Established Producers Join Emerging Indie “Studio”; 12 Movies Per Year, Distribution Guaranteed

In addition to fully financing films at up to $10 million each, Dickinson and Fisher told indieWIRE that they would acquire a handful of films each year. Additionally, the founders are touting an “unlevered model” for the new company that will give investors shares in all revenue streams generated by the company over the life of a film.

Included on their core team at DFIS are CFO Rita Chiappetta-Thibault and EVP of Production Amy Slotnick, who recently served as SVP of Production at Miramax. John Hadity, chairman of the Producers Guild of America East and a former EVP of production at Miramax, is on board to work on production finance.

CEO Mary Dickinson’s twenty-year background includes work running Teton Gravity Research, an extreme sports film production company, she also produced two NBC primetime pilots with Ben Silverman’s company, Reveille and she was a consultant on the development and financing of Redbone Films. President and COO Fisher has sixteen years of experience, recently working to restructure a company for GE Asset Management and then working with Redbone.

“There is a growing demand for commercial features, and a lack of quality products at the right price,” Fisher’s prepared statement said, “At DFIS we have worked with our production partners to provide end to end financing, a rigorous green light process and guaranteed U.S. distribution to meet this increasing demand. No one else is supporting films produced for up to $10 million in this way.”

Of the producing partners, leading New York City producer Ted Hope from This is That Productions boasts the strong track record in independent production, while other producers come from a Hollywood background. Hope and Anne Carey’s track record includes Greg Mottola’s recent “Adventureland” and Alejandro Gonzalez-Innaritu’s “21 Grams” to Todd Field’s “In The Bedroom” and Ang Lee “The Ice Storm” from the Good Machine days. Jennifer Fox has a produced acclaimed mid-budget studio films including “Michael Clayton,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” and “Syriana,” while Scott Free is known for work with Ridley and Tony Scott’s company, producing such studio movies as “Gladiator,” “American Gangster” and the recently released remake, “The Taking of Pelham 123.” Finally, Redbone Films is from co-founder Samara Koffler from Harrison Ford’s production company.

Veteran Ira Deutchman, a founder of Fine Line Features and Cinecom, who now runs Emerging Pictures, praised the new initiative as, “an industry-changing studio model for indie film,” in a statement, adding that he has worked with Dickinson and Fisher for more than a year on the company.

Tilda Swinton is among those on the DFIS advisory board, joined by NBC Universal Co-Chair Ben Silverman, GE Asset Management president David Wiederecht, and Duff and Phelps Technology and Entertainment Practices’ David Spieler. In a statement, Swinton called the new company “inspired and inspiring,” proclaiming in the statement that DF Indie, “is set to become an invaluable saving grace of a currently endangered species: the intelligent, ambitious and commercially viable independent film - maybe even of intelligent, ambitious and commercially viable independent filmmakers themselves.”

From the financial side, advisors emphasized the uniqueness of this new initiative. “DFIS offers its equity investors an unprecedented opportunity by providing an unlevered business model with 105% downside risk protection and guaranteed North American distribution for all greenlit films,” said advisory board member and investor David Spieler, in a statement.  “And best of all, equity investors will share in all revenue streams of the studio including distribution fees and any exit.”

[Brian Brooks contributed to this story.]

The press release is included on page two.