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Lionsgate set the first three films under a new initiative to generate films with budgets under $2 million. The goal for the micro-budget venture is to generate up to 10 films per year, according to Joe Drake, Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group president.
The first three films are:
Rapturepalooza, with Craig Robinson starring as the Anti-Christ. Chris Matheson wrote the script and Paul Middleditch will direct. Mosaic and Ed Solomon are producing, with production to begin in the spring.
Gay Dude, a Superbad-style coming of age raunchy comedy. Two best friends vow to lose their virginity before graduating high school. Then one confesses he’s gay. Script’s by Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang, and it made The Black List. Laurence Mark produces with Jai Stefan.
6 Miranda Drive, a supernatural thriller from Wolf Creek writer/director Greg Mclean. Purported to be fact-based, the tale focuses on a family that unwittingly brings a supernatural force home with them from vacation. The evil presence feeds off their fears and secrets. Mosaic is producing with Mclean.
Lionsgate joins a growing interest in micro-budget films. It started with sleeper hits like Paranormal Activity, and there are a number of “found footage”-driven films forthcoming, including the Timur Bekmambetov-produced Apollo 18 from The Weinstein Company. These are low risk propositions. They have a genre focus and not built on stars, providing low risk and breakout potential.
“Microbudget films involved minimal overhead and very little risk, but a potentially high reward,” Drake said in a statement. “This initiative allows us to add another layer to our slate of movies that work both financially and creatively.” Lionsgate’s Matt Kaplan will oversee the small productions.
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Ahhh yes, Farm Leagues are back for writers with original ideas. they pay you peanuts but the promise of hitting one outta the park so you can join the big leagues and write copycat projects with no merit sounds just about “write.”
All I can say is “Bravo.”
Does a production at micro budget need known talent say for a thriller? I know horror doesn’t…
So, what exactly IS a micro-budget these days? Rapturepalooza and Gay Dude sound awful. The supernatural concept sounds promising though. If they vacation at Disneyland, will they return with the ghost of Daffy Duck?
Craig Robinson? that movie will be gold.
Surely not Daffy, unless he was spying for Warner Bros. They could bring home the ghost of Donald but no-one would be able to understand what he said.
$2.00
As a writer who makes a good but not amazing living doing what he loves, I find this very encouraging. Would gladly be paid half the amount a studio usually pays to get a movie actually made.
Don’t know what Lionsgate is paying on these deals, but at first blush I’m encouraged.
I happen to agree with you, Writer, and that is exactly what the studios are counting on with these initiatives — people are here to make movies, not talk about making movies. There’s nothing wrong with that but something about the sudden appearance of these divisions smells false and dirty to me. The successful examples they cite are nearly always from unknown entities on the outskirts of Hollywood. This is NOT what they are describing above. They’re getting slightly high-profile packages (nearly all of these floated around for a while at other companies) and then making them for peanuts with hope of a profit. Are they really giving new talent a shot here? They’re just employing old business practices with new lingo.
Gay Dude has an interesting premise, and is written by one of the writers of TV’s funniest comedy. I’m looking forward to this one.
I LOVE GAY DUDE!!
Good to see Lionsgate back to doing what it made it a successful company in the first place instead of continuing to lean toward bigger budgeted prestige pics, few of which made any money for them.
WHAT A JOKE! DON’T THEY KNOW THAT PEOPLE ONLY WANT TO SEE MOVIES BASED ON BROTHERS GRIMM STORIES!
WHO IS GAY DUDE? WAS THAT EVEN A FAIRY TALE? MAYBE IF IT WAS AN ARTICLE IN ESQUIRE OR SOMETHING…MAYBE.
Matt Kaplan is an All-Star. Literally. He made Encino LL’s team every year. Plus, he’s a good guy.
Don’t mean to hop on the bandwagon, but great hairline as well.
A $2M feature? Doesn’t it take $20M for Lionsgate to get a “Medea” in the can? I’ll wait for the reviews.
I support more companies getting into “micro-budget” projects, because it’s a good way to find new talent, lowers potential risks, boosts potential rewards, and shows that you don’t need to blow the gross domestic product of a small European country to make a movie.
However, weren’t low budget genre pictures Lionsgate’s bread and butter for a long time? It really shouldn’t be that much of a stretch for them.
How do they do a studio movie at this budget level while being union signatories? Is this an attempt to end-run around the unions? A big production co head told me once that all the studios are trying to figure out ways to disempower and ultimately get rid of the unions, and low budget divisions like this one, and the one Paramount started, might be their current attempt.
