Revival under way at Paramount Classics
Revival under way at Paramount Classics
SepT 8, 2005
When Tom Freston was promoted to Viacom co-president and co-chief operating officer in summer 2004, he immediately began talking about shaking up Paramount Pictures' specialty film division, Paramount Classics. Kept on a tight leash by the previous Paramount administration, the unit, headed by Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein, had to content itself with smaller acquisitions, usually foreign-language pickups with limited boxoffice prospects.
But just as Brad Grey was taking over as Paramount's chairman, Vitale and Dinerstein were key to a couple of Sundance acquisitions. Marilyn Agrelo's "Mad Hot Ballroom," a documentary about New York grade school students in a ballroom dancing competition, pulled in more than $7 million, and "Hustle & Flow," Craig Brewer's feature about a pimp (Terrence Howard) with musical aspirations, crossed the $20 million mark. Assisted by the marketing muscle of its sister divisions Nickelodeon (on "Ballroom") and MTV (on "Hustle"), Paramount Classics figured in the corporate synergy that Freston is encouraging. "It's the best summer we've had," says Dinerstein, who started the unit along with Vitale in 1998. "We had two extraordinary films that have one thing in common: They are both audience-pleasers." Moving forward, Dinerstein and Vitale, no longer depending on just acquisitions, have four films in various stages of production. They include Brewer's latest effort, "Black Snake Moan," and Dagen Merrill's "Beneath," a horror co-production with MTV Films. "We're invigorated going into Venice and Toronto," Vitale says. "We're able to be aggressive with films we like, yet we can go into Toronto looking for films without a gun to our head." Adds Dinerstein: "With the new regime, we have been able to go after films we haven't been able to go after in the past." |
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