Hollywood executives Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan are in talks to purchase Playboy Enterprises Inc., according to Reuters. Citing people familiar with the situation, Reuters reported the talks are in advanced stages, with Sagansky and Sloan’s special purpose acquisition company Double Eagle Acquisition Corp willing to shell out between $2 billion and $3 billion to take over the brand that has licensing agreements for consumer products that feature its brand in more than 180 countries. Double Eagle and Playboy both declined comment to Reuters, which hedged the story by saying, “Sources cautioned that deal negotiations could still fall through.” Also Read: New Donald.
- 10/27/2016
- by Brian Flood
- The Wrap
One of Hollywood’s leading Republicans is dumping Trump. Harry Sloan, CEO of Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. and former CEO of MGM, says that he’s so worried about Donald Trump’s abilities that he’s now backing Hillary Clinton for president. “I was an active and proud supporter of John McCain, Mitt Romney and John Kasich. And if we had a different Republican presidential candidate this year, I would likely be proudly supporting them,” Sloan said in statement obtained by TheWrap. “But Donald Trump does not embody the values that have made me a lifelong Republican. He is unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be.
- 8/9/2016
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
John Kasich is as un-Hollywood as you can get — a plain-talking Ohio governor. And so far, Hollywood hasn’t jumped on his bandwagon. His list of celebrity endorsements is almost nonexistent. It includes one former sitcom star, a former basketball legend, and a former talk show host. TheWrap has assembled a master list of who in Hollywood supports which candidates based on public statements, social media, news reports, and campaign contributions. We’ll update it as candidates gain — or lose — celebrity endorsements. (For other candidates’ supporters, click here.) Also Read: Former MGM Boss Harry Sloan to Host John Kasich Fundraiser Here’s the list.
- 2/24/2016
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who came in a surprising second place during the New Hampshire primaries this week, is already getting some major love from a Hollywood power player. Harry Sloan, CEO of Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. and former CEO of MGM, will host a fundraiser for the Gop candidate at the Park Avenue home of Sarah Nash and Michael Sylvester on Feb. 17 in New York City, according to an invite obtained by TheWrap. Tickets for the event start at $2,700 for attendees and up to $10,000 for hosts. Sloan served as the California state financial chair for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
- 2/13/2016
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
Jeff Sagansky‘s Double Eagle Acquisition Corp announced a $500 million pricetag for its initial public offering on Monday. The Ipo is set at 50,000,000 units at $10.00 per unit, including $20 million, or 2,000,000 units, to be sold pursuant to the underwriters’ partial exercise of their over-allotment option. The public acquisition company, the third led by media executive Sagansky, will be looking at business opportunities in the market cap area of $1.5 billion, including international TV, content to be licensed globally, intellectual property owners/agencies and new emerging platforms. Also read: Hollywood Moguls Harry Sloan, Jeff Sagansky Bet Big on India's Pay-tv Market Double Eagle.
- 9/14/2015
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
My experience last November at Los Cabos International Film Festival was fabulous! Set up to promote film coproduction and financing among Mexico, U.S., and Canada, the festival allowed all of us to be very close and connected to our peers in the business – international sales agents, writers of all kinds, programmers and filmmakers. There we met the bright new talent, so idealistic and yet so knowledgeable and educated about film in the world. To be able to see films, concentrate on creating business and still have time to mingle -- this is what makes a festival a happy experience.
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
- 8/5/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
India's fastest-growing direct-to-home pay-tv provider, Videocon d2h Limited, has completed its initial listing on the Nasdaq through a transaction with Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp, the acquisition vehicle formed by media executives Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky. Silver Eagle contributed about $273.3M to Videocon in exchange for stock distributed to Silver Eagle's investors. That makes this one of the largest investments by a U.S. entity in Indian media. Public trading…...
- 4/1/2015
- Deadline TV
Hollywood moguls Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky could enjoy a big payday from the initial public offering of India’s Videocon d2H. Videocon, a Pay-tv operator in India, began trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq, and Sloan and Sagansky’s Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp owns more than a third of the company’s (38.4 percent) outstanding equity, according to a statement. “The company is the fastest growing satellite TV platform in India,” Sangasky told TheWrap. The former Sony Pictures co-president said Videocon d2H has grown to 13 million gross subscribers in less than five years. Last year, Silver Eagle raised money...
- 4/1/2015
- by Jon Erlichman
- The Wrap
Jp Richards has joined Warner Bros. as executive VP of worldwide digital marketing. Richard started at the studio on Monday, and he reports to Blair Rich, executive VP of worldwide marketing.
In his new position, Richards will lead WB’s international and domestic digital teams, serving as lead digital strategist across all of its pictures.
Also Read: Weinstein Co. Hires WB Veteran Andrew Stachler to Run Digital Marketing (Exclusive)
Richards joins Warners from Universal Pictures, which he served most recently as senior VP of digital marketing and co-lead of the department. Richards joined Universal in 2003 as a coordinator.
While at Universal,...
