Think CBS, and a roster of television icons comes to mind: Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite. For younger viewers, CBS means “CSI” and the romantic mishaps of Charlie Sheen.

Those familiar TV names will soon be joined in the CBS family by big-screen stars like Harrison Ford and Jennifer Lopez, as CBS has recently launched a new theatrical film division, CBS Films. The new studio will debut its first release, the inspirational drama Extraordinary Measures, on Jan. 22. CBS Films plans to release four to six films a year with production budgets of up to $50 million.

The new unit is being headed up by president and chief executive officer Amy Baer, who joined the company in October 2007 after nine years at Columbia Pictures as executive VP of production. At Columbia, Baer’s string of successes included The Mask of Zorro, Adaptation and S.W.A.T. Earlier, she was a production executive at TriStar and director of development at Guber-Peters Entertainment, where she helped develop the hits Jumanji and Single White Female.

In an exclusive interview with FJI, Baer discussed the goals of this new mini-major. “We’re making movies that are star-driven, commercial and intended for a broader segment of the audience. We aren’t necessarily going to make a lot of four-quadrant films, although some movies become four-quadrant films by virtue of their quality, but we are developing a few projects in which we see franchise potential.

“The closest comparison I can make to our model is DreamWorks 1.0,” Baer continues. “They released their own films domestically and UIP released their films internationally. They made a broad variety of films—films that covered many genres and films of varying size. That’s probably the best definition of where we’re going to live.”

The new division is the brainchild of CBS Corporation president and chief executive officer Leslie Moonves. As Baer explains, “CBS has a lot of assets that are very complementary to a film division and integral in the promotion of films: outdoor, radio, an interactive company, and obviously the TV network. Being a part of the CBS family will be very advantageous for us, but the relationship is mutually beneficial—we will also provide quality content to be used across the various divisions of the CBS Corporation. Fox and Disney are two really good examples of companies that are able to cross-promote their films on their networks and TV shows. But we want to be smart about it. It was important to start small and be careful and deliberate.”

Baer describes her taste as a film executive as “story-driven,” especially when that story has “a strong, emotionally relatable theme.” “That’s why the material I gravitate toward is so eclectic,” she notes. “I don’t favor a certain genre, I like a certain kind of story that inspires you or provokes you or connects with you emotionally.”

CBS Films’ first four projects fit that model.

First up for the studio is Extraordinary Measures, starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell, under the direction of Tom Vaughan (What Happens in Vegas). “I really love stories about triumphing over adversity (Baer was an executive on The Pursuit of Happyness at Sony). The notion of the Hail Mary and wanting to change your life and not settling for your circumstances, putting everything you have into pursuing a dream and accomplishing it is a really important message to put out in the world.” She partnered with Double Feature Films’ Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and Carla Santos Shamberg on the project—a producing team very familiar with compelling stories inspired by true events, having produced World Trade Center and Erin Brockovich.

“Extraordinary Measures is certainly in the same vein. It’s inspired by the true story of the Crowley family. It follows a man who had two children born with a genetic illness and every doctor essentially tells him, ‘Just go home and spend time with your kids while you still have them.’ “As a parent of two kids myself, I would never be able to settle for that answer,” says Baer. “This guy literally chucked everything and decided he was going to find a cure for his kids. He had no scientific or research background—he was a marketing executive. He teamed up with this brilliant, somewhat reclusive doctor who was researching the disease, and together they found a cure. There are a lot of complications that make it good drama, but it’s also incredibly inspiring and satisfying. People relate to that—they want to believe that they could solve the health problems of their loved ones, but it’s also about digging deep and finding what you’re capable of.”



Next up, in spring, is The Back-up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez opposite rising star Alex O’Loughlin (of the new CBS medical drama “Three Rivers”). The romantic comedy returns Baer to a genre in which she’s seen great success in the past—she worked on My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Wedding Planner (with Lopez), and Something’s Gotta Give while at Sony. “The Back-up Plan is a really funny and romantic story, but it also has a very relatable dilemma for women today—which is, when you’re accomplished and successful but you haven’t met the right guy and you still want a family, what do you do? There’s also a bit of wish fulfillment—right when she decides that she’s going to go it alone and be artificially inseminated, she meets the man of her dreams. The script is laugh-out-loud funny.”

