MarVista, CCI in dev partnership

LA-based producer and distributor MarVista Entertainment has linked up with Toronto’s CCI Entertainment for a new development and distribution deal.

MarVista will co-distribute 200 hours of CCI’s programming library worldwide, including lifestyle and factual series, as well as movies and documentaries. The two companies will also explore coproduction opportunities together on a variety of entertainment projects.

CCI co-chairman and CEO Arnie Zipursky, said the deal with MarVista formed a “great fit” with its own development and distribution strategy and added that the firms were working on “further additional initiatives” that have arisen from the partnership.

As part of the deal, MarVista will debut CCI’s newest documentary series Cubicle to the Cage (12×30′) at MipTV. The show, which is being sold as a finished programme and a format, follows the personal and physical journeys of a range of people as they commit a year of their lives to becoming mixed martial arts fighters.

Also on MarVista’s slate are two seasons of factual series Ancient Clues (8×30’, 6×60’), which examines ritual human sacrifice, cannibalism and mass burials from history, and Avventura (26×30’), a hybrid travel show about Italian culture and cuisine.