Former New Line execs Ileen Maisel, Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming have teamed with docu producer Lawrence Elman to form Amber Entertainment, a new production company that is will make films that will bypass the theater and go right to the retail store. They are teaming with retailer Tesco to create DVD features based on bestselling authors. Amber, based in London and L.A., and the venture kicks off with Paris Connections, which Amber produces with Jackie Collins. The film will premiere on DVD in Tesco stores in May.

The partners are separately negotiating for properties created by His Dark Materials trilogy author Philip Pullman, Judy Blume, Dick and Felix Francis, Karin Slaughter, Jacqueline Wilson and Anne Perry. At New Line, Ordesky was the presiding exec on three Lord of the Rings films, and he and Maisel worked on the adaptation of Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

The films will be initially available exclusively as DVDs through Tesco stores, online, and through Tesco Direct.

“We created Amber Entertainment to celebrate and expand the impact of authors and their stories across the ever-growing new media landscape,” said Ileen Maisel, founding Amber Entertainment partner. “This partnership with Rob Salter and the fantastic team at Tesco is exactly the sort of new paradigm for delivering content to audiences that is the future of the entertainment industry.”

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