Recapitalised RHI plans move into TV series

The new-look RHI Entertainment will broaden its output from TV movies and miniseries to regular TV series, co-CEO Mike Corrigan has told TBIvision.

The former MGM executive said that under its new ownership the company intends to branch out and will have its first TV series to show buyers next year.

“Clearly there is a sustained appetite for the event miniseries and, on a market by market basis, movies of the week,” Corrigan said. “But we will be significantly ramping up in 2012 and 2013 and we want to get beyond just movies of the week and miniseries, so we will come, in a meaningful way, to the series business.”

Corrigan would not elaborate on the first series that the new-look RHI will bring to market, but said: “The development pipeline is pretty rich. The general focus will be on action and in many cases we will be getting behind shows with brands that people will recognise. We will have one or two to talk about by the time we reach MIP TV and the best case scenario is that we have something on air by fall 2012.”

The RHI boss added that the finance is in place for the company to execute its long terms plans. It came out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March and Corrigan and his co-CEOs Stewart Till and David Salzman stepped into their roles after the departure of Robert Halmi Jr. in July.

RHI had comedian and actor at Eddie Izzard in Cannes last week to promote its event miniseries Treasure Island. Its other major push at MIPCOM was Neverland, the Peter Pan-inspired miniseries starring Rhys Ifans and Keira Knightley.