In his new position, Richards will lead WB’s international and domestic digital teams, serving as lead digital strategist across all of its pictures.
Also Read: Weinstein Co. Hires WB Veteran Andrew Stachler to Run Digital Marketing (Exclusive)
Richards joins Warners from Universal Pictures, which he served most recently as senior VP of digital marketing and co-lead of the department. Richards joined Universal in 2003 as a coordinator.
While at Universal,...
- 1/6/2015
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
Former MGM chief Harry Sloan and former CBS entertainment president Jeff Sagansky are teaming up with Videocon d2h Limited, one of the fastest growing direct-to-home broadcast providers in India, to create the first U.S.-listed Indian Pay-tv operator.
In exchange for cash, the founders of Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. will receive new equity shares of Videocon, initially valued at an estimated $303.7 million, representing no less than 33.5 percent of the company’s equity capital.
See photos: 15 Gadgets and Stars to Get Excited About at 2015 CES (Photos)
“We created Silver Eagle for the purpose of finding a fast-growing media opportunity,...
In exchange for cash, the founders of Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. will receive new equity shares of Videocon, initially valued at an estimated $303.7 million, representing no less than 33.5 percent of the company’s equity capital.
See photos: 15 Gadgets and Stars to Get Excited About at 2015 CES (Photos)
“We created Silver Eagle for the purpose of finding a fast-growing media opportunity,...
- 1/5/2015
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky are dipping their toes into the Indian pay-tv market with a $300m-$375m investment in the sub-continent’s direct-to-home broadcaster Videocon d2h.
Silver Eagle will receive a 33.5% equity ownership stake in a transaction that means Videocon will have an enterprise value of more than $1bn.
Silver Eagle plans to take the pay-tv operator public in the Us.
According to a press release issued by Silver Eagle representatives, Videocon d2h services more than 500 digital channels as well as other video and audio services via satellite and commands a 16.5% share of the direct-to-home market.
The Mumbai-based company launched in 2009 and is a member of the global conglomerate Videocon Group, which owns interests in consumer electronics, oil and gas, power, retail and insurance, among others.
“We created Silver Eagle for the purpose of finding a fast-growing media opportunity, which is taking full advantage of the digital revolution,” said Sloan (pictured...
Silver Eagle will receive a 33.5% equity ownership stake in a transaction that means Videocon will have an enterprise value of more than $1bn.
Silver Eagle plans to take the pay-tv operator public in the Us.
According to a press release issued by Silver Eagle representatives, Videocon d2h services more than 500 digital channels as well as other video and audio services via satellite and commands a 16.5% share of the direct-to-home market.
The Mumbai-based company launched in 2009 and is a member of the global conglomerate Videocon Group, which owns interests in consumer electronics, oil and gas, power, retail and insurance, among others.
“We created Silver Eagle for the purpose of finding a fast-growing media opportunity, which is taking full advantage of the digital revolution,” said Sloan (pictured...
- 1/5/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
It’s a comparatively tiny deal, but it gives Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky’s Global Eagle Entertainment valuable bragging rights in this fast-growing corner of the business. They actually paid $36M in cash for the UK’s Travel Entertainment Group Equity Limited. It’s the parent of Ife Services which offers movies including The World’s End, The Heat, World War Z, and The Great Gatsby as well more than 20,000 hours of TV programming including The Newsroom to airlines in Asia, South America and Africa. The purchase “will significantly enhance our presence in multiple fast-growing, emerging markets where our combined service offerings are in demand,” says Global Eagle CEO John Lavalle. To help finance the deal, Global Eagle sold $21M worth of its stock to an existing institutional shareholder. It will give another existing investor, Par Investment Partners, a $19M promissory note convertible into non-voting shares. Related: Sloan And...
- 10/21/2013
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Financial Editor
- Deadline TV
Harry Sloan’s has moved to position his Global Eagle Entertainment as a major airlines entertainment distributor with the $36m acquisition from Gcp Capital Partners of Travel Entertainment Group Equity, the UK-based parent company of Ife Services.
Ife Services is a leading provider of in-flight entertainment services to more than 50 airlines and cruise lines worldwide.
For the full year 2013 and on a stand-alone basis, Ife Services is expected to generate approximately $37m-$40m of annual revenue and $7m-$9m of Adjusted Ebitda.
Ife Services is a leading provider of in-flight entertainment services to more than 50 airlines and cruise lines worldwide.
For the full year 2013 and on a stand-alone basis, Ife Services is expected to generate approximately $37m-$40m of annual revenue and $7m-$9m of Adjusted Ebitda.
- 10/21/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards by the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences begins from the Nokia Theatre in Downtown La at 5 Pm Pt today… Come for the cynicism… Stay for the subversion… Add your comment… Warning: Not for the easily offended or ridiculously naïve: Yes, I’m interrupting my 19 weeks of banked vacation to live-snark the small screen awards. But only because the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was hoping I wouldn’t. Seriously, its Board members counted on my beef with my boss to keep me away tonight. As if Hollywerrd’s Queen Of Mean would miss an opportunity to kick the crap out of the primped and pampered inmates who run this asylum. Want some Emmy dish? Well, HBO topper Richard Plepler who leads with 108 nominations was seen cutting it kinda close and leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel pool in white polo shirt, blue shorts, and perma tan at just 3 Pm.
