By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

EXCLUSIVE FILMS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES NEW PICKUP FUND AND BRUNNER AS NEW CO-PRESIDENT

Posted Thursday, January 20th, 2011 - Comments Off on EXCLUSIVE FILMS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES NEW PICKUP FUND AND BRUNNER AS NEW CO-PRESIDENT
Be Sociable, Share!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA (January 20, 2011) – Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, Co-Chairmen of Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”), announced today that the company’s Exclusive Films International (EFI) label, which oversees worldwide sales and marketing efforts for feature films produced by the various Exclusive labels (Hammer Films, Spitfire Pictures, Exclusive Films and the Exclusive Media Group library, as well as third party productions) has launched a film pickup fund, and has also named Alex Brunner as EFI’s new Co-President.  The new fund will allocate separate resources which will allow EFI to “pick up” movies and pay guarantees of up to $20 million per film, with an eye towards two to four films per year, which in exchange gives EFI international distribution rights to each of these films.

“We have substantial resources from our shareholders to fund productions as we are doing with Peter Weir’s THE WAY BACK, or George Clooney’s THE IDES OF MARCH, or the Daniel Radcliffe starrer THE WOMAN IN BLACK.  However, this film pickup fund allows us to also take a piece of finished films from third parties — films in production and films where our distribution guarantee will form part of the finance plan of the movie,” said Sinclair and East. “We are looking to pick up all international rights or perhaps specific territories and this fund offers us many flexibilities.  In addition the actual funding, we feel our team has the know-how and track record to market these films internationally and provide guidance in some cases on production – but we will not be the producers or co-producers on these films.”

Exclusive executives including Sinclair, Walton and Brunner (in his new role) will kick-off the fund as they look for projects in Park City this week at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and again next month at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.  Additionally, the group will be looking at potential acquisitions for Exclusive’s U.S. distribution label, Newmarket Films.

Prior to his appointment as Co-President of Exclusive Films International, Brunner previously served as Exclusive’s Senior Vice President, Production & Operations.  Brunner joined East and Sinclair ten years ago and played a pivotal role in the 2003 launch of Exclusive’s Spitfire Pictures label. In 2005, Brunner was the production executive on the critically acclaimed No Direction Home: Bob Dylan directed by Martin Scorsese which Spitfire released.  In the years that followed that, Brunner served as a producer on Matt Reeves’ LET ME IN, as an executive producer on the Hilary Swank starrer THE RESIDENT and as a co-executive producer on Peter Weir’s THE WAY BACK.  Prior to joining Spitfire, Brunner worked at Intermedia Films under Sinclair who was then the company’s Co-Chairman.  At the time, Intermedia was one of the world’s leading independent producers and distributors of major motion pictures, responsible for hits  such as The Wedding Planner starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey; K-PAX starring Kevin Spacey; Adaptation starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep; and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Prior to Intermedia Films, Brunner was an agent at International Creative Management (ICM) for two years, working in both the motion picture literary and production departments of the firm.

“I have enormous respect for Alex Brunner who brings his stellar production, development and business affairs background to Exclusive Films International at a time when the company is producing some of the biggest films in our Group’s history,” says Alex Walton who will continue to serve as EFI’s President of International Sales and Distribution. “With films in our line up directed by or starring top global talent like George Clooney, Daniel Radcliffe, and Miley Cyrus, we have a strong foundation from which we can now aggressively grow the company.”

Exclusive Media Group’s Hammer Films label is currently in post-production on James Watkins’ The Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) with a screenplay by Jane Goldman (Kick Ass), based on the best-selling novel by Susan Hill. The company also produced Matt Reeves’ Let Me In starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins (produced through the Hammer Films label, and released by Overture Films); and Peter Weir’s The Way Back starring Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Colin Farrell (which Exclusive’s Newmarket Films distribution label will release this month).  Exclusive also announced that the company will co-finance and co-produce George Clooney’s THE IDES OF MARCH, based on the award-winning play by Beau Willimon, and starring Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood. The film shoots in February. Additionally, Exclusive announced that the company will produce and fully finance the action comedy SO UNDERCOVER to be directed by Tom Vaughan (What Happens in Vegas) and starring Miley Cyrus in the lead role, as well as Kelly Osbourne, Jeremy Piven and Mike O’Malley.

#  #  #

ABOUT EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP (“EXCLUSIVE”)

Exclusive Media Group is a vertically integrated independent film studio which was founded by strategic investment group, Cyrte Investments, in May 2008. Exclusive comprises:

  1. Three development & production labels –

·         Exclusive Films, whose maiden production is Peter Weir’s The Way Back and who will also co-finance and co-produce George Clooney’s The Ides of March, and fully finance and produce the Miley Cyrus action comedy So Undercover.

·         Hammer Films, the iconic brand which has The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe in post-production, Let Me In in release and The Resident being readied for release.

·         Spitfire Pictures, which has become the specialist documentary film production house.

  1. US theatrical distributor – Newmarket Films.

3.   International Sales & Marketing Operation for in-house and third party product – Exclusive Films International.

  1. Exclusive Films International also monetizes a significant film library of over 550 film titles.

Exclusive is run by Co-Chairmen Nigel Sinclair and Guy East.  Sinclair also serves as Group CEO and President of Newmarket Films, East as Chairman of Exclusive Films International.  Simon Oakes serves as Vice-Chairman of the Group Board as well as President and CEO of Hammer.  Marc Schipper and Andy Mayson serve on the Executive Board, as COO and Managing Director/CFO respectively, overseeing the operations, finance and strategic development of the worldwide group  Exclusive’s strategy is to build a vertically integrated global film entertainment group which develops and controls its own intellectual property and exploits it on a cross-media basis in the digitally converged era.  Exclusive has an active development slate and produces, finances and markets 3-5 high-quality commercial feature films and documentaries per year under its three production labels.  Exclusive actively acquires further feature films for international distribution through Exclusive Films International, and for US theatrical distribution through Newmarket Films.  The Group also develops and produces projects for television and digital platforms.

Exclusive continues to actively explore strategic expansion through M&A transactions and joint ventures – specific focus is on the acquisition of further high-quality film libraries and local territory distribution.

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on EXCLUSIVE FILMS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES NEW PICKUP FUND AND BRUNNER AS NEW CO-PRESIDENT

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon