Weekly World News Studios Raises $2.5M for TV Series — SkimNews
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- Weekly World News Studios raised $2.5 million from six private investors to finance a six-episode season it commissioned, with production scheduled to begin the first week of February in Simi Valley, California.
- Robert Ben Garant will co-showrun and executive produce the project with Cathy Shim, while Weekly World News Editor-In-Chief Greg D’Alessandro will write and executive produce.
- Weekly World News supplies the series’ premise: reporters chase Bat Boy, alien encounters and Elvis sightings with complete seriousness, filmed in an improvised mockumentary style modeled on Reno 911!; the scriptment-based approach may expand the run beyond six episodes.
- Weekly World News Studios plans to start pitching the series to platforms and distributors once footage exists, and says the price point would suit any outlet, including basic-cable networks constrained by original-programming budgets.
- California’s $1 million-per-episode minimum budget threshold puts the season above the eligibility line for a state tax credit, so producers chose Los Angeles cast and crew over New Mexico or New Jersey.
- Movers received an FX pilot order last year but was not picked up, making it the third produced pilot involving Garant and Shim since Reno 911! to fail to reach a full series.
- Greg D’Alessandro said the reporters have "the advantage of believing absolutely everything" when nobody knows what to believe, adding that the stories are "all fact-checked by Bat Boy."
Why it matters: Weekly World News Studios and Robert Ben Garant have committed $2.5 million from six investors to a six-episode season beginning in February, without a platform already attached. Filming before pitching means private investors and the Los Angeles production carry the up-front commitment, while basic-cable networks are among the outlets for which the pricing is considered suitable once footage is ready.
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