- 9/23/2013
- by NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief
- Deadline TV
Veteran media executives Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan have raised $325 million through an initial public offering of Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. and intend to use the money buy entertainment assets, the partners said Tuesday. The pair, who joined forces in 2011, previously raised $190 million for a company called Global Eagle Acquisition. Also read: Global Eagle Buys Post Modern Group to Become Largest Provider of In-Flight Entertainment Sloan and Sagansky have deep ties to the industry, having served as the former chief executive officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the former president of...
- 7/30/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky's Silver Eagle Acquisition Corporation, set up to make acquisitions worldwide, has raised $325 million -- well over the initial target of $250 million, it was announced Tuesday. Silver Eagle is a "blank check" company, meaning investors trust Sloan, the former head of MGM, and Sagansky, who held top executive posts at CBS and Sony, to find media or entertainment business in which to invest, to acquire or to merge with other entities they control. According to a source, the amount raised is due to increased interest from institutional investors. The larger-than-expected amount raised is
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- 7/30/2013
- by Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Their business, Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp., is a special purpose acquisition company (Spac). It will use the cash from today’s Ipo to hunt for deals — mostly likely ones that capitalize on their experience in content creation, although they say that they’ll consider other “high growth potential” opportunities.Jeff Sagansky formerly was CEO of Paxson Communications, Co-President of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and President of CBS Entertainment, while Harry Sloan formerly was CEO of MGM. In the Ipo they sold 32.5M shares at $10 a share, and the stock — trading on Nasdaq under the symbol Eaglu — is up a few pennies in mid-day trading. Each share also includes a warrant to buy a half of a share for $5.75. Deutsche Bank Securities managed the offering.
- 7/30/2013
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Financial Editor
- Deadline TV
Inflight entertainment company Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. has completed its purchase of digital media production company Post Modern Group for roughly $24 million in a combination of cash and stock. The deal, announced in May, will add to Global Eagle's relationships with airlines and gives it an entry into the cruise line industry and other markets. With the acquisition, Global Eagle said it will become the world's biggest provider of television shows and movies to airlines. Global Eagle was founded in 2011 by former MGM CEO and chairman Harry Sloan and former...
- 7/10/2013
- by Tim Molloy
- The Wrap
Global Eagle Entertainment will buy in-flight entertainment company Post Modern Group in a deal worth as much as $23.9 million. With the acquisition, Global Eagle said it will become the biggest provider of television shows and movies to airlines in the world. The pact involves a combination of cash and stock. Global Eagle was founded in 2011 by former MGM CEO and chairman Harry Sloan and former CBS Entertainment president Jeff Sagansky (pictured left). Also read: Julius Genachowski's FCC Swan Song: Get Faster Wi-Fi on Planes The media company has invested heavily in the...
- 5/9/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
This story first appeared in the Feb. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Winter break is a distant memory. All over town, colleges are teeming yet again with some of the biggest names in the business — Peter Guber! Harry Sloan! The Big Bang Theory’s Bill Prady! — teaching weekly classes on everything from marketing and TV writing to dealmaking and distribution. Welcome to the world of Hollywood’s top profs. At such schools as USC and UCLA, industry players are in high demand as part-time instructors because they provide cachet. By bringing them on board — in contrast
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- 1/31/2013
- by Gary Baum, Lacey Rose
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We took off under a pristine blue sky from a small airstrip outside of Las Vegas, miles away from the chaos of the Consumer Electronics Show. The Albatross, built in 1951, is a test plane for the latest in wi-fi technology on airplanes, courtesy of Row 44, a company acquired by Hollywood investors Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky in November. The sturdy, amphibious biplane was built to rescue pilots downed in the ocean. It has recently been re-outfitted with an extensive set of routers as well as equipment that points up...
- 1/10/2013
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky's Global Eagle Acquisitions has formed the single largest entertainment platform for airplaines through a pair of acquisitions estimated at $430 million, the company announced on Thursday. For that nine-figure sum, Global Eagle has acquired Row 44, a leading satellite-based broadband service for the airline industry, and a majority stake in Advanced Inflight Alliance (Aia), a leading supplier of games, movies and entertainment for airlines. Row 44's entertainment connectivity system is installed in more than 400 aircraft operating worldwide while Aia serves more than 130 airlines worldwide with...
