Things that make you hmm… from my inbox:
CULVER CITY, Calif., May 10, 2013 — Virgin Produced, the film and television arm of the Virgin Group, has teamed up with Overbrook Entertainment on a non-exclusive pact, which will support the After Earth franchise, starting with the upcoming May 31st release, it was announced today by Jason Felts, CEO of Virgin Produced, and James Lassiter of Overbrook Entertainment. This pact allows Virgin Produced the option to co-produce, co-finance and co-market a sequel to After Earth. The two companies will look to develop film and television properties together, in which Virgin Produced would co-produce and market across its expansive global platforms.
The pact marks a natural relationship for both Virgin Produced and Overbrook as it reinforces both companies’ missions: to find projects that entertain as well as educate, with ideas that leap off the entertainment page and into the national conversation. As Overbrook’s After Earth shares many of the themes that Virgin is committed to: it focuses on the future that awaits the human race if it continues on its destructive environmental path and raises important questions about the present state of the planet, the future, and the environment.
There’s more, but that’s these are the vitals.
Virgin Produced is the film and television arm of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, by the way.
On their resume of co-productions are: Limitless, Immortals, Movie 43 and its most recent release, 21 & Over.
Virgin Produced also launched its own television network, the Virgin Produced Channel, last spring, a lifestyle, music, travel, technology network estimated to reach 60+ million people worldwide.
So if After Earth does well at the box office (globally) this summer, expect a sequel. And look for future collaborations (TV and film) between Virgin Produced and Will Smith’s Overbrook.
