National Lampoon To Produce Original Film Comedies

Posted on June 20, 2003

National Lampoon announced it has entered into an agreement to develop and produce a slate of films with partners Silver Nitrate, Street Alien Pictures and producer Angad Paul. The agreement calls for a minimum of four comedy films, to be produced and distributed by the partners.

The first film slated, National Lampoon's Bouncers, written and directed by Full Force for Full Force Films, is now being cast for principal photography this summer in NYC. Multi-platinum record producers Full Force also created the urban comedy. The same team was instrumental in the development of -- and appeared in supporting roles in -- the 1990 comedies House Party and House Party II. Full Force's musical hits include songs for artists including Lisa Lisa, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and Lil' Kim.

"We are very pleased to be associated with Street Alien Pictures and Silver Nitrate and are looking forward to a mutually beneficial relationship," said Dan Laikin, Chief Operating Officer of National Lampoon. "This partnership allows us to search for, develop and produce smart, funny and edgy comedy projects that our key audience, the 18- to 24-year old demographic, get excited about."

National Lampoon is famous for the blockbuster comedy hits, National Lampoon's Vacation movies starring Chevy Chase, last year's National Lampoon's Van Wilder and the comedy classic National Lampoon's Animal House which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

"The scripts live up to the National Lampoon legend because they really are fall-down funny, and that is the most important element," said Wayne Mogel, president of Street Alien Pictures. "Also, through this film development partnership, we are looking forward to being instrumental in helping write a new chapter in National Lampoon history."

Street Alien Pictures was founded by its Principals Wayne Mogel and Juan Carlos Zapata to produce, distribute and develop music driven documentaries and film projects. One of the most recent projects was Thunderbox: Fistful of Dollars, a CKP and Street Alien Production, in which eight major heavyweight boxers compete in a sudden-death elimination tournament to win $100,000.

Silver Nitrate is an independent film production and distribution company. Silver Nitrate and its sister companies Spartan Home Entertainment LLC, Saturn Home Entertainment LLC and Others were formed in 1999 as a partnership between Newmarket Capital Group and Ashland Entertainment for the purposes of acquiring and releasing films for the domestic home video and television markets. Over the course of three years, the company has acquired and released more than 200 feature films through a number of distribution partners including Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Artisan Entertainment. Some of the more high profile titles the company has handled include the box office and critical hit Memento, produced and released theatrically by Newmarket, Michael Jordan to the Max, Donnie Darko, numerous Jet Li films, Boondock Saints and Zig Zag.