U press moguls

The third in our series of posts on how university presses and other small publishing concerns can enjoy greater financial security by creating new revenue streams. The introductory post is here. The second post is here.

murnauStrategy No. 3: Going Hollywood
It’s no secret that reading books is in decline. People want throbbing emotions! Spectacle! Crossover promotions with a brand of applesauce! And more than any medium, movies give it to them in an easy-to-consume format that more often than not leaves human brain cells in a pristine, unused condition.

Faced with this inescapable transformation of public taste, the UIP has launched a new initiative. We’re making movies! Not the cinema you would expect from us. Movies, and the kind people line up to see. One of the world’s few non-profit studios, Low Priority Films will bring the compelling stories of our press library to the silver screen and its less historic, but still quite popular, digital counterparts.

To show you the width, breadth, and volume of this mission, we have asked our gifted staffers to present THEIR breathtaking visions of the blockbusters to come. Over the next several days, the Big Blog will run the synapse-snapping synopses. In the best moviemaking tradition, we present a few little teasers to get you ready:

St. Louis Rising!
History throws up a larger-than-life French soldier and settler to hang our mini-series on, complete with a Hollywood-ready name, Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, and an Indian slave concubine. Deadwood plus Pocahontas times French subtitles equals box office gold!

Japanese Foodways (a.k.a. Seven Fingers of Samurai Ramen)
Take chefs, add formal tables beautifully set, throw in war, wine, and Bento, and you have the savage story of ramen as never told before!

The Education of Hepzibah Dumville
Hepzibah Dumville must work as a domestic servant in the Land of Lincoln to make ends meet. With her quick and irreverent wit, Hepzibah—or Zibah, as her friends call her—struggles to find a balance between work, education, war, and love.

The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey
This summer on the UIP Network, follow young Alan as he grows up on the family dairy farm amidst cows and Jeff Goldblum’s narration.

Thunder Below!
The UIP wartime classic, directed by Quentin Tarantino. ‘Nuff said.