- 11/8/2012
- by Lucas Shaw
- The Wrap
Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky’s recently formed company Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. is taking flight with a $430 million deal to create what it is calling the “largest integrated entertainment platform for the global airline industry,” it was announced Thursday. Global Eagle, which is being renamed Global Eagle Entertainment, has signed an agreement to acquire Row 44 Inc., which provides broadband services to airlines, and 86 percent of Advanced Inflight Alliance Ag, a Frankfurt, Germany, company that supplies games, movies and general entertainment to the airline industry. “By combining Aia's access to the installed in-flight entertainment market with Row
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- 11/8/2012
- by Alex Ben Block
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Hollywood veterans’ publicly traded Global Eagle Acquisition has agreed to offer stock valued at $430M to buy two companies that will give them a leg up in the fast-growing inflight entertainment business. They’re acquiring Row 44, a satellite connectivity firm, and content company Advanced Inflight Alliance. The combined enterprise will trade on Nasdaq. “This is exactly the kind of worldwide digital media opportunity we’ve been seeking for Global Eagle since our Ipo; and this is also a platform for Jeff and me to utilize our media and content relationships and experience to drive expansion and enhancement of inflight content and programming around the world, ” says Global Eagle CEO Harry Sloan who was formerly chief of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios. His company’s co-founder, Jeff Sagansky, was a top exec at Sony Pictures and CBS. Here’s the release: Los Angeles, CA – November 8, 2012 – Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: Eagl; Eaglw...
- 11/8/2012
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
- Deadline TV
Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney. The debt-ridden private equity owners of the Nine Entertainment Co. are poised to sell the Acp Magazines division after meeting with potential buyers including Germany’s Bauer Media Group, the Sydney Daily Telegraph reports. That suggests the rumored $A3 billion ($3.1 billion) offer for Nine Entertainment from former Hollywood MGM mogul Harry Sloan and U.S. private equity group Tpg hasn’t developed. A source close to Nine Entertainment tells Deadline that Sloan-tpg were “tirekickers” who were never going to make a serious bid. Acp publishes 52 titles in Australia which sell nearly 100 million copies each year. They include The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Dolly, Nw, TV Week, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Australian Gourmet Traveller, madison, Australian House & Garden and Top Gear Australia. Nine’s owner Cvc Asia Pacific bought the media company, which includes the free-to-air Eastern States Nine Network, the...
- 8/3/2012
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Wendi Murdoch has found a distributor for her second film as a producer. And this time it's not a company owned by husband Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Analysis: Should the Murdochs Sue Twitter for Verifying Wendi Deng? Journey of a Thousand Miles, a planned film adaptation of a memoir by Chinese pianist Lang Lang, is being produced by Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan, the wife of former MGM chief Harry Sloan. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Sony Pictures is nearing a deal to distribute the film. (News of the deal first appeared in a profile of Murdoch in The New
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- 6/18/2012
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Armed with box office franchises like "The Hunger Games," "The Expendables" and "Twilight," Lionsgate has tentpole films that would make any studio drool. Yet studio Vice Chairman Michael Burns rejects any suggestion his studio wants to be the next Universal or Sony. "We don't want to be the new major," Burns, in conversation with Gary Lucchesi at the fourth annual Produced By Conference, said Saturday. Instead, Lionsgate wants to be "the smallest studio with the largest library." Since Burns, CEO Jon Feltheimer and other investors like Harry Sloan purchased Lionsgate, the company has purchased...
- 6/10/2012
- by Lucas Shaw
- The Wrap
Mitt Romney is heading back to Los Angeles for a fundraiser on March 27, according to Harry Sloan, chairman of Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. and the former CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Hollywood's most prominent Republicans may have been tight-fisted so far in the presidential race, with only a handful of moguls such as Terry Semel and Lionsgate Vice-Chairman Michael Burns cutting checks, but that could change as the field narrows. Also read: Hollywood Republicans Keeping Their Wallets Shut for Presidential Hopefuls Sloan has been one of Romney's biggest backers in the movie business. He...
- 2/28/2012
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney rolled into town for his first major fundraiser Tuesday night, and the supporters he drew to the Beverly Hills Hotel was instructive on the nature of the Gop’s support in monied Los Angeles. It also was Romney’s first big chance to draw in Hollywood, but that didn’t materialize. Photos: 10 Hollywood Players That Will Make a Difference in the 2012 Elections While there’s a smattering of industry conservatives -- like Terry Semel and Harry Sloan -- who support Romney, the event roster Tuesday evening was dominated by some of the city's top venture capitalists, hedge fund
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- 12/7/2011
- by Tina Daunt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tina Daunt
This article first appeared in the Dec. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Polls show that Mitt Romney is first in the hearts of California Republicans, and he'll be the first of the party's presidential hopefuls to visit Los Angeles for a fundraiser Dec. 6 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hedge fund manager Josh Friedman and his wife, Beth, are the hosts, along with Eva and Marc Stein and Tracy and Gene Sykes of Goldman Sachs. Photos: 10 Entertainers Democrats and Republicans Love to Hate Organizers include former MGM chief-turned-investor Harry Sloan. Individual tickets are priced at
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This article first appeared in the Dec. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Polls show that Mitt Romney is first in the hearts of California Republicans, and he'll be the first of the party's presidential hopefuls to visit Los Angeles for a fundraiser Dec. 6 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hedge fund manager Josh Friedman and his wife, Beth, are the hosts, along with Eva and Marc Stein and Tracy and Gene Sykes of Goldman Sachs. Photos: 10 Entertainers Democrats and Republicans Love to Hate Organizers include former MGM chief-turned-investor Harry Sloan. Individual tickets are priced at
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- 11/21/2011
- by Tina Daunt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Terry Semel, the former chairman of Warner Brothers and CEO of Yahoo, and Harry Sloan, co-founder of the film fund Global Eagle, spoke on "Hollywood's Fture: Between Wall Street and Silicon Valley" at TheWrap's media leadership conference, TheGrill on Monday. Both insisted that content is still king. In fact, said Semel, companies like Google, Apple, Netflix and others are realizing that they need what Hollywood creates to drive advertising revenue. Below, Semel talks about the true value of Hulu -- deals with content partners -- that a new owner maynot be able to lock...
