The Jim Henson Company Hires Jason Lust as Senior Vice President of Feature Films

The Jim Henson Company Hires Jason Lust as Senior Vice President of Feature Films

Lust Will Continue Company's Development of Acquired Properties

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Jim Henson Company has hired Jason Lust as Senior Vice President, Feature Films. The announcement was made today by the company's co-CEO Lisa Henson, to whom Lust will directly report. In his new role, Lust will oversee and expand the company's strong film development slate by continuing to pursue strategic creative partners as well as tap into the company's dedicated development fund for optioning existing properties, such as children's books, comics and video games. In addition to developing live action features, he will also focus on animated projects that can either be produced with third parties or created internally to take advantage of the company's proprietary real-time animation technology, HDPS (the Henson Digital Performance System).

Current titles on the company's slate include "House of the Scorpion," based on the award winning novel by Nancy Farmer, and "The Witch's Children," both set up at Warner Bros. At Sony Pictures, Henson's development projects include "The Star," "Only Human" and "Thumb." And feature animation projects include "Let It Rain" at Fox Studios and "Game Over" at Warner Bros. Lust will also look for ways to further develop existing titles retained in Henson's catalogue such as "Labyrinth" and "Fraggle Rock" for feature possibilities.

"Jason is a perfect fit to lead our film division," said Lisa Henson, co-CEO (with Brian Henson) of The Jim Henson Company. "His experience in acquiring and developing highly visual and fantastical projects makes him uniquely suited to nurture our feature slate and bring in new talent and properties."

Jason Lust said, "The Jim Henson Company is known for telling stories full of exciting and interesting characters, as well as working with highly creative individuals. I am looking forward to finding that next new world and helping to visualize that next adventure."

Mr. Lust comes from the management and production company Circle of Confusion where he was the founding partner of the organization's west coast operation. During his time there, he focused on developing visual material such as children's books, graphic novels and video games into feature films including "Outcast: The Unmagician" at Universal, "The Awful End" for Warner Bros. and "The Suffering" for MTV Films, a project with Stan Winston based on the video game.

About The Jim Henson Company ...

The Jim Henson Company, currently celebrating 50 years as an established leader in family entertainment, is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and computer graphics. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets (the rights to which are now owned by The Walt Disney Company), Henson is the recipient of nearly 50 Emmy Awards, nine Grammy Awards and two Oscar Awards. Recent projects include the Saturn Award-winning "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars" and the features "Five Children and It" and "MirrorMask." The company also produced the television feature "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" for Buena Vista Television. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices and production facilities in New York and London, the company has just completed post-production on its first fully-animated project, "Frances." The Jim Henson Company's website is located at: www.henson.com

Source: The Jim Henson Company

CONTACT: Nicole Goldman of The Jim Henson Company, +1-323-802-1608,
ngoldman@henson.com

Web site: http://www.henson.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST BY CALLING NICOLE GOLDMAN 323/802-1608.

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