Vancouver: In a deal worth $57 million (US$36 million) in cash, shares and assets, Landscape Entertainment has bought a 20% stake in L.A.-based Artisan Entertainment. While the deal should be final by the end of October, less clear is what kind of a Canadian presence Landscape will maintain.

Equal partners CTV and an investor syndicate headed by Canadian Bob Cooper founded Landscape Entertainment in 1999 as a Canadian parent company with offices in Toronto and L.A. creating film, television and Internet content.

To date, the company has made two made-for-television movies including Sins of the Father, shot north of Toronto this summer. Sins of the Father is the first project in an output deal with U.S. specialty channel FX. Landscape has other projects in development for NBC, CBS, ABC, Court TV, VH1, Disney Channel, USA Network, TNT, Sci-Fi Channel and Lifetime NBC.

The company has not yet exploited Canadian-content perks and subsidies. Cooper, whose impressive resume includes senior executive stints at DreamWorks, TriStar and HBO, lives in L.A. and runs the company from there.

In the new corporate structure, however, Landscape will be split into two divisions within Artisan Pictures, one of two subsidiaries under Artisan Entertainment.

Landscape Pictures will operate as an independent production company that will concentrate on developing and producing motion pictures with budgets of more than $20 million for release by third-party major studios. It will complement Artisan Pictures’ feature productions valued at less than $20 million. All Landscape Pictures’ projects currently in place with various studios will continue to be developed, says the company.

Meanwhile, Landscape Entertainment’s television staff, production slate and development slate will become Landscape/Artisan Television, a creator of made-for-TV movies, series programming and miniseries for a variety of broadcast and cable networks, and fall under Artisan Pictures in the new corporate structure.

Cooper will head up both motion picture and television development and production as CEO of Artisan Pictures and will also serve as a vice-chairman of parent company Artisan Entertainment. As head of Artisan Pictures, Cooper will oversee development and greenlight production for the slate of films, to be distributed by Artisan Releasing, as well as be responsible for their production, theatrical marketing and distribution.

‘We recognized an excellent fit,’ says David Ginsburg, formerly Landscape Entertainment president and COO and newly named president and COO of Artisan Pictures and executive vice-president of Artisan Entertainment. ‘Artisan had no television production division and was at a juncture where Bob Cooper could come in as a new creative head.’ Landscape had existing deals in place with companies like MGM and Artisan has substantial foreign and domestic distribution and one of the best video libraries in the world with 6,700 titles.

‘We could come together without undue duplication,’ says Ginsburg.

One of the many details remaining, says Ginsburg, is what remnant of Landscape Entertainment will remain in Canada. He declined to be specific, saying only ‘there will be a surviving Canadian company.’ He would not confirm whether the Toronto office would stay open.

Amir Malin, who remains as CEO of Artisan Entertainment, says the deal evolved when he met Bell Globemedia president and CEO Ivan Fecan two years ago at a Sun Valley retreat for executives sponsored by investment banker Allen & Company.

‘We always wanted to expand the company into television,’ says Malin. ‘This acquisition gets us into TV in an extraordinary way. What this deal offers is the expertise of Bell Globemedia and CTV and the management of Bob Cooper and David Ginsburg.’

Malin, who describes the new television division as being similar in design to Alliance Atlantis, also says there will be a Canadian presence post-merger. ‘We will be making a lot of forays in Canada,’ he explains. ‘We have 10 shows in development with Canadian showrunners in Canada.’

As part of the merger, Fecan, Cooper and deal broker John Josephson, a managing director at Allen & Company, will join Artisan’s board of directors.

Tom Curzon, spokesperson for CTV, declined to talk about the merger, deferring to Cooper and calling CTV’s participation merely an investment.

The first production post-merger will likely be a made-for-TV movie, says Ginsburg, providing no details other than to say it will be shot in Canada.