MUMBAI: In the 12 months since Reliance Big Entertainment announced its creative partnerships at the Cannes Film Festival last year, more than 20 individual film projects have been approved.
The initial seven deals, with Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Films, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, and Jay Roach’s Everyman Pictures, were announced at Cannes last year. These were followed by deals with Julia Roberts’ Red Om Films and Brett Ratner’s Rat Entertainment.
While Cage’s Saturn Films, Voodoo Child written by John Collee is being developed and Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment will roll O’Gunn with writers Ed Cannistraci and Fred Seton.
Reliance will also be providing seed money to Colombus’ 1492 Pictures for three films namely Things They Left Behind, based on the Stephen King short story about 9/11 survivors; an adaptation of Thurston Clarke’s book The Last Campaign, and David Dorfman’s script It’s A Miserable Life.
On the other hand, Ratner’s Rat Entertainment will develop Youngblood based on Rob Liefeld’s graphic novel Infinity with writer John Collee and John Delorean Project with James Toback. Roberts’ Red Om Films will develop Dan Eldon Project.
Reliance BIG Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna said, "It has been a very active and satisfactory first year and we have been delighted by the quality of the individual projects being presented to us for development financing. There are many others in the evaluation/ negotiation stages and I’m confident of moving into the filmmaking stage on several projects before the end of the year."
"These creative partnerships call for Reliance to co-finance production the US Studio where existing first-look deals are in place. From the conversations to date, we know that the respective studios welcome our development silos and our subsequent co-financing ability. We have broken completely new ground by empowering some of the best talent in Hollywood," he added.
All nine deals provide for the creation of a development fund silo for each of the production entities and the possibility that Reliance may also co-finance projects that emanate from these development deals. For any greenlit projects utilizing Reliance co-financing, the filmmakers will enjoy ownership of their content as well as full creative and fiscal freedom.
Additionally, the company is yet to announced the slate of films with Hanks’ Playtone Productions, Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Roach’s Everyman Pictures.
