Fox International Productions president Sanford Panitch tells Jeremy Kay about lessons learned from the company’s 40 films in three years, and its plans for English-language European co-productions
SANFORD PANITCH FACTFILE
Around the world in 40 films L
n Began his career in 1989 working at Pacific Western Productions on films including The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Moved on to run Arnold Kopelson Productions from 1993-96.
n Named EVP at 20th Century Fox in 1997 and served as the executive on Titanic. In 1999 he was also named president of production at Fox-based New Regency Productions.
n Has overseen more than 75 feature films including The Fugitive, Alvin And The Chipmunks, Big Momma’s House and Mr & Mrs Smith.
n In 2008 launched Fox International Productions.
ike many in the film business, Sanford Pan- itch has taken note of French smash Intouch- ables. It is mid-April when we catch up in the
Los Angeles offices of the Fox International Pro- ductions (FIP) president, and the Gallic breakout has registered around $300m from select Euro- pean territories. Panitch’s thriving division has not shared in the success of this particular local-lan- guage hit, but his admiration says it all. “Companies are choosing to be local in certain
parts of the world, which speaks to the growth of this market,” he says, shifting in his seat with typical energy. “You take the most exciting film-makers and see where they are coming from, not only for the potential for remakes but for the ability to tell new stories. Look at Intouchables — it’s not only English-language movies that travel.”
Exploring global film culture Since FIP launched in 2008, the company has scored palpable hits such as South Korean smash The Yellow Sea, Astral City: A Spiritual Journey (Nosso Lar) in Brazil and What A Man in Germany. Panitch has embraced an exhausting travel regime that has seen him hop on a plane to India at least six times a year and visit other regions with daunting regular- ity. The process has allowed Panitch and his team to observe global film-making culture, unearth local talent and forge lucrative relationships. Take India. The sub-continent, he says, is
“changing at such a pace that you cannot define rules as to how things work”. The region houses several hundred languages and local content accounts for approximately 90% of total box office. Indian box office in 2011 reached $1.4bn according to the Motion Picture Association of America’s annual spring report. “Last year there were five films that grossed
more than $20m and the year before, there were three. The big adaptation for Hollywood is the way stories are told… they call it a ‘masala film’, which means a film that offers the full experience — you have love, song, crying; you have sweet taste and a sour taste. That in itself is already quite different from Western stories, which are all about consistent tone, single genre. That’s not how Indian movies are made.” After Fox worked on My Name Is Khan, Panitch
learned Tamil films, known as ‘Kollywood’, grossed $750m last year. “Bollywood’s only part of the story. The other regional languages produce great films. This year we released our first Tamil-language film Anywhere, Anytime (Engeyum Eppothum), a co-pro- duction between Fox Star Studios and AR Muruga- doss.” The film achieved $3.5m at the box office and
film-maker Murugadoss has become FIP’s guide of sorts to Tamil film-making. “[News Corp sibling] Star, by being the largest cable and satellite operator in India, has been able to help us so much in terms of the regional languages. Star has a Tamil channel and it was a great resource for us when we made our first Tamil film.” That relationship model has applied elsewhere. The Yellow Sea grossed $15.6m in South Korea and
n 42 Screen International at Cannes May 17, 2012
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