June
27
Indiewood: Gill and Sacker Launch New Film Department
As the movie business slowly moves away from the outmoded inflated big-studio model, momentum is starting to shift to the stand-alone indies that are in a position to deliver to the studios high-quality mid-range commercial pictures for a price. Of course that's easier said than done. And many folks are having the same idea at the same time. So will ex-Miramax and Warner Indie Pictures exec Mark Gill and partner Neil Sacker, ex of the Bob Yari Group as well as Miramax, be able to pull off their new financing and production co. The Film Department, which they've raised $200 million to launch?
I'm betting they have a good shot--alongside Michael London's Groundswell, Tom Rosenberg's Lakeshore, Joe Drake's Mandate and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Yes, there's a glut of projects out there. But CEO Gill insists that they have the expertise to make six films a year between $10 and 35 million that will rise above the bottomfeeders. "Yes, there are plenty of films that are unreleasable," he says. "There are never enough movies that are good. Our films will eventually have to play on 1000 to 1500 screens."
He doesn't have to worry about competing with distributors for acquisitions pickings. The Film Dept. is going to make the pictures everybody is hungry to buy--and unlike Groundswell, they boast a foreign sales operation. That key executive will be announced shortly.
Now that they have real bucks to play with, Gill and prexy and COO Sacker, who will function as full partners, will start nailing down some attractive film packages that lack financing. "We don't need a distributor before we get started," Gill points out. They're aiming to hire about 38 employees.
As far as aiming for the Oscar market, which they learned well at Miramax, Gill figures in the end about half of their films will wind up boasting Oscar potential. For his part, Sacker doesn't plan to put out pure artistic exercises aimed at the Academy crowd. He prefers the Crash model, he said, which is a "commercial and artistic entertainment."
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After 55 years in the film business Ihave a slate of 6 films that average in budget from $5 million to $8 million dollars. They are all family films with a great potential for large audiences.. Plese contact me at (973)706-7491... Thankyou..... Bernie
Posted by: Bernie Hirschenson | December 14, 2007 at 07:53 AM