Essays

Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick’s 1019 Entertainment Acquires the Rights to Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein

Hollywood — February 2010 — Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick’s Hollywood-based 1019 Entertainment today announced they have acquired the rights to author Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein. One of America’s best story tellers has re-envisioned one of the great classic stories of all time. Koontz, whose titles have sold over 400,000,000 copies worldwide, brings the “monster” into the 21st Century by placing the doctor, now known as the socially prominent and successful businessman Victor Helios, and his super-human original creation, Deucalion, in modern-day New Orleans. Three titles in the #1 bestselling series have been published to date. The fourth novel in the series is scheduled to be published in hardcover in June, 2010.

Winter and Botwick jointly stated, “Bringing Frankenstein into present day New Orleans was a brilliant creative decision by Dean. Each book has been a page turner and we can’t wait for the fourth book to come out. This is the perfect vehicle to build a movie franchise series. Dean has rarely opened his treasure chest of stories to Hollywood, we are privileged and excited to work with him. These books have enough twists and turns to keep the public coming back to the theatres for many years to come.”

Helios (Dr. Frankenstein) is a well-respected member of New Orleans society, while Deucalion (the Doctor’s original creation) remains in the shadows—at first. Detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison, street-smart and fearless partners, are investigating a murder when they encounter Deucalion. Their search ultimately leads them to Helios, and the bizarre array of “engineered” humans Helios has designed to replace our flawed, all-too-human race.

Dean Koontz stated, “The moment I met Terry and Ralph I knew they were kindred spirits and two men I could trust with my work. I’ve been careful to only option my books to those people who share my vision and core values. I’m busy working on the next installment of this six-part series based on Mary Shelley’s classic work, which is more timely now than when it was written.”

Prior to forming 1019 Entertainment with Winter, Terry Botwick was the President of Vanguard Films and Animation. Previously he was President and COO of Big Idea Productions. He was SVP of Current Series and Specials for CBS where he helped bring the network from 4th to 1st place in the national ratings. He also was President of distribution and national programming for the Hearst Corporation and VP of The Family Channel.. Botwick has raised more than $500 million in production financing and been responsible for more than 1,000 hours of film and television entertainment.

Prior to forming 1019 Entertainment, Ralph Winter had a first-look deal at 20th Century Fox and produced some of the studio’s biggest box office successes including the X-Men Trilogy, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES, and the FANTASTIC FOUR movies. The latest movie, X-Men Origins:WOLVERINE, has grossed more than $373 million in worldwide box office. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Winter’s movies have achieved more than $2.4 billion in worldwide box office.

Frankenstein will be produced by Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick through their 1019 Entertainment banner and Whitney Thomas, 1019 executive, will also oversee for the company. Thomas was previously Associate Producer on X-Men Origins:WOLVERINE.
Koontz is published in 36 languages around the world. 50 of his 54 novels published to date have been New York Times bestsellers. The first title in the Frankenstein series, Prodigal Son, reached #2 on the Times when first published as a paperback original in 2005 by Bantam Books. Currently worldwide sales alone are estimated to be 4 million and counting. The second title, City of Night, also reached #2 on the Times list with worldwide sales also over 4 million. The third title, Dead and Alive was published in July 2009 as a premium mass market paperback at #1 on the Times list. Book 4, Lost Souls, will be published on June 22, 2010 with books 5 and 6 in the series to follow in 2011 and 2012. The Frankenstein sub-site and the Frankenstein avatar are housed on www.deankoontz.com.

1019 Entertainment has more than 25 projects in development, both internally and at the studios, including Paul Verhoeven’s Surrogate starring Halle Berry and the action thriller Man and Wife in conjunction with Peter Chernin. The Company is currently in production on, Cool It inspired by the work, lectures, and writings of the Danish climate change expert, Bjorn Lomborg, which Winter and Botwick are producing with Sarah Gibson.

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Michael Saltzman
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