THINKFilm Acquires 'THE TEN' for North America

THINKFilm Acquires 'THE TEN' for North America

DVD and Digital Distribution to Be Handled by City Lights Home Entertainment Through Its Partnership With Warner Music Group's WEA Corp.

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- City Lights Pictures announced today that THE TEN has been acquired for domestic distribution by THINKFilm, in partnership with City Lights' recently announced joint venture with WEA, a division of Warner Music Group. The acquisition price of the deal was $4.5 million, plus a substantial P&A commitment. THINKFilm plans to release the film in summer 2007.

THE TEN is comprised of ten blasphemous and hysterical stories inspired by the Biblical Commandments, each told in a different style, but with characters and themes that overlap. The film is held together by a narrator who, in turn, has his own moral problems.

"THE TEN brings a brand of comedy and entertainment that is different and new," says Danny Fisher, CEO of City Lights Media Group. "We are very excited to be working with THINKFilm and our partner WEA in bringing this incredibly funny movie to the widest possible audience."

Adds director David Wain: "I was thrilled to see audiences laughing from beginning to end at Sundance. We've been blessed with amazing talent, both in front of and behind the camera on this project, and now we have distribution partners that are just as talented, enthusiastic and committed."

"From the moment we saw this movie at its Friday night premiere, we were convinced that it would connect with a large audience, and acquiring this movie has been our priority over the past week," says Randy Manis, THINKFilm Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Business Affairs. "The film is hilarious, people are going to be quoting from it for years, and we are ecstatic that THINKFilm will be distributing what has been the most buzzed about movie at Sundance."

Mark Urman, THINKFilm's Theatrical Division Head adds: "Our success with 'The Aristocrats' and 'Strangers with Candy' has whetted our appetite, and proven our skills, for this sort of smart, outrageous comedy. With THE TEN, we believe we can reach a much, much wider audience."

THE TEN was directed by David Wain ("Wet Hot American Summer" and "The State") and written by Ken Marino and Wain, and stars Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder, Adam Brody, Gretchen Mol, Famke Janssen, Rob Corddry, Liev Schreiber, Oliver Platt, Justin Theroux and Marino. The film was produced by City Lights Pictures, in association with Morris S. Levy's MEGA Films and Jonathan Stern's Shot Put Pictures; the producers were Jonathan Stern, Ken Marino, David Wain, Paul Rudd and Morris S. Levy, the executive producers were Danny Fisher, along with Sam Zietz, Jack Fisher and Michael Almog, the co-executive producers were Max Sinovoi, Michael Califra, Michael Bassick and Joe Fisher, with cinematography by Yaron Orbach, editing by Eric Kissack and production design by Mark White.

The North American distribution agreement was negotiated among the parties by John Sloss of Cinetic on behalf of the filmmakers, and Manis and Urman from THINKFilm.

About THINKFilm

THINKFilm, a privately held production and distribution company with offices in New York and Toronto, recently ushered in a new era after being bought by film financier and producer David Bergstein, who is now the company's Chairman. Boasting five Academy Award nominations in as many years, with the recent "Best Actor" nomination for Ryan Gosling in HALF NELSON (www.thinkfilmhighlights.com), and a win for the documentary BORN INTO BROTHELS in 2005, THINKFilm's current releases include: AVENUE MONTAIGNE by Daniele Thompson, due out on February 16th; Jake Kasdan's THE TV SET starring David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver and Ioan Gruffudd, due out on April 6th; THE HIP HOP PROJECT, due out on May 11th, and IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON about the history of the Apollo missions to the moon, due out in fall 2007. For more information, please visit www.thinkfilmcompany.com.

About City Lights Media Group

City Lights Media Group has become one of New York City's most respected and fastest growing media companies, engaged in film and television financing, production and distribution and operating one of the largest post-production facilities in the country. City Lights Pictures executive produced John Waters' "A Dirty Shame" for New Line Cinema and produced supernatural thriller "Tamara" for Lionsgate. City Lights Pictures is completing post-production on "Descent," starring Rosario Dawson and produced by Morris S. Levy's MEGA Films. City Lights Pictures is in development on "Interrupted," a feature film adapted from legendary director Nicholas Ray's posthumous autobiography, "I Was Interrupted," to be directed by Philip Kaufman. City Lights Television is currently in production on over 200 episodes of television for networks including AMC, TLC, Court TV, Discovery, HGTV, WE, DIY, Oxygen, Weather Channel, and MTV. Series currently airing include AMC's "Movies 101," HGTV's "Hammered" and "Don't Sweat It," and TLC's "Cover Shot." City Lights Digital's series include its popular daily broadband show "Heavy News" on Heavy.com, and mobile phone series for VH1 and Sprint, "The Dingo Ate My Video." For more information, please visit www.citylightsmedia.com.

About WEA Corp.

WEA Corp., named 2006 "Large Distributor of the Year" by the National Association of Retail Merchandisers (NARM), distributes audio and video product in the U.S. for Warner Music Group and its family of award-winning record labels. WEA was the first major music distribution company in the U.S. and has continued to set the standard for sales and marketing in the music industry for more than thirty years. In addition to the Warner Bros., Elektra and Atlantic labels, WEA distributes audio and video releases from Rhino Entertainment, Asylum Records, Word Entertainment, Time-Life Music, Warner Music Latina and Curb Records, as well as several other labels. WEA's e-Commerce department works with online and traditional retailers for all commercial, digital and wireless transactions on behalf of Warner Music Group's (WMG) U.S. labels. Headquartered in New York, WEA Corp. has regional offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Contact for the film:
Alex Klenert, THINKFilm, (212) 444-7900, aklenert@thinkfilmcompany.com
Tom Piechura, 42West, (212) 277-7555, tom.piechura@42west.net

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: aklenert@thinkfilmcompany.com

Source: THINKFilm

CONTACT: Alex Klenert of THINKFilm, +1-212-444-7900,
aklenert@thinkfilmcompany.com; or Tom Piechura of 42West, +1-212-277-7555,
tom.piechura@42west.net

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

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

-------
Profile: intent