FEATUREFOCUS n FILMFINANCE n TERRRITORYFOCUS: ITALY nINFOCUS:APPLE AND GOOGLE VsPAY-TV
CAA’s Roeg Sutherland and Micah Green
Creative opportunities S
everal years ago, when a succession of flops encouraged the US studios to withdraw from so-called mid-budget productions, many asked what that
meant for Hollywood. Uncertainty and concern hung in the air, but CAA’s film-finance depart- ment saw an opportunity. The US majors purged their development
pipelines of $25m-$40m projects, leaving plenty of workable screenplays in their wake. Roeg Sutherland and Micah Green head a robust department of agents at the film finance department and knew that if they could slash the budgets by around 25% there could be a mechanism for getting these projects financed. Up until that point, the unit had set up a cou-
ple of films per year in excess of $15m and in the past two years it is believed to have put together more than 35 in that range and put more than $1bn to work. Projects include Source Code, Larry Crowne, The Ides Of March, Cogan’s Trade, Wettest County, The Grey, Looper and Gambit, the EFM hit which closed a US deal recently with CBS Films.
FACTFILE MICAH GREEN
n Micah Green specialises in film financing and distribution. He joined CAA in 2005 having previously managed film sales consultancy Cinetic Media.
ROEG SUTHERLAND
n Roeg Sutherland specialises in the packaging and representation of independently financed films and international co- productions. He also works with writer, director, actor and producer talent in the motion picture arena. He joined CAA in 2001.
Smaller, profitable titles include Insidious,
Paranormal Activity and An Education. Black Swan started life as a sub-$15m film and has become a global smash with grosses close to $300m. The project owes much to financier Brian Oliver, the Cross Creek Pictures founder who was brought in by CAA. This approach to financier relationships has reaped rewards for the unit and the broader agency, and is a key driver in the way the department operates. Green, Sutherland and their colleagues work
as strategic consultants to high-net-worth indi- viduals — people who have been viewed, on occasion, in Hollywood as disposable assets themselves; a resource to be used, marginalised and discarded. However, the unit is far more interested in nurturing financiers and helping them build sustainable businesses, and it will be in Cannes to service those relationships as well as existing projects. Green explains CAA’s film finance depart-
ment “was so named because the agency wanted it to serve the interest of financiers in the same way we serve the interests of talent in
n 26 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 12, 2011
The film finance department at CAA is thriving as the agents work as strategic consultants to financiers to steer through the complex landscape of independent production and distribution. Jeremy Kay talks to Roeg Sutherland and Micah Green
the talent department and directors and writers in the lit departments”. In some cases it takes months for the unit to
get to know financiers and re-assure them their money will be put to work in a way that is trans- parent. Projects are hand-picked, appropriate talent brought in and investors kept appraised of risk profiles and project status. “Services range from building a business
plan to raising debt, raising equity, creating deals with foreign companies to output deals with foreign distributors. We build a group of agents around them so they can source the kind of material they want, and introduce them to the directors and actors they want to work with,” says Sutherland. While nobody will deny selling films at festi-
vals has its place in the year-round business of independent packaging and financing, the model at CAA is broader. “When we present projects, we present them
from the perspective of the financier and we talk to them about how we think they make sense as investments,” says Green. “We work as their
»
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88