Alan Mruvka

Alan Mruvka
Born 1958 (age 57–58)
The Bronx, New York
Residence Beverly Hills, California
Nationality American
Education University of Miami
Pratt Institute
Occupation Filmmaker, film producer, television producer, screenwriter, actor, entrepreneur, real-estate developer
Years active 1984–present
Parent(s) Father: Murray Mruvka, Mother: Ruth Mruvka
Website twelveoneentertainment.com

Alan Mruvka (born 1958 in Bronx, New York) is an American entertainment and media entrepreneur, film producer and screenwriter. He created and co-founded Movietime Channel, which later became E! Entertainment television.[1][2][3] He is the Founder, President and CEO of 'The Alan Mruvka Company',[4] and is a California real estate developer.[5]

Background

Mruvka was born to Polish refugees in Bronx, New York in 1958.[6] He grew up in Flushing, Queens and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where he attended Dwight Morrow High School. He studied architecture and structural engineering at the University of Miami and New York's Pratt Institute.[4]

Career

Mruvka founded E! Entertainment Television, formerly known as Movietime, and was chairman and co-founder of The Ministry of Film and Filmtown Entertainment, and is now President/ CEO of TwelveOne Entertainment, a movie and television production company, talent management company, digital web company, music company and sports promotion and management company.

Entertainment, film, and television

Mruvka created and founded Movietime Channel Inc now known as "E! Entertainment Television" with partner Larry Namer in 1984.[2] He said the inspiration to create Movietime Channel came while attending a Hollywood AFI seminar about selling screenplays to studios, but instead listened to the studio executives complain about the high cost of advertising a movie.[6] It was then that Mruvka set out to raise seven million dollars to start the network. After three years of not raising any money, a chance meeting on a flight to New York led him to the investment banking company of Mabon Nugent. The investment banking company put a consortium together and raised Mruvka 2.3 million dollars. Mruvka took the money, set up shop in Hollywood and on July 31, 1987, Mruvka and Namer launched Movietime. The network began operation, showing interviews with stars, behind the scenes and movie trailers and charging the studios to show them, a business similar to what MTV did with music and intended for the same demographic.[6][7] Once on the air, Mruvka raised an additional 200 million dollars within the next twelve months.[8]

The investment consortium included Time Inc., Warner Communications, Cox, Comcast and HBO, and in 1990 Movietime was renamed E! Entertainment Television, Inc.[6][9][10][11] While with E!, Mruvka oversaw production of over 20,000 hours of programming while guiding the channel to the fastest growth of a start-up of a cable network in television history. He also founded Movies USA magazine, as a national movie magazine distributed in movie theaters. Also in the 90's, Mruvka co-founded Ministry of Film (MOF) with Marilyn Vance, however that union ended in a lawsuit dispute.[12]

In 1992, shortly after leaving E!, he created FX TV (Fitness and Exercise Television Inc.) as a cable channel to be launched in 1994, but sold FX to 20th Century Fox before it was launched.[13] Fox Television planned a launch of their own FX Channel, and Mruvka sued them with the assertion that Fox had prior knowledge of his use of the initials. Mruvka then sold FX to Fox for an undisclosed amount thus allowing Fox to use the name.[14]

While under the Ministry of Film shingle, Mruvka produced Erotic Confessions for Cinemax (1994–1997), Embrace of the Vampire (1995) starring Alyssa Milano, and co-wrote and produced Showtime's The Legend of Gator Face (1996). In 1998 he produced Intimate Sessions for Cinemax (1998), and the winner of the Chicago International Children's Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival critically acclaimed Digging to China starring Evan Rachel Wood, USA Network's Pacific Blue (1996–2000), the David Mamet directed State and Main, HBO's Red Letters, and the weekly boxing series Thunderbox (2000).[15]

Jane controversy

In early 1997 MOF invested in a film project Jane,[12] which was to have starred Howard Stern and Melanie Griffith, but the project was halted due to rising production costs.[16] In August, shortly before filming was scheduled to have begun, Stern's agents were informed by Mruvka that financing for the movie had fallen through,[17] and in October Stern filed suit against MOF for their "not paying him to appear in a film Jane that was never produced", alleging breach of contract, in that company execs promised in April of that year to pair him with Grifith for the film and that they had entered into written and oral agreements in July, even though they knew there was inadequate financing.[17][18][19] In response, Mruvka contended that "Howard was never pay or play" and that Stern knew all along that financing was an issue.[18] On Friday January 15, 1999, three days before jury selection for the trial was to commence, it was announced that Stern accepted $50,000 to settle his lawsuit.[20]

