SALT LAKE CITY -- Two entertainment companies are pledging to make at least 20 "family friendly" movies in Utah over five years.

Flynn-Daines Productions and Grizzly Adams Productions announced the partnership Tuesday, calling it good news for homegrown actors as well as consumers who don't want to see R-rated movies.

McKay Daines, a writer and director in Salt Lake City, said the goal is to present emotional themes similar to the famous works of Frank Capra, the director of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

"He captured the everyman," Daines said. "We'll make little films that resonate."

Why Utahfi

"It offers incredible locations for almost any time period and geographic look," he said. "There are mountains, lakes, the inner city."

Each movie will be made on a tight budget of $500,000.

Grizzly Adams Productions is led by Chuck Sellier, who lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, but has spent much of his career in Utah.

His specialty is market research and film distribution. Sellier created "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams," a TV series that ran on NBC in the late 1970s, and has made dozens of documentaries and feature films.

He said the public wants "wonderful, poignant, self-sacrificing" stories.

"You see 'Under Siege' and then turn on the news and everyone is under siege," Sellier said, referring to a 1992 movie about terrorists seizing a ship. "The world is a scarier place than it was 20 years ago. What we're going to do is turn to shows that show the good in all of us."

Some movies from the partnership will appear in theaters, but the main distribution will be through DVDs sold at Wal-Mart and other retailers, he said.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D5.