REELZCHANNEL—TV About Movies® today announced an agreement with Sonar Entertainment to acquire and air, as U.S. premieres, the five original miniseries from Sonar’s Disaster Pack collection. Each four-hour miniseries depicts a shocking end-of-the-world scenario and titles include CAT. 8 starring Emmy Award® nominee Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises, Weeds), Ring of Fire starring Emmy Award® winner Terry O’Quinn (Hawaii Five-O, Lost), Delete starring Emmy Award® winner Seth Green (Family Guy), Eve of Destruction starring Emmy Award® and Golden Globe® nominee Treat Williams (White Collar) and Exploding Sun starring David James Elliott (JAG) and Emmy Award® winner Julia Ormond. All five miniseries will make their U.S. premieres on REELZ in 2013.

“We’re thrilled to bring our viewers five epic television events with Sonar Entertainment’s action-packed miniseries,” said Stan E. Hubbard, CEO of REELZCHANNEL. “All of these miniseries feature talented casts and incredible visual effects depicting nightmarish stories about cataclysmic events that deliver a blockbuster experience and a large, relevant audience for us to deliver our unique movie recommendations to.”

“The REELZ brand identity aligns perfectly with the epic, event programming we have always taken great pride in producing,” said Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment. “REELZ is the perfect home for these miniseries—we know their passionate viewers will be thrilled with what they see on the screen.”

The Earth rocks in Ring of Fire, a terrifying end-of-the-world scenario, starring Michael Vartan (Alias), Lauren Lee Smith (CSI), Emmy Award® winner Terry O’Quinn (Lost) and Agam Darshi (Sanctuary). When an oil rig causes an eruption in a small town, it’s just the first in a series that could affect the dangerous Ring of Fire that contains most of the world’s volcanos. If these cataclysmic eruptions cannot be stopped, the Earth could be headed for an extinction level event. Ring of Fire is directed by Paul Shapiro (Smallville) and written by Michael Vickerman (Impact).

Steven Weber (Wings, In Plain Sight), Christina Cox (Blood Ties) and Emmy Award® and Golden Globe® nominee Treat Williams (White Collar) star in Eve of Destruction. When two scientists attempt to discover unlimited energy, their experiment is sabotaged by eco-terrorists. The result is a dark energy black hole that could destroy the planet. Eve of Destruction is directed by Rob Lieberman (Earthsea, XIII) and written by Richard Beattie (True Justice).

Delete imagines a disaster in our all-too-fragile digital world where all computers could become dangerously self-aware with one systematic purpose – to destroy mankind. Faced with possible extinction, there is only one way out – create a second artificial intelligence, just as alive, just as intelligent and just as dangerous. Delete stars Emmy Award® winner Seth Green (Family Guy) Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara), Matt Frewer (Falling Skies, Watchman), Janet Kidder (The Killing), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Emmy Award® winner and Golden Globe® nominee Gil Bellows (True Justice, Ally McBeal) and Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary, Apollo 18). Emmy Award® nominee Steve Barron (Merlin, Treasure Island) directs from an original screenplay by Joseph Mallozzi (SGU Stargate Universe) and Paul Mullie (Stargate SG-1).

CAT. 8 stars Emmy Award® nominee Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises, Weeds) with Maxim Roy (ReGenesis) and Ted Whittall (Smallville). When a breakthrough in global defense backfires, the result is a fireball four times the size of Earth streaking toward our planet. With mere hours before the atmosphere ignites and the end of the world begins, only one man – a government outsider and renegade scientist – can reverse this cataclysmic disaster. Will he be able to save the Earth before it’s too late? CAT. 8 is directed by Kevin Fair (Smallville) and written by Donald Martin (The Christmas Choir).

