AMC Adds Paramount, WB Flicks

American Movie Classics has signed deals with Paramount and Warner Bros. for a total of 54 movies.

The Paramount titles, which will start airing within the next couple of  months are 32 John Wayne films, including Hondo, El Dorado, The Shootist, Sons of Katie Elder, True Grit, Hatari, Donovan's Reef, and Flying Tigers.

Digitally remastered versions of  The High and The Mighty and Islands in the Sky are part of the deal, which AMC will release as DVD's following their August debuts. The films have not aired in any form on TV in the past 25 years, says the company.

The Warner Bros. deal is for exclusive rights to 22 films, including Million Dollar Baby, The Last Samurai, Ocean's 12, Troy and Mystic River.

The Time Warner deal begins in June 2005 with the debut of Two Week's Notice.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.