Hemisphere Film Partners

By: Valerie Milano

With the cost of movie making sky high, there have been several productions that have been halted in the recent past due to financial pressures. The newest James Bond film and notably, MGM has halted filming the next Lord of the Rings installment, “The Hobbit”. With the economic crisis effecting everyone and everything – some bright minds have come together to find new ways to fund filmmaking.

Doug Lodato

Thinking outside the box, Doug Lodato, (“Wild, Wild West”) and Greg McClatchy – from the family newspaper chain, (Director, Producer), are creating new ways to get backing from other areas. “He and I are establishing this fund together.  But in the meantime I had already started this franchise concept based around the concept of Crash Dummies and enlisted the participation of Chris Noonan, writer and director of “Babe.” 

Crash Dummie

Bringing together this concept and the talents of Chris Noonan, Lodato figured, “If we could do with Crash Dummies what he did with talking pigs, it would work at the end of the day.  We also brought in Dave Elsey who was the creature creator of the last Star Wars and was nominated for an Oscar. I am trying to assemble a superb team to have “Crash Dummies” be the first film financed by the fund, and that team is intact. We’ve hired a woman who specializes in raising money for media companies, Marcia Allen.  She learned that our odds would be more successful if it’s a slate of films and not just “Crash Dummies” and we have been slowly accumulating other projects with other heavy weight directors and producers, but we haven’t signed all of the deals yet.  We do have a film with Walter Hill and Larry Gross, whose credits include the “Alien” films and “48 Hours”.

Securing investors from outside the industry allows their new company, Hemisphere Film Partners, (www.hemisfilm.com) to produce a film with a break-even of up to half of the film’s actual cost.  Lodato explained, “The concept of the fund, and what makes it so innovative and attractive, is to raise some of the print and ad money – a key component.  What we are doing is to go ahead and make this franchise film with this academy award level talent all across the board, in a series of jurisdictions. This means up to 50% of the budget is covered risk-free, so profitability has less to do with the performance of the film, because the break even is lowered tremendously. We also save on cost because we don’t have the studio overhead or development process on our backs, which always inflates the budget. We have the P&A money attached because it is part of the fund.  If we connect the dots it should be a successful venture.”

“The film studios have a huge asset in the distribution system and their library.  They are recognizable distributors.  It’s my opinion you have to have an organization that does not overwhelm themselves with overhead and development costs.  And of course pick the right movie.  If it’s a higher budget movie you would likely be inclined to share the risk with other organizations. What we are trying to do is work without their impediments and at the same time add a real attractive soft money package which is even more aggressive than they are probably aware of.”

With costs soaring every day and businesses scrambling to stay afloat, the answers most certainly will come from thinking outside the traditional business model. Hemisphere Film Partners may be onto something huge.