Lightning launches new higher-quality label

By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 5/7/2008

MAY 7 | Lightning Entertainment Group has formed Lightning Media, a new division to distribute films on a variety of platforms. The division will be headed by Paul Gardner, former president of Union Station Media.

The new unit will release up to 12 films annually through Anchor Bay Entertainment, which also serves as distributor for Union Station.

Gardner said he intends for four to six titles to get a limited theatrical release and for the films to fill a “different space” with a “level of cast” that is higher than those for Lightning’s existing DVD label, Lightning Home Entertainment.

That label will continue to deliver eight to 12 horror films per year through Lionsgate, and Lightning will “raise the bar” on the quality of those films also, Gardner said.

Union Station Media is up for sale, he said, and Lightning is attempting to acquire it.

Also joining Lightning from Union Station is Barbara Javitz, who will become VP of operations for Lightning Media. Javitz had been senior VP of operations at Union Station.

Gardner will serve as co-president of Lightning Media and will be involved in acquisitions for Lightning Home Entertainment. Rich Goldberg, who is head of worldwide independent film sales and distribution arm Lightning Entertainment, will be the other co-president of Lightning Media.

The first DVD release for the new label will be mixed martial arts feature The Scorpion, expected in September, to be followed by theatrically released comedy Tortilla Heaven, starring George Lopez, in October.

Goldberg and Gardner, along with Lightning Home Entertainment acquisitions and marketing VP Joe Dickstein, will attend the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in search of additional product.