Castle Rock Entertainment

**Castle Rock Entertainment** is an American film and television production company founded in 1987 by director Rob Reiner, Martin Shafer, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

## History

Reiner named the company in honor of the real-life Maine town of the same name that serves as the setting of several stories by Stephen King (which was named after the fictitious Castle Rock, a mountain fort, in the William Golding's 1954 novel *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 & Scheinman became involved in the development of productions.

The company was originally backed by The Coca-Cola Company, the then-parent company of Columbia Pictures. Coke and the company's founders jointly owned a stake in the company. Months after the deal, Coke exited the entertainment business, succeeded by Columbia Pictures Entertainment (now Sony Pictures Entertainment).

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, such as the successful sitcom Seinfeld and the animated sitcom Mission Hill.

### Turner purchase and Warner Bros. ownership

On 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 to 15 films annually. Castle Rock also had aspirations to distribute its own films once its deal with Columbia expired in 1998.

Turner Broadcasting eventually 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. On June 27, 1997, Castle Rock's staff was reduced to 60 employees and Castle Rock International was folded into Warner Bros.

In January 1998, Warner Bros. 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 the studio's parent company Seagram merged with PolyGram later that year. The Warner Bros./Universal deal expired in 2000.

In April 2002, Warner Bros. reduced Castle Rock's budget following a string of box office bombs. Castle Rock fired 16 of its 46 employees, and Castle Rock's physical production and public relations departments, back-office duties, and remaining employees were absorbed into Warner Bros.

### Relaunch; under Warner Bros. Discovery

In May 2020, Rob and Michelle Reiner signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television Studios, and on October 1 of that year, it relaunched the company. On October 19, 2021, the feature division company was revived with a $175M film fund under which the studio will develop, produce and finance quality movies for global audiences. Castle Rock will produce films in a first-look deal with Warner Bros. on theatrical content, which has long been its home, in addition to their existing deal with Castle Rock television productions.

Following an addition $170 million investment from Derrick Rossi, Reiner announced his intention to relaunch Castle Rock through two films, one a sequel to his *This is Spinal Tap* rock-documentary, and the other *Albert Brooks: Defending My Life* documentary, shopping both films at the 2022 Cannes festival.

## Ownership of the Castle Rock library

Warner Bros. owns the copyrights and overall rights to most of the pre-2010 Castle Rock films and television shows, with a few notable exceptions. MGM owns the rights to the pre-1994 Castle Rock Entertainment films because of the acquisition of the pre-1996 PolyGram library where Nelson Entertainment was in it. Warner Bros., through Castle Rock, owns its post-1994 library and the TV rights to the pre-1994 library with the exception of Seinfeld and Thea.

## Logo

It features the silhouette of the lighthouse on the coastal land with its light beam spins in front of the screen, forming the company name as the sun rises behind the lighthouse.

Since 1994, the logo is heavily redone in CGI with the camera zooming out.

## Filmography

The following is a list of films produced, co-produced, and/or distributed by **Castle Rock Entertainment**.

### Upcoming films

* *Daughter of the Bride*
* *Pure*

## Television shows

* *Heart & Soul* (1988)
* *Seinfeld* (1989–1998) (Sony Pictures Television currently owns distribution rights)
* *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) (Sony Pictures Television currently owns distribution rights)
* *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)
* *Bliss* (2002–2004) (with Warner Bros. Television)