Message #62 From:
NewsBot Date: December 10, 2006 09:30:00 PM
GNPI News Genius Products & The Weinstein Company Announce Strategic Alliance With RHI Entertainment
NEW YORK & SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genius Products, LLC one of the fastest growing distributor in the home
entertainment market, and The Weinstein Company (TWC), one of the
largest independent feature film company founded by film legends Bob and
Harvey Weinstein, have entered into a strategic alliance with RHI
Entertainment (RHI) under which they will co-produce and co-finance an
extensive slate of television productions, including series, miniseries
and movies-of-the–week. RHI (formerly Hallmark
Entertainment), headed by the renowned team of Robert Halmi, Sr. and
Robert Halmi, Jr., is the industry leader of miniseries and movies for
television. Additionally, under a separate multi-year distribution
agreement Genius Products is the North American home video distributor
of RHI’s extensive library of series and film
programming.
The alliance of RHI, Genius Products and The Weinstein Company brings
together best-in-class distribution with two incredible companies having
30-year track records of film and TV content production and acquisition.
The Weinsteins have over 60 Oscar® wins and
the Halmis have 104 Emmy® wins.
The announcement was made today by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Chairmen
of The Weinstein Company, the majority owner of Genius Products LLC, and
Robert Halmi, Jr, President and CEO of RHI Entertainment, along with
Stephen K. Bannon, Chairman and Trevor Drinkwater, President and CEO of
Genius Products, Inc. (OTCBB:GNPI) the minority owner of Genius
Products, LLC. The alliance will further strengthen Genius Products’
rapidly growing library of television and feature film content.
“Bob and I have a tremendous amount of respect
for the Halmis and think they are incredibly savvy business people,”
said Harvey Weinstein. “We are excited to
start working on the television programming and look forward to
partnering with RHI on many other projects in the future.”
RHI and TWC contemplate co-producing and co-financing miniseries,
Movies-of-the-week, and series over a period of five years, as part of a
plan to substantially enhance the companies’
production slates. These co-productions will combine marquee talent and
high production values not normally associated with television.
Worldwide home video distribution of co-productions will go to Genius
Products and worldwide television distribution will be handled by RHI.
“We are delighted to be entering into these
deals with The Weinstein Company and with Genius,”
said RHI Entertainment President & CEO, Robert Halmi, Jr. “Given
our similar corporate paths, we have always followed the Weinsteins’
careers with admiration. In addition, home entertainment is a key
element to our business and Genius is one of the best. We look forward
to a long and mutually successful relationship.”
Under the terms of a multi-year distribution agreement, Genius Products
will be the North American home video distributor for RHI's library of
more than 600 programs. In addition to the library, Genius will have
North American home video distribution rights for RHI’s
newest TV movies and miniseries produced outside RHI’s
strategic alliance with TWC, including RHI’s
anticipated slate of approximately 40 made-for-television movies for
Spike, Sci Fi and Hallmark Channel, and an estimated five miniseries
produced for the major networks per year of the distribution agreement.
Genius Products will maintain both physical and digital distribution
rights for a period of 5 years from the various home video release
dates. The transaction will automatically grow the Genius Products
library to over 1,800 titles and should result in 200-250 additional new
titles over the 5-year term.
“The addition of RHI Entertainment's library
of high-quality film and television product dramatically expands our
portfolio of genre films and gives us a very strong position in the
expansive TV-on-DVD market for physical and digital distribution,”
said Trevor Drinkwater, President and CEO of Genius Products. “Robert
Halmi, Sr. and Robert Halmi, Jr. have produced a staggering body of work
and we are proud to be associated with them.”
Mr. Drinkwater continued, “The economic model
associated with this new agreement is expected to further enhance our
operating margins and accelerate our stated mission to increase our
critical mass of content in both the physical and digital distribution
arenas."
“I am very proud of our early track record of
strategically expanding our position in the entertainment industry
through the introduction of new brands and content provider partnerships
across the four verticals of Sports, Faith/Family, Lifestyle and
Independent Film product segments,” said
Stephen K. Bannon, Chairman. “The new
agreement with RHI will position us as one of the leaders in the
Independent Film segment just as our agreement with ESPN and WWE
positioned us as a leader in the Sports segment.”
About Genius Products
Genius Products, Inc. (OTCBB:GNPI), along with The Weinstein Company,
jointly owns Genius Products, LLC, a leading independent
home-entertainment distribution company that produces, licenses, and
distributes a valuable library of motion pictures, television
programming, family, lifestyle and trend entertainment on DVD and other
emerging platforms through its expansive network of retailers throughout
the U.S. Genius handles the distribution, marketing and sales for such
brands as WWE®, Asia Extreme(TM), Baby Genius®,
Dragon Dynasty™, Dimension Films, ESPN®,
IFC®, NBC News®,
Sundance Channel Home Entertainment®,
Wellspring™, RHI Entertainment and The
Weinstein Company®. Genius Products, Inc. is
the managing member of Genius Products, LLC, in which it holds a 30%
equity interest.
About RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment, LLC. is a global leader in the production and
distribution of groundbreaking quality miniseries and movies for
television. Since the company’s inception,
and under the guidance of Robert Halmi, Sr. and Robert Halmi, Jr., RHI
has produced and distributed over 4,000 hours of quality television
programming, received 104 Emmy® Awards, and
outperformed the competition annually in viewer ratings. Currently, RHI
delivers 40-60 new television movies and miniseries a year to networks
worldwide.
About The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (TWC) was created by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the
brothers who founded Miramax Films Corp. in 1979. TWC is a multi-media
company that officially launched on October 1, 2005. Dimension Films,
the genre label that was founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, is also
included under the TWC banner. The Weinsteins are actively working on
the production, development, acquisition and distribution of projects
for TWC and Dimension.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical matters contained herein, the matters discussed in
this press release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking
statements reflect assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that
may affect Genius Products' business, forecasts, projections and
prospects, and cause actual results to differ materially from those in
these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the number of
anticipated releases the anticipated effect on our operating margins and
stated mission and any other statements relating to such new release
that are not historical statements of fact. Actual results could vary
for many reasons, including but not limited to, the success of the
strategic alliance between The Weinstein Company, Genius Products and
RHI Entertainment, including the ability to co-produce titles, our
ability to continue to acquire and keep valuable content or expand the
distribution partnership, the unpredictability of audience demand, the
success of TWC titles at box office and the popularity of our titles on
DVD, especially TWC, ESPN, WWE®, RHI, and
Discovery Kids titles, our ability to perform under the terms of our
agreement with our content providers, especially with TWC, WWE®,
RHI, Discovery Kids and ESPN, our ability to continue to manage our
significant growth, the effect of technological change and the
availability of alternative forms of entertainment, our ability to
maximize our operating leverage. Other such risks and uncertainties
include the matters described in Genius Products, Inc. filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update
any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances
occurring after the date of this press release.
