Release Details

Gaylord Entertainment Company (NYSE:GET) has established Gaylord Films and entered into a co-financing and production deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Gaylord Films is headed by veteran producer Hunt Lowry and overseen by Gaylord Entertainment's chairman, E.K. Gaylord II.

The deal could result in as many as ten films over the next four years that Gaylord Films would produce and co-finance, with Warner Bros. Pictures co-financing and handling the worldwide distribution. Gaylord Films also would earmark funds for pitch and script purchases and development.

E.K. Gaylord II commented, "We are overjoyed at this exciting new relationship between Gaylord Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. Pictures has a glorious history as a major motion picture studio, and we are delighted to be expanding our presence in the film industry in such a significant way with such a great partner. The prospect of making movies with exceptional people like Alan Horn and Lorenzo di Bonaventura is thrilling. We know that this union between Gaylord Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures will continue to be a strong and fruitful one for many years to come."

Hunt Lowry commented, "Gaylord and I have been planning this for a long time. We can't think of a more exciting way for that to happen than this relationship between Gaylord Films and Warner Bros. Pictures. One of my best film-making experiences was doing `A Time to Kill,' with Lorenzo. I am looking forward to working with him again, as well as with Alan Horn and the rest of the Warner Bros. Pictures family."

"Gaylord Entertainment is already a first-rate entertainment company," said Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros. Pictures. "We are all looking forward to adding Gaylord Films features to the Warner Bros. Pictures slate and to working with Hunt, E.K. and the other talented people at Gaylord Films as they grow this new enterprise into a major independent feature film production company."

"This new relationship with Gaylord fits perfectly into our philosophy of producing a diverse slate of films from a broad spectrum of voices," said Lorenzo di Bonaventura, President, Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. "Hunt and his team are great collaborators, and we are looking forward to making terrific films with them."

Other executives at Gaylord Films include Casey LaScala and Stacy Cohen, who have worked with Lowry at Disney for the past four years.

In addition, Pandora Films, the prestige, specialty division of Gaylord Films will look to co-produce and finance certain projects through Warner Bros. Pictures. Pandora's most recent production, "Donnie Darko," has just completed principal photography. The film is written and directed by Richard Kelly and co-produced with Flower Films. It features Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle and Patrick Swayze.

Lowry recently produced Disney's "The Kid," starring Bruce Willis and directed by Jon Turteltaub. His other producing credits include "Instinct," starring Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland, also directed by Turteltaub; John Grisham's best-selling novel "A Time to Kill," starting Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Joel Schumacher; "First Knight," starring Sean Connery, Richard Gere and Julia Ormond; "My Life;" and "Striking Distance," also starring Bruce Willis. Lowry also produced, with Michael Mann, the runaway hit "The Last of the Mohicans," starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Lowry previously produced with John Hughes "Only the Lonely" directed by Chris Columbus; the hit romantic drama "Revenge," starring Kevin Costner, Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Quinn; Hughes' "Career Opportunities"; "Get Crazy"; and "Top Secret," the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy.

Lowry also has extensive experience as a producer for television, as an executive producer of HBO's "Baja Oklahoma" and "Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn" for CBS. He produced the CBS miniseries "Dream West" and the telefilms "His Mistress," "Wild Horses" and the ABC Theatre presentation "Surviving."

Gaylord Entertainment is a diversified entertainment company operating in three business groups: hospitality and attractions, creative content and interactive media. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., and its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: GET). Among its properties are the Grand Ole Opry, the longest running live radio show in the world; the Opryland Hotel Nashville, the largest combined hotel and convention center under one roof anywhere; the Opryland Hotel Florida, which opens in 2002; the Opryland Hotel Texas, which opens in 2003; cable television networks seen in more than 20 nations around the world; Gaylord Event Television; Gaylord Sports Management; Acuff-Rose Music Publishing and Word Entertainment. Craig Jacobsen of Hansen, Jacobsen, Teller, Hoberman, Newman & Warren and Endeavor negotiated the deal on behalf of Gaylord Films.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the ability of the company to co-finance/produce as many as ten films over the next four years and the company's ability to grow this division into a major independent feature film company. In connection with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Gaylord Entertainment cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, Gaylord Entertainment.