THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408110496
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
From the people who brought you ``Blood of Ghastly Terror,'' ``Horrors of the Blood Monsters'' and ``Dracula vs. Frankenstein'' comes the story of the amazing comeback of four boys from Larchmont, N.Y., who want to make movies in Suffolk.
The Marten brothers are back.
Late Tuesday, they signed papers to lease and eventually buy their failed studio along the banks of the Nansemond River.
Now, with the leadership of a New York mogul known for his 1960s cult films, the brothers want to begin anew with movies like the UFO docu-drama ``Beyond This Earth'' and ``Two Gun: The Incredible Life of Morris Cohen,'' the tale of a London ruffian who became a Chinese general.
``He's a folk hero,'' said Ethan Marten, 31-year-old vice president and director of marketing for Atlantic Studios Corp. ``Even the communists like this guy.''
Atlantic Studios is the reincarnation of the now-defunct Atlantic Film Studios. The Martens started the new company a year ago to continue making films, as well as to try to regain control of the Suffolk studio.
The company already has plans for a 20-film series called ``The Mysterious Realities Series,'' which is all to be shot for less than $1 million an episode.
But movie-making won't be the Martens' only business. Their new company plans a bevy of other projects, including a film and video distribution company - headed by a former president and CEO of Sony Home Video - and an organization to raise money for film projects.
Carl Akers, vice president of finance, said the firm could hire as many as 1,000 people. There is even talk of training unskilled workers.
``We're very excited to see the property go back into the hands of film makers,'' said Marcie Oberndorf-Kelso, deputy director of the Virginia Film Office, the government office that oversees movie making in the state.
Atlantic Studios won't have the only soundstage in Virginia. The Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach has two.
The beginning of the latest chapter in the Martens' story starts with the end of another.
Elder brother Richard Marten and his father, Albert, lost the Suffolk studio four years ago after their grandiose plans of building a luxury community around the soundstage went bankrupt. At one time, their debts totaled $16 million on the real estate-studio venture.
``When we went out of business, we started studying the situation,'' said Richard Marten, 42, vice president for operations. ``This is really a new group. As to the question of solvency, we're just using a new name. The financial status of one company has nothing to do with the old group.''
Under that new name and with their father serving as CEO, the brothers and several minor movie and financial mavericks are doing it all again - without the land deal.
``The original project was part of a major real estate development and it's failure was more attune to the failure of the real estate market,'' said Samuel M. Sherman, president of Independent-Industrial Pictures Corp. and the new president and CEO of Atlantic Studios Corp. ``It had nothing to do with the studio itself.''
Sherman, who has been labeled ``The King of The Drive-In Movie'' and is as famous as one can be for such films as ``Satan's Sadists'' and ``Dracula vs. Frankenstein,'' is looking toward the future.
``Anytime I tear these old films down, the fans shout at me,'' Sherman said. ``I didn't set down in the beginning to make `Dracula vs. Frankenstein.' It just happened.
``But I don't want to be identified with the past. Because I wasn't part of the original team, I don't want to take credit or blame for what happened before. Basically I'd like to tell you what I'm doing at the moment.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Motoya Nakamura
Atlantic Studios was working Wednesday on a film for the Discovery
Channel, starring John Rhys-Davies, in the center of the photo at
left. Rhys-Davies, who starred in such films as "Raiders of the Lost
Ark," was flanked at the studio site by Ethan Marten, left, and
Richard S. Marten.
by CNB