Medient Studios‘ plans to build one of the nation’s largest film studios in Effingham County got a boost this week. From the press release published by Marketwatch, Medient and Atlas Join Hands to Create New Mini Major:

Medient Studios, Inc. (otcqb:MDNT) (‘Medient’) today announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire one hundred percent ownership of Germany based Atlas International Film GmbH (‘Atlas’).

In addition to Atlas’ expertise in worldwide entertainment licensing, its large client-base of US and International film distributors and content producers and its access to various investment groups and financing sources globally, the combined entity will benefit from the film production and post production infrastructure at the Medient Studioplex at Effingham.

“Atlas is a specialist in the exploitation of action, horror and related genres and is a wonderful strategic fit for Medient given our focus on these genres as the core output from the Studioplex,” said Manu Kumaran, Chairman of Medient. “With Atlas by our side we can provide the opportunity to green light quality projects without having to raise external capital,” he added.

Philipp Menz, President of Atlas, commented, “Having known Manu and the Medient team for some time now, it is truly extraordinary to have seen the Studioplex vision take massive steps to become reality. On behalf of my fellow owners and I and all the employees of Atlas, we are honored and excited to be part of such an industry-changing company.”

And here’s a brief video about the project:

And from the Savannah Morning News about a month ago, Construction to begin on Medient complex:

The property committee of the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority has formally approved commencement of construction on Medientâ€s film production and entertainment complex.

The company has started engineering, clearing and grading of the property in an effort to have the studios operational by the first quarter of 2014.