Famed Musicians and Composers David Mansfield & Van Dyke Parks To Score AMC's First Ever Original Movie, Western-Themed Broken Trail
Two-Night Movie Event, Directed by Walter Hill, Premieres on AMC June 25-26, 2006
New York, NY, April 10, 2006 – AMC announced today plans for the network's largest marketing initiative to date for its first-ever original movie event, Broken Trail. Executive produced by and starring Academy Award® winner Robert Duvall, the four-hour, two-part movie event, will make its world premiere on AMC on June 25 and June 26 at 8:00 pm ET/PT.
"As the first-ever original movie event for AMC, Broken Trail will be supported with a multi-tiered comprehensive marketing initiative that will be the largest in network history," said Linda Schupack, Senior Vice President of Marketing for AMC. "We are excited to showcase the cinematic beauty of Broken Trail and expand our brand presence through a variety of outlets – print, radio, online, and outdoor."
The multi-tiered marketing campaign for Broken Trail will include advertisements in top tier national print, radio and online outlets, as well as local television, print and outdoor coverage in key AMC markets. The network will also create an extensive online presence including a Broken Trail mini-site that will boast insights into the inspiration behind the story and highlights on the production from screenwriter Alan Geoffrion. Leading up to the premiere of Broken Trail two-minute behind-the-scenes vignettes and :60 and :30 second trailers will run nationally in select movie theatres. Interstitials produced by an onsite documentary film maker with extensive interviews of the cast and crew will also air on the network.
AMC also announced today that renowned musicians and composers David Mansfield and Van Dyke Parks have been named as composers for Broken Trail. Both Mansfield and Parks have a successful and extensive history working in the film and music industry creating original music that has captivated audiences. They will collaborate to create an original score for Broken Trail that compliments the epic tales homage to the popular, timeless genre of the western.
Broken Trail is an epic story set in the American West at the close of the 19th century. Academy Award®-nominated actor Thomas Haden Church (Sideways, Spider-Man 3) co-stars with Duvall, and Rob Carliner (The Apostle) and Stanley M. Brooks (Living with the Dead) join Duvall in executive producing the mini-series. Broken Trail is directed by legendary filmmaker and Emmy Award winner Walter Hill (48 Hrs., Deadwood) and was written by Alan Geoffrion. Also featured in the cast is Greta Scacchi (The Player, Shattered).
Western-themed programming has proved to be successful for AMC. The network's recent exclusive licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures provided the network with 32 of John Wayne's greatest films, including the world premiere of the fully restored, digitally remastered High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky. The premieres of these movies, as well as the premiere of the 20th Anniversary of Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider, rank as AMC's highest rated telecasts ever, furthering the network's ratings success.
Broken Trail joins a list of strong original network programming on AMC, including the successful network series Sunday Morning ShootOut and Movies 101. AMC's commitment to the original programming genre garnered record ratings growth for 2005 leading to the best year ever in the history of the network. 2005 ranked as the network's strongest year in Primetime HH ratings, Household, and A18-49 & A25-54 deliveries. Additionally, AMC ranked among the top 20 networks in primetime performance of key demos.
Broken Trail is co-executive produced by Robert Duvall, Stanley M. Brooks (Living with the Dead) and Rob Carliner (The Apostle). The film is produced by Butchers Run Films and Once Upon a Time Films in association with Sony Pictures Television. Chad Oakes' and Mike Frislev's Nomadic Pictures provided production services in Alberta. Alan Geoffrion, Ron Parker, Chad Oakes and Damian Ganczewski are the producers. International Creative Management (ICM) brokered the deal.
**Source: Nielsen Media Research, 2005 (12/27/04-12/25/05) Primetime: M-Su 8-11p; Since beginning of Nielsen measurement 4/97. Comparisons to ad-supported network performance exclude Nick, which does not broadcast more than 51% of primetime daypart.
About Van Dyke Parks:
Van Dyke Parks has spent the last four decades as a composer and recording artist. His film credits include "The Company" for Robert Altman, "Shadrach" starring Harvey Keitel and Andie MacDowell and produced by Jonathan Demme, "Bastard Out of Carolina" for Anjelica Huston, "Wild Bill" for Walter Hill, "Private Parts" and "Casual Sex" for Ivan Reitman, "The Two Jakes" and "Goin' South" for Jack Nicholson, among others. Parks was also nominated for an Emmy for Best Original Score for his work on "Stuart Little." As an arranger and songwriter he has collaborated with such diverse artists as Fiona Apple, U2, Sheryl Crow, Smashing Pumpkins, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.
About David Mansfield:
David Mansfield is an award-winning film and television composer with many major scoring credits. Most recently he established the original score for the award-winning film "Transamerica" for Duncan Tucker. His first film score was for the notorious epic "Heaven's Gate," which led to four film collaborations with director Michael Cimino and resulted in a Golden Globe nomination for Mansfield's score for the Oliver Stone-penned "Year of the Dragon." Other long-standing relationships are with the esteemed Mexican auteur Arturo Ripstein, and with Maggie Greenwald ("Ballad of Little Jo", "Songcatcher"). His score for Ripstein's "Deep Crimson (Profundo Carmesi)" won David the Golden Ocelot at the Venice film festival (Best Musical Score); this honor was repeated at the Havana Film Festival. Other notable film credits include "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" for Callie Khouri and "The Apostle" for Robert Duvall. Mansfield continues to be a world-class recording and performing musician. A founding member of "Bruce Hornsby and the Range", David was awarded an RIAA platinum album and a Grammy Award for "The Way It Is", as well as RIAA gold albums for Bob Dylan's "Desire" and "Hard Rain".
About AMC:
AMC, a division of Rainbow Media's Entertainment Services, which also includes WE: Women's Entertainment and IFC Companies, is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 87 million homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and a critically-acclaimed slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. Over the past three years, AMC has garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including 14 Emmy awards. AMC is "TV for movie people."