hoc opus

In a move bolstering Twentieth Century Fox's off-balance sheet financing and building 15 to 20 titles into its domestic slate over the next five years, Hyde Park Entertainment has just closed a co-financing, production and distribution agreement with the studio (see article). Set up similar to New Regency Production's deal with Fox, Hyde Park, under CEO Ashok Amritraj and President Jon Jashni, intends to fully finance projects under $30 million and co-finance those above. Financing will be enhanced by Hyde Park's relationship with Bennett Pozil at Natexis Banques Populaires.

After launching Hyde Park International, an international sales and acquisitions subsidiary, at this past Cannes (see article), Hyde Park will be able to adequately handle foreign distribution of its projects, as well as pick up titles to distribute through Fox domestically.

--------

Posted by Marc at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Variety brings word today that Norman Lear with Hal Gaba, through his Act III Entertainment, and Michael Lambert, through Lambert Entertainment, have formed Crescent to invest $115 million in Village Roadshow in exchange for "50% of the main film and distribution companies making up Village Roadshow Pictures" (see article).

Roadshow, subsidiary of an Australia entity, has a co-financing and distribution deal in place with Warner Brothers. According to Variety,

Village Roadshow and Lear-led consortium Crescent said they will jointly pursue "strategic growth opportunities" in the film biz, including expanding Roadshow's production slate and acquisitions, as well as turning out more low-budget and direct-to-video projects.

However, it went on later to note that the money will be used to "repay an intercompany loan of $100 million owed to its parent company, as well as pay a $15 million dividend." It could be that this investment provides a new lease for Roadshow and opens up the entity to access external financing for its productions.
--------

Posted by Marc at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I seem to have been incredibly remiss in maintaining a current and up-to-date collection of the happenings in the world of film business and money (there are a ton of articles archived and ready for posting on my computer), I thought I'd drop a quick line on the latest "Exclusive" from The New York Post. It seems that DreamWorks SKG is in early conversations with NBC-Universal regarding a sale of the live-action film unit. According to Tim Arango, the talks "are still at an early stage and that no deal is imminent" (see article).

According to the article, the music business was sold to Universal last year -- indeed, a link on DreamWork's website to "Music" links to Universal Nashville Music -- and the company has co-produced titles in the past with Universal Studios.

UPDATE: It must be true if The New York Times says that it's happening. Though they do indicate that there is no imminent movement and that Paramount might enter the frey as well due to the relationship between Geffen and Grey.

FURTHER UPDATE: Now I'm either pleased or irked that Variety has weighed in with an article of the same title. If anyone read this, it might matter. Either way, same conclusions as before: DreamWorks has been slowing down and scaling down, the deal would simply extend an existing relationship, there is no huge upside for NBC-Universal which would gain a library devoid of franchises.

--------

Posted by Marc at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)