SANTA MONICA, Calif. and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a leading global entertainment company, has optioned the book "Take a Shot! The Remarkable Story of Perseverance, Friendship and A Really Crazy Adventure" (Hay House, August 15, 2012) by NY Times and Wall St. Journal bestselling author Jake Steinfeld and Dave Morrow, for its television division, the Company announced today. Jake is best known for his Body by Jake Global brand; Dave Morrow is a former All-American lacrosse player and founder of Warrior Sports.
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Described as MONEYBALL meets THE HANGOVER, Take A Shot! tells the tale of three men from vastly different worlds- Jake, the brash Hollywood fitness icon and driving force behind Major League Lacrosse; Dave, a shy Ivy Leaguer from blue-collar Detroit and the ultimate fish out of water who ultimately becomes a success story in his own right; and Tim Robertson, the son of a televangelist and a multimedia mogul-who teamed up to try the impossible: start a professional sports league at a time when other leagues were crashing and burning around them.
The book chronicles the true story of their wild search for investors and team owners, the setbacks that nearly derailed the league time and again and the emotional and triumphant debut of Major League Lacrosse, the first professional outdoor lacrosse league. Their roller coaster ride blends humor, inside sports intrigue and inspirational life lessons along the way. Lionsgate has optioned the book for development into a dramatic television series.
"We love to be in business with other entrepreneurs, and Jake Steinfeld is a larger than life personality and a hugely successful entrepreneur whose book has resonance for sports fans, adrenaline junkies and people who love success stores alike," said Lionsgate Television Group President Kevin Beggs and Lionsgate Television COO Sandra Stern. "Jake tells a riveting story that we believe can translate into equally compelling television programming consistent with the Lionsgate brand."
In addition to being the founder of Major League Lacrosse, Steinfeld is the entrepreneur who built the highly successful worldwide fitness empire, Body by Jake Global. He launched America's first 24-hour fitness and lifestyle cable network, FiT TV, and recently launched the multiplatform www.FitOrbit.com, revolutionizing the fitness industry for the digital age. He serves as a motivational speaker and has appeared in movies ranging from COMING TO AMERICA and THE MONEY PIT to YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE and INTO THE NIGHT and starred in the sitcom BIG BROTHER JAKE on The Family Channel.
Jake has also made a significant contribution to fighting childhood obesity and building children's self-esteem as chair of the National Foundation for Governors' Fitness Councils. Morrow started Warrior Sports in his Princeton dorm room where he was an All-American lacrosse superstar and later, under Jake's mentorship, sold the company to New Balance; it has since become the largest lacrosse brand in the world, with expansion into hockey and soccer. Lacrosse has become the fastest growing team sport in the USA.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of primetime cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 23 shows on 16 networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men, the critically acclaimed series Weeds, Nurse Jackie and Boss, the new comedy Anger Management, the upcoming network series Nashville and Next Caller, the syndication successes Tyler Perry's House of Payne, its spinoff Meet the Browns, For Better Or Worse, The Wendy Williams Show, Are We There Yet? and the upcoming Orange Is The New Black, an original series for Netflix.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first installment of The Hunger Games franchise, which has already grossed nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Cabin in the Woods, Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection and Margin Call. With the January 2012 acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the Company has now added the blockbuster Twilight Saga, which has grossed more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office, to its current slate, giving the Company the two premier young adult franchises in the world. Recent Summit hits include Red, Letters to Juliet, Knowing and the Academy Award-winning Best Picture, The Hurt Locker.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
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SOURCE Lionsgate
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