'Survivor' Guru Makes Martial Arts a Reality
PUSSSYKATT
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - "Survivor" supremo Mark Burnett is gearing up to create a
martial arts reality franchise, and will begin pitching the project to
broadcast and cable outlets in the next few weeks.
Still in early development, the series will be built around an "Enter the
Dragon"-style competition to find "the toughest man in the world," said Eric
Bischoff, who will serve as an executive producer.
The competition -- which would incorporate sports such as kung fu, judo, karate
and boxing -- would be held at various far-flung locales. Burnett will
translate the storytelling techniques used in "Survivor" to the new project,
mixing in personal stories about the athletes with competition footage.
Contestants will be eliminated on a weekly basis, leading to a finale to crown
a martial arts champ.
Unlike in the WWF, participants will all be real athletes, with the competition
unscripted.
"This arena blends the best elements of unscripted adventure programming --
suspense and thought-provoking personal drama -- with mind-blowing, fast-paced
action and adventure," Burnett said. "I see this as a contest of epic scale
where it is as much about the rich characters as it is about who wins."
Burnett has teamed on the project with sports production/management outlet
Battle Entertainment, which Bischoff co-owns with Peter Levin and Jeremy
Lappen, who will also executive produce along with Burnett and manager Conrad
Riggs.
Burnett and Riggs were actually developing their own martial arts reality
project at around the same time Battle execs began tossing around the concept.
Battle's reps at Creative Artists Agency then hooked up their clients with
Burnett, which led to the deal to develop the new series.
"There was nobody better for us to join up with to bring martial arts to a
mainstream audience than Mark," Bischoff told Daily Variety. "The show is all
about the stories (of the athletes), and if you look at everything Mark does,
it all comes down to the personalities, the characters and the situations
people are put into."
Battle is hoping to use the reality series as the main component in the
company's overall business model, which seeks to bring martial arts more into
the U.S. sports mainstream.
Bischoff envisions the series feeding into several revenue streams, including
pay-per-view, licensing and merchandising.
Bischoff said Battle will use its recently inked talent representation deal
with Japan-based martial arts powerhouse K-1 to funnel top martial artists into
the reality project.
Battle also benefits from the various connections its three principals have
from their previous posts.
Bischoff spent 10 years heading the World Championship Wrestling division of
Turner Entertainment, while Levin was at CAA for 8 years and later worked at
Michael Ovitz' Artists Management Group. Lappen is a longtime entertainment
attorney.
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TOFOG
> By Josef Adalian
>
> HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - "Survivor" supremo Mark Burnett is gearing up to create
> a martial arts reality franchise, and will begin pitching the project to
> broadcast and cable outlets in the next few weeks.
Hey Mark, I have an idea...let's do a reality show in which you STICK A
FORK IN IT because it is **so** done.
(I hate it when I try to sound clever but end up not making sense.
*sigh*)
Tofog, Keeper of Russell Crowe! and in serious negotiation for Dwight Yoakam
phat_...@salmahayeksknockers.edu
> Still in early development, the series will be built around an "Enter the
> Dragon"-style competition to find "the toughest man in the world," said Eric
> Bischoff, who will serve as an executive producer.
I'd like to suggest Ultimate Fighting Championship as a possible name for
this new show.
--
............................................................................
"Be wary of enraging a little man, for he will retaliate with the
force of a hundred little men."
-My Girlfriend, Lisa.
............................................................................
www.geocities.com/pentagon/bunker/1022 dan...@swan.com
KING B MAN
original :)