Castle Rock Entertainment

Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded in 1988 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a subsidiary of Warner Bros.

Company
Reiner named the company in honor of the Maine town that serves as the setting of several stories by Stephen King (which was named after the fictitious Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies), after the success of his film Stand by Me, which was based on The Body, a novella by King.

Reiner and Scheinman already had a production company. They were friends with Shafer, who worked with Horn at 20th Century Fox at the time. Horn was disappointed at Fox and agreed to join the trio at forming the company. Horn brought along Padnick, who was an executive at Embassy Television. In Castle Rock, Horn became the CEO, Shafer ran the film division, Padnick ran TV, and Reiner and Scheinman became involved in the development of productions.

The company was originally backed by The Coca-Cola Company, then the parent company of Columbia Pictures. Coca-Cola and Castle Rock's founders jointly owned stakes in the company. Months after the deal, Coca-Cola exited the entertainment business, and was succeeded by Columbia Pictures.

In 1989, Castle Rock was supported by another backer, Group W, a subsidiary of Westinghouse. Castle Rock later struck a deal with Nelson Entertainment, the company that owned the domestic home video rights to Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, and The Princess Bride, to co-finance Castle Rock's films.

Under the deal, Nelson also distributed the films on video in North American markets, and handled international theatrical distribution, while Columbia, which Nelson forged a distribution deal with, would receive domestic theatrical distribution rights. Some of Nelson's holdings were later acquired by New Line Cinema, which took over Nelson's duty. Columbia, shortly after the company's formation, thereafter had to re-invest with a substantial change in terms when accumulated losses exhausted its initial funding.

Reiner has stated that Castle Rock's purpose was to allow creative freedom to individuals; a safe haven away from the pressures of studio executives. Castle Rock was to make films of the highest quality, whether they made or lost money.

Castle Rock has also produced several television shows, including the sitcom Seinfeld.

Turner purchase and Time Warner ownership
In August 1993, Turner Broadcasting System agreed to acquire Castle Rock, along with co-financing partner (and eventual Castle Rock corporate sibling) New Line Cinema. The sale was completed on December 22, 1993. The motivation behind the purchase to allow a stronger company to handle the overhead.

By 1994, Castle Rock launched a foreign sales operation, Castle Rock International, and planned to produce 12-15 films annually. Castle Rock also had aspirations to distribute its own films once its deal with Columbia expired in 1998.

Turner Broadcasting later merged with Time Warner in 1996. After a failed attempt to divest the company, Time Warner integrated Castle Rock Entertainment into Warner Bros., and cut its production slate to five films per year. In January 1998, Warner and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment formed a deal to co-finance and co-distribute Castle Rock films; that deal was taken over by Universal Pictures after said studio's parent company Seagram merged with PolyGram later that year. The Warner/Universal deal expired in 2000.

MGM owns the rights to the pre-1994 Castle Rock Entertainment films because of the acquisition of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library where Nelson Entertainment was in it. Warner Bros., through Castle Rock, owns its post-1994 film and TV library and the TV distribution rights to the pre-1994 TV library with the exception of Seinfeld, The Powers That Be, Thea and Boston Common.

Upcoming films

 * Daughter of the Bride
 * Pure

Television shows

 * Heart & Soul (1988)
 * Seinfeld (1989–1998)
 * The Ed Begley, Jr. Show (1989)
 * Julie Brown: The Show (1989)
 * Homeroom (1989)
 * Ann Jillian (1989-1990)
 * New Attitude (1990)
 * Partners in Life (1990)
 * Morton & Hayes (1991)
 * My Old School (1991)
 * Sessions (1991)
 * Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Special (1992)
 * The Powers That Be (1992) (with ELP Communications and Columbia Pictures Television)
 * Great Scott! (1992)
 * Thea (1993–1994)
 * The Second Half (1993–1994)
 * 704 Hauser (1994, pilot only)
 * The Single Guy (1995–1997)
 * The Lazarus Man (1996)
 * Boston Common (1996-1997)
 * Reunited (1998)
 * The Army Show (1998)
 * Mission Hill (1999–2002)
 * Movie Stars (1999)
 * The Michael Richards Show (2000–2001)
 * Zero Effect (2001, pilot) (with Warner Bros. Television)