Onion, Inc. & partners diving into the film business

Satiric news digital publisher Onion, Inc. has formed a joint partnership with award-winning production company, Serious Business, to produce three feature films over the next two years that Lionsgate will distribute.

Onion Studios, the in-house film/TV development arm of Onion, Inc., will work with Jason U. Nadler, Alex Blagg, and Jon Zimelis, creators and executive producers of Comedy Central’s Emmy-winning late-night show, “@midnight with Chris Hardwick.”

Projects will be developed from existing Onion IP and the production and development skills of Serious Business and the distribution reach of Lionsgate.

“This deal represents an expansion of Lionsgate’s breadth of partnerships with meaningful online publishers, while adhering to our core strategy of utilizing non-traditional marketing techniques to help our product to rise above the noise,” says Lionsgate’s Jordan Gilbert, VP/ Digital Production for Lionsgate, who will oversee creative for the studio.

In addition to managing all distribution, Lionsgate will utilize the growing marketing reach of Onion, Inc. and the properties of Fusion Media Group, a division of Onion, Inc.’s parent company, Univision Communications Inc., to promote the films.

The Onion was co-founded in 1988 by University of Wisconsin/Madison students Tim Keck and Chris Johnson. It relocated from Madison in 2001 to New York City and in 2012 moved to Chicago offices at 730 N. Franklin. Its print run ended in 2013.

An Onion Productions green screen stage is located in the Franklin Street office and the building housing a full-service shooting stage is at 2155 W. Hubbard.