Nickelodeon Movies Partners With Lawrence Bender to Bring Random House's 'The Five Ancestors' Book Series to the Big Screen in a Two Picture Deal

Nickelodeon Movies Partners With Lawrence Bender to Bring Random House's 'The Five Ancestors' Book Series to the Big Screen in a Two Picture Deal

Deal Also Includes CGI Feature 'Holy Cow'

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Producers Lawrence Bender and Karen Barber have signed a two-picture deal with Nickelodeon Movies to bring Random Houses "The Five Ancestors" book series to the big screen. The announcement was made today by Julia Pistor, Senior Vice President, Nickelodeon Movies. For Bender, who is best known for producing groundbreaking fare from director Quentin Tarantino, the deal marks a broadening into the ever-expanding and lucrative family marketplace.

"This important alliance with Lawrence re-emphasizes Nick Movies' commitment to deliver groundbreaking, edgy fare into the family marketplace and we are extremely pleased about this collaboration," said Pistor.

Following in the Nick Movies tradition of finding great stories in children's literature, "The Five Ancestors," will be adapted from Jeff Stone's seven book series from Random House, the first two of which, "Tiger" and "Monkey" were released last year. Random House picked up the book series in a heated auction from first-time author Stone. The third book in the series, "Snake" will be released in March.

"I have wanted to break into the family genre for a long time now, and what better way than partnering with Nick Movies," said Bender. "It was Karen Barber's mandate to bring in this type of material and she hit a home run with these projects."

As part of the deal, Bender and Barber will also produce the CGI feature "Holy Cow," a tale of a young bull from Montana named Bamboo who befriends a caterpillar that tells him of a place called India, where cows are sacred, free and holy. The two embark on an epic journey as they cross the globe and outwit the chickens who desperately try to stop them. The film is based on a spec script by Ted Grennan and Peter Kalmbach.

Since 1992, Bender has built his reputation as an edgy, established producer with a slate of award-winning and blockbuster features that have garnered more than $1 billion at the box office. His films to date have been honored with nineteen Academy Award nominations, including two for Best Picture. A long time collaborator of Quentin Tarantino, Bender's producing credits include cult classic "Reservoir Dogs," "Kill Bill 1 & 2," "Pulp Fiction," "Fresh," "Jackie Brown," "Four Rooms," "From Dusk Til Dawn," "White Man's Burden," "Anna and The King," "Good Will Hunting" which received a total of nine nominations and won Oscars(R) for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, among many others.

"The Five Ancestors" book series are set in 17th century China and follow the adventures of five young monks, each of whom specialize in a different style of "animal" kung fu which reflect their individual personalities. After a renegade brother monk leads a brutal attack on their secret Shaolin temple, the young monks are forced to flee and must rely on their training and instincts to survive and uncover the mysteries of the past.

Random House is putting their significant marketing muscle behind the books, and the series has sold in a number of foreign markets including the UK, Japan, Denmark, Spain, France and Germany. The first two books in the series have already garnered numerous award nominations, including a nomination for the 2005 Quills Award and for American Library Association 2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Teen Readers. They made the Book Sense Summer Reading 2005 Selection and received a Publisher's Weekly Starred Review.

The producers of "The Five Ancestors" are Julia Pistor, Lawrence Bender ("Pulp Fiction") and Karen Barber (producer for Lawrence Bender Productions, "Pumpkin," "The Adventures of Sabastian Cole"). Andy Cohen ("Magic Kingdom for Sale") of Grade A Entertainment brought the books to Bender and will serve as Executive Producer. This is Cohen's third high-profile book-to-film deal in the last few months, following the sales of potential tentpoles "Magic Kingdom for Sale" to Universal with Stephen Sommers directing and Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel writing and "Miracle Cars" to New Line with Don D. Scott writing and Nick Cannon starring.

Bender was represented in his deal by Carlos Goodman of Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette, LLP. Stone was represented by Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Ben Reder of Reder and Feig and Cohen of Grade A Entertainment. Ted Grennan and Peter Kalmbach were represented by Joe Gatta at the Gersh agency.

Nick Movies, the feature film development and production division of Nickelodeon, produces kid and family friendly movies in association with its sister Viacom company, Paramount Pictures. To date, Nick Movies releases have grossed over one billion dollars at the box office and include the Oscar(R) nominated Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius as well as The SpongeBob Square Pants Movie, the Rugrats movies, critically acclaimed documentary Mad Hot Ballroom and current release Yours, Mine and Ours directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Renee Russo and Dennis Quaid. Upcoming releases include Charlotte's Web, based on the classic book and produced by Jordan Kerner, directed by Gary Winick with cast including Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Buscemi and Barnyard, a CGI animated film written and directed by award-winning writer and director Steve Oedekerk. Currently in production is Nacho Libre, written by Jared Hess and Mike White, directed by Jared Hess and starring Jack Black. Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon Movies and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

Source: Nickelodeon Movies

CONTACT: Marianne Romano of Nickelodeon Communications, +1-310-752-8208

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

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