Ion Signs Movie Pact with Warner Bros.

Ion Television Monday announced it has reached a multiyear agreement with Warner Bros. to bring 27 critically acclaimed and Academy Award-winning films to the network’s lineup over the next three years.

The film acquisition deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution extends from the fall of this year through the summer of 2010, network officials said.

“Our deal with Warner Bros. is part of our newly rebranded commitment to provide entertaining popular content with mass appeal to broad audiences,” Brandon Burgess, chairman and CEO, Ion Media Networks, said in a statement. “As we broaden our content footprint, we are also putting in place a programming organization that will manage our creative expansion.”

Grumpier Old Men, a comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Ann-Margaret, will be the first of the network’s new acquisitions to hit the air on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET. Viewers can look forward to other films such as The Fugitive, GoodFellas and Heat in the coming months and years.