Internet

In 2000, Mruvka founded the internet entertainment portal celebstreet.com.[21] As his first internet venture, the April 5 launch was christened by actress Pamela Lee Anderson at the Spring Internet world trade show at the Los Angeles Convention Center.[22] The site was designed as an entertainment and e-commerce website with content divided into seven main sections: Moviestreet, Musicstreet, Televisionstreet, Fashionstreet, Auctionstreet, Celebritystreet, Camstreet and Shoppingstreet.[21][22] It was planned that these main sections would contain both original content, as well as area-specific content from partners including TV Guide and The Weather Channel, as an online version of what E! has been for television.[21][22] The site is no longer online.[23]

Real estate

Mruvka founded The Alan Mruvka Company (TAMC), a Los Angeles-based television and motion picture production company, and real estate development company.[4][24] In 2001 he decided to leave filmmaking and reinvest his energies toward real estate development and architecture.[25] He became interested in the nearly 100-year-old California Iron Works building which had sat vacant in downtown Riverside, California since 1945.[25][26] He purchased the building and throughout 2001 renovated it into an office complex. This led to similar projects,[27][28] he has now for over thirteen been involved with both re-development of old properties and development of new housing in The City of Riverside.[29][30]

Partial filmography

Film and television producer

Writer

Actor

References

  1. ↑ "Alan Mruvka". NYTimes.com Movies & TV. All Movie Guide and Baseline via The New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Slide, Anthony (1991). The television industry: a historical dictionary (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780313256349.
  3. ↑ "Alan Mruvka Credits". hollywood.com. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 "Alan Mruvka official bio". bluesquare.us. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  5. ↑ Karlin, Beth (November 1, 2003). "Hollywood Moxie comes to Riverside". Retail Traffic. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Dougherty, Philip H. (July 30, 1987). "Advertising; Promoting Movies Via Cable". New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Performing Arts". Television/Radio Age. Vol. 34. Television Editorial Corp. 1987. p. 35. ISSN 0040-277X.
  8. ↑ Fries, Amy (2009). Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers. Capital Books. pp. 103, 104. ISBN 9781933102696.
  9. ↑ King, Susan (June 9, 1990). "E!-the Entertainment Channel Debuts Today Television: Former MTV exec Lee Masters revamps Movietime". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  10. ↑ Box Office Magazine, July 1990
  11. ↑ "HBO to take over running of Movietime". Daily News of Los Angeles. August 17, 1989. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
  12. 1 2 Shirkani, K.D. (December 20, 1999). "Battle lines drawn in $10 mil Ministry suit – Producer Vance claims partner Mruvka kept her out of financial loop". Variety. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Movietime duo planning fitness net". Multichannel News. April 12, 1993. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
  14. ↑ Flint, Joe (October 14, 1993). "Fox in fight over FX. (FXTV Fitness and Exercise Television Inc. files suit against Fox Broadcasting Co. for use of similar name)". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  15. ↑ "People – Alan Mruvka". Los Angeles Times. November 11, 1990. pp. Business; PART–D; Financial Desk, page 3. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  16. ↑ Weiner, Rex (October 1997). "Indie prod'n in flux, too. (shutdown of independent film projects just before lensing)". Variety. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  17. 1 2 Fleeman, Michael (October 11, 1997). "Howard Stern sues studio for $1.5 million over ill-fated movie". tvmegasite.net. Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  18. 1 2 Holmes, Anna (October 24, 1997). "Pop Culture News – Monitor". ew.com. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  19. ↑ "Some Stern Warnings". Buffalo News. October 10, 1997. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  20. ↑ "Stern Takes the Money". people.com. People. January 15, 1999. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  21. 1 2 3 Schlosberg, Jeremy (April 4, 2000). "From the guy who put the ! in entertainment". Media Life. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  22. 1 2 3 "E! Founder to Launch New Entertainment Website". writenews.com. The Write News. March 31, 2000. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  23. ↑ "Entertainment Industry Websites". la-starz.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  24. ↑ Berkman, Leslie (July 12, 2008). "Inland condo projects shut down as single-family home foreclosures flood market". Press-Enterprise. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  25. 1 2 Dean, Jason (April 18, 2009). "IRONWORKS – The Fruits of Labor in Orange County". H Monthly. Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  26. ↑ Berkman, Leslie (March 28, 2002). "Cable-Network Founder Gets Hooked on Developing Riverside, Calif., Area". Press-Enterprise. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  27. ↑ Ascenzi, Joseph (May 20, 2002). "E! Network Founder Hopes to Spark Renewal in Riverside, Calif.". The Business Press. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  28. ↑ Wells, Devona (August 29, 2002). "Developer to Transform Riverside, Calif., Depot.". The Press-Enterprise. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  29. ↑ Osterwalder, Joan (February 8, 2007). "Proposed Riverside condos spark residents' praise, concerns". Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  30. ↑ Ascenzi, Joseph (March 2, 2007). "A bright light for downtown". Inland Empire Business. Retrieved June 24, 2009.

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