By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

TLA Entertainment Group Sold to New York-Based Investment Firm Sterling Genesis International

Posted Thursday, January 30th, 2014 - 2 Comments »
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For Immediate Release
New York (January 30, 2014) — TLA Entertainment Group, Inc. (TLAEG) announced today that the company has been acquired by New York-based investment firm Sterling Genesis International, LLC.

The sale includes direct to consumer brands of all digital properties including tlamovies.com, tlavideo.com, tlagay.com, tlacult.com and tlaondemand.com.

G. Sterling Zinsmeyer, Chairman of Sterling Genesis International, will become Chief Operating Officer of TLAEG. Said Zinsmeyer, “TLA’s powerful worldwide brand awareness, together with fresh capitalization, will enable us as a company to continue to flourish, build upon a strong infrastructure, and seize new opportunities for digital expansion in the current marketplace.’

Derek Curl, Chief Executive Officer and President of Sterling Genesis, will take on the position of Chief Executive Officer and President of TLAEG.

“With this acquisition’s potential for consolidation and global expansion, we will be able to realize even further the tremendous value TLA Entertainment Group has in the entertainment world,” said Curl.

TLA Entertainment Group’s current General Manager, Brian Sokel, will move into a Senior Executive management position and Jo Borasky, current Controller, will serve as CFO to aid in a successful transition for the company. TLA Releasing, owned separately by Curl, will be reintroduced into the TLAEG as part of the acquisition.

Raymond Murray, former president of TLAEG said, “Zinsmeyer and Curl are highly regarded veterans in finance and film production, with a proven track record of experience, financial savvy, and forward thinking approaches to film distribution. We look forward to a smooth transition and a bright future at TLAEG’

Eric Moore, a founding partner of TLAEG, who will stay on as the new group’s Chief Technology Strategist, said, “I am excited about the new possibilities Sterling Genesis has brought to the table and I am eager to begin implementing their new vision.”

About TLA Entertainment Group

TLA Entertainment Group, based in Philadelphia, is a privately held corporation founded in 1981. The company began as owners of the Theatre of the Living Arts, a repertory cinema as well as the Roxy Screening Rooms. In 1985, it opened the first of several award-winning video stores in the Philadelphia area and in New York City. In 1996 it launched www.tlavideo.com, a direct-to-consumer movie site that has since expanded into the sale of DVDs and most recently, VOD. In 2000 it launched TLA Releasing, a film and video releasing company for North America. In 2005 it opened a British distribution company based in London.

Today, TLA Entertainment’s primary business remains as a DVD and VOD e-tailer throughits many sites including www.tlamovies.com, www.tlagay.com, www.tlaraw.com and www.tlacult.com. Films TLAEG has distributed include Latter Days, Another Gay Movie, and Mysterious Skin.


About Sterling Genesis International

Founded in 2013, Sterling Genesis International, LLC, is a private investment firm based in New York City focused on global media, entertainment, distribution and communications investments.  The company is led by Chairman & COO G. Sterling Zinsmeyer, and President & CEO Derek Curl.  In addition to a background in finance, Zinsmeyer has executive produced several films, including Latter Days, Adam & Steve, and The Deception.

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Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “TLA Entertainment Group Sold to New York-Based Investment Firm Sterling Genesis International”

  1. Dan says:
    April 16, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    Gentlemen/Ladies:

    I’ve been an ongoing customer of TLAGay for a few years now. VERY recently — not more then a few months ago at most — a new title, “The Deception,” appeared, which I was interested in, and added to my purchase wishlist. No more than a few weeks later, it’s listing in my wishlist contained the message, “no longer available.” I’ve done extensive google searches for chatter/info. on this title, and found the following reference to it in online magazine “Movie City News”:

    ” … In addition to a background in finance, Zinsmeyer has executive produced several films, including Latter Days, Adam & Steve, and The Deception.”

    Is “The Deception” now, or will it eventually be available again, through Sterling International, once all aspects of Sterling International’s acquisition of TLAGay are complete?

    Hopefully someone there will be kind enough to take a moment to reply with some info. on this question.

    Thank you in advance!

    So-far-happy customer.

    Dan

  2. Jay says:
    July 27, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    Dan,

    Don’t hold your breath. TLA’s customer service department has sunk to a new low, either since this takeover or, more likely, before it happened.

    It’s now nearly August. Have you received any response yet from TLA? My guess is no.

    – Jay

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon