FEATURE FOCUS IM GLOBAL DOCUMENTARIES RE-INVENTED
Stuart Ford at the company’s Cannes Suite and screening room, designed by Lisa Forbes of Button
Ford sets out Global ambitions I
n the fi ve years since IM Global arrived on the scene, the company’s Liverpool-born CEO and founder Stuart Ford has executed a steady
expansion strategy that has given rise to one of the most dynamic independent production, fi nancing and sales platforms in the global business. The company launched in March 2007 in part-
nership with Germany’s Internationalmedia after Ford, an entertainment lawyer by trade, had relo- cated to New York where he served as co-head of international sales and distribution for Bob and Har- vey Weinstein and then moved to Los Angeles for a brief stint as president of First Look International. Ford eventually bought out Internationalmedia
and in March 2010 sold a majority stake in his company to Indian titan Reliance Entertainment. Over the half-decade the founder has not missed a beat, forging strategic alliances, making a splash at markets with eye-catching marketing pushes and build- ing a roster of increasingly heavyweight titles. The expansion arc has resulted in a
truly eclectic line-up comprising third party and homegrown fare. The slate has ranged from broadly commercial fare such as the global phenomenon Paranormal Activity — which Ford describes as a “game-changer” for the com- pany — to Dredd, which just wrapped production
■ 20 Screen International at Cannes May 22, 2012
and screened for Cannes buyers last week, to recent Lionsgate release Safe starring Jason Statham — the fi rst IM Global production to open in theatres. “We are about more than just shoot ’em ups and
scary movies,” Ford says. Sales credits include Venice 2009 entry A Single Man, UK comedy smash The Inbetweeners Movie, the $65m BBC Earth and Evergreen Films documentary Walking With Dinosaurs 3D which Fox will release in the US and select territories in 2013, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a white-hot Cannes title that IM Global has virtually sold out on behalf of Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries. “From the outset, we had a clear goal,” Ford says,
“which was to as quickly as possible break out of the hand-to-mouth culture of the foreign sales business and create a company of real substance that generates volume, cash fl ow and a tangible asset base. “Our fi rst goal was to create a top-
Sylvester Stallone in Bullet To The Head
tier international sales platform across multiple genres, capa- ble of handling mainstream commercial titles, genre films, arthouse and for- eign-language cinema,” he says. “To use a blunt analogy, as a business we’ve always aimed
With a roster of A-list stars and $250m of production across eight titles, IM Global is making its biggest ever splash in Cannes. CEO Stuart Ford tells Jeremy Kay about the company’s strategic partnerships and future plans as the company celebrates its fifth anniversary
to be Bergdorf Goodman rather than a boutique operation. “Post the Reliance investment, our goal has been
to become one of the most prolifi c fi nanciers in the business and to develop a clearly defi ned taste in production choices focused on mid-budget, star- driven action movies and thrillers that work well globally and on more modestly budgeted genre fi lms.” It seems safe to say IM Global has accom- plished these goals. “As a fi nancier we, meaning IMG and Reliance, currently have more than $250m of production in progress or awaiting release spread across eight fi lms. I suspect that’s as prolifi c a current output as anyone outside of the major studios. As a sales company, we handled 18 films last year across multiple genres and our annual sales revenues have steadily risen from $15m in 2007 to $170m last year. So yes, I think we’ve successfully achieved our goals so far.” This week Ford announces an output deal with
Hollywood. “We have been moving towards not selling the Asian territories, so we’re keeping Asia on our own movies and we buy other people’s mov- ies like Rush, Lone Survivor and Motor City and we are going to go through BVI in Asia excluding China, Japan and South Korea. We hope to get six or seven substantial fi lms a year. With Apsara, we’re making serious inroads into the biggest growth region in the global distribution arena and building
Theo Wood
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