Upfront season is in full swing, and Gannett, which owns media properties like USA Today, announced a first-look partnership with The Weinsten Company earlier this week.
The deal will allow TWC to take stories from Gannett’s local TV stations and newspapers and turn them into TV shows and movies.
“It is like having an extra hundred development offices all around the country,” said Meryl Poster, the president of television for The Weinstein Company, during Gannett’s upfront on Wednesday.
It will be interesting to see if any stories sparked by social media could land on the small or big screen. At the upfront presentation, the company shared the story of how USA Today reunited a homeless man sleeping on the streets of Washington D.C. with his family.
The paper ran a caption of a homeless man as part of a story about the extreme winter weather across the country.
After the homeless man’s family saw the photo, his relatives took to Facebook to express their joy that their family member was alive.
“Nick is alive and obviously not well,” Nick’s mother, Michelle Simmons, wrote hours before her son was found. The Facebook page is no longer up.”(We) are going to get him home safe and this is by far the greatest example of God’s love and divine intervention I have ever experienced.”
Do you think stories like this, that feature synergy between traditional and social media, could produce a good Weinstein Company Film? Comment below.