Castle Rock Entertainment

Castle Rock Entertainment is a film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andy Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. Originally an independent company, today, it is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which in turn is a unit of Time Warner.

Reiner named the company in honor of the fictional Maine town from the book "The Dead Zone" written by Stephen King (which was named after the fictional Castle Rock in "Lord of the Flies"), after the success of the film "Stand by Me" (produced by Norman Lear's Act III Communications), which was based on a novella by King. The first Castle Rock release was "When Harry Met Sally…".

The company was backed by Columbia Pictures and Nelson Entertainment. Nelson was primarily interested because of some of the founders' relations with the company. Horn previously was with Embassy Pictures, which Nelson later acquired. Reiner filmed two successful films for Embassy, "This is Spinal Tap" and "The Sure Thing". Nelson was also involved with the home video distribution of Reiner's "The Princess Bride" which Reiner also co-produced with Scheinman. Nelson funded Castle Rock's films and also distributed the films on video. Some of Nelson's holdings were later acquired by New Line Cinema, which took over Nelson's duty. Columbia invested at formation, distributing Castle Rock's films theatrically, but shortly thereafter had to re-invest with a substantial change in terms when accumulated losses exhausted its initial funding.

Columbia handled Castle Rock films' distribution up until 1999. Despite the company's history of being sold and acquired, it never turned in a profit until its 2004 computer-animated production of "The Polar Express", which is now in perpetual holiday theatrical release.

In 1994, Castle Rock was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which was eventually merged into Time Warner. In 1999, Warner Bros. and Universal assumed distribution rights beginning with "The Green Mile" (WB handled domestic distribution, while Universal handled the foreign rights). In 2003, WB assumed full distribution of all Castle Rock films worldwide.

The worldwide home video and European theatrical rights to all Castle Rock films up to 1994 (with the exception of co-productions with Columbia such as "In the Line of Fire" and "A Few Good Men") are now owned by MGM (having inherited some holdings from Nelson Entertainment), while the remaining rights as well as post-1994 Castle Rock films (except the US rights to "The Story of Us" and "The Last Days of Disco", along with the international rights to "The American President", all of which are held by Universal) are now part of WB's library.

Theatrical distribution of the pre-1994 Castle Rock library came full circle in 2005, when MGM was sold to a Sony-led partnership. As Sony owns Columbia (through Sony Pictures Entertainment), that studio has assumed theatrical distribution rights to the MGM-owned features. SPE also handled TV and video distribution for a short time. In 2006, MGM returned to self-distribution on TV, and switched video distribution to 20th Century Fox.

Castle Rock's most recent productions are the aforementioned "The Polar Express" (2004), "" (2005), and "Music and Lyrics" (2007).

The Castle Rock Entertainment title music was composed by Marc Shaiman.

elected films

Distributed by Columbia Pictures

* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098659/ Winter People] " (1989) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* "When Harry Met Sally..." (1989) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* "Lord of the Flies" (1990) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* "Spirit of '76" (1990; only pre-1994 film owned by Warner Bros.)
* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100611/ Sibling Rivalry] " (1990) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* " Misery" (1990) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* "City Slickers" (1991) (with Nelson Entertainment)
* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102279/ Late for Dinner] " (1991) (with New Line Cinema)
* "Year of the Comet" (1992) (with New Line Cinema)
* "Mr. Saturday Night" (1992) (with New Line Cinema)
* "A Few Good Men" (1992) (Castle Rock/Columbia/New Line co-production)
* "Amos & Andrew" (1992) (with New Line Cinema)
* "In the Line of Fire" (1993) (Castle Rock/Columbia co-production)
* "Needful Things" (1993) (with New Line Cinema)
* "Josh and S.A.M." (1993) (with New Line Cinema)
* "Malice" (1993) (with New Line Cinema)
* "Little Big League" (1994)
* "North" (1994) (with New Line Cinema)
* "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)
* "Before Sunrise" (1995)
* "For Better or Worse" (1995)
* "Dolores Claiborne" (1995)
* "Forget Paris" (1995)
* "Beyond Rangoon" (1995)
* "In the Bleak Midwinter" (1995)
* "The American President" (1995) (with Universal Studios)
* "Othello" (1995)
* "" (1995)
* "The Spitfire Grill" (1996)
* "City Hall" (1996)
* "Some Mother's Son" (1996)
* "Lone Star" (1996)
* "Striptease" (1996)
* "Extreme Measures" (1996)
* "SubUrbia" (1996)
* "Absolute Power" (1996)
* "Ghosts of Mississippi" (1996)
* "Hamlet" (1996)
* "Alaska" (1996)
* "Waiting for Guffman" (1996, through Sony Pictures Classics)
* "Zero Effect" (1998)
* "My Giant" (1998)
* "Sour Grapes" (1998)
* "Envy" (2004) (with DreamWorks SKG)
* "Sleuth (film)" (2007) (through Sony Pictures Classics)

Distributed by Warner Bros.

* "The Green Mile" (1999)
* "Bait (film) (2000)
* "Best in Show" (2000)
* "Proof of Life" (2000)
* "Miss Congeniality" (2000)
* "Hearts in Atlantis" (with Village Roadshow Pictures)
* "The Majestic" (2001)
* "The Salton Sea" (2002)
* "Murder by Numbers" (2002)
* "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" (2002)
* "Two Weeks Notice" (2002)
* "A Mighty Wind" (2003)
* "Kangaroo Jack" (2003)
* "Dreamcatcher" (2003)
* "Before Sunset" (2004)
* "" (2004)
* "The Polar Express" (2004)
* "" (2005)
* "For Your Consideration" (2006)
* "In the Land of Women" (2007)
* "Music and Lyrics" (2007) (with Village Roadshow Pictures)
* "Chaos Theory" (2007)
* "No Reservations" (2007)
* "Michael Clayton" (2007)

Distributed by New Line Cinema

* " Fracture" (2007)

Distributed by Fine Line Features

* "Barcelona" (1994)

Distributed by Universal Pictures

* "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) (through Gramercy Pictures)
* "The Story of Us" (1999)
* "Fahrenheit 451" (2010)

elected television shows

*"Seinfeld" (1989-1998) (Sony Pictures Television currently owns distribution and syndication rights)
*"Thea" (1993-1994) (Sony Pictures Television currently owns distribution and syndication rights)
*"The Single Guy" (1995-1997)
*"Mission Hill" (1999-2000)

Trivia

New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment had recently collaborated on Fracture, which opened April 20, 2007; their first joint venture since the mid-1990s before both companies were bought by Turner.

External links

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