SACHA BARON COHEN BANNED FROM OSCARS: EXCLUSIVE 
Cassian Elwes And Mark Burg Start Evolution Independent To … 
Simon Cowell On Search For New ‘X Factor’ Hosts … 
J.J. Abrams And Paramount Extend First-Look Deal Through … 
‘Spartacus’ Alum Jai Courtney Lands Coveted … 
BREAKING: SAG Anti-Merger Members File Lawsuit Against … 
Disney Taps Edgar Wright To Helm Johnny Depp In ‘The … 
IMAX Names Former Paramount Exec Andrew Cripps President Of … 
Conan O’Brien’s TBS Late-Night Talk Show … 
Paramount President Of Animation David Stainton Resigns 
Oscar Countdown: Sherak On Kodak Theatre’s New Name, … 
Costumers Designers Guild Awards: ‘Dragon … 
Oscars Scoop: George Clooney’s & Melissa … 
CAA Signs ‘The Help’s Tate Taylor 
UPDATED: 2012 Oscar Party Roundup 
NBC Brings Back ‘Community’, Schedules … 
Weinstein To Take On MPAA ‘Bully’ Rating 
TOLDJA! Michael Fassbender Commits To Ridley Scott-Directed … 
Charlie Sheen Resumes ‘Two & Half Men’ … 
Comcast Launches Xfinity Streaming Service For Older 
Sarah Palin Doc ‘The Undefeated’ Finds TV Home … 
LOS ANGELES — January 5, 2011 – Capitalizing on the ever-evolving global film marketplace, Sierra Pictures and Affinity International announced today the creation of a new sales company called Sierra / Affinity. The new entity will represent sales of third party films as well as act as the exclusive sales agent for films developed and produced by OddLot Entertainment, Bold Films and Sierra Pictures and its partner, Incentive Filmed Entertainment. Sierra / Affinity will offer commercial films designed to appeal to both the North American marketplace as well as top markets around the globe.
Sierra / Affinity will be run by CEO Nick Meyer with his partner Marc Schaberg who will serve as the company’s COO and CFO. OddLot’s founder Gigi Pritzker and Bold Films’ founder Michel Litvak will serve on Sierra / Affinity’s three-person Board along with Meyer. The new company will capitalize on an economy of scale by harnessing the development, production and financing capabilities of respected producers OddLot and Bold and combining them with Sierra’s sales, sourcing and financing infrastructure. The relationship between the companies also offers co-financing opportunities on film projects.
“The creation of Sierra / Affinity offers the marketplace a new world class sales organization that is primed to represent third party product as well as films developed produced and financed both jointly and independently from Sierra, OddLot and Bold,” said Meyer. “Gigi and Michel have produced many notable films and their companies continue to remain at the forefront of independently produced feature film arena. The sales component of Sierra / Affinity, combined with the joint production and financing opportunities, this new entity creates will also help to take the great business they have built to even further success.”
Gigi Pritzker and Michel Litvak said in a joint statement, “We are thrilled to be getting into business with Nick and Marc. We’re also proud of the work our team has done at Affinity. This combination puts our new company, Sierra/Affinity, at the forefront of the international sales marketplace and continues to build upon the strengths we have each achieved to date. We are very excited about our future together.”
Sierra/Affinity will operate out of offices located in Beverly Hills. The formal operating and executive structure will be announced in the coming weeks. Sierra will separately maintain its White Knuckle production arm, which, in partnership with Brett Ratner, is designed to produce action / thrillers of a reasonable budget. Sierra / Affinity will act as the sales representative to White Knuckle.
OddLot and Bold will remain as individual production companies and continue certain joint business ventures, including the recently formed Quickdraw Productions, a joint venture production company OddLot and Bold own in combination with Robert Rodriguez. Quickdraw is meant to be a vehicle for Rodriguez to develop, produce and direct feature films. Sierra / Affinity will act as the sales representative to Quickdraw.
Sierra’s UNTITLED 3D SHARK THRILLER and the joint Bold/OddLot production, DRIVE (starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan) each exemplify the type of film Sierra / Affinity will represent in the international sales arena. Each film has domestic distribution, DRIVE with FilmDistrict and the UNTITLED 3D SHARK THRILLER with Relativity.
Loading ...
Looks like Nick Meyer is in trouble. Hasn’t had a single successful movie since starting his company Sierra. Being out there in the independent world is quite different than sitting in a cozy studio office.
@observer: You have no idea what you are talking about. Sierra didn’t start as a production company and has only been open for like a year and a half. Things take time, especially in this climate, and I think that it’s a great step for them. Better to take your time to learn, adapt, and win in the long run as opposed to crashing and burning by doing too much too soon.
Does this mean that Brian O’Shea is out of a job?
If so, that’s a tragedy as he is one of the best of the best.
Wow, it seems a lot of the smaller companies are merging and joining forces with each other. Even though the box office has been booming and actors/directors are getting paid up the wazoo, the economy’s downfall has taken a bite out of independent filmmaking as well. Good for them I guess. With three different companies pooling resources (plus all the 3rd party deals) they should be able to make some decent movies. Now the question is will those movies make any money? Seems all the American public wants to view anymore is teenage blockbusters. Interesting times in Hollywood.
O’Shea’s Affinity/Odd Lot International sales team was fantastic, hopefully it will stay that way or even get stronger with now an ever growing library.
A lot of production companies to deal (Odd Lot, Bold, Quickdraw) with on a daily basis now, not sure if I would like to be in Meyer’s shoes.
It’s about time Brian O’Shea gets replaced. That guy has lied to and burnt every distributor in the industry. They need o do something about the company name, Sierra/Affinity? Come on guys you can do better than that.
Not sure what Meyer brings that O’Shea wasn’t doing already, what has Meyer done that is so fantastic again besides be a good smoochy executive? seems like the bold/odd lot team just want more cooks in the kitchen to pay fat salaries to with no returns. that will be a tough place to work. O’Shea should get out, he’s the only one who knows what he’s doing other there. won’t be fun.