ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995                   TAG: 9503020077
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

FAMILY CHANNEL TO MAKE MOVIES FOR BIG SCREEN

The Family Channel, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's cable television venture, plans to expand its movie offerings from television to the big screen.

International Family Entertainment Inc., the parent company of The Family Channel, announced Tuesday that it will produce four G- or PG-rated feature films for theater release per year under the name Family Channel Pictures.

IFE has hired Anthony D. Thomopoulos, president of the television production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, to head the film venture as chief executive of IFE's MTM Entertainment subsidiary.

Thomopoulos, who previously held senior positions at ABC and United Artists Pictures, also will be in charge of all entertainment programming for The Family Channel.

``I've been looking for a while now for somebody with his kind of credentials to fill this role for us,'' said Timothy B. Robertson, IFE's president and chief executive officer. He is also Pat Robertson's son.

Thomopoulos's office will be at MTM's Hollywood headquarters. From there, he will oversee the creative elements of IFE's newly acquired Ice Capades as well as its Great American Entertainment music theaters.

Tim Robertson called the move ``something of a shift in the focus of the company. ... We are admitting that to take our company to the next level, we've got to work more within the Hollywood system.''

IFE is planning movies that cost $8 million to $12 million each. Robertson said the company has commissioned a few scripts already, and the likely first release is mid-1996.

Robertson said the films will have ``themes of hope, redemption, positive values'' and that, after release, they'll be sold for home video and pay TV. They also probably will be shown on The Family Channel, he said.

Thomopoulos will coordinate the release of the movies and other IFE programming with the company's live shows. For example, Robertson said, the Ice Capades might use a theme from an IFE movie, similar to how the rival Disney on Ice show uses characters and themes from Disney Co. movies.

At Amblin, Thomopoulos has placed four shows on network TV: ``SeaQuest,'' ``ER'' and ``Earth 2'' on NBC, and ``Fudge,'' a Saturday morning live-action series on ABC. 

Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
by CNB