In Exploding Sun, the first ever commercial space shuttle is struck by a solar storm. The disaster hyper-charges the engine and catapults the ship on a direct course for the sun. But the danger becomes more universal when it's discovered the event will trigger an infinitely larger solar storm that could send Earth back into the Stone Age. Exploding Sun stars David James Elliott (JAG), Anthony Lemke (Blue Mountain State), Natalie Brown (Being Human) and Emmy Award ® winner Julia Ormond (Temple Grandin). It is directed by Michael Robison (Stephen King’s Dead Zone) and written by Jeff Schecter (Strange Days at Blake Holsey High).

About Sonar Entertainment, Inc. 
Sonar Entertainment, Inc. is a leading developer, producer and distributor of award-winning television series, miniseries and movies for the global television marketplace. Sonar owns rights to over 1,000 titles comprising more than 3,500 broadcast hours of programming. The company maintains strategic creative and licensing partnerships with producers and broadcasters throughout the world.

About REELZCHANNEL 
REELZCHANNEL—TV About Movies® is the only cable and satellite network devoted to delivering entertaining and fresh programming that explores, uncovers and lives inside the magic of Hollywood. The network is also home to ambitious television events, miniseries and series featuring big stories and big stars as seen with the Emmy®-winning The Kennedys, Ken Follett’s World Without End and the upcoming premiere of the miniseries Barabbas, starring Billy Zane. And, building directly on The Kennedys, REELZ is co-developing a miniseries based on J. Randy Taraborrelli’s highly acclaimed book, After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family from 1968 to the Present, with Muse Entertainment slated to premiere in late 2014. With shows featuring movie and entertainment experts, including Leonard Maltin, Richard Roeper and Sam Rubin, viewers get trusted insight into movies wherever they’re playing, whether in theaters or at home.

REELZCHANNEL reaches more than 64 million homes on DIRECTV channel 238, Dish Network channel 299, Verizon FiOS TV channel 233, AT&T U-verse channels 799/1799HD and cable systems nationwide. Find REELZCHANNEL in your area by entering your zip code at http://www.reelz.com/watch. Owned by Hubbard Media Group, REELZCHANNEL is headquartered in Albuquerque, NM with national ad sales based out of New York City with offices in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles and an entertainment bureau in Los Angeles.

Media Contacts:

REELZCHANNEL Media Line 
877- REELZTV (733-5988) 
pr@reelz.com
Alan Winnikoff 
Sayles & Winnikoff Communications 
(212) 725-5200 ext. 111 
alan@sayleswinnikoff.com

Jennifer Buglione 
Sayles & Winnikoff Communications 
(212) 725-5200 ext. 112 
jennifer (at) sayleswinnikoff (dot) com

STARZ, ATLAS ENTERTAIMENT AND SONAR ENTERTAINMENT TO DEVELOP NEW SCRIPTED DRAMA FROM WILLIAM MONAHAN

FOR U.S. AND GLOBAL AUDIENCES ATLAS ENTERTAINMENT

MAKES FIRST VENTURE INTO TELEVISION WITH “CRIME”

ATLAS ENTERTAINMENT MAKES FIRST VENTURE INTO TELEVISION WITH “CRIME”

Academy Award^® Winning Screenwriter William Monahan Creates Series

LOS ANGELES, CA – Atlas Entertainment is producing its first television series, "Crime," in partnership with Henceforth Pictures for Starz and Sonar Entertainment.  Written by Academy Award^® winning screenwriter, William Monahan (The Departed) “Crime” is a study of criminal enterprise and scandal across 1960s Britain. The project was developed from a feature film treatment by Vanessa Sadler.  Regarded for its proven ability to produce both tentpole films and independent features, Atlas Entertainment will step into the television landscape with “Crime.”

The project in development is being executive produced by Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and William Green alongside Monahan, with Atlas’ Andy Horwitz and Henceforth Pictures’ Justine Suzanne Jones co-executive producing.   Starz and Sonar Entertainment are financing development and Sonar Entertainment has the option to distribute the show to markets around the world outside of Starz's pay television and home entertainment rights in the U.S.

.  Independent Talent’s Josh Varney was instrumental in arranging the deal with Monahan and setting the project into motion. Starz will assume all domestic pay television and home entertainment rights, including Canada, to the series.

