Siren, Solution launch fund

Siren Studios’ Craig Chapman, Brandon Nutt and Kyle Jackson and The Solution Entertainment Group co-founder and partner Myles Nestel made the announcement on Thursday [9].

The partners jointly own The Solution’s genre sales label Synchronicity. The fund is backed by institutional capital and private equity investors brought to the table by Nutt and Jackson.

The first project to be fully financed and produced by the fund is Lynn Shelton’s rom-com Laggies with producing partner Anonymous Content. Keira Knightley is in talks to star alongside Chloe Moretz and Sam Rockwell.

Production will start on Jun 2 in Seattle on the story of a young woman who ducks her boyfriend’s marriage proposal and heads off for a week of fun with her young friend, only to fall for her friend’s father. Andrea Siegel wrote the screenplay.

Anonymous’ Steve Golin, Alix Madigan-Yorkin and Rosalie Swedlin produce alongside Nestel and Siren’s Chapman and Kyle Jackson. Siren’s Nutt, The Solution’s Lisa Wilson and Anonymous’ Paul Green serve as executive producers.

The fund will also finance John Travolta art heist thriller The Forger, which Screendaily reported on exclusively earlier in the week.

Code Entertainment is co-financing with The Solution and the partners have earmarked an August start on the story of an imprisoned petty thief who must steal and replicate a Renoir painting in order to get out of jail early to be with his ailing son.

Code’s Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso will produce with Prospect Park’s Rob Carliner. Jonathan Dana and Randi Michel are executive producers with Nestel, Wilson, Chapman, Jackson and Nutt.

“When Lisa Wilson and I launched The Solution in 2012 one of our goals was to be a one-stop finance, production and sales operation,” said Nestel. “The partnership with Siren Studios on this new fund opens the doors still further to those ambitions and our aim to be a 21st century approach to the old studio system.”

“Siren has spent the last eight years delivering on production, and more recently post production services, for some of the industry’s top talent,” said Chapman. “Having acquired and developed over $50m of studio infrastructure in the heart of Hollywood, the fund was the last piece to truly become a force in the paradigm shift happening in entertainment.”

“With our sales slate so far, The Solution has brought significant new titles to the marketplace that are satisfying the buyers’ needs for strong theatrical material,” said Wilson. “Laggies is another step in that right direction with a cast that is a super mix of commercial appeal with award winning quality.”