How do u find distrib if u have star?

filmman

filmman

Veteran
How do you find the right distributor if you have a Letter of Intent from a major movie star?

1) You don't want to shop a project around too much. It cheapens the name of the star you have.


2) You don't want to go to a small distributor whose distribution contract will not be honored by the entertainment banks.

3) You don't want to go to the wrong major studio executive who will kill the project out of jealousy or some other motive you're unaware of.

4) How do you find a distributor who will let you retain control of the project and allow you to direct the movie or pick the talent and the crew?

5) How do you find a distributor who will be honest with you when it comes to paying you the back end money?

I really appreciate your honest in answering these questions. :2vrolijk_08:
 
This is an extremely hard sell.

The only ones that were questions were:

4: By putting in extensive capital of your own and being a majority stakeholder in the film.

5: You don't. They all lie. take as much as you can up front - it's all you'll ever see.

You're attempting to finance a movie on a pre-sales deal with a letter of intent. This is for seasoned film makers with big track records. I certainly could not pull this deal off unless the star I had under letter of intent was Tom Hanks or Will Smith or something close to that.

Very tough deal, amigo.
 
Sorry to break the news but L.O.I.s are absolute garbage in Hollywood as a letter of intent is not a contract. What you need to actually be able to prove to a distributor you have a name attached to a project is to have a contract with the star that commits their time for x number of months starting on a specific date they will only commit to your project and no other. The star's agent will usually want some portion of their star's salary on the project paid during that time as a guarantee. Its called a pay-or-play agreement. Without it, any distributor with half a brain will know you're actually talking through your hat and won't finance your project.

However, prove me wrong. I would love if this and other things like you can make money from a net 50 deal suddenly went 180 degrees about and that cheap oil hits next thursday.
 
Thanks, Adam. I'm glad you replied, because I didn't want to ask this question in the Corrado thread. You've written exhaustively about agents and casting name talent. You've certainly proven your ability very successful in negotiating for a name talent. I would be somewhat hijacking the thread if I'd done that.

What you did was, to my knowledge, unprecedented. I know many filmmakers who tried and failed at what you did. Some of them even had money, although not millions, I know some that had a few hundred thousand and couldn't secure a name talent, because they were asked to pay out ten percent of a star's fee, which as you know could be one or even ten million.

However, I have not only a Letter of Intent but a name that's attached to the project. But I don't want to call a distributor out of the blue. I know distributors by reputation, but not personally. Well, I know one or two, but I don't want to call them for this project because they're either too small or they're too large. I'm looking for a "fresh face" LOL distributor, one that might be more suitable for a new type of movie project.

My question regarding not shopping the package around is, therefore, based on the fact that I want to find the right distributor and more importantly find the right way to present a worthwhile project to a distributor who handles A-Movies -- that is non-genre moive, such as horror, action, B-Movies in general.

I'm a good negotiator when it comes to movies in the marketplace; but I'm not good at BS. BS Negotiators are a rare bread. Some of them are brilliant. I'm not calling you a BS Negotiator, Adam, so please excuse me for putting it like this, but you know what I mean, right? I can't say, "I have twenty million in the bank" and make it sound believable :-)

And as for the next comment by Craig -- yes, I have a name attached, it's not just an LOI. But even an LOI is useful in the hands of a good negotiator. But you're right, there are few stars that can make an LOI work.

By LOI I mean a Letter that says, "I've read the story and find it very good and I'd be willing to star in it if money and schedule can be worked out." It's not the best legal language, but you get the idea. This type of LOI with a small name actor is very difficult to work with, but this is not what I have this time :-) I have a name attached to the project and real prospects for other names being attached, but I need a honest to goodness distributor to talk to.

Can you help? Suggestions? Thanks.
 
I would personally shoot some of the film to have a better idea of what it will look like.

No one signs a pre-completion deal anymore. Far too much risk to pour money into a film that might turn out terribly. I think you would have better luck with a completed film.
 
Questions...

1. Is this a film that you're looking for funding... or

2. The distributor is going to put up the cash... in this case figure out your budget take as much up front on the deal... and then still get back end...

Okay you haven't said who the actor is which is okay... don't need to know really...

If this person is a name... I would figure out how much they want... then look up the track record of their films... this would give you a pretty good idea of the return rate...

If it is a name such as Tom Hanks... for example... and you had his lol for I'll do the film if you pay me such and such and I work for this many days... and I get this many points on the back...

Make up artwork... take it to AFM... and presale... but again it would have to be an A list actor to do something like this...

Sorry if this isn't always clear... been scrapping paint off my sisters house all day...
 
I suppose it really boils down to the name you have and how much you need.

So tell me the budget, and tell me the name of a similar actor and I'll give you my opinion.
 
No, I'm approaching this project a little differently. Maybe things have changed, I don't know; but what I'm trying to do is get a credible distributor give me a distribution contract for a feature length movie. Then take the contract to my entertainment bank and borrow the money. The bank will loan me 80& of the money and require a completion bond, which I will provide from the money they give me. I will shoot the movie out of the 80% budget and when the movie has been delivered to the distributor, the distributor pays the bank the full amount of the loan.

I will pay myself a salary and I'll have a back end deal with the distributor. This is the model. It's been used before by others. It's not uncommon. I don't know how popular it is these days.

So let's say I have an actor like Michael Caine or James Earl Jones attached to the project -- I'm picking these two names out of the blue, just for instance; and let's say my budget is $3 million.