- 9/22/2011
- by Terry Semel
- The Wrap
While we didn't see the rash of teen suicides this fall that 2010 brought, all is still not well for gay teens growing up in America. 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer has taken his own life after enduring years of bullying. No child should ever get to the point where they feel there is no hope, because then society has failed him. And Jamey went from hopeful enough to record an It Gets Better video to taking his own life in five months.
Disney has licensed Avatar from Fox and plans to create a large attraction for their theme parks centered around Pandora, with James Cameron consulting.
In a move that surprises me and well, everyone else, Madonna is reportedly recutting her movie, W.E. in response to critics at the festival screenings. Is she mellowing as she ages?
As someone who enjoys being single, I'm more than happy to celebrate National Single and Unmarried Americans Week.
Disney has licensed Avatar from Fox and plans to create a large attraction for their theme parks centered around Pandora, with James Cameron consulting.
In a move that surprises me and well, everyone else, Madonna is reportedly recutting her movie, W.E. in response to critics at the festival screenings. Is she mellowing as she ages?
As someone who enjoys being single, I'm more than happy to celebrate National Single and Unmarried Americans Week.
- 9/21/2011
- by Ed Kennedy
- The Backlot
Harry Sloan is a Republican, but you wouldn’t know it from his remarks at TheWrap's media leadership conference, TheGrill, on Monday night. The former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer chief and the head of the media fund Global Eagle said not only can he live with higher taxes, but he's even told Republican politicians to stop fighting to keep the tax rates on the country’s wealthiest citizens low. Also run: Terry Semel at TheGrill: Value of Hollywood Content Is on the Rise “You guys are giving millionaires and billionaires a really bad name,” Sloan told the audience at Beverly...
- 9/20/2011
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
In February 2011, Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky founded Global Eagle, a new $190 million fund to acquire media and entertainment ventures. In their first in-depth interview since creating the company, they sat down with TheWrap’s Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman to discuss the state of the industry on the eve of the second annual Grill media leadership conference. Sloan will keynote at the conference opening, along with Terry Semel, CEO of Windsor Media. Sloan was most recently the CEO and chairman of MGM, and previously built Sbs Broadcasting into the second largest broadcaster...
- 9/19/2011
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
While the rest of the economy sputters, Hollywood is enjoying a windfall from the sickly U.S. dollar. The weakened currency is translating into a robust international box office and big profits for the entertainment industry. But it’s also complicating life for producers who make movies and TV shows overseas, as the fluctuating exchange rate makes planning difficult. “There’s so much talk in every studio about producing outside the U.S.” because of currency shifts, said Harry Sloan, the former MGM chairman who is spending a lot of time looking at acquisitions overseas with his new...
- 8/3/2011
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Don't call Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan trophy wives. The women, who are married to media mogul Rupert Murdoch and ex-mgm CEO Harry Sloan, respectively, tell Harper's Bazaar about their new roles as Hollywood producers for their first film, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The Wayne Wang movie, adapted from Lisa See’s elegant and stirring 2005 novel about a lifetime female friendship in 19th century China, stars the Murdoch's Australian chum Hugh Jackman and ingenues Li Bing Bing and Gianna Jun in a two-tiered contemporary/period story. Filmed in metropolis Shanghai as well as rural village Hengdian, the movie is shot partly in Mandarin. Not surprisingly, the North American distributor is Twentieth Century Fox; Searchlight opens the film July 15. Murdoch and Sloan respond to ...
- 7/6/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Los Angeles, CA, May 18, 2011 – Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: Eaglu), a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) led by media executives Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky, today announced the closing of its initial public offering in which it raised approximately $190 Million. The Global Eagle Ipo is the largest raise by a Spac based in the United States in over three years. Global Eagle’s purpose is to take advantage of the substantial deal sourcing, investing and operating expertise of its management team to indentify and acquire media or entertainment businesses with high growth potential in the United States or internationally. Global Eagle was formed to complete an acquisition using its cash, debt or securities. There is no limitation on its ability to raise additional funds in connection with its acquisition. As a result, Global Eagle may acquire a target whose enterprise value is a significant multiple of the amount of cash it has raised.
