High School Musical, TV movie mega-success

Network executives meet in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, February 25th, to discuss new business models of TV movies such as High School Musical

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 2/24/2009 – “The economy is lending itself to television, especially TV movies,” says Disney Channel director of development Reena Singh. “People are staying home more. There’s a re-emergence of family night.”

Singh and other television movie executives and producers are meeting at the swank Beverly Hills Hotel in a panel event open to the public hosted by The Caucus, an alliance of television producers, directors, writers and new media creators. The panel’s TV movie executives also feature ABC Sr. VP Quinn Taylor, Sony Sr. VP Helen Verno and Hallmark Channel Sr. VP Barbara Fisher.

“I don’t think anyone could predict how well High School Musical would do,” says Singh. “We had great timing, great story, great cast. It just took off! With High School Musical 2, we started to hear people talking about viewing parties. High School Musical 3 is a great collaboration between the network and the studio that did really well at the box office.”

“High School Musical began as a single TV movie which has morphed into a mega million dollar, if not billion dollar, brand for the studio,” says Caucus panel chair Greg Gugliotta. “Lifetime, Hallmark and SciFi make a movie a week. Disney is tremendously successful with their Disney Channel and ABC Family movie franchises.”

“The Movie of the Week world is going through a metamorphasis,” says TV movie writer-producer Michael Vickerman, another member of Wednesday’s panel. “The whole financial structure had fallen down. What’s emerged are networks like Hallmark, SCIFI and Lifetime.” Vickerman has just finished a 4-hour epic disaster movie called Impact, about a meteorite striking the Earth.

“We had sold Impact to NBC,” says Vickerman. “But, they closed that department. They had already sold some foreign sales.”

Although financing a film using foreign pre-sales is common in theatrical releases, in the past it’s the network that leads when making financing happen in television movies. When NBC participation fell out, the foreign investors weren’t willing to let Impact go. “They participated,” says Vickerman, “which made it a more foreign film and a better movie.” Impact has been optioned to premiere on ABC and will repeat on SCIFI.

“This panel is designed to look at where the TV movie genre is going, how producers, directors and writers can take advantage,” says steering committee member Albert Fisher who suggested The Caucus should host the panel. “The audience is anyone who wants to make creative contributions to TV movies and mini-series and is looking to have a better grasp of how to evolve in our current economy and ever-changing technologies and audience demands.”

“TV movie license fees and budgets are reduced, but audiences still love and tune into TV movies,” says Gugliotta. The challenge is finance, to make TV movies without network money or on smaller budgets. In fact, an upcoming Caucus event will focus on changing financial community and how it affects the industry. The Caucus presents from six to eight panels a year. Panels are open to members of The Caucus and to the public. Upcoming panels cover such diverse television industry topics as 3-D television.

The Caucus promotes the artistic rights of the creative community, opposes the concentration of ownership by media conglomerates and strives for increasing communication among members and the creative community on industry issues. The Caucus Foundation provides student film grants to mentor new filmmakers.

The Caucus, panel of television movie executives and producers, Wednesday, February 25th, at The Beverly Hills Hotel, 9641 Sunset Boulevard, in the Sunset Ballroom from 8:30am to 10:30am. $35 includes continental breakfast.

www.caucus.org