Below is an excerpt from the agreement that Michael Russell provided to my company. The only thing in the agreement that was completed was the bold underlined, which most of the content for these materrials were provided by me.
NOT one article to our knowledge has ever been published in any of the numerouse magazines, newspapers or trade publications as listed by Michaek Russell. I have not been invited, let alone appeared on one TV Show, one Radio program and I have only been interviewed once at a trade show that I paid for and Russel & Lacascio attended with me, which was an Exhibit Publication that happened to be at the Expo doing random interviews.
Until now, I have sat back letting my attorney's take care of this issue, but, I received word that Michael Russell has sent e-mails and phone calls to his clients reporting that my company misrepresented the ownership of the Earth Rangers and that we had also misrepresented that we had millions of dollars available in grants. I in fact copyrighted the Earth Ranger characters which are registered with the US Library fo Congress. I later found out that a Canadian Company had registered a "Trade Name" on Earth Rangers.
I had my lawyers inform the Canadian company that I would re-name my characters as a professional curtosy to them. It was never an issue. As for the millions of dollars in grants, the government does give out hundreds of millions of dollar a years in educational grants. HOWEVER, I have a board member that has worked with NASA in grants for over 30 years, I would NOT pay Michael Russell to participate in getting my company grants. This is rediculous.
In closing, please read the agreement the Michael Russell prepared and signed with my company, HEREIN RESTS THE TRUTH!
My company paid Michael Russell some $116,066.31 over five months based on their representations to fulfill the written agreement below.
In addition to NOT fulfilling the agreement, they led me and my associates Clay Blehm and Alan Jackson and others to beleive that they had deals working with Michael Eisner of Vuguru and Kristen Jones, With the producer and the financers of "Iron Cross", with the CEO of Disney and other big names. We were told that there were millions of dollars in possible deals working for us. So, we kept funding Michael Russell becaue we trusted them.
In the end we even had our lawyer write a special contract as per Steve Lacascio's request to accomodate his closing two big deals. However, Michael Russell refused to sign the new contract after it was given to them by my lawyers, until I signed a release of all liability for their alledged damages and losses. There was NO way this was happening and it was suggested by my lawyers that the deal that they claimed to have had and their willingness to enter into this new contract was ONLY a plot to try and get us to sign off on action against them.
Bottom Line: I am sorry to even take the time to write this blog. This is NOT an offense, its a defense that I am putting the facts out "Public" these facst are 100% and will uphold in any court. We paid them for services and we didn't get what we were promised for our $116,066.31. There is pending action against Michael Rusell at this time to recover our losses.
% below is the micheal russell agreement
Agreement of March 18 from Michael Russell.
MRG is excited by the prospect of working with you to publicize, market and expand the global revenue for your groundbreaking product line & cast of characters Globee, the Magic Planets and the Earth Rangers. There is huge potential for corporate synergies and business development in a number of markets including television and motion pictures, home video, toys and games, merchandising, books and publications.
I am a big believer that there are no accidents in life and I believe my 30 years in the entertainment industry have provided me with the contacts and acumen to be the ideal individual to lead this campaign. From ten years based at the Disney Studio in Burbank (the company that pioneered multi-platform worldwide campaigns to promote products and characters designed to appeal to children and their parents) to working closely with Barney creator Sheryl Leach on the 1998 movie Barneys Great Adventure, I have numerous previous clients in which my endeavors have provided me with a wealth of experience to catapult Magic Planets Inc. To a lucrative new level of success.
Coincidentally, your story mirrors that of Sheryl Leachs. She was former teacher who conceived of the Barney character since her toddler son was enchanted with dinosaurs. Leach brought together a team who created a series of home videos, Barney and the Backyard Gang. The videos were sold directly to the public. A few years later, she teamed with a production company to create a television show about the characters. The following year, the series began airing on Public Broadcasting Service and an empire began to materialize.
Your nine years of development will serve as a central foundation for a strategic campaign to publicize your company and accomplishments. We can work quickly on an intensive four-month initial campaign to develop your products and characters on a fast track. Following are the activities that will be focal points for both the Los Angeles and New York offices of the Michael Russell Group:
Marketing Materials
The first months priorities are to create and finalize your companys publicity and marketing materials with special thought given to documenting your achievements in a manner to attract media as well as major corporate investors and/or partners. We will prepare a backgrounder about Magic Planets Inc. We will interview you before preparing your biography and work with you to identify and create the marketing art depicting key characters and product lines. We will also finalize a key set of photography that can be provided to media outlets in conjunction with their articles positioning Magic Planets as an entrepreneurial success story. As discussed at our recent meeting, one key shot will be you standing before a large array of the merchandise and promotional items thus far developed. This is the photo we envision in PEOPLE Magazine and/or USA Today. We will also prepare fact sheets with fascinating factoids about the characters and products that can be included in journalists coverage.
Press Releases
As part of our publicity campaign to stimulate trade and consumer awareness, we will write and distribute a multitude of press releases on newsworthy developments geared to print and online media outlets.
Media Messages
We will present you with key media messages that you will have in front of you for phone interviews. These messages will be succinct sound bites that will effectively communicate Magic Planets accomplishments and provide us with materials that will permit us to schedule introductory business meetings to grow the brands.
Media Outlets
We will put together a list of key outlets and contacts who will receive press releases and communications. Some of the outlets will include: (partial list)
Newspapers/Syndicates
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Daily News
LA Business Journal
LA Weekly
New York Times
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Associated Press
Downtown News
Reuters
Trades
Variety
Hollywood Reporter
Screen International
Animation
AdAge
Adweek
Creativity
Magazines
Entertainment Weekly
Us
Entrepreneur
Parade
Scholastic Classroom Magazines
Family Circle
Parents
Fast Company
Newsweek
Time
Business Week
Blogs
LAT The Envelope
The Wrap
Huffington Report
E! Online
MSN
Big Hollywood
The Big Picture
Cinematical
Comics2film
LAist
LA Observed
Kidsnet
Zap2it
Television
National Morning Shows
Entertainment Tonight/The Insider
Access Hollywood
Extra
Associated Press
Fox News
E! Entertainment
TV Guide Channel
CNN Showbiz Tonight
Discovery Channel
The Learning Channel
CNBC
Nickelodeon
ABC Family
Disney Channel
Industry Outreach
One we have the marketing materials and are generating trade and consumer articles, we will schedule a multitude of meetings to attract financial partners and deals with production for Globee, the Magic Planets and Earth Rangers to spring to life in a number of aforementioned media.
The following companies are priorities for meetings:
Disney and ABC Family
Warner Bros
Fox Family
Nickelodeon
Klasky Czsupo (leading animation company with a multitude of TV and movie credits including the Disney-released Bridge To Terabithia. (Please not I have worked with founder Gabor Csupo on Inner-City Arts initiatives.)
About Scholastic
One of our important meetings will take place with Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL), the worlds largest publisher and distributor of childrens books and a leader in educational technology and childrens media. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys.
Scholastic distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs and school-based book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, television networks and www.scholastic.com.
Toys and Games
Magic Planets has such excellent prospects in the educational, computer/educational games, and soft toys markets that we will also schedule introductory meetings to determine directions for corporate synergies (but we will not finalize any deals until carefully analyzing terms from the big national or global companies specializing in family entertainment).
Sincerely,
Michael Russell
The Michael Russell Group
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