Posted: Tue., Oct. 17, 2006, 9:00pm PT

White parachutes to Par

'Nacho' scribe just wrapped his directorial debut

Mike White, who recently dissolved his Black and White producing partnership with Jack Black, has formed Rip Cord Prods. and inked it to a two-year first-look deal at Paramount Pictures.

Though Black and White was based at Universal, White has spent most of the past five years working for Paramount. That included co-writing and producing the Par summer hit "Nacho Libre," and writing "The School of Rock" and "Orange County" for the studio. White just wrapped his directorial debut "Year of the Dog" for Paramount Vantage. He wrote and produced the pic.

White has a longstanding relationship with the studio's top brass. Brad Grey exec produced the White-created TV projects "Pasadena" and "Cracking Up," shows that aired during the Fox tenure of Paramount head of production Gail Berman.

"There's no one who brings more to the party than Mike White," Berman said. "He's incredibly creative and we have a great working relationship."

White, who intends to produce his own projects and develop new talent with his deal, has named Ben LeClair to be Rip Cord president of production.


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