Prospect Park's plans to continue production of All My Children and One Life to Live may not be as dead in the water as originally thought. The company, which announced last month that it was suspending its plans to relaunch the soaps in January 2012, has been quietly holding additional meetings that could make its plans to relaunch the soaps a reality.
According to Variety, the discussions are considered "preliminary." Prospect Park is said to be considering "bringing in an overseas firm to turn the shows into a co-production. That may or may not allow the shows to circumvent the unions, which couldn't come to terms with Prospect Park on compensation for talent on both sides of the camera."
"While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program's inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision," Prospect Park said in its statement.
Even though Prospect Park's statement seemingly indicated that it would no longer be pursuing plans to produce AMC and OLTL, the company maintains the digital rights to both AMC and OLTL for a full year after those shows end their runs on ABC. For AMC, that date would be September 2012, and January 2013 for One to Live.
Meanwhile, sources tell Soap Central that Prospect Park has also been exploring the idea of filming the soaps in locations other than New York and Los Angeles, areas that offer higher tax credits to production companies.
Citing its sources, Variety added that "Prospect Park principals Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Frank are still intent on bringing the shows to the Internet, where they would serve as the anchors for a broader online-network play."
A Prospect Park rep did not immediately respond to requests for a statement.
