STIPE'S RICH PAGEANT

Digitainment company RSUB, a now-independent spinoff of Razorfish, has acquired a majority stake in Michael Stipe's Self-Timer, the newly formed parent company of Single Cell Pictures and C-Hundred Film Corp. The deal is said to be in the mid-seven-figure range; some of this strange currency will be allocated to a discretionary development fund.

The R.E.M. frontman branched out into the movie biz way back in 1987, founding C-Hundred with video- and filmmaker Jim McKay. Five years ago, he teamed with producer Sandy Stern to form Single Cell. The duo acted as executive producers of the glam-rock epic "Velvet Goldmine" and produced last year's innovative "Being John Malkovich." Now that he's made the RSUB hookup, Stipe can be as artistic as he wants to be in the digital domain.

According to RSUB President Michael Simon, the partnership "will revolutionize the way motion pictures are financed, created, acquired and distributed to the public. Now Self-Timer can create, promote and distribute films under the traditional independent and studio systems, while expanding into the digital environment."

"The possibilities of this partnership are virtually limitless," said RSUB Chief Creative Officer Craig Kanarick. "We now have a complete team of innovative entertainment producers across a wide spectrum of media. And Michael takes me to the grooviest parties."

Said Stipe: "It was important for me to join up with a group of people who understand and are, today, actively shaping every avenue of entertainment and media. At RSUB, it's not just talk and lofty ideas—it's the application of lofty ideas. Once I get these geeks to shave their heads and mumble their cyberspeak, we'll really have something. But check out their Web site—the proof's in the dot-com."

OK, Mike, we'll check it out RSUB.com. Yer right, dude, it's got a way cool Flash movie intro.

Between Single Cell and C-Hundred, RSUB/ Self-Timer has five film projects greenlighted, including "13 Conversations About One Thing," which will be directed by Jill Sprecher from a script she wrote with her sister Karen.

Three-year-old RSUB describes itself as a "subnetwork of talent, ideas and relationships that creates and distributes cutting-edge entertainment across all media, including books, music, clothing, movies and digital media." Clients include Canibus, Cooly's Hot Box, Ticklah and The Honeydogs, as well as rock photographer Danny Clinch.