Former Union Bank of California entertainment loan executives Harold Lewis and Brenda Doby-Flewellyn have set up the financing, sales and distribution company FilmBankers International.
The Beverly Hills-based company is lining up co-financing for the $30m Bob Marley reggae biopic No Woman, No Cry, one of 30 projects the principals say they are involved with in some way.
FilmBankers is handling international sales on No Woman, No Cry, which Rudy Langlais and his Frigate Bay Filmworks is producing. Principal photography is set to begin later this year in locations in the Caribbean.
FilmBankers will serve as executive producers on every project it works on. In some cases it will deploy branded distribution through non-exclusive output deals with several US majors, while in others it will find distribution for select completed films.
'Our goal is to add value by enhancing ownership and participation for our clients,' Doby-Flewellyn said, echoing the sentiments expressed by John Sloss and Bart Walker when they teamed up in Cinetic Media.
FilmBankers is also in talks to find a director on Miles, a biopic about jazz legend Miles Davis, which is also being lined up to start before the end of the year.
The company will handle worldwide distribution on Bennett Five Entertainment and Donlyn Productions' completed drama Contradictions Of The Heart, directed by Walter Allen Bennett Jr and starring Clifton Powell and Wendy Raquel Robinson.
Companies and individuals that FilmBankers presently represents include Tom Walsh's EnterAktion Studios, Frigate Bay Filmworks and Langlais, and New York-based production company Garbus Krupa Entertainment.
It is also raising the P&A fund for Robert Cary's drama Save Me, which Roadside Attractions is releasing in North America.
'We formed the company to provide a critical, one stop resource to help film-makers negotiate the fast changing and sometimes arcane world of film finance,' Lewis said. 'It also enables financial institutions to enter the lucrative film production business without the need to build and maintain a dedicated and specialised department.'
'Our film clients are primarily creative people and we are their business partner,' Doby-Flewellyn, a 'gap' financing pioneer who served as vice-president and manager with the Lewis Horwitz Organization, added. 'We match production creativity with financial creativity.'
The Beverly Hills-based company is lining up co-financing for the $30m Bob Marley reggae biopic No Woman, No Cry, one of 30 projects the principals say they are involved with in some way.
FilmBankers is handling international sales on No Woman, No Cry, which Rudy Langlais and his Frigate Bay Filmworks is producing. Principal photography is set to begin later this year in locations in the Caribbean.
FilmBankers will serve as executive producers on every project it works on. In some cases it will deploy branded distribution through non-exclusive output deals with several US majors, while in others it will find distribution for select completed films.
'Our goal is to add value by enhancing ownership and participation for our clients,' Doby-Flewellyn said, echoing the sentiments expressed by John Sloss and Bart Walker when they teamed up in Cinetic Media.
FilmBankers is also in talks to find a director on Miles, a biopic about jazz legend Miles Davis, which is also being lined up to start before the end of the year.
The company will handle worldwide distribution on Bennett Five Entertainment and Donlyn Productions' completed drama Contradictions Of The Heart, directed by Walter Allen Bennett Jr and starring Clifton Powell and Wendy Raquel Robinson.
Companies and individuals that FilmBankers presently represents include Tom Walsh's EnterAktion Studios, Frigate Bay Filmworks and Langlais, and New York-based production company Garbus Krupa Entertainment.
It is also raising the P&A fund for Robert Cary's drama Save Me, which Roadside Attractions is releasing in North America.
'We formed the company to provide a critical, one stop resource to help film-makers negotiate the fast changing and sometimes arcane world of film finance,' Lewis said. 'It also enables financial institutions to enter the lucrative film production business without the need to build and maintain a dedicated and specialised department.'
'Our film clients are primarily creative people and we are their business partner,' Doby-Flewellyn, a 'gap' financing pioneer who served as vice-president and manager with the Lewis Horwitz Organization, added. 'We match production creativity with financial creativity.'
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