MTV: Music Television has promoted its head of original movies, slated its
next two made-for-TV films and green-lighted 10 other projects for development,
officials said Monday.
Maggie Malina was promoted to the slot of senior vice president of MTV
Original Movies for Television. Malina, previously VP of MTV’s original movies,
will remain in Santa Monica, Calif., and report to Lois Curren, MTV’s executive
VP of series and movie development.
MTV also unveiled the next two films to come out of Malina’s division,
Volcano High and Monster Island.
Volcano High is the original-movies-for-TV unit’s first acquisition, and
it is a Korean high-school kung-fu flick. It will be subtitled and infused with
hip-hop music and celebrity voices, and it is set to air in the fourth
quarter.
Monster Island -- which goes into production next month and will air in
the first quarter next year -- is a spoof of horror movies. In the film, mutant
insects attack an MTV concert on a tropical island and teens have to rescue a
captive pop star.
MTV also has a slate of original movies in development.
MTV’s Hip Hopera: Faust is a follow-up to the network’s Carmen,an updated hip-hop version of the tale in which Mephistopheles grants
Faust’s wish to be young again.
Level 5 is a drama about a girl who rebels while in a
behavior-modification center.
Undecided is a romantic comedy set with the backdrop of the competitive
affirmative-action process.
Napster is the authorized story of Napster Inc. founder Shawn
Fanning.
Gloss is a musical about a girl’s transformation from high-school misfit
to high-society maven.
Phantom is Phantom of the Opera set in a contemporary-arts high
school.
And ;-) is about chat-room junkies.
The final three films on MTV’s development slate are: Show No
Mercy,inspired by a real-life case where a teen-ager was killed by
fans of the band Slayer; Haunted Crib, where a rapper finds that his new
home is haunted by the ghost of a former Mafia don; and Undercover Girl,
based on a true story, in which a UCLA undergraduate puts her life in danger by
secretly working as a fact-finder for a government operation investigating hate
groups.
Malina was instrumental in creating MTV’s original-movies-for-television
division. Its next telepic, Wuthering Heights,will debut on MTV
Sept. 4 and star Erika Christiansenof Traffic.
