Monday 25 January 2010

TESCO ENTERS FILM BUSINESS

[11.00 - French Time] According to Mike Fleming for Nikki Finke's Deadline.com, and The Guardian or other British media outlets today, Brit supermarket giant Tesco has teamed up with Amber Entertainment to form a production arm joint venture.

Their idea is to to make straight-to-DVD films of books written by best-selling authors. The new film branch of Tesco has a four-film deal with Jackie Collins, and is in talks with authors like Philip Pullman or Jacqueline Wilson. Tesco stores will sell the DVDs during a period of exclusivity before the movies can be sold by other retailers and Tesco will not intervene in the content.

We'll see if Tesco and Amber will set a trend and be followed by other supermarket chains in Europe or in the US, even beyond the straight-to-DVD market. In a business dominated by box office news about Avatar this is a most intriguing and refreshing announcement.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/ex-new-liners-form-amber-entertainment/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/24/tesco-film-movies-novels-adaptations
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/979304/Tesco-best-selling-books-DVDs/

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