Anchor Bay Entertainment Hits the Jackpot With the Acquisition of Zak Penn's THE GRAND! Starring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano

Anchor Bay Entertainment Hits the Jackpot With the Acquisition of Zak Penn's THE GRAND! Starring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano

Nationwide Theatrical Release Planned for Early 2008

BURBANK, Calif., June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Anchor Bay Entertainment, a label under the Starz Home Entertainment division, announced today the acquisition of the much sought-after comedy, THE GRAND. The announcement was made by Starz Home Entertainment's President Bill Clark. A Tribeca Film Festival favorite, the film boasts a stellar, international comedic cast and was featured June 8 at the Cinevegas film festival in Las Vegas.

"Just like all great comedians, THE GRAND is a comedy with perfect timing, tuned into our national poker obsession," noted Clark. "Anchor Bay may be primarily known for its horror product, but with THE GRAND, we want audiences to scream with laughter."

"I was incredibly impressed by the presentation that Bill Clark and his team made and their enthusiasm for the film," says Penn. "They have a really great plan for the film's domestic theatrical release, plus I really like their logo and that's important because I like free hats."

THE GRAND is in the tradition of improvisational comedies like BEST IN SHOW and THIS IS SPINAL TAP. The story is set in the world of professional poker and follows six players who reach the final table of the world's second most famous high stakes tournament, the GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP OF POKER. An eclectic cast brings together many of today's top comedic actors; Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Cheryl Hines, Richard Kind, Ray Romano, Dennis Farina, and more. It also heralds the first pairing of legendary German film director Werner Herzog and sitcom vet Gabe "Welcome Back Kotter" Kaplan. "This is what film fans have been demanding since the late seventies," explained Penn. "It's a team up that needed to happen. I'm just glad I could help."

The film was improvised from a detailed treatment co-written by Zak Penn and Matt Bierman who also served as Executive Producer. It was produced by Zak Penn and Gary Marcus as well as Eleven Eleven Films' Bobby Schwartz and Ross Dinerstein and IMG's Bret Saxon and Jeff Bowler.

Starz Home Entertainment is a division of Starz Media. Starz Media is a programming production and distribution company operating worldwide. It includes the Film Roman, Anchor Bay Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment brands. Its units create animated and live-action programming -- including theatrical films -- and programming created under contract for other media companies. It distributes that programming, and programming acquired from outside producers, through home video retailers, theaters, broadcasters, ad supported and premium television channels, and Internet and wireless video distributors in the US and internationally. Starz Media is a programming, production and distribution company operating worldwide and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Starz, LLC which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp. and which is attributed to Liberty Capital Group, http://www.starz.com/.

For More Information Contact:

Sue Procko
Sue Procko Public Relations
323-653-5153
sue@sueprockopr.com

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Source: Starz Home Entertainment

CONTACT: Sue Procko of Sue Procko Public Relations, +1-323-653-5153,
sue@sueprockopr.com, for Starz Home Entertainment

Web site:

http://www.starz.com/

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