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EXCLUSIVE: Few showbiz execs have held as many top jobs as Jeff Sagansky. Now the former CBS and Sony Pictures and Paxson and RHI exec is back in the movie biz in a big way. Institutional investors are backing Hemisphere Media Capital, the new venture from Winchester Capital Management founders Jean-Luc De Fanti and Sagansky. Japanese distributors Toho-Towa and Kadokawa Pictures and Singapore-based producer/talent manager RGM Media are also on board. Hemisphere is in talks with a number of studios and plans to announce its first investments shortly. The Hemisphere Motion Picture Partners fund expects to invest more than $400 million in 8-10 movies over 4 years. De Fanti says: “The traditional film finance model is under strain. However, global audiences and therefore distributors remain hungry for mainstream Hollywood fare. In a world of dwindling capital availability, Hemisphere represents a template for a new approach, where films with global appeal are financed by a partnership of major studios, key strategic distributors, and financiers.” Bryan Wolf of Los Angeles-based law firm Ziffren, Brittenham has structured the fund. Movies that Sagansky and De Fanti co-financed through Winchester include The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Winchester also financed the 3rd season of TNT TV drama Leverage and arranged a multi-picture financing deal for Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp. Toho-Towa released John Woo’s Red Cliff: Part 2 while Kadokawa handles the Twilight franchise in Japan. RGM Media is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
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I really liked THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. If it had a more appealing title (like PSY-SOLDIERS or something) I think it would’ve done much better at the box office.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS was a fresh, funny, and smart flick. Genuinely enjoyed it.
With so flops Sagansky has financed like Men Who Stare at Goats and Pippa Lee, I hope he has someone else picking the movies.
Wow! Lookit the biscuits they made in the past? Gats & Pippa. Whoa. That’s filmmaking. And will a cash infusion help this schlock-given-the-green-light taste?
Remember when Paula Wagner was handed the reins and $200 million to “make a slate with?” How many did she get made? Let me remind you: Goose egg, that’s a bingo!
See, the fund may get set up, but that is when the penises shrivel and the real fear sets in and no one wants to actually do what this balls-driven game requires: Real risk takers financing real movie makers to make Film.
Smells like PR for DH, which is quite often really just a whole lotta BM.
Sure hope I’m wrong and we get celluloid out of it though…
For you people who have replied to this post so far, don’t worry, Jeff Sagansky has greenlit as many Oscar contenders and box office successes as any executive in history.
If you want to follow the trend of where the motion picture business is headed, follow Sagansky
Perhaps he will make it possible to again make intelligent pictures.
As for Sagansky’s being that guy that has greenlit more Oscars than any exec, then I offer my hope that something good — better’n Goats and Pee=pee — comes along… Really.
BUT, youtalked about him being the guy to follow if you want to follow the trend of where motion picture business is going… GONG! If that is the case, what with 1000-CGI-shot films and scripts written towards the fecal advent of 3D, then someone please: Put a contract out on him now.
I remember Mr. Sagansky as being avery smart and one cool executive and sure hope we get THAT gentleman in the new position and not the aforementioned guy who willfully accepts a glass of Katzenberg Kool Aid…
Ever-hopeful in the worst year for movies yet… Can you name 10 movies that will desrve nominations? Hear you.
Jeff Sagansky, Jean-Luc De Fanti and Bryan Wolf are not Paula Wagner. These guys are much more shrewd. They know what they’re doing and they understand the current state of the industry.
On this Election Day, let’s keep in mind that just saying it doesn’t make it true.
“Jeff Sagansky has greenlit as many Oscar contenders and box office successes as any executive in history”?
Huh? In what parallel universe?
A whole lot of sound and fury signifying nada.
Getting movies made these days is about one thing “show me the money.” Every studio in town is splitting the risk on their movies. If you don’t bring financing to the table as a producer then you’re at a serious disadvantage.
That’s right. Nothing. Yeah we got some financing, me might talk to the studios soon, blah blah.
In my experience, you ALWAYS line up your studio partner before closing the financing. ALWAYS. They are part of the modeling process because everyone is slightly different. You can’t use Paramount ultimates the same way you use Universal. They have different numbers and the paytv deals are structured differently. (HBO vs EPIX)
-RnsW
“Few showbiz execs have held as many top jobs as Jeff Sagansky” and made so little of them would be a better opening line to this article. Seriously, he might be a very interesting study of genius combined with severe ADHD….Just my opinion.
Make a great film THEN get do press. Otherwise it’s just hot air and more scared money in the game.
Sagansky is old and cold. Low point in his career was his stewardship of PaxNet — Bud Paxson’s right wing christian vanity network, that blew through 3B of investor cash before bankruptcy The industry has passed him by.
Old and cold?? If you did your research you’d know that Sagansky left Sony (after successfully orchestrating the acquisition of Telemundo which was HUGE for them) for Pax because he wanted to do something new and build the company up.. The second he left Pax floundered.
Sagansky never stays at any company longer than a couple of years. He joins a company to build them up, when he’s done that he leaves. Take CBS: took them from position 3 to 1 in a matter of months. Then he left. That’s what he’s known for.
Not to mention he’s the only gentleman in Hollywood. He’s always avoided the Hollywood spot light and from what I’ve heard around town, he only moved to New York to keep his daughters sheltered from the superficiality of Hollywood.
I can’t wait to see where this film fund will go!
To STAND CORRECTED AND DIDN’T KNOW THIS:
Can you please name me all of the Oscar winning movies Jeff Greenlit?
I think you are way off? More movies than John Cally, Sherry Lansing, Bob Daly & Terry Semel, Barry Diller & Michael Eisner as well as the Legends of the Past that created the film business?
Sometime people have to be called on their bullshit, even if Jeff is a good enough guy. He did green light Dr. Quinn: Medicine Women but I don’t recall it winning any emmy’s let alone an oscar!
Sheesh, lighten up everybody. It’s a film fund. For putting cash into movies. That’s good.
And look at the numbers. $200m equity to deploy into approx 2 pics a year. If so, that’s about large studio movies. Re-read the press release quotes: “Mainstream Hollywood fare.” “Films with global appeal.” Conclusion: This isn’t about Oscar bait or precious films like Pippa Lee, it’s studio film slate financing 2.0.
I like Jeff a lot. He is a jolly nice chap.