What do you think?
They don’t.
The producers make the movie separately and Lionsgate pre-acquires rights.
I can’t speak for the whole industry, but I line produce union films way under $2m- my company makes deals up front and does the right thing. And since any show at or near 1 million has been hit and turned all over the country for over a decade now, there is no way these are going to be non union unless they are shot in Utah. The only real non union world is true micro budget- under 500k total budget, with no studio attached in any way. And $2 million is LOW budget, not Micro, by the way. I know that is craft service budget to many of you, but to some of us it is plenty to make good films and pay benefits.
Bingo!!! That’s exactly what I was thinking… And if this takes off and becomes the “new trend” among the studios, then it’s going to drive the wages down all around. All of a sudden, that $5M film might find itself pushed to the side for the $2M film… And once that happens, actors who want to act will start taking less just to work and stay relevant – so will writers, directors, etc, being paid under the micro budget agreement.
Remember, studios sell terrible films all the time, so they’d much rather spend that money selling a crumby film that cost $2M as opposed to one that cost $7M because the ticket price is the same regardless.
SAG has an Ultra-low-budget contract that works with these kind of productions.
See SAGindie(dot)com
Each guild has low-budget agreements. The WGA allows writers to defer all monies until distribution. SAG has much lower rates for films under a mil. Not sure about DGA? Go to their websites and research. The guilds are finally starting to understand the economic realities of the biz.
When you see what they pay, you’d be less encouraged. And when you find out that your back end comes with no audit rights, you’d be downright furious.
Lionsgate is more or less filling the void left by indie producers who are getting out of the 2M and under game or would rather spend their time chasing the Big Fish.
Five years ago if you put together a smart genre script with a few known and reliable elements in place, you would find plenty of producers/financiers willing to get involved. Now those same producers are chasing the next “Black Swan” and “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno.” They don’t want to make five 2M genre films that are smart bets but have a low ceiling, they want the 10M indie that at least has the chance to go out of the park.
It’s discouraging because the 2M genre films can be damn good and there are audiences for them. Lionsgate is just sensing the void in the market and picking up the slack.
No risk no reward… these sound like straight to DVD films. But at least its not some Tyler Perry crap.
There is no one more in tune with fresh, rising talent than Matt Kaplan. Great decision to put this division in his hands. Kaplan himself is one to watch!
You’re damn right.
Hey! Even though Tyler Perry goes non-union as much as possible (at least with his tv series) plays to the lowest common denominator of coonery for humor, he’s still “reaching an underserved, underrepresented market”. All us black people should be greatful for the work and the perpetuation of the stereotypes by one of our own, and for the opportunity to make Tyler so wealthy. Right?… right?…
Coonery ? Wow…amazing…
2 million is low budget, NOT micro-budget. Micro-budget is under 500k (usually much much less).
I would kill for 2 mil to make my movie.
I will be sending you the target info shortly. Please refer to me as “Deep Throat” in all our correspondences.
Okay, so may be my conscience won’t allow me to murder anyone. I think the best I could do is maim. Yet, definitely maim. Can I get 1 mil for that?
Put that on Craigslist and I bet you get some offers.
I would kill for 1 million to make my movie and then kill for 500 grand to make your movie! and still save 500 grand in the process. Do I know my logistics or what????
But seriously…
This is great for indies like us…but is it the same old B.S. story again????
I suppose even for such a low, low budget…I still need an agent?
Still need to get my scripts to the right people…who understand what makes
a good movie to invest 2 mil in? Or are we still ONCE AGAIN dealing with the same types of readers and script analysts and mostly — unpaid interns — who say no to everything coming across their desks…just to climb the ladder?
Is LIONSGATE willing not to go with stars or celebs and just find the right, talented
character actors to be in the cast…and put all the power in the story?
I hope Gay Dude isn’t the next The Virginity Hit.
Microbudget and smart marketing is what turned LionsGate into a major studio with SAW, it’s about time they got back to that way of producing instead of their recent stretch of producing big budget flops.
Give a couple of up an coming superstars the chance to make a $2 million movie, maybe one hits. If not, genre and name involvement alone are enough to justify the cost. Low risk, high potential reward. Lionsgate remains very smart.
2 million is micro budget? Bet a mil of that is above the line. Liongate’s line.
PS. Wolf creek was the worst movie I’ve ever seen.