Genie Award-winning producer Peter O’Brian has merged his company Independent Pictures with Toronto’s Noble House Communications.

O’Brian becomes the president and ceo of Mission, the newly named film and tv production division of the publicly traded Noble House, which holds distribution rights to over 20 films and is engaged in film and tv distribution, licensing and merchandising.

Noble House is acquiring all assets of O’Brian’s 20-year-old Independent Pictures, including projects in development, which are being assigned to Mission. In turn, Independent Pictures is receiving an undisclosed share of stock in Noble House.

O’Brian’s producer credits include The Grey Fox, My American Cousin and Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog.

O’Brian is essentially replacing director/writer/producer and Noble House secretary and company director Damian Lee, who left in July after producing just one film with the company.

In tandem with the creation of Mission, Noble House is taking steps to launch an international sales division to rep projects in overseas markets and create strategic relationships for Mission and Noble House with foreign distributors, says Noble House president and ceo David Wolinsky. ‘We are also currently looking at a number of possibilities for tv series.’

Wolinsky, as a founding partner of concert promotions company Concert Productions International or cpi, also started bass ticket outlets. He says Noble House has no plans to distribute product in Canada right now. ‘Our arena is the international stage of production and sales in the international marketplace.’

Though unwilling to release a fully detailed development slate right now, Mission plans to produce two to four features a year in the $3-million to $8-million range and to begin production on the first project in spring of ’98. O’Brian says he is developing a number of scripts including a ‘Canadian historical northwestern,’ an international thriller, a rock and roll comedy, a family film and a romance.

O’Brian, former executive director of the Canadian Film Centre from 1988-91, says Mission is hoping to work primarily with Canadian writers and directors.

‘I wouldn’t put anything exclusive on it, but yes, we want to work from here and we feel we can be competitive from a Canadian production base, both location-wise and from an industrial point of view.’

As to the financing structure of Mission product, O’Brian says the intention is maximize Canadian incentives and generate presales. Noble House will provide interim or gap financing.

O’Brian says he will be looking to firm up relationships with Canadian and u.s. distributors over the next two months.