LIONSGATE AND ODD LOT CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT WITH LAUNCH OF ART SCHOOL PROGRAM WITH NINE ART SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE
First Student-Designed Campaign, From The Art Institute of California-San Diego, To Be Unveiled At This Weekend’s Comic-Con In San Diego
Frank Miller’s Adaptation Of Classic Will Eisner Comic, THE SPIRIT starring Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, Dan Lauria, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson as "The Octopus" Opens Christmas Day, 2008 SANTA MONICA, CA (July 24, 2008)
LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), a leading next generation filmed entertainment studio, today announced that it will partner with nine prestigious arts schools nationwide in THE SPIRIT Art School Program, which will present nine student-designed advertising campaigns for the upcoming film THE SPIRIT, written for the screen and directed by Frank Miller, creator of 300 and SIN CITY. The campaigns will be unveiled throughout the summer in the individual cities that are home to the nine schools. THE SPIRIT Art School Program will launch this weekend at the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego, when The Art Institute of California - San Diego introduces its campaign. The announcement was made jointly by Lionsgate Co-Presidents of Theatrical Marketing Sarah Greenberg and Tim Palen, and Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker, co-principals of Odd Lot Entertainment and production partners with Lionsgate on THE SPIRIT.
"We are very excited and proud to be partnering with these nine superb arts educators on this innovative program," said Greenberg and Palen. "Will Eisner and his masterpiece, THE SPIRIT, were great influences to me. THE SPIRIT Art School Program gives students at these nine institutions a terrific showcase for their work, and it’s also a wonderful way to continue the cross-generational exchange of ideas that is so important to every art form." said Frank Miller.
The college-level facilities participating in THE SPIRIT Art School Program are: The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in Los Angeles; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; The Art Institute of New York; The Art Institute of California – San Francisco; The Art Institute of California – San Diego, Miami Ad School; The Art Institute of Washington; The Art Institute of Philadelphia; and The New England Institute of Art. The schools were provided with creative assets from the Lionsgate marketing portfolio, and were given wide artistic latitude in interpreting THE SPIRIT to design a campaign that was pertinent and unique to their cities. The program is spearheaded by Danielle Della Corna, Director of Media and Promotion for Lionsgate.
The first of THE SPIRIT Art School Program advertising campaigns will be unveiled at this weekend’s Comic-Con, the annual celebration of all things comic-oriented. The Art Institute of California - San Diego has created a series of specially designed SPIRIT cups, which will be used at all the Comic-Con concession stands. The cups bear the unique signatures of the films four femmes fatales: Silken Floss, Sand Saref, Ellen Dolan and Lorelei Rox. And San Diegans will learn that they are now being protected by the masked crusader as SPIRIT Neighborhood Watch signs are posted in strategic locations around the city.
SYNOPSIS
Adapted from the legendary comic strip, THE SPIRIT is a classic action-adventure-romance written for the screen and directed by genre-twister FRANK MILLER (creator of 300 and SIN CITY). It is the story of a former rookie cop who returns mysteriously from the dead as the SPIRIT (Gabriel Macht) to fight crime from the shadows of Central City. His arch-enemy, the OCTOPUS (Samuel L. Jackson) has a different mission: he’s going to wipe out Spirit's beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality. The Spirit tracks this cold-hearted killer from Central City’s rundown warehouses, to the damp catacombs, to the windswept waterfront ... all the while facing a bevy of beautiful women who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Surrounding him at every turn are ELLEN DOLAN (Sarah Paulson), the whip-smart girl-next-door; SILKEN FLOSS (Scarlett Johansson), a punk secretary and frigid vixen; PLASTER OF PARIS (Paz Vega), a murderous French nightclub dancer; LORELEI (Jaime King), a phantom siren; and MORGENSTERN (Stana Katic), a sexy young cop.
Then of course, there’s SAND SAREF (Eva Mendes), the jewel thief with dangerous curves. She’s the love of his life turned bad. Will he save her or will she kill him?
In the vein of BATMAN BEGINS and SIN CITY, THE SPIRIT takes us on a sinister, gut-wrenching ride with a hero who is born, murdered and born again.
Odd Lot Entertainment and Lionsgate are production partners on the film. Odd Lot’s Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker are producing along with Michael Uslan of Batfilm Productions Inc. Batfilm co-founder Benjamin Melniker and Steven Maier are executive producing, along with Odd Lot’s Bill Lischak and Lionsgate’s Michael Burns and Michael Paseornek. Odd Lot's Linda McDonough and Batfilm/Comic Book Movies’ F.J. DeSanto are co-producing.
ABOUT ODD LOT ENTERTAINMENT
Founded in 2001 by producers Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete (producers of THE WEDDING PLANNER), Odd Lot Entertainment is a Los Angeles-based company that develops, finances, produces and arranges distribution for commercial film properties in the $5-$60 million range, both in the domestic and international markets. Its projects include SUBURBAN GIRL, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alec Baldwin and Maggie Grace; the SXSW Special Jury Award winner GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS; the Independent Spirit Award-winner MEAN CREEK; RICOCHET RIVER, starring Kate Hudson and directed by Del Prete; BURIED ALIVE, starring Tobin Bell; the zombie comedy UNDEAD OR ALIVE with Chris Kattan and James Denton; and creature feature LIVING HELL. Currently in post-production is THE SPIRIT, written and directed by Frank Miller based on the comic series by graphic novelist Will Eisner, starring Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, Dan Lauria, Jaime King, with Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson; and writer/director Michael Meredith’s THE OPEN ROAD, starring Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Kate Mara and Mary Steenburgen. The company handles foreign sales through its Odd Lot International division.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a leading next generation filmed entertainment studio with a major presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company is leveraging its content leadership and marketing expertise through a series of partnerships that include the operation of the highly successful FEARNet branded VOD and Internet horror channel with Sony and Comcast, the recent announcement of the fall 2009 launch of a new premium entertainment channel with partners Viacom, Paramount Pictures and MGM, investment in the leading young men’s digital distribution platform Break.com, ownership of the premier independent television syndication company Debmar-Mercury LLC and an alliance with independent filmed entertainment production and distribution company Roadside Attractions. Lionsgate also has forged partnerships with leading content creators, owners and distributors in key territories around the world, including Televisa in the U.S. and Latin America, StudioCanal in the UK, Hoyts and Sony in Australia and Eros International in India.
The Company has generated more than $450 million at the North American theatrical box office in the past year and has released a string of hits, including THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, TYLER PERRY’S MEET THE BROWNS, THE BANK JOB, RAMBO, THE EYE, SAW IV, TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED?, GOOD LUCK CHUCK, 3:10 TO YUMA and WAR, most of which have opened at #1 or #2 at the box office. The Company has also forged leadership positions in television and home entertainment with the production of such critically-acclaimed television series as "Weeds" and "Mad Men," the distribution of "Tyler Perry’s House of Payne," "Family Feud," "South Park," "Trivial Pursuit" and "The Dead Zone," among others, and approximately 9% market share and the industry’s leading box office-to-DVD conversion rate in home entertainment. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with entrepreneurial innovation and original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the globe.
www.lionsgate.com
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For further information, contact:
Jody Auslund
Marketing Coordinator
858.598.1303
jauslund@aii.edu