Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam's wife, Dee Haslam, her father Ross Bagwell, launch film studio

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - As Rivr Media follows the Cleveland Browns for a new docu-series it's coproducing on the Travel Channel, the television crew will capture the action as it evolves and write a story based on what happens.

But a new initiative launched by Rivr Media founder and CEO Dee Haslam, wife of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, and her father, veteran producer Ross Bagwell Sr. , will allow them to pursue scripted productions — unlike their typical reality- and documentary-based television programming — through a feature film studio, Nest Features.

"We always wanted to get back to scripted. It's very different but similar. With scripted you get to tell a story that you want to tell. Most of the time we follow stories that are as they evolve," Haslam said. "This way we get to dream the stories and tell them. I think that's what's fun for us. Tell a story we want to tell, and Ross Sr. has a thousand stories that he wants to tell."

The father and daughter television producers have teamed up with independent filmmakers and Nest managing producers Paul Harrill and Ashley Maynor, who moved back to Knoxville to help build the local film community.

The couple's first film, "Something, Anything" will be the first released by Nest Features. Also in the pipeline is a film called "Devil You Know" that they did about five years ago but never released. And they start production on "Prison Break-In," written by Bagwell, in the spring.

The studio aims to produce between two to three feature-length films a year with a largely regional cast and crew.

Haslam said launching a film studio was something they both had been wanting to do but with Nest it was all about timing. Her father got started in scripted production in 1981 with "I-40 Paradise," the first sitcom for cable television, and built one of the largest production companies in the Southeast before selling to E.W. Scripps Co. in 2004.

She also pointed to other companies like Regal Cinemas, which is buying films through its distribution arm Open Road Films, and Anderson Merchandisers, which recently expanded into digital and film distribution through a new company, Anderson Digital.

"So you kind of start seeing the networking," she said. "I think we have a chance of really being an emerging film community."