ABC FAMILY AND STARZ MEDIA JOIN HOLIDAY FORCES AGAIN WITH "THE DOG WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS VACATION" - TO PREMIERE DURING THE NETWORK'S "COUNTDOWN TO 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS" PROGRAMMING EVENT
PARIS HILTON APPEARS IN HER FIRST VOICE-OVER ROLE, TOGETHER WITH MARIO LOPEZ, IN FILM THAT STARS GARY VALENTINE, DEAN CAIN, ELISA DONOVAN, CASPER VAN DIEN AND CATHERINE OXENBERG
The Holiday Sequel to "The Dog Who Saved Christmas" Will Make Its World Wide Premiere on ABC Family on Sunday, November 28, 2010
Burbank, CA (October 1, 2010) - ABC Family and Starz Media will once again celebrate the holidays together this season, with the network buying the U.S. cable TV rights to the new live-action holiday movie, "The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation," as part of its November "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" programming event. A Starz Media presentation, the two-hour original movie, a sequel to last year's "The Dog Who Saved Christmas," makes its worldwide premiere on ABC Family on Sunday, November 28 at 8:00 PM ET/PT. Jeffrey Schenck and Barry Barnholtz are executive producers on the film, which was written by Michael Ciminera, Richard Gnolfo and Peter Sullivan, from a story by Schenck, Sullivan, Ciminera and Gnolfo. Michael Feifer directed the movie.
"Dog" features Paris Hilton (in her first voice-over role) as "Bella," a French poodle who becomes the target of inept thieves during a holiday getaway. Returning as the voice of the misguided guard dog "Zeus," in pursuit of Bella's affections, is Mario Lopez. The movie also stars Gary Valentine ("The King of Queens"), Dean Cain ("Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Out of Time"), Elisa Donovan ("Clueless," "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"), Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers"), Joey Diaz ("The Deported," "The Longest Yard"), Kayley Stallings ("Monk"), Brennan Bailey ("My Sister's Keeper"), Mindy Sterling (the "Austin Powers" trilogy), Catherine Oxenberg ("Watch Over Me," "Dynasty"), with Adrienne Barbeau ("Maude," "Carnivale").
"We had great success last year with �The Dog Who Saved Christmas,' so it was an easy decision to revisit our favorite dog, Zeus, the Bannister family, and their holiday misadventures," Starz Media Executive Vice President of Worldwide Distribution Gene George said. "And we couldn't be happier to once again help ABC Family kick off its �Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas' event. ABC Family is the ideal place for this family film to debut."
"We're very excited to be partnering again with Starz Media on this sequel," said Tom Zappala, Executive Vice President, Program Acquisitions & Scheduling, Disney ABC Television Group. "Last year's �The Dog Who Saved Christmas' stood as one of the network's biggest hits during our enormously popular holiday programming event."
In its November 2009 television premiere on ABC Family, "The Dog Who Saved Christmas" became one of the season's most-watched cable movies in Total Viewers (4.1 million).
Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Media's market-leading home entertainment division, will release the movie on DVD just 10 days later, on December 7, 2010.
About Starz Media
Starz Media, LLC, is a programming production and distribution company operating worldwide. It includes the Film Roman, Anchor Bay Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment brands. Its units create animated and live-action programming and programming created under contract for other media companies. It distributes that programming, and programming acquired from outside producers, through home video retailers, broadcasters, ad supported and premium television channels, and Internet and wireless video distributors in the US and internationally. Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com) is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital tracking stock group. Effective September 30, 2010, Starz Media will be attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group.
About Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is the home entertainment division of Starz Media, LLC. It includes the Anchor Bay Films and Manga Entertainment brands. It distributes feature films, children's entertainment, fitness, TV series, documentaries, anime and other filmed entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray� formats. It is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of the theatrical titles from Overture Films. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Anchor Bay Entertainment has offices in Troy, MI, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com) is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group. Effective September 30, 2010, Starz Media will be attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group.
About ABC Family
Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 98 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today's families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today's relationships - told with a mix of diversity, dysfunction, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family's programming is a combination of network defining original series and original movies, quality acquired series and blockbuster theatricals. ABC Family is also the destination for annual Holiday events with "13 Nights of Halloween" and "25 Days of Christmas!" ABC Family. A New Kind of Family.
|