Several Salt Lake businessmen have joined movie industry executives to form Family Media Management Corp., which will produce family entertainment and combine the creative side of filmmaking with management expertise.

Rick B. Larsen, a former vice president and general manager of Salt Lake-based TeleScene, a post production company, will be president and chief executive officer. He is also a former officer of Feature Films of Families, STS Productions and the Los Angeles-based banking firm J.P. Michael.Larsen is the majority stockholder in the new company, which will be located at 180 N. Wright Brothers Drive in the Salt Lake International Center.

Board members are Tom Welch, president of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee; Joe Lake, co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network; and Merlin Olsen, former professional football player and actor in the television series "Little House on the Prairie" and "Father Murphy."

Joseph Cannon, chairman and chief executive officer of Geneva Steel and publisher of Utah Business Magazine, will be a senior adviser to the new company.

"Family Media Management will fill a huge void in today's family entertainment. Hollywood studios want to provide more family films, but it's a financial risk because they make more money off other genre of film," said Larsen.

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"Consequently, they look to small pro

duction companies for that family product. Typically, production companies have the creative expertise but little business management experience. We're combining both sides of the equation," he said.

Larsen said the company has entered into an agreement with Universal Family Entertainment to produce four feature-length films in the next two years.

"Along with Universal films, we will develop Imax films and will bring a family focus to other areas of product development over the next 12 to 18 months. Where appropriate, these projects will come with traditional distribution avenues built in, but we will also take additional steps to create innovative marketing strategies designed to reach families in their homes," Larsen said.

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