“We’re thrilled that our first foray in television has us working with the incredibly talented William Monahan on this unique show, and we’re excited to be sharing it with audiences not only in the U.S. but around the world,” said Charles Roven. 

“There’s very little more interesting to me than the Sixties in Britain,” said Monahan, “taken from Profumo to psychedelia, from the London criminal world to the worlds of art and fashion—all of which continually intersected. I know one thing: it’s very, very, funny.”

"Set in a time and place that continues to fascinate, ‘Crime’ is a story that easily cuts across borders and cultures,” commented Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment. “William Monahan’s script comes alive with an immediacy and intimacy that audiences will embrace with unqualified enthusiasm.”    

"We are excited to be working with William Monahan on one of his passion projects,” said Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director of Starz Entertainment.  “’Crime’ is the kind of unique storytelling that elevates scripted television for audiences.”

A dramatist, director and novelist, William Monahan recently completed the screenplay for The Gambler for Martin Scorsese and producer Irwin Winkler at Paramount, and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. He won an Academy Award^® for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, which earned four Oscars^®, including Best Picture. Additionally, Monahan collected a Writers Guild of America Award and earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his work. His production company, Henceforth Pictures, has a number of feature and television projects in development, including a screen adaptation of his first novel, Light House, and “The Throwaways”, a New Yorker piece by journalist Sarah Stillman. Production on his original thriller, Mojave, begins in the first quarter of next year with Atlas Independent’s William Green producing along with Monahan and Atlas’s Andy Horwitz executive producing along with Henceforth’s Justine Suzanne Jones.

NEW YORK, NY, August 6, 2012 – Principal photography has begun on two new epic four-hour mini-series events for television.  The two productions, CAT. 8 and Exploding Sun, are from Muse Entertainment and are in production in Montreal.  CAT. 8 and Exploding Sun are part of Sonar Entertainment’s new Disaster Pack collection of five original mini-series and will be available for distribution from Sonar later this year.  They have been acquired by Bell Media for exclusive broadcast in Canada on SPACE in 2013.

CAT. 8 stars Emmy nominee Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises, Weeds) with Maxim Roy (ReGenesis), Ted Whittall (Smallville) and Susan Hogan (Battlestar Galactica).  When a breakthrough in global defense backfires, the result is a fireball four times the size of Earth streaking toward our planet. With mere hours before the atmosphere ignites and the end of the world begins, only one man – a government outsider and renegade scientist – can reverse this cataclysmic disaster.  Will he be able to save the Earth before it’s too late?  CAT. 8 is directed by Kevin Fair (Smallville) and written by Donald Martin (The Christmas Choir). Irene Litinsky (Human Trafficking) is producing.

In Exploding Sun, the first ever commercial space shuttle is struck by a solar storm. The disaster hyper-charges the engine and catapults the ship on a direct course for the sun. But the danger becomes more universal when it's discovered the event will trigger an infinitely larger solar storm that could send Earth back into the Stone Age. Exploding Sun stars David James Elliot (JAG), Anthony Lemke (Blue Mountain State), Natalie Brown (Being Human) and Emmy Award -winner Julia Ormond (Temple Grandin). It is directed by Michael Robison (Stephen King’s Dead Zone) and written by Jeff Schecter (Strange Days at Blake Holsey High). Irene Litinsky (Human Trafficking) is producing.

Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment, commented, “CAT. 8 and Exploding Sun are big television events with enormous worldwide appeal for audiences who thrill to the disaster genre.”

"We have an enormously talented cast and crew for both CAT. 8 and Exploding Sun,” added Litinsky.  “What makes each of them truly special will be the state-of-the-art special effects that our team will deliver.”

About Muse Entertainment Enterprises 

Muse Entertainment is a leading film and television production company known for its well-crafted and high-quality productions. Since its founding in 1998, Muse has produced, co-produced or provided production services on more than 150 TV movies and mini-series, television series and feature films and has won 95 awards and garnered 299 award nominations!

