Amid the rubble of the contracting indie film sector, Df Indie Studios is raising its banner with plans to finance and distribute 10-12 films a year, each budgeted at as much as $10 million. The new outfit also is promising to be more producer- and investor-friendly.
Mary Dickinson and Charlene Fisher, both experienced in structuring entertainment ventures, spent two years researching opportunities and pitfalls in the arena before putting the company together. They have raised $100 million in capital from private investors, backed by $150 million in guarantees from output deals they are assembling and expect to announce shortly.
The Dfis co-founders said they will be working with a group of producers -- all agreeing to the same deal terms -- that includes Ted Hope and Anne Carey's This Is That Prods., Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free, Samara Koffler's RedBone Films and Jennifer Fox.
However, a spokesman for Scott...
Mary Dickinson and Charlene Fisher, both experienced in structuring entertainment ventures, spent two years researching opportunities and pitfalls in the arena before putting the company together. They have raised $100 million in capital from private investors, backed by $150 million in guarantees from output deals they are assembling and expect to announce shortly.
The Dfis co-founders said they will be working with a group of producers -- all agreeing to the same deal terms -- that includes Ted Hope and Anne Carey's This Is That Prods., Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free, Samara Koffler's RedBone Films and Jennifer Fox.
However, a spokesman for Scott...
- 6/14/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Mos Def and Sophie Okonedo are in final negotiations to co-star in the indie period drama Stringbean and Marcus, which was written and will be directed by first-time feature helmer Tanya Hamilton. The film takes place in 1978 and focuses on the broken love affair between two former Black Panther members (Mos Def and Okonedo) and is told through the eyes of an adolescent girl. "It's not so much about the idea of race," Hamilton said. "I just wanted to show this world of ordinary people living under extraordinary circumstances, trying to outrun this past they all have." Sean Costello, Jen Roskind and Samara Koffler will produce for RedBone Films. Shooting is scheduled to begin in July in Philadelphia. Mos Def and Okonedo, Costello said, have not yet signed, but "they've committed to the project." Contracts are not likely to be finalized until June, he added. Stringbean was developed through the Sundance Writers and Directors Labs in 1999 and received a Pew Fellowship. It was the first screenplay to receive such a grant. Hamilton was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1996 for her short film The Killers, for which she also received a DGA Women's Award. "Mos is one of my favorite actors; he's fantastic," Costello said. "Sophie has to play this character who's both closed off and being open to helping people yet not being an angry woman. That's what she did in 'Hotel Rwanda' as this maternal, yet emotionally conflicted woman." Okonedo, who received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for Rwanda last year, is repped by ICM and Julian House at Markham and Froggatt Ltd. Mos Def is repped by Emily Gerson-Saines of Brookside Artists Management.
Tilda Swinton and Amber Tamblyn are starring in Stephanie Daley, an indie feature being directed by Hilary Brougher. Producing are Jen Roskind, Samara Koffler and Sean Costello of RedBone Films and Lynette Howell and Doug Dey of Silverwood Films. Daley, a Sundance Filmmaker Lab project written by Brougher, follows a forensic psychologist (Swinton) investigating a 17-year-old (Tamblyn) accused of infanticide. The film is in production in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains.
- 10/19/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rebone Films has acquired the psychological thriller spec script Silent Scream from writer Michael Wood. The project centers on the disappearance of a woman's family and her attempts to piece together their whereabouts. Rebone Films' Jen Roskind, Samara Koffler and Sean Costello Will Shepherd. Wood was repped in the deal by Brooklyn Weaver at Energy and Rob Szymansky of Eclipse Law Corp.
- 6/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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