Tuesday, April 29, 2008

MIP TV Debut, April 7-11, Planned

NEW DOCUMENTARY: “THE BROTHERS WARNER,” BY FILMMAKER AND GRANDDAUGHTER, CASS WARNER TELLS HER FAMILY DYNASTY’S STORY, BOTH THE GRAND AND THE GRIM!

A band of brothers who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies, persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience

(Los Angeles, Calif., March 25, 2008)--- Warner Brothers was the only family owned and operated studio in Hollywood and today the studio the brothers created 85 years ago remains a giant player in the entertainment industry.
But behind the power of “Casablanca” and reels of Bugs Bunny cartoon classics is an epic saga, the family’s dramatic life story, as told by an insider, Cass Warner, filmmaker and granddaughter of Harry Warner, in a new, 90-minute documentary, “The Brothers Warner,” set to debut April 7th at MIP TV in Cannes.
The Warner Bros. (Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack) started in the picture business in 1903 as exhibitors, showing movies on a bed sheet in Pittsburgh.
By 1918, they were able to open their first studio on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, a few miles from the current location in Burbank.
Their father, Ben, mandated to them when they were children, “As long as you stand together, you will be strong.”
This is an intimate tale that reads like a Greek tragedy of four brothers who created and ran the studio for over 50 years and the disintegration of their relationship, culminating in the subsequent sale of the studio.
Featuring numerous, never before seen images and private movies from the Warner family archives and interviews with Warner luminaries and peers, such as Dennis Hopper, Debbie Reynolds, Norman Lear and Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., “The Brothers Warner” is the first ever film produced by a Hollywood film family member about her own clan’s studio dynasty.
Reaching way beyond the usual studio tributes of film clips and glossy remarks, “The Brothers Warner,” years in the making and based on Cass Warner’s book, “Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story,” peeks behind the curtain and shows the true character of the people who created the Hollywood legacy and mystique.
“For me this documentary is the fulfillment of something special entrusted to me to tell,” says Warner.
Worldwide distribution will be handled by industry veteran Glenn Aveni, whose company Icon Television Music, Inc. will be at MIP TV (stand #15.30). To inquire for rights acquisitions please call (818) 385 0200 x117.
Websites: www.warnersisters.com; www.icontvmusic.com.
###