Having completed its acquisition of IDT Ent., Liberty Media Corp. has combined the former IDT Corp. subsidiary with its own Starz Entertainment Group to create a new integrated media company dubbed Starz, LLC. The freshly minted entity will produce animated and live-action programming, including feature films, series, specials and shorts, for distribution over multiple platforms.
Under the Starz LLC umbrella, IDT Ent. has been renamed Starz Media, while Starz Entertainment Group has become Starz Ent. Former Starz Entertainment Group president and CEO Robert B. Clasen who has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of both entities, as well as Starz LLC. Wile most units in the new company will be branded with the Starz name, well-known brands such as Anchor Bay, Encore, Film Roman, Manga and Vongo will keep their identities.
In 2003, IDT purchased a 51% controlling interest in Film Roman, the toon shop behind the FOX primetime series The Simpsons and King of the Hill. The studio will now work in tandem with Starz Animation, which develops and produces animated feature-length movies with a staff of more than 600 artists and technicians working in the United States and Canada.
Starz LLC’s slate of animated theatrical features includes Everyone’s Hero, which will be released by 20th Century Fox on Sept. 15, Rob Zombie’s The Haunted World of El Super Beasto (2007), Space Chimps (2008) and Sheepish (2008). For television, the group is producing the animated series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy for Nick Jr., Eloise for Starz Kids & Family and DVD release, Hellboy Animated and Stan Lee Presents. In addition, Starz on Demand is home to Angry Alien Prod.’s Bunnies Theater, a series of 30-second, animated versions of major motion pictures starring rabbits.
