Alive Communications is celebrating its 25th anniversary and using the occasion to rebrand the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based agency with a new name, website and logo. The agency led by founder and President Rick Christian also announced new signings for major new productions in television and film as well as millions in new book deals by the end of the year.

“We changed our name from Alive Communications to Alive Literary Agency and unveiled a fresh new look across the board,” Christian said. “This anniversary presents a great opportunity to celebrate our legacy efforts, but also to freshen things up with a total makeover and showcase the tremendous momentum of our team this coming year in Hollywood and across all publishing sectors.”

Christian founded Alive in 1989 and at the time “could never have imagined the scope of the agency’s influence today,” he said. “We’ve represented some 4,000 titles that have sold over 200 million copies, including countless New York Times best-sellers—13 of which have hit in their No. 1 slot.”

The agency’s 25th-anniversary year also saw the launch of a major motion picture from Tri-Star/Sony, adapted from Heaven Is for Real, which has grossed over $126 million to date on a budget of $12 million. Randall Wallace of Braveheart, Secretariat and We Were Soldiers fame wrote the screenplay and directed the picture.

On the heels of this success, Paramount Pictures has announced the beginning of production for another Alive best-seller, Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent, about a modern-day slave, an international art dealer and the unlikely woman who bound them together. Academy Award nominees Greg Kinnear and Djimon Hounsou and Academy Award winners Renee Zellweger and Jon Voight have been signed to the film.

“We’re definitely carving important new territory in the world of film and also now in TV with the Hallmark Channel closing on a deal to air next year two original productions from our longtime client and No. 1 New York Times best-seller Karen Kingsbury,” Christian said of A Time to Dance (next summer) and The Bridge (December).

“We’re bullish about Hallmark because they can reach 4 to 5 million people in a single evening, and they were pleased with the adaptation of another of our titles in September of this year, Stranded in Paradise by Lori Copeland,” Christian said.

Cameras also will be turned on next year for another major theatrical release based on Kingsbury’s rodeo novel, A Thousand Tomorrows. In addition, Christian reported that negotiations are wrapping this month for a television series for mainstream network TV that will be adapted from her Baxter family novels, most of which have topped national sales charts.

“We have retained dramatic and performance rights on our properties for our entire time in existence,” Christian said. “With the uptick in successful inspirational films, we’re inking deals right and left with major Emmy-winning television producers and attracting Oscar-winning talent on the film side.”

The agency also remains firmly anchored in traditional book publishing and is developing significant success with its endeavor into e-publishing with Bondfire Books.

“It’s been a great run these first 25 years, but we’re not about to rest on our laurels,” he said. “Alive is moving into the next quarter-century with a Triple A team that’s dedicated to discovering and serving this next generation of creatives and culture changers. To that end, we’re continuing to sign some of our biggest book publishing deals ever, even as naysayers claim the sky is falling among book readers. Our book revenues will be up double digits over last year, and we’ll close book deals for new clients of about $5 million between now and year’s end.”

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