Disney’s Touchstone Unit to Produce Films for TV

Walt Disney Co.’s Touchstone Television unit says it plans to begin producing movies for television and other so-called long-form TV projects.

Touchstone Television will focus on TV movies for adult audiences, while another member of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Walt Disney Television, will work with ABC in producing TV movies for family audiences, the company said.

“This new venture represents a formidable opportunity to establish ourselves as a leading supplier of not only half-hour comedies, a position we currently enjoy, but as a potent force in quality long-form television,” Dean Valentine, executive vice president for Walt Disney Television, said in a statement.

Touchstone Television said its first movie for TV would be a two-hour production for CBS about Edna Buchanan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Miami Herald.