Muse Entertainment’s most recent television series, Bomb Girls, is in preproduction on its second season. In 2011, its topical, 8-hr. historical drama, The Kennedys, earned 10 Emmy Award nominations. Its Pillars of the Earth also won numerous awards. Muse’s other award-winning programs are Being Human (Seasons 1 & 2), Durham County (Seasons 1, 2, 3), Ben Hur, The Last Templar, Impact, Human Trafficking, Answered by Fire, This is Wonderland and Tales from the Neverending Story.

The company’s head office and its Quebec production centre are in Montreal. Muse also maintains development and production operations in Toronto and Los Angeles.

About Sonar Entertainment, Inc.

Sonar Entertainment, Inc. is a leading developer, producer and distributor of award-winning television series, mini-series and movies for the global television marketplace. Sonar owns rights to over 1,000 titles comprising more than 3,500 broadcast hours of programming. The company maintains strategic creative and licensing partnerships with producers and broadcasters throughout the world.

Contact:

Alan Winnikoff

Sayles & Winnikoff Communications

P: (212) 725-5200 ext. 111

E: Alan@Sayleswinnikoff.com

NEW YORK, July 30, 2012 – Principal photography has begun on three new epic four-hour mini-series events for television.  The three, Ring of Fire, Eve of Destruction and Delete, have all begun production in Vancouver.  Ring of Fire and Eve of Destruction are from Reunion Pictures. Delete is from Brightlight Pictures. The titles are part of Sonar Entertainment’s new Disaster Pack collection of five original mini-series to be available for distribution by Sonar later this year.

The earth rocks in Ring of Fire, a terrifying and all too plausible end-of-the-world warning, starring Michael Vartan (Alias), Lauren Lee Smith (CSI), Terry O’Quinn (Lost) and Agam Darshi (Dead Zone). When an oil rig causes a volcanic eruption in a small town, it’s just the first in a trigger effect called the Ring of Fire that stretches across the globe.  If these cataclysmic series of eruptions cannot be stopped, the earth will be swallowed whole, leading to an extinction level event. Ring of Fire is directed by Paul Shapiro (Smallville) and written by Michael Vickerman (Impact).

Steven Weber (Wings), Christina Cox (Blood Ties) and Treat Williams (Everwood) star in Eve of Destruction.  When two scientists attempt to discover unlimited energy, their experiment is hijacked and sabotaged by eco-terrorists. The result is a dark energy black hole that could destroy the planet.  Eve of Destruction is directed by Rob Lieberman (Earthsea) and written by Richard Beattie (True Justice).

Delete imagines a disaster in our all-too-fragile digital world where the web becomes dangerously self-aware with one systematic purpose – to destroy mankind. Faced with possible extinction, there is only one way out – create a second artificial intelligence, just as alive, just as intelligent and just as dangerous. Delete stars Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara), Matt Frewer (Watchman, Max Headroom), Janet Kidder (The Killing), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal) and Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary).  Emmy nominee Steve Barron (Merlin, Treasure Island) directs from an original screenplay by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie (Stargate SG-1).

 

About Reunion Pictures.

Reunion Pictures (www.reunionpictures.ca) is a Canadian-based company that develops and finances high quality television and multi-platform properties.  Launched in 2004 with the partners’ experience of having collectively produced over a billion dollars worth of award-winning filmed entertainment, Reunion Pictures has received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and has won Genies and Gemini's as well as the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Television, and produced a #1 US network mini-series (10.5), and three #1 cable mini-series (Alice, Tin Man and Earthsea, all with RHI Entertainment for SyFy Channel).   Currently Reunion Pictures is in production on its first season of Continuum, a sci-fi police procedural for Shaw Media.

About Brightlight Pictures

Brightlight Pictures is a Canadian production company that develops finances and produces independent feature films and television projects for the domestic and international marketplace.  Brightlight has extensive international experience having produced in Australia, Croatia, Germany, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom as well as the United States.

