FX goes wild for 'Hogs'

Cable network ponies up $16 mil for TV rights

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Cabler FX paid $16 million for rights to Buena Vista hit comedy 'Wild Hogs' as well as thriller 'The Invisible.'

FX has ponied up about $16 million for the cable TV rights to Buena Vista's hit theatrical comedy "Wild Hogs," solidifying the network as the most aggressive movie buyer in basic cable.

Last month, FX locked up the cable rights to two big grossers from Sony Pictures, "Spider-Man 3" and "Ghost Rider." FX declined to comment on the deal for "Hogs."

Under the "Hogs" deal, FX also gets Buena Vista movie "The Invisible," a supernatural thriller that has chalked up a modest $20 million in U.S. theaters within the past seven weeks.

Both "Hogs" and "Invisible" get their pay TV runs on John Malone's Starz in an 18-month window beginning next spring. FX gets "Hogs" for four years starting in early fall of 2009 and "Invisible" for two years, also in fall '09.

Buena Vista will have the option of carving out a window in the FX license term for sale of a run or two of "Hogs" to a broadcast network. FX does a lot of movie business with Buena Vista, having previously bought titles including "Deja Vu" and "Flightplan."

"Hogs" stars John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy as middle-aged suburbanites who form a leather-jacketed motorcycle quartet and zoom across the country.