Slated for July is Beastly, an edgy teen romance in which a vain, rich teen is victimized by a spell cast by the Goth girl he cruelly rejects. High School Musical favorite Vanessa Hudgens stars opposite Alex Pettyfer of Stormbreaker.

“Beastly is a great classic prototype,” Baer says. “When I read the book, it felt so obvious: It’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in high school, and what other place are those kinds of issues more heightened? The beautiful people vs. the ugly people, the popular people vs. the nerds. There’s such a premium placed on external beauty in high school, and inner beauty is devalued. It brings a ‘Gossip Girl’ sensibility to the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ myth. It’s hip and contemporary; it is absolutely not your Disney ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ Vanessa and Alex both have a big following in the teen demographic, but I think the film will cross over to young adults as well because thematically it’s also about deciding what’s important in life and what kind of person you are to become.”

CBS Films has more than 30 projects in development, including the romantic drama I’ll Be There, adapted by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) from the Korean film A Moment to Remember; Consent to Kill, an action film based on the Vince Flynn bestseller; The Station, a thriller set against the International Space Station and based on a popular Boom! Studios comic-book series; the comedy Last Vegas by writer Dan Fogelman, about four men in their 60s, best friends since childhood, who reunite for one last hurrah when they decide to escape retirement and throw a Las Vegas bachelor party for the only one of them who has remained single and is about to get married; the comedy Permission written by Karen Lutz Smith (10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde); a remake of the landmark musical My Fair Lady (a co-development with Sony Pictures Entertainment); and a big-screen version of the classic CBS western series “Gunsmoke.” Next to go into production for CBS Films is Faster, an action thriller starring Dwayne Johnson. The project, another co-production with Sony Pictures Entertainment, will be directed by George Tillman, Jr. (Notorious, Men of Honor, Soul Food) from a screenplay written by Tony and Joe Gayton.

Chief operating officer Bruce Tobey, a former Paramount executive VP, who Baer calls “a jack of all trades,” helped realize the company on paper with Leslie Moonves. Together, they found Baer to spearhead the division. It then became Baer’s mission to put together the right combination of executive talent for her team. “It’s a really good group,” comments Baer, “with a broad range of experience, from independent production companies to major, major studios.”

That CBS Films team includes: executive VP of worldwide marketing Debbie Miller, who came to CBS Films from Warner Bros., where she was executive VP of domestic theatrical marketing. “Warners is one of the best in the business when it comes to marketing movies, and she’s able to co-opt the best of what she learned over there and apply it here,” Baer observes. “She’s worked on all kinds of movies, big tentpoles like Harry Potter and smaller romantic dramas. She also started her career in publicity, which is an important piece of the puzzle.”

Executive VP of theatrical distribution Steven Friedlander offers a rare set of skills, Baer feels. “Most studios have pre-existing distribution systems or they hire people away from other distribution systems. Steven has started two distribution systems from the ground up—for Fine Line and for WIP [Warner International Pictures]. It’s remarkable to find someone who knows how to do that. We didn’t want to be a third party at another studio, we wanted to be in control of our destiny on the domestic side. Steven has the experience—twice over—to see that through.”

Other key executives include chief financial officer Reid Sullivan, formerly of First Look Studios; executive VP and general counsel Rik Toulon; and head of physical production David Rubin, formerly of Lakeshore.

As for the man at the very top, “Leslie reads every script that we want to make, he greenlights every film and he sees every cut of the movies. So he’s intimately involved in the process… And because he has had such success in storytelling over many decades in the television business, his contribution and guidance are invaluable.”

Baer feels that having the name of a historic broadcasting giant will work to her new company’s advantage. “CBS has tremendous brand value because it cuts through the clutter in a world where there’s so much coming at you all the time. It’s a very recognizable brand and icon. It makes you pay attention, as opposed to starting a film division from scratch with a brand-new name. It took time for Summit to be known as Summit—certainly, when they released Twilight that helped solidify their brand. But beyond the immediate recognition of CBS, it’s incumbent upon us to demonstrate that CBS means something beyond television. That’s OK—the movies will speak for themselves...”