Recent producing credits include The Company You Keep directed by Robert Redford, 50/50 (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen), Apollo 18 (Weinstein Company), Frankie And Alice (Halle Berry), Fifty Dead Men Walking (Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess) and The Possession (Mandate Pictures/Lionsgate) opening this summer.

About Sonar Entertainment, Inc.

Sonar Entertainment, Inc. is a leading developer, producer and distributor of award-winning television series, mini-series and movies for the global television marketplace. Sonar owns rights to over 1,000 titles comprising more than 3,500 broadcast hours of programming. The company maintains strategic creative and licensing partnerships with producers and broadcasters throughout the world.

Media Contact

Alan Winnikoff

212-725-5200 x111

alan@sayleswinnikoff.com

Carina Sayles

609-397-6200

carina@sayleswinnikoff.com

Sonar Entertainment and James Patterson Entertainment will produce Patterson's New York Times best-selling book series Private as a 13×60 original series for television. James Patterson, one of the world's most prolific, popular and top-selling authors, will serve as Executive Producer. The announcement was made today by Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment and Steve Bowen, President of James Patterson Entertainment.

John McLaughlin, the acclaimed screenwriter of "Black Swan," is writing the initial two-hour episode. Private features former CIA agent Jack Morgan, who runs the world's most elite investigation firm. With maximum force and maximum discretion always guaranteed, Jack's staff of global investigators uses advanced forensic tools to make and break the cases that involve the secrets of the most influential people in the world.

"My ultimate goal is to tell stories in television that fans love and want to come back to again and again. Television is the ideal medium to deliver that type of entertainment," said Patterson. "Sonar represents the kind of collaborative television partner I want with creative vision and strong emphasis on innovative sales and marketing."

President of James Patterson Entertainment Steve Bowen added, "Sonar has an ability to turn popular literary works into major television programs and its vast international distribution network insures that we will reach our tens of millions of fans in every corner of the world."

"Jim has purposely crafted Private to deliver stories and characters that make it an undeniably international television series," Till stated. "We are thrilled he has entrusted us with this exciting action-packed property."

David Ozer, Executive Vice President, Head of Worldwide Distribution for Sonar Entertainment added, "James Patterson is one of the best known brands in all of publishing. This affords us tremendous pre-sold equity that will help immeasurably to realize the project's global potential."

James Patterson's 220 books have grossed over $3 billion in worldwide sales to date. He holds several Guinness World Record marks in publishing including Most Entries on the New York Times Best-Seller List. In addition, Patterson has had 43 New York Times #1's, a publishing industry all-time record and he is the only author in history to have #1 books on all six NYT best-seller lists.

RHI Entertainment, Inc. has rebranded as Sonar Entertainment, Inc. and has named Stewart Till CEO. The announcement was made today at MIPTV 2012, by Gabriel de Alba, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

de Alba noted that today’s major announcements mark a new era for the company. “Rebranding as Sonar Entertainment represents a fresh start and a solid business strategy for growth and expansion,” he commented. “While we are committed to maintaining the same high level of quality that has always been an RHI trademark, we are also looking ahead to developing new concepts, content and formats, in different genres and with a variety of partners.”

Stewart Till was named RHI’s co-interim CEO, along with Mike Corrigan and David Salzman, in July, 2011. Till has also been a member of the company’s board of directors. Till had previously served as non-executive Chair at Icon UK and Chair of Skillset. Other previous roles have included President of International at Polygram, Chair of the UK Film Council and Chief Executive at UIP.

“Stewart Till is the ideal executive to lead Sonar into the future,” de Alba said. “He has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, an outstanding creative sensibility, an unparalleled understanding of the global marketplace and a forward looking vision for where he will take the company. We could not be in better hands as we move ahead in the coming months and beyond.”

“This is a huge opportunity for all of us and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” added Till. “As with any organization, the leadership is only as strong as the overall team and the Sonar team is exceptional. We have spent many months preparing for this moment and I am excited to say that we are hitting the ground running with a number of major programming announcements – and more to come shortly. We are excited to be able to introduce Sonar Entertainment to the world at the industry’s largest global television market.”

