STORY TOOLS

Warner executives head new Summit home entertainment unit

Nickerson, Gerber leave studio for new indie

By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 9/18/2007

Nickerson

SEPT. 18 | Former Warner Home Video executives Steve Nickerson and Bobby Gerber have joined Summit Entertainment to develop and operate the company’s new home entertainment division.

The company has a physical distribution pact with Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Nickerson will be president of the new division, while Gerber will serve as executive VP and general sales manager. Nickerson had been senior VP of worldwide high-definition media for WHV, and Gerber had been senior VP of field sales for the company. Both Nickerson and Gerber also once held positions at Toshiba.

Gerber

Created earlier this year, Summit is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production and distribution studio that plans to release 10 to 12 films annually.

Nickerson and Gerber will work with the rest of the Summit team, including the TV division, to formulate the studio’s new media distribution strategy. They also will handle all sales, marketing, retailer relationships, release dating and replication for the company’s home entertainment product.

Nickerson said the opportunity presented to him by Summit CEO Robert Friedman, who had been vice chair and chief operating officer of Paramount Pictures and prior to that was a Warner theatrical marketing executive, offered the former WHV executive a chance to “build something brand new that could become big over time.”

Summit’s first film, due in theaters in November, will be P2, a thriller directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Wes Bentley and Rachel Nichols. It focuses on a corporate climber (Nichols) who must escape from level P2 of the parking garage.

The film probably will be Summit’s first home entertainment release as well, Nickerson said.

By the time the film is released on DVD next year, Nickerson said there should be at least 5 million high-definition devices in homes, enough to make a high-definition release viable.

Nickerson had revealed this summer that he would be leaving Warner for a then-undisclosed company.

At the time of his departure from WHV, company executives said Nickerson’s leaving for a new opportunity would not signal a change in the company’s commitment to both Blu-ray and HD DVD high-definition formats. WHV is the only major studio still following a dual-format strategy.

In fact, Nickerson said he would like to use both formats at Summit if it’s cost-effective for a company of Summit’s size.

Since the launch of high-definition discs last year, Universal has solely supported the Toshiba-backed HD DVD format.

Nickerson said Universal’s position won’t affect Summit because the two companies have an agreement for physical distribution only.

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