Outside Studios to Develop Feature on Extreme Skier
Film to be based on the book about Doug Coombs written by Massachusetts author Rob Cocuzzo
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Outside Studios and Fort Point Media have partnered to develop and produce a feature film based on the life of iconic alpinist Doug Coombs, who pioneered backcountry skiing and recreational heli-skiing and became a ski legend before his tragic death on a French mountain in 2006.
The project will be based on the 2016 book Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs, written by Massachusetts author and journalist Rob Cocuzzo. Fort Point Media, a prolific banner run by New York Times bestselling authors Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge, acquired the rights to the book, and has set the project up with Outside Studios, a unit of Outside Integrated Media, LLC launched in 2018. Outside magazine has provided the intellectual property for several hit outdoor adventure films, including Everest, 127 Hours, Into the Wild, Blue Crush, and The Perfect Storm.
“Doug’s story fits in perfectly with our mission: to celebrate the human spirit and tell incredible tales of survival, heroism, endurance, and adventure,” said Outside chairman Larry Burke.
Outside produces more than 200 stories for the magazine and web site each month and has dozens of hit series on the Outside Television channel.
“Doug Coombs was an icon and a true pioneer, and his life is an incredible story that needs to be told. We have the team to tell it with the epic scope it deserves,” said Fort Point Media producers Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge.
Sherman and Wedge wrote the 2015 book Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph over Tragedy, which was adapted for the 2017 Mark Wahlberg film Patriots Day, and 2017’s Ice Bucket Challenge: Pete Frates and the Fight against ALS, which is in development as a Netflix feature with Casey Affleck attached. Sherman also coauthored The Finest Hours, a bestseller that was the basis of the hit Disney film of the same name that starred Affleck and Chris Pine. Sherman is also working with FOX 2000 and producer Greg Berlanti on the mob feature Thacher Island, based on Sherman’s 2014 book, Animal: The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob’s Most Feared Assassin.
Outside Studios and Fort Point are both represented by the Gotham Group.
About Outside Studios
Formed in 2018, Outside Studios is an independent production company that develops inspiring adventure motion picture content for film, television, and digital platforms reaching a worldwide audience. The venture is led by Larry Burke, founder and owner of Outside, the dominant media brand in the flourishing global active lifestyle and adventure market. Outside magazine’s rich and extensive archives, along with its status as the preeminent outlet for epic tales of survival, heroism, and exploration, provide a constant stream of top-quality content for Outside Studios and guarantee a multi-platform marketing reach to an audience of millions of passionate media consumers. By building on Outside’s powerful storytelling legacy, Outside Studios is poised to own this genre.
About Fort Point Media
New York Times bestselling authors Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge are one of the premier nonfiction writing teams in the industry. Together, they cowrote the definitive story of the Boston Marathon bombings in Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy, which was adapted for the 2017 Mark Wahlberg film Patriots Day. They also wrote Ice Bucket Challenge: Pete Frates and the Fight against ALS, which is in development as a Netflix feature film, with Sherman and Wedge attached as producers. They also wrote the 2018 New York Times bestseller 12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady’s Fight for Redemption, which is in development as a feature film with the producers/writers of The Fighter, Patriots Day, and The Finest Hours. Sherman cowrote The Finest Hours book, which was the basis of the hit Disney film starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck.
In 2018, Sherman and Wedge launched Fort Point Media, a film/TV/streaming production company and have several projects in development, including Ice Bucket Challenge and Thacher Island, a thriller based on Sherman’s 2014 book Animal. Thacher Island is in development at 20th Century Fox with the screenwriters of BlacKkKlansman.
Sherman has written ten books and is a veteran investigative TV producer and journalist who has written for Time, The Washington Post, Esquire, FoxNews.com, Huffington Post, and Boston Magazine. Wedge was an award-winning investigative reporter for the Boston Herald who has also written for VICE, Esquire, Newsweek and Boston magazine.
Both are represented by the Gotham Group.