'Tesco sets up film studio to adapt hit novels' Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent, The Observer, Sunday 24 January 2010 "There is an unlikely new player in the British film industry with ambitions to change the world of entertainment. Tesco, the supermarket giant, has moved into movie mogul territory this weekend with the launch of a multi-million-pound production arm poised to make films of books by a slew of bestselling authors. The shift into film production is part of Tesco's effort to make the most of its growing influence as a retailer of mainstream books and home entertainment. Tesco has already dipped its toe into the film industry in a deal struck with the Miramax production company over the 2009 Zac Efron film, Me and Orson Welles, which gave Tesco exclusive DVD sales rights, and in another Christmas deal with Dreamworks, giving it sole rights to sell the animated short film Merry Madagascar. "The Madagascar Christmas DVD, promoted in the way we did, sold four times as many copies as it would have done if it was on the shelf with all the other DVDs we sell at Christmas. Our choice of the books for these new films is based on what we feel our customers would find most interesting," said Salter." http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/24/tesco-film-movies-novels-adaptations