Programming announcements include:

• Disaster Pack, Volume One - Sonar will distribute five four-hour mini-series, all with disaster themes. These include Category 8 (the sun’s inner core sends massive meteors toward earth); Eve of Destruction (terrorists blow up the London to Paris Chunnel); Dark Universe (dark energy technology falls into the wrong hands and threatens global destruction); Shockwave (disaster strikes the world’s first commercial space flight); and World on Fire (an oil company drills into the ocean floor -- causing a massive undersea eruption).

• MPH – Sonar has reached an agreement with award-winning producer, director and screenwriter Steven E. De Souza to develop the one-hour original action-adventure series MPH. MPH focuses on an international law enforcement unit (Mobile Pursuit and Harassment) that goes undercover as high-risk performers in a monster truck stunt show to gain access to nations and regions that are off limits to FBI or Interpol agents. This is a back-door pilot with the potential to go to series.

  The award winning De Souza, who is also an executive producer on the project, is one of the few screenwriters in Hollywood whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the box office. His credits include Die Hard and Die Hard 2, 48 hours and Another 48 Hours, The Running Man, Judge Dredd and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Television credits include Knight Rider, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.

• King Tut – Sonar is partnering with Muse Entertainment to co-develop and distribute this epic eight-hour mini-series based on the life of King Tut. The mini-series captures Tut’s captivating rise to power, his efforts to rule a chaotic empire and the mystery surrounding his untimely death.

• The Hunters – Sonar anticipates partnering with Kickstart Productions to distribute this two-hour back-door pilot. Inspired by the successful independent graphic novel Mirror Mirror by Joshua Williamson (DC Comics’ Uncharted), The Hunters is the story of a secret society with a mission to find the broken shards of the magic mirror Snow White shattered hundreds of years ago. It’s a race against time as the mirror’s pieces, now hidden across the world, have the potential to be harnessed for great evil. Sonar has all global TV distribution rights while ARC Entertainment has rights to the US DVD.

• Bomb Girls – Sonar has acquired distribution rights to Bomb Girls, Canada’s most watched new original drama series of the 2012 season to date. Territories included in the agreement are Spain, Germany, Australia and Asia. Already renewed for a second season, Bomb Girls stars Meg Tilly (The Big Chill), Ali Liebert (Apollo 18) and Anastasia Philips (Skins). The 18 one-hour episodes, which are set on the home front during World War II, follow the stories of the women who put their lives at risk in munitions factories, building bombs for the war effort. Bomb Girls is produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Film Productions, in association with Shaw Media.

Sonar will distribute the following two-hour movies to the international market:

• After All These Years - Based on Susan Isaacs’ New York Times bestselling novel Compromising Positions, this is the story of a husband who announces on his 25th wedding anniversary that he is leaving his wife for another woman. When the man is later found murdered, the wife becomes the prime suspect. Can she clear her name and, in the process, what other secrets will she discover?

• Christmas Heart - Just days before Christmas, Mike and Ann Norman receive devastating news when they discover that only an immediate heart transplant can save their son’s life. Then fate conspires to connect a stranger’s tragic end with their son’s need. With only hours to spare, it will take a Christmas miracle and the empowering strength of a community to save the life of one young man with just one holiday wish.

• Good Scouts - A self-absorbed real estate agent is forced to take a community service sentence she never expected—troop leader of a band of misfit girls in a scouting group known as the Fireflies. With the annual baked goods fundraiser approaching, the Fireflies find themselves in a head-to-head battle with a cut-throat troop notorious for leaving the competition in crumbs. Using her professional skills, Julie is determined to close the deal, help the girls and maybe even learn a few things about herself.

• Meddling Mom - In this romantic comedy, two sisters figure the best way to keep their pushy mother out of their lives is to help her find a love of her own. They believe they have found the perfect man, but, unfortunately, love is never that simple. Have they set up their mother for a fall or is there still a chance that this love story could have a happy ending? Meddling Mom stars Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Saundra Santiago (The Sopranos) and Tony Plana (Ugly Betty).