Fund will invest in up to five new films per year.
Belgian production and finance company Corsan is starting a new $100m fund that will invest in up to five new films per year.
Corsan will operate the fund as a third party production investment vehicle, financing films that have been developed and will be produced out-of-house. The first project backed by the new fund is expected to be signed by the end of the month.
Percentages of budgets for investment will vary on a case by case basis, but projects backed will likely to be in the $15m-$30m budget range.
The $100m will be raised from private equity investors as well as Corsan’s own capital structures.
Corsan CEO Paul Breuls noted that the fund would invest in international projects “in the English language and with a global ambition for distribution.”
“We’re basically motivated by story and a good script that will attract a good director and good talent,” Breuls told Screen. “There isn’t a genre that we prefer or exclude.”
“We’ll work with independent producers that have an eye for quality, and maybe work on their more edgy stuff that is harder to finance.”
Investments will usually be made at a very early stage of packaging. “We’re not really in the business of finishing funds,” Breuls noted. “We like to come in sooner rather than later.”
With its own in-house fund, the company has worked on films such as Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double [pictured], Rowan Joffe’s Singularity, and Paul Haggis’ forthcoming Third Person.
The move to work with more third-party projects won’t impact the number of in-house productions going forward, Breuls noted. “This is about expansion…we have more fund capacity than we need for in-house productions. We don’t want to expand in-house production too much because we couldn’t guarantee the quality levels we have now.”
Meanwhile, Corsan World Sales has sold Killing Season, its production with Millennium starring John Travolta and Robert De Niro, to Eastern Europe (Ablo Inc), Latin America (California Filmes), airlines (Cinesky), Middle East (Eagle Films), Portugal (Lusomundo), Turkey (Media Vyzion), Thailand (M Pictures), Malaysia (Platinum), Indonesia (Pt Amero Mitra), Germany (Splendid), Scandinavia (Take One), CIS (Top Film) and Canada (VVS). Nu Image has sold to the UK (Lionsgate), France (Metropolitan), Australia (Roadshow), South Africa (Sabido Productions) and Japan (Showgate).
