's sister network AMC.

Although the Lionsgate movies will kick off on IFC, Shapiro said that some of them will eventually get runs on AMC, WE TV and Fuse. All three networks are part of Rainbow Programming Services, which is owned by Chuck Dolan's Cablevision Systems.

continued at : http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979759.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1