Now you might jump the gun and say, no way, not with names like that, you won't be able to make a movie for that budget. But forget about that for now, because the names aren't the issue here.

However, the agents won't talk to me if I tell them my budget is $3 million and the distributors won't talk to me, saying, "you can't do that movie for $3 million."

Here's where Adam comes in. What will you say, Adam? :-)

How do I talk to the distributors and what do I say to the agents. You know I can do a movie for $3 million, right? So why can't this deal work?
 
Whatever you do, do not sign an exclusive contract for an agent.... Only pay the guys who elevate you to where you need to be...
 
Thanks, Chip. I've had similar offers before -- a long time ago -- they didn't work out because the go-between person couldn't pull it off (he didn't have any money or financial clout,) so when we were in the meeting with the distributor, the distributor wasn't impressed and the deal fell through.

Another time an agent took me to a distributor that I knew very well personally. The agent hadn't mentioned his name. Of course he couldn't. And there was no way for me to know it was someone I knew. So there we were sitting down and calling each other by first name ... I'd talked to this distributor about another deal a year or two before. He wasn't the right distributor. His distribution contract wasn't viable; no entertainment bank would. lend against it. I had no problem with the finder's fee that I'd signed to pay, but the distributor himself couldn't offer any deal. Later the distributor called me and said, "life's too short to deal with people like that." And that was the end of that.

I'll definitely call you this morning. Let's see if there are ways we can work together. What you offer is reasonable.
 
Hey filmman,

Financing a deal through pre-sales is pretty common in the big leagues for sure. Or at least financing part of the film with pre-sales.

But the equation does certainly boil down to three things, script, names, and finally names.

Distribs are really hypersensitive about who is in the flick . It really does determine how much money your film will be worth to them barring some anomaly.

$3M is a lot of money, so the lead better be good. You know my cast from Corrado. If I had made Corrado today with the same cast for $3m I would have been financially screwed. They are not big enough to headline that size of a movie.

In your situation, you need to sell a distributor first. This is going to be difficult to impossible depending on your relationship. You and I just do not have enough of a track record to try and arrange this deal. It will be really tough to get a paper, meaningful deal from them.

Going to the bank and getting financing will be tough - they will analyze the credentials of you and your department heads to determine if they will take the risk. Then you have the bond, where you and your dept. heads will be analyzed again to determine if you and your people are capable of bringing in a feature on time and on budget - as well as determining if you are capable of finishing it at all.

Your budget will be forensically analyzed - not sure how you plan to bring it in 20% under budget You are going to have to lie to someone.

I'd say forget about that deal all together.

The best way for you to get this film made is to take your script, take your attached name, and find private equity. Plain and simple. You sit down in front of a guy with money and say "Here's what I got".
 
I consider myself lucky to be having this conversation with you. You're a very rare person. First of all, you're a filmmaker's filmmaker. Too bad you don't shoot film :-) But I'm willing to overlook that. I think you would've shot film if you knew what I knew, but that's beside the point here.

The reason why I think so highly of you is that you've broken the hardest nut for an indie filmmaker: getting a credible name in a movie for a reasonable budget that distributors will take you seriously.

So I wish you success because if you succeed (and I'm betting you are) it will help all indie filmmakers here.

Here's my perspective: I've survived 35 years in the film industry. I've made my living shooting and editing 35mm film. I've lost more money than I've made however, which is why I'm still a student of the film business. By the way I've taught film briefly, but being a teacher is not the same as being a filmmaker.

There are obstacles in filmmaking I've not been able to solve, mainly because it's a horrendously difficult business.

The worst part the rules are changing all the time. As soon as you get on base and take one step off the bag they're trying to throw you out.

Let me shake the dust off, will ya? :-)

Pre-sales are great, but you got to be in the market already. No distributor will do pre-sales for me. I've been a distributor -- briefly. And even if a distributor is willing to do presales, they're not easy, unless you have a major star and then what would you be doing in the foreign market doing presales?

If like you say you have Tom Hanks then of course you're already funded. It takes one phone call. But then even if Tom Hanks is your brother you won't get to direct. His agent won't let you. You know what I mean.

But if you know a distributor who has already distributed a movie with Tom Sizemore, for example, and you go to him with a new script let's say for argument's sake only, let's say you go with a sequel of Corrado. The distributor will give you a distribution contract. You can then go to the bank and borrow the money and shoot the movie. Of course the distributor must be viable. And the entertainment bank will tell you in advance if the distributor is viable.

You can call an entertainment bank. They will tell you if your distributor is viable. This is good to know. Try it.

I don't know a single viable distributor that I can call on the phone right now. That's why I started this thread. I figure maybe somebody knows one and will tell me. I'm willing to make an offer to anybody willing to help me.
 
Filmman - you are 100% right. I think you answered your own question!

As to helping you I'm not in a position to do it now, but as you said, as soon as I get distro - where I can help - I am willing to listen to your plan. PM me - I'm always available to talk!
 
http://hustlingmagician.weebly.com

http://hustlingmagician.weebly.com

ChipG said:
Whatever you do, do not sign an exclusive contract for an agent.... Only pay the guys who elevate you to where you need to be...
Click to expand...

Right on the money.
 
Wll, thanks to this thread, the ball is rolling toward the production of a major movie project. As soon as the funding is in place, I'll begin a new thread to chart the progress of the movie.

At this point only the treatment and the character breakdown are being considered. The project hasn't been green lighted yet, but at least there is great interest in the project.
 
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