NEW YORK (Variety) - Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have secured a two-year film production deal at Disney for their Live Planet production company.
Initially formed to hatch reality shows, the company is now refocusing to use Disney as a launch pad for features.
"We formed Live Planet with the idea of focusing our efforts on integrated media projects," said Chris Moore, a partner in the company along with the acting duo and Sean Bailey. "We raised independent money and wanted to stay independent and sell projects to the most interested parties. We found that integrated properties are hard to do and that they can take a very long time."
Live Planet used the initial $15 million it raised to hatch Project Greenlight with Miramax, with writer-director Pete Jones winning a contest that entitled him to $1 million to make his Miramax-distributed film "Stolen Summer." The headaches of indie filmmaking were captured for the HBO series "Project Greenlight," and Live Planet is moving forward with a second season, with several tweaks: This time, a winning director will be chosen to helm the winning script in two separate contests that have been held over the past few months.
The primary focus for the foursome was that series, as well as the Bailey-and Affleck-created ABC reality gamer "Push, Nevada" and another HBO reality show revolving around a minor league sports team called "General Manager."
But Live Planet has done OK on the film production front without trying much. It has been involved in projects including "Matchstick Men," the Ridley Scott-directed drama starring Nicolas Cage; a three-part adaptation of the Howard Zinn book "A People's History of the United States" for HBO (with John Sayles writing the first two-hour installment); and a New Line pic called "Solace," which is casting.
Three pictures just wrapped: "Speakeasy," for Miramax; the Jon Amiel-directed Paramount drama "The Core"; and the Michael Hoffman-directed "The Emperor's Club," starring Kevin Kline, at Universal. Live Planet also has the Columbia drama "Dreadnought" with Will Smith attached and is involved in the next "American Pie" installment being prepped at Universal.
While the Disney deal doesn't tie either Damon or Affleck to star in any of the pics, the partners hope to find vehicles for them, said Bailey and Moore. Affleck previously worked with Disney in "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon."
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