Most people know National Geographic as the venerable yellow magazine full of gorgeously photographed exotic landscapes and animals.

But today it's much more. It's a vertically integrated multimedia company boasting five magazines with a global circulation of 11.8 million. The rapidly expanding National Geographic Channel reaches 230 million households in 27 languages in 151 countries, while the Web site, www.nationalgeographic.com, nabs 50 million page views per month. About 1,200 stores carry NG's 500 licensed products, and the NG catalogue is mailed to 1.5 million people every year.

In short, National Geographic is a global brand. It's so potent that it's no surprise that Hollywood wants a piece of it.

Hollywood players are eager to gain access to NG's targeted consumers by partnering with 6-year-old National Geographic Feature Films. "Audiences from our various magazines and the cable channel are self-selected," says National Geographic Ventures chairman Dennis Patrick, who is seeking to broaden the society's reach into Hollywood's younger demographic. "They migrate to the sorts of stories we like to tell."

But NGFF needs to protect the brand when choosing partners, Patrick says. "Since its inception in the 1800s, we have always been connected to adventure, world culture and history," he says. "The single most important thing we offer Hollywood is our access to authentic quality adventure stories."

NGFF learned much from its initial forays into studio production with movies based on its magazine features. The hit 2001 sports comedy "Snow Dogs" was developed with Walt Disney Pictures, while 2002's $100 million submarine disaster epic "K-19: The Widowmaker" was sold to Intermedia and Paramount Pictures but grossed a disappointing $64 million worldwide.

Now the company is taking a different, two-pronged approach to making films, says president Adam Leipzig, a veteran producer ("Titus") and ex-Disney production executive who works closely with NGFF chairman and financial packaging whiz Jake Eberts. "We develop and package movies entirely in-house. Then Jake and I make domestic and international distribution deals," Leipzig says. "It's not, 'Do you want to make the movie for $50 million?' but 'Do you want North America for $20 million?' That way we exercise a different level of control."

NG's marketing clout is another lure for Hollywood. Ask Mark Urman, distribution chief for ThinkFilm, who was approached by NGFF after his company acquired 2003's Mongolian-language documentary "The Story of the Weeping Camel" out of the Toronto International Film Festival. "National Geographic was able to bring to us a built-in audience in every single market," Urman says. "They have an active Web site, did e-mail blasts to their subscriber base and placed inserts in their mail-order video tapes. It's rare for a foreign-language documentary to make $2 million and get an Oscar nomination."

Hollywood got the message. Now NGFF is fending off interest from producers and studios seeking to partner, says Leipzig, who hopes to produce one to three movies a year. But when Anonymous Content chief Steve Golin and producer David Kanter approached him with the true story "Across the Medicine Line," about the relationship between the legendary Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and his Saskatchewan protector, James Walsh, the fit was right. Peter O'Brian and Greg Beer are writing the script for "Smoke Signals" for director Chris Eyre. "We are in the business of making commercial movies," says Leipzig, who hopes to cast two major stars. "Part of their commerciality is our brand."

Also in active development is the Erik Jendresen ("Band of Brothers") script of Alan Tennant's 2004 book "On the Wing," which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Science and Technology. Edward R. Pressman and Terrence Malick will produce; Robert Redford is attached to star as a bush pilot pursuing an elusive peregrine falcon. Leipzig is now approaching possible directors. When the package is ready, Leipzig and Eberts will shop it to prospective studio partners. "For the last century, National Geographic has empowered the world's adventurers," Leipzig says. "Now we have a treasure trove of great adventure stores that we want to give to great moviemakers."

Also in the works is the big-budget action adventure "Krakatoa," about the 1883 seismic disaster (recounted in the 1969 film "Krakatoa, East of Java"). Gavin Scott ("The Borrowers") is writing a more accurate original account, with help from consultant Simon Winchester, author of the nonfiction best-seller "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded." "When people go to see this film, it will be steeped in the culture and geology of this part of the world," Patrick says. "We will get the story straight and the science right."

Backburnered are a script based on the Ernest Shackleton expedition and the aborted Antartica drama "Emperor Zehnder," which was set to star Richard Gere as a penguin-obsessed photographer.

NGFF's second approach is to acquire a movie in partnership with a distributor. "Winged Migration," "Whale Rider," "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Touching the Void" are all films that Leipzig would have happily partnered on. At January's Sundance Film Festival, NGFF and studio subsidiary Warner Independent Pictures picked up stateside and U.K. distribution rights to Luc Jacquet's French nature documentary "March of the Penguins."

Leipzig was tracking the film during production in Antartica and "fell in love with it" when he saw footage in Paris. He talked to WIP president Mark Gill about partnering, but only after they both saw the completed picture with an audience in Sundance did they seal the deal -- in the lobby outside the theater. Together, they have split the $1 million acquisition and additional production costs to record a new Jordan Roberts score and an English-language narration by Morgan Freeman. WIP will release the re-edited film in June as a mass-market family adventure.

"National Geographic is not simply about the brand and marketing reach and credibility," Gill says. "There are a lot of smart people to consult -- including one of the world's foremost penguinologists."