Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope has signed exclusive television development deals with Alliance Atlantis and Viacom Productions. The Viacom deal involves TV series while the Alliance Atlantis deal involves TV movies and miniseries. In a statement, Coppola said: "'series, mini-series, movies of the week, reality shows, live TV -- you name it, we're interested in it if we can be original."

The company's TV movie credits includes the Emmy-winning The Odyssey and Moby Dick. But its series credits are less prestigious: the Sci-Fi Channel series First Wave and the 1990 series The Outsiders, inspired by the 1983 feature film directed by Coppola and the book by S.E. Hinton.

The deal was brokered by John Morayniss, Executive Vice President, Alliance

Atlantis Television Production and Michele Conklin, Senior Vice President,

Creative Affairs, Viacom Productions and by, ), by American Zoetrope

Television's Senior Vice President Tara McCann.