Incovent cuts a path
The opening of Eastern Europe may have pumped up the volume for Incovent's business, but it certainly killed several genres that feed the volume.
Such is the tale of Arnie Fishman and Paul Lichtman's Los Angeles-based business that has become the link to the Baltic states for much of American indie production ventures.
They generally act as liaisons between small, Baltic film companies and governments and Western producers and directors, who range from Fred Weintraub to Steven Spielberg.
"Basically, we specialize in places that don't have fax machines," quipped Fishman, who just returned from Slovenia, wrapping up terms of a Weintraub co-production venture with the locally based Yadran Films. "While the decline of Communism has dramaticallychanged our business, I have to tell you we've seen a lot of projects with spy and Holocaust themes disappear, which has hurt a lot of proposed ventures if you know what I mean."
However, the deal he just clinched a week ago with Yadran is called "Pickpocket," a tale about a Gypsy girl who unwittingly becomes involved with the murder of an American diplomat that eventually involves the CIA. The director