MarVista arm to target digital

LA-based MarVista Entertainment is to launch a new division that will focus on licensing original and acquired content to digital platforms across North America.

MarVista Digital Entertainment’s (MVDE) content pipeline will be made up of MarVista’s original productions plus coproductions and third-party acquisitions, with 40 new titles in the works for 2014 that MarVista will produce, finance, co-finance, or acquire.

Vanessa Shapiro, the firm’s executive VP of distribution, will now oversee the in-house division, which will aim to land movies and series across cable, satellite, telco, broadband and consoles throughout North America.

Scott Kirkpatrick, who joined the company in 2012, will move into the new role of director of distribution for MVDE, having previous served as director of sales.

MVDE has also poached Rebecca Shipley from Warner Bros Digital Distribution’s programming and acquisitions department to manage MVDE, reporting to Kirkpatrick. Shipley will have responsibility for identifying and acquiring titles to exploit across VoD and other digital platforms.

The producer and distribution has previously made more than 150 movies that have been licensed to US and international channels including Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Syfy.

MVDE’s August slate of digital releases includes Disney’s teen movie Zapped; dramatic thriller Fatal Acquittal, starring Denise Richards; family comedy If I Had Wings; and crime thriller Betrayed.

Former Warner Bros digital executive Eric Stein advised MVDE on the execution of the new division via his digital media strategy company,