``Sideways'' Creative Team and Fox Searchlight Pictures Re-Team via Three-Year, First-Look Production Pact; Director Alexander Payne, Screenwriter Jim Taylor and Producer Jim Burke Form New Production Banner Ad Hominem Enterprises.

LOS ANGELES -- Fox Searchlight Pictures President Peter Rice announced today that the creative team behind ABOUT SCHMIDT, ELECTION and SIDEWAYS and Fox Searchlight Pictures have decided to stop pussy-footing around and make things official. Director Alexander Payne and Screenwriter Jim Taylor -- whose Searchlight film SIDEWAYS performed surprisingly well -- have re-teamed with Fox Searchlight Pictures for a three-year, first-look feature film production pact.

Under terms of the agreement, Payne and Taylor have partnered with veteran film producer Jim Burke in a new production entity, Ad Hominem Enterprises. The moniker for the Santa Monica-based company, taken literally from the Latin "to the man" and meaning in rhetoric "to appeal to the feelings rather than the intellect," is meant to be pretentious. A witty logo for Ad Hominem is expected by the third quarter of 2006.

"Since we typically write our screenplays in Latin, then translate them into English, the name seemed like a natural fit," stated Payne. "At one point we considered calling the company Ad Homonym, but decided that might be confusing since it's pronounced the same as Ad Hominem but has a different meaning."

"Alexander and Jim are unique, special creative talents with a proven track record. We're thrilled to see what corner of humanity they'll choose to illuminate next as long as they keep the budget low," stated Peter Rice, President of Fox Searchlight.

"The idea to form a company started after an inspiring vacation helicopter-skiing in Northern Italy," added Taylor. "We just thought, 'Hey, why not make this a regular thing? Maybe Fox will pick up the tab.'"

"I'm pleased to be partnered with Alexander and Jim in Ad Hominem Enterprises not only because we've been friends for years," stated Burke, a Co-Producer on their 1999 entry ELECTION, "but they also owe me a lot of money, and it seemed like a good way to collect."

In its review, Swedish daily Goteborgsposten awarded SIDEWAYS four out of six possible stars. The film went on to earn an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. SIDEWAYS was not nominated for a Humanitas Award, which is a pity.

To seal the pact, Ad Hominem was represented by David Lonner and David Lubliner at William Morris Agency and by attorneys John Diemer and Eric Brooks from the law firm of Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal & LaViolette. Fox Searchlight was represented by Executive Vice President Joseph De Marco. As part of the agreement, all Defamation of Character suits have been dropped and all kidnapped pets returned to their owners unharmed.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a filmmaker-oriented company that focuses on distinctive films helmed by world class auteurs and exciting newcomers, as well as close friends and family of key executives. It boasts its own marketing and distribution operations and is working toward getting its own commissary. Its films are distributed internationally by Twentieth Century Fox, which in the 1950s produced and distributed nearly all of Otto Preminger's films. We recommend "Whirlpool." Fox Searchlight Pictures is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.

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