El Portal to house movies on stage
El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood will become the home of Playhouse Pictures Studios, a company that plans to produce scripts as plays on the 360-seat El Portal main stage and then develop them into modestly budgeted feature films, company officials have announced.
The company will be run by a trio consisting of former Pasadena Playhouse owner David Houk, former Landmark Entertainment chief financial officer Ronny Angel and agent and entertainment attorney Lee Muhl. Visionbox Pictures, led by former Samuel Goldwyn Films executive John Bard Manulis, will become a partner in the films.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Dec. 7, 2002 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday December 07, 2002 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 8 inches; 300 words Type of Material: Correction
El Portal company -- The name of a new company that will occupy El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood is Playhouse Picture Studios, not Playhouse Pictures Studios as reported in a Quick Take item in Friday’s Calendar.
The group’s plan is for the stage productions to be open only to “subscriber/investors,” who will receive four tickets each to five El Portal premieres -- four plays and one musical -- each year. They’ll also receive profit participation in the properties if they go to other theaters, on tour or become films.
State approval of the subscriber/investor plan is still pending.
The Playhouse Pictures lease on El Portal will begin Jan. 1. The first production is not planned until next summer.
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Don Shirley
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