- 5/18/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Harry Sloan, the chairman and chief executive of MGM, has partnered with Jeff Sagansky -- former CBS Entertainment head and Sony executive -- to launch a company that will focus on acquiring media and entertainment businesses. Sloan -- who is credited with reviving the “James Bond” franchise for MGM (pictured, right) -- and Sagansky (left) said on Wednesday that they’ve raised $190 million in an initial public offering to form Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: Eaglu), a “special purpose acquisition company.” Their mission is “to identify and acquire media or entertainment businesses...
- 5/18/2011
- by Dylan Stableford
- The Wrap
Fox Searchlight has released a new trailer for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the adaptation of the Lisa See novel that reunites The Joy Luck Club director Wayne Wang with Ron Bass, who co-wrote the script. The 19th Century China-set pic is the first for producer Wendi Murdoch, who's Rupert Murdoch's wife, and Florence Sloan, who's the wife of ex-mgm chief Harry Sloan. Searchlight will release July 15.
- 3/21/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Scream 4
Opens: April 15th 2011
Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Mary McDonnell, Emma Roberts Director: Wes Craven
Summary: Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with family and friends, but it also brings about the return of Ghostface which puts the whole town in danger.
Analysis: Back in late 1996 when I first began covering film news, "Scream" was released and became more than just a sleeper hit. After years of genre movies being relegated to direct-to-video status, this comedic slasher spawned the biggest surge in the horror film genre since "Halloween" almost two decades before. Its post-modern stylings and witty self-aware dialogue went on to be a big influence on films and television in general.
Yet the "Scream" series itself never could quite capture that glory again. By the time the...
Opens: April 15th 2011
Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Mary McDonnell, Emma Roberts Director: Wes Craven
Summary: Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with family and friends, but it also brings about the return of Ghostface which puts the whole town in danger.
Analysis: Back in late 1996 when I first began covering film news, "Scream" was released and became more than just a sleeper hit. After years of genre movies being relegated to direct-to-video status, this comedic slasher spawned the biggest surge in the horror film genre since "Halloween" almost two decades before. Its post-modern stylings and witty self-aware dialogue went on to be a big influence on films and television in general.
Yet the "Scream" series itself never could quite capture that glory again. By the time the...
- 3/8/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Former MGM chief Harry Sloan and ex Sony Pictures senior executive Jeff Sagansky are looking to raise $175 million through Ipo so that they can buy media companies and render profits. Under the company name Global Eagle Acquisition Corp., the pair filed to go public by selling 17.5 million shares at $10 a unit. The shares would trade on the Otc Bulletin Board, which houses smaller companies. “We will seek to acquire one or more businesses involved in the media or entertainment industries, including providers of content,” the filing says. According to the...
- 2/16/2011
- The Wrap
Harry Sloan and Jeff Sagansky are hoping to raise $175 million so they can buy a media company, or two or three, then use their experience and connections to turn a profit for themselves and their shareholders.
The veteran industry executives Tuesday filed to take their Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. public by selling 17.5 million shares for $10 apiece. After the Ipo, the shares would trade on the Otc Bulletin Board, the home of hundreds of tiny companies.
The SEC filing lays out their resumes fairly extensively.
Sloan, Global Eagle’s chairman and CEO, was CEO of MGM, a founder of Sbs Broadcasting and the co-chairman of New World who led that company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Group in 1986. Sagansky, president of Global Eagle, was a CEO of Paxson Communications, a co-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a president of TriStar Pictures and a one-time president of CBS Entertainment.
The SEC filing makes...
The veteran industry executives Tuesday filed to take their Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. public by selling 17.5 million shares for $10 apiece. After the Ipo, the shares would trade on the Otc Bulletin Board, the home of hundreds of tiny companies.
The SEC filing lays out their resumes fairly extensively.
Sloan, Global Eagle’s chairman and CEO, was CEO of MGM, a founder of Sbs Broadcasting and the co-chairman of New World who led that company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Group in 1986. Sagansky, president of Global Eagle, was a CEO of Paxson Communications, a co-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a president of TriStar Pictures and a one-time president of CBS Entertainment.
The SEC filing makes...
- 2/15/2011
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Decades of maverick mismanagement have left the king of the Hollywood jungle in the dust. Can plan Z bring it back to life? Adam Dawtrey explains all about the curious saga of the ailing studio
The bankruptcy of an iconic Hollywood studio sounds like a dramatic event. But when MGM filed for chapter 11 in New York last week, it was actually a carefully choreographed step to get the old lion back on its feet again.
MGM may be a mangy shadow of its former self but it still owns James Bond, The Pink Panther and a half-share in The Hobbit, as well as a library of 4,000 titles.
The studio is using the process of a "pre-packaged" bankruptcy to remove the crushing burden of a $4bn debt which left it unable to bankroll its production slate. Its only recent release was Hot Tub Time Machine. Development of Bond number 23 is currently suspended,...
