Ten years after launching film financier Ketchup Entertainment, Kent-born CEO Gareth West and his partners are evolving further into distribution. The company carried out its first major theatrical release earlier this year with Robert Rodriguez’s mystery thriller Hypnotic, and has high hopes for Michel Franco’s awards season contender Memory, which opens this weekend.
Memory premiered in Venice, where West was attending in support of Ferrari, on which Ketchup is a backer. Memory garnered the Venice Volpi Cup for the film’s supporting actor Peter Sarsgaard and a Spirit Award lead performance nomination for Jessica Chastain in the drama about the burgeoning relationship between Sylvia, a troubled woman, who reconnects at a high school reunion with Saul, a man with early onset dementia.
The drama opens on December 22 in the US in AMC Lincoln Square, New York, and AMC Century City, Los Angeles, and will expand on January 5, 2024.
West talks to Screen about making a splash in a competitive awards season and his plans for 2024.
What was the mandate when Ketchup launched a decade or so ago?
We started off doing distribution for a fee and investing in projects and backstock deal financing. We had a library of about 16 to 18 films which got caught up in the Alchemy bankruptcy and we got back into the library, which had titles like The Love Punch starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson [Ketchup distributed the romantic comedy in 2014].
During the pandemic my American-Armenian partners – [COO] Vahan Yepremyan and [CFO] Artur Galstian – and I sat down and agreed there was a real space for independent theatrical releases. Of course you’ve got great companies like A24 and Neon and the like operating in the space, but we still thought there was a place for one more fully-fledged distributor out there. So we got on board Hypnotic and then Memory came along.
How many US releases will we see from Ketchup each year?
That really depends on the availability of good content. We go to the festivals and markets and will be driven by whatever is good in the marketplace each year. We’re not going to release something for the sake of it. We’re a tiny team and run a very good overhead here. We incorporate a lot of the industry greats on a freelance basis [for distribution, marketing, and publicity] and we’re able to put a very good team together for an individual picture. I’d love to do a minimum of four films a year, but let’s see how that goes.
This year we’ll have released two very different films. You’ve got Robert Rodriguez, who’s a legend, and then you’ve got Michel Franco, whose track record is already remarkable and I believe is going to be one of the greats. We want to be director-talent-driven.
Speaking of Rodriguez, how did you get on board the mystery thriller Hypnotic?
I read the script before I saw the film. I’m a big fan of Rodriguez and there was this opportunity to step in and distribute [after the demise of original backer Solstice Studios]. I love everything about it. We saw it at the beginning of this year and acquired it. There was a very tight window to release it because when we took over it was very last minute. There wasn’t the greatest opportunity around when it could be released because there was already a pay-1 TV deal in place with Peacock.
And this week you launch Memory. How did that come about?
Memory was in Venice and I was there as one of the producers on Ferrari with Michael Mann, which Ketchup invested in. So we were in Venice, enjoying everything that that film gave us and I read the reviews on Memory, really liked it, and didn’t think much more about it. Memory was going to Toronto International Film Festival so I reached out to [sales representative] Gersh to find out more.
I’m very passionate about film and I was shocked it hadn’t found a home. We sat down as a team and said if we were going to get involved we’d need to put some serious money behind it and bring serious people in to make sure it’s handled properly. So that was the proposal. We acquired it in October and brought on 42West to handle the release and awards campaign. We’re thrilled.
This is a highly competitive awards season. How do you get voter to take notice?
To make a noise in the fourth quarter takes money for advertising and campaign costs and the like. Obviously we’re having to do it a little bit differently because we don’t have the bank vaults available [to larger distributors].
42West have been guiding us and the film actually speaks a lot for itself because it’s so good and the performances are great. Voters know what’s a good film and what’s not, so it’s a question of making them aware that the picture’s available at a screening or on an online screening portal. Peter’s delivered decades of incredible performances and he’s won the Venice Coppa Volpi and this is an opportunity to spotlight a remarkable performance. Jessica is formidable, has the Spirit Award nomination, and she’s been a driving force advising on distribution.
How have you been executing the awards campaign?
42West have scheduled all of the usual screenings you would expect, from SAG all the way to the tastemakers I was with Jessica in London last month where we did a Bafta/AMPAS screening at the Charlotte Street Hotel.
[Other events include tastemaker screenings in Los Angeles and New York in December with Franco and the leads, as well as screenings at agencies and key California voter enclaves like Santa Barbara and Mill Valley, and talk show appearances].
What’s the US release plan?
On December 22 we’re going to be opening in two theatres: the AMC Lincoln Square in New York and AMC Century City in Los Angeles. We will expand into further markets on January 5.
Memory got a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement allowing the cast to promote it, but nonetheless it must have been a relief when the strike ended.
It was. We had that interim agreement which is why Peter and Jessica were at the premiere in Venice [and TIFF]. I’m very proud of what Ketchup and out partners have done in such a short period of time to get this campaign up and running. It makes us competitive. We played AFI Fest in Los Angeles [October 25-29] when we had Peter and Michel in attendance. We really started the campaign around mid-November with interviews and then went into the taste-maker screenings.
What’s the Pay-1 window for Memory?
We’re working that out as we speak. We’ve got a few people very interested.
You invested in Ferrari. Will you invest often going forward?
As and when [there is mutual interest and opportunity].
Where were you before you set up Ketchup?
My partners and I are entrepreneurs and had other businesses before that. We set up the film company and lost a bit of money in the first few years, which seems to be the norm. We learned a lot and I don’t think the three of us have had one argument in the 10 or so years we’ve been at Ketchup.
I now feel we’re very confident in ourselves and understanding what movies can and cannot work within the various US platforms. I’m still a big fan of US theatrical distribution, I do think there’s still a very healthy space out there where we can cater to a cinema-going audience that remains engaged and very enthusiastic. The idea is to work out ways to introduce films to their audiences.
What’s next for you in terms of releases and your travel itinerary?
We’ll definitely be in Sundance and Berlin. I love Berlin. Film-wise we acquired Hellboy: The Crooked Man [Millennium Media’s 1950’s-set horror fantasy stars Jack Kesy and is directed by Brian Taylor], which we’ll be releasing next year, so we’re excited about that. We’re looking at some other films. We’re rolling our sleeves up and negotiating and we’ll see how it goes.
When will you release Hellboy: The Crooked Man?
To be determined.
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