Constantin Film

**Constantin Film AG** is a German production and distribution company, based in Munich, Germany, that owns the rights to *The Infernal Devices* and *The Mortal Instruments*.

## History

Constantin Film Distribution GmbH was founded by Waldfried Barthel and Preben Philipsen on April 1, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 21, 1964, the name of the company was changed to Constantin Film GmbH. In 1977-1978, German film producer Bernd Eichinger bought into the company and became founder and general manager of the now called Neue Constantin Film GmbH until 1999. Six years later, the company became the first German distribution company with an affiliated production company, and its production activities also extended onto the international market. In 1986, the Kirch Group – at the time Europe's largest film and TV license-holder – purchased a minority stake in Neue Constantin Film. In 1991, Constantin Film's first subsidiary was founded in Hollywood/Los Angeles.

Beginning in 1996, Constantin Film built a new area of business for itself with contract production activities for TV productions on the basis of licensing agreements (which was a radical change from working purely on the basis of service contracts, which was customary in Germany up until that time). In the late 1990s, the company acquired majority shares of the film production companies Olga Film GmbH, Engram Pictures, and MOOVIE – the art of entertainment GmbH. Finally, at the end of the decade in September 1999, the company went public as Constantin Film AG.

In 2007, Constantin Film announced support for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. In January 2008, they declared exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc, dropping all future HD DVD releases. In 2009, the company assimilated into the Constantin Medien AG media corporation.

In 2012, Constantin Film and David Garrett of Summit Entertainment formed Mister Smith Entertainment, in which Steven Spielberg and Reliance Entertainment's DreamWorks studio formed a distribution deal with.

By 2013-2014, Constantin was working on the broader strategic shift of the company into English-language television series, beginning with planned adaptations of several of its English movie properties such as *Film:The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones*, *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer*, and *Resident Evil* into television series, headed by the company's film and TV head Martin Moszkowicz.

## References

1. ↑ "Everything Shadowhunters belongs to Constantin and always will." Cassandra Clare on Twitter
2. ↑ "... I sold the film rights to the first 4 books, not the whole 6." Cassandra Clare on Twitter
3. ↑ "... so does this mean we won't see anything that happened in City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire?" "No, they could include those things if they wanted to." Cassandra Clare on Twitter
4. ↑ "But as for now, the only works of mine that can be adapted are TMI and TID. I have kept the rights to everything else." Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Constantin Film on Wikipedia
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.constantin-film.de/en/about-us/constantin-film-ag/
7. ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mipcom-mortal-instruments-return-as-740204

## External links

* Constantin Television
* Constantin Film on IMDb
* Constantin Film Productions on IMDb
* Constantin Television on IMDb
* Constantin Film on Twitter
* Constantin Film on Pinterest
* Constantin Film on Google+
* Constantin Film on Youtube