The bankruptcy of an iconic Hollywood studio sounds like a dramatic event. But when MGM filed for chapter 11 in New York last week, it was actually a carefully choreographed step to get the old lion back on its feet again.
MGM may be a mangy shadow of its former self but it still owns James Bond, The Pink Panther and a half-share in The Hobbit, as well as a library of 4,000 titles.
The studio is using the process of a "pre-packaged" bankruptcy to remove the crushing burden of a $4bn debt which left it unable to bankroll its production slate. Its only recent release was Hot Tub Time Machine. Development of Bond number 23 is currently suspended,...
- 11/8/2010
- by Adam Dawtrey
- The Guardian - Film News
The MGM lion has had many lives--the fabled studio has run through many chiefs over the decades, but Carl Icahn is not going to be one of them. Mary Parent is gone, and so is Harry Sloan, as well as UA's Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Finally, we know, the newest chieftans are the Spyglass duo Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber; their plan to take over the studio after it emerges from bankruptcy has been approved by MGM's lenders, reports the Lat. The vote was delayed when Lionsgate's largest shareholder, agitator Carl Icahn, tried to mount a rival bid to buy MGM's debt for 53 cents on the dollar. Icahn also owns about 12% of MGM's debt, or $500 million. Icahn did manage to change ...
- 10/29/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Mary Parent is exiting her post atop MGM, even as the embattled company announced it is extending the voting deadline on its "prepackaged" bankruptcy plan, which was scheduled for next Friday, by one week. The new deadline is 5 p.m., Et, on Oct. 29.
According to sources, today is Parent's last day at the studio, which she joined in 2008. She is still negotating an end to her contract, which was to have run for another 18 months.
Parent, a former Universal exec and producer, was originally recruited by Harry Sloan, MGM's then-chairman, to revive the studio's production operations. As chairman of the motion picture group and co-ceo, she assembled her own production and distribution team and plunged into developing an ambitious slate of films.
But she quickly ran up against MGM's growing financial restraints. She completed just four movies before plans for other projects such as a James Bond sequel, a Three Stooges...
According to sources, today is Parent's last day at the studio, which she joined in 2008. She is still negotating an end to her contract, which was to have run for another 18 months.
Parent, a former Universal exec and producer, was originally recruited by Harry Sloan, MGM's then-chairman, to revive the studio's production operations. As chairman of the motion picture group and co-ceo, she assembled her own production and distribution team and plunged into developing an ambitious slate of films.
But she quickly ran up against MGM's growing financial restraints. She completed just four movies before plans for other projects such as a James Bond sequel, a Three Stooges...
- 10/15/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
More Mipcom coverage
Cannes -- "Every time I think I have this down, something happens." So said Jon Feltheimer during a wide-ranging and mostly upbeat set of remarks about the challenges and opportunities in the global television biz Tuesday in Cannes.
What the co-founder/co-chairman and CEO of Lionsgate most emphasized was that change was pervasive but that the demand for content worldwide has only gotten ever greater. Worldwide daily viewing is now at a record three hours plus; in America it's surpassed five hours a day.
While he did recognize the challenges of more windows, more piracy, more competition, the executive underpinned his speech with a clear call to execs to pioneer deals with new partners -- but at the same time to never get in the way of the creative process.
"The demand is there at record levels. The consumers are there, in record numbers. But what has...
Cannes -- "Every time I think I have this down, something happens." So said Jon Feltheimer during a wide-ranging and mostly upbeat set of remarks about the challenges and opportunities in the global television biz Tuesday in Cannes.
What the co-founder/co-chairman and CEO of Lionsgate most emphasized was that change was pervasive but that the demand for content worldwide has only gotten ever greater. Worldwide daily viewing is now at a record three hours plus; in America it's surpassed five hours a day.
While he did recognize the challenges of more windows, more piracy, more competition, the executive underpinned his speech with a clear call to execs to pioneer deals with new partners -- but at the same time to never get in the way of the creative process.
"The demand is there at record levels. The consumers are there, in record numbers. But what has...
- 10/6/2010
- by By Elizabeth Guider
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There's good news and bad news for MGM in its long-running quest for a financial and corporate restructuring.
Word spread Tuesday of a breakthrough in talks with Spyglass Entertainment, whose principals Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum have been negotiating with Lion reps over how to value the respective companies in a MGM-Spyglass combination. The latest scuttlebutt, courtesy of WSJ.com, suggests that a deal would value MGM at $1.9 billion and give Spyglass principals a 4% stake in the joint operation.
The lingering bad news: It remains unclear how the new exec team would fund film production at the Century City studio.
One of the chief impediments to getting a deal with Spyglass consummated has been its inability to identify any new equity capital, a critical element if MGM is to emerge from a voluntary bankruptcy reorganization as an active film producer. Spyglass is controlled by Cerberus Capital, but owners of the...
Word spread Tuesday of a breakthrough in talks with Spyglass Entertainment, whose principals Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum have been negotiating with Lion reps over how to value the respective companies in a MGM-Spyglass combination. The latest scuttlebutt, courtesy of WSJ.com, suggests that a deal would value MGM at $1.9 billion and give Spyglass principals a 4% stake in the joint operation.
The lingering bad news: It remains unclear how the new exec team would fund film production at the Century City studio.
One of the chief impediments to getting a deal with Spyglass consummated has been its inability to identify any new equity capital, a critical element if MGM is to emerge from a voluntary bankruptcy reorganization as an active film producer. Spyglass is controlled by Cerberus Capital, but owners of the...
- 8/10/2010
- by By Carl DiOrio
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Things are going so badly with MGM's restructuring review that a forced bankruptcy is a real possibility by Sept. 15.
Then again, lenders don't want to lose control of the studio's lucrative James Bond movie rights. So one of them could still dig deeper to provide enough new equity capital to make a voluntary restructuring feasible.
Or if that option fails, the Century City studio could obtain a seventh extension of its debt forbearance agreement with its 100-plus lenders.
In any case, little more than a month before $400 million-plus in owed debt and interest payments come due, this much is certain: Frustration has never been higher with the more than yearlong effort to heal the ailing Lion.
"It's kind of become a joke," said an exec at one of the companies considering a strategic partnership with MGM. "There is a real fatigue among the lenders after all of the forbearance agreements.
Then again, lenders don't want to lose control of the studio's lucrative James Bond movie rights. So one of them could still dig deeper to provide enough new equity capital to make a voluntary restructuring feasible.
Or if that option fails, the Century City studio could obtain a seventh extension of its debt forbearance agreement with its 100-plus lenders.
In any case, little more than a month before $400 million-plus in owed debt and interest payments come due, this much is certain: Frustration has never been higher with the more than yearlong effort to heal the ailing Lion.
"It's kind of become a joke," said an exec at one of the companies considering a strategic partnership with MGM. "There is a real fatigue among the lenders after all of the forbearance agreements.
- 8/10/2010
- by By Carl DiOrio
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following my graduation in 1960, I was hired by Columbia-owned Screen Gems International as a very junior administration and sales executive.
It was during the mid-'60s that a friend suggested to someone at CBS that they offer me a job and, as I understood it, their reply was, "Why would we want to hire a film peddler like Norman?"
Eventually, I managed and sold billions of dollars of content for Columbia (twice), CBS, PolyGram and MGM/UA, but I always have remained a film peddler. My education in this business has lasted 50 years, and though it is not brain surgery, it is not as simple as my bosses often thought it to be.
Every company I ever worked for -- with the exception of CBS, where the broadcast business was a license to print money -- believed it was just one theatrical hit away from solvency. (Even the Eye got enamored of the film biz,...
It was during the mid-'60s that a friend suggested to someone at CBS that they offer me a job and, as I understood it, their reply was, "Why would we want to hire a film peddler like Norman?"
Eventually, I managed and sold billions of dollars of content for Columbia (twice), CBS, PolyGram and MGM/UA, but I always have remained a film peddler. My education in this business has lasted 50 years, and though it is not brain surgery, it is not as simple as my bosses often thought it to be.
Every company I ever worked for -- with the exception of CBS, where the broadcast business was a license to print money -- believed it was just one theatrical hit away from solvency. (Even the Eye got enamored of the film biz,...
- 5/3/2010
- by By Norman Horowitz
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Going, going ... bankrupt?
MGM has a March 19 deadline for solicitation of bids for the Lion and its 4,000-title film library, but the latest round of due diligence is tugging down estimates of the studio's worth. Six companies were invited to make firm offers after a previous nonbinding round of bids failed to top $2 billion.
One big problem: Annual revenue from exploiting catalog titles for global television once exceeded $500 million but has fallen to $350 million. That's got some predicting perceived front-runner Time Warner will bid much closer to $1 billion than the minimum $1.7 billion likely needed to persuade holders of $3.7 billion in MGM debt to sign off on a sale.
If bids come in too low, the Century City studio would have to ask lenders for a fourth extension of the deadline for a big interest payment. The current debt forbearance agreement ends March 31.
MGM also would have to seek an extension...
MGM has a March 19 deadline for solicitation of bids for the Lion and its 4,000-title film library, but the latest round of due diligence is tugging down estimates of the studio's worth. Six companies were invited to make firm offers after a previous nonbinding round of bids failed to top $2 billion.
One big problem: Annual revenue from exploiting catalog titles for global television once exceeded $500 million but has fallen to $350 million. That's got some predicting perceived front-runner Time Warner will bid much closer to $1 billion than the minimum $1.7 billion likely needed to persuade holders of $3.7 billion in MGM debt to sign off on a sale.
If bids come in too low, the Century City studio would have to ask lenders for a fourth extension of the deadline for a big interest payment. The current debt forbearance agreement ends March 31.
MGM also would have to seek an extension...
- 3/11/2010
- by By Carl DiOrio
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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