http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117963354.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Voom HD, Altitude climb 'Everest'
Film retraces Mallory's path on mountain
By ELIZABETH GUIDER
CANNES -- Rainbow Media's Voom HD Networks and Britain's Altitude Films have finalized a deal to produce a doc called "The Altitude Everest Expedition 2007." The partners describe the project as a multiplatform film that follows a team of climbers as they retrace the last steps of George Mallory on Mount Everest.
A feature-length doc will be released theatrically in 2008, under a new theatrical unit called Voom HD Pictures; project's North American TV premiere will follow on Voom's Rush HD, a channel dedicated to extreme sports.
Globally, viewers will be able to follow the progress of the expedition on an interactive Web portal, to be launched shortly.
The agreement was confirmed Wednesday by Voom's general manager Greg Moyer and Altitude's CEO Anthony Geffen. No financial details about the cost of the project were made available. Details of the eventual theatrical release have apparently not yet been worked out.
But other information was provided. The "Altitude Everest" venture will roll out as a three-pronged effort: a theatrical pic, a Web site with video streaming and a made-for-TV doc.
"Not only is it the most ambitious documentary project ever to be filmed on Everest, it will also provide the ultimate Everest experience through the innovative Web portal," Geffen said.
"Bringing this story alive as a theatrical release under the new Voom HD Pictures banner provides another way to reach audiences beyond the linear networks we provide. We can't think of a more compelling project than 'The Altitude Everest Expedition,' " Moyer said at the Mip TV market Wednesday.
Three decades before Everest was conquered by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Mallory, along with his climbing partner Sandy Irvine, was spotted just a few hundred yards short of the summit before a snowstorm closed in.
They were never seen alive again.
The 2007 expedition, led by explorer Conrad Anker, will include an attempt to climb the cliff that defied climbers after Mallory for half a century and may have stopped him from reaching the summit in 1924.
Anker, who discovered Mallory's body on the mountain only in 1999, will also go in search of the man behind the Mallory legend. Filming in more than 40 countries, Atlantic has produced shows for various broadcasters, including "King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened" and "Lost Worlds."
Voom HD, Altitude climb 'Everest'
Film retraces Mallory's path on mountain
By ELIZABETH GUIDER
CANNES -- Rainbow Media's Voom HD Networks and Britain's Altitude Films have finalized a deal to produce a doc called "The Altitude Everest Expedition 2007." The partners describe the project as a multiplatform film that follows a team of climbers as they retrace the last steps of George Mallory on Mount Everest.
A feature-length doc will be released theatrically in 2008, under a new theatrical unit called Voom HD Pictures; project's North American TV premiere will follow on Voom's Rush HD, a channel dedicated to extreme sports.
Globally, viewers will be able to follow the progress of the expedition on an interactive Web portal, to be launched shortly.
The agreement was confirmed Wednesday by Voom's general manager Greg Moyer and Altitude's CEO Anthony Geffen. No financial details about the cost of the project were made available. Details of the eventual theatrical release have apparently not yet been worked out.
But other information was provided. The "Altitude Everest" venture will roll out as a three-pronged effort: a theatrical pic, a Web site with video streaming and a made-for-TV doc.
"Not only is it the most ambitious documentary project ever to be filmed on Everest, it will also provide the ultimate Everest experience through the innovative Web portal," Geffen said.
"Bringing this story alive as a theatrical release under the new Voom HD Pictures banner provides another way to reach audiences beyond the linear networks we provide. We can't think of a more compelling project than 'The Altitude Everest Expedition,' " Moyer said at the Mip TV market Wednesday.
Three decades before Everest was conquered by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Mallory, along with his climbing partner Sandy Irvine, was spotted just a few hundred yards short of the summit before a snowstorm closed in.
They were never seen alive again.
The 2007 expedition, led by explorer Conrad Anker, will include an attempt to climb the cliff that defied climbers after Mallory for half a century and may have stopped him from reaching the summit in 1924.
Anker, who discovered Mallory's body on the mountain only in 1999, will also go in search of the man behind the Mallory legend. Filming in more than 40 countries, Atlantic has produced shows for various broadcasters, including "King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened" and "Lost Worlds."
