Company Town

Mergers: IndieProd Co., a movie production firm headed by veteran film producer Dan Melnick and Allen Shapiro, will combine as expected with TV producer Konigsberg Co. and will receive an undisclosed infusion from Silicon Valley software publisher Electronic Arts. The infusion will help the combined companies toward their goal of raising about $70 million from investors through Bear, Stearns & Co. Electronic Arts, which is aiming to develop interactive projects with the company, is expected to have a small equity stake in the firm, which has yet to be named. IndieProd’s films include “Universal Soldier,” “Roxanne” and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Projects by Konigsberg, headed by Frank Konigsberg, include the miniseries “Children of the Dust,” airing this week on CBS and starring Sidney Poitier and Farrah Fawcett.

* Exhibition: Los Angeles-based Pacific Theatres will join with Craig Corp., which Pacific partly owns, and Craig affiliate Reading Co. to bid on the MGM Cinemas in Europe being auctioned by French bank Credit Lyonnais. Pacific and Reading also dissolved a partnership to develop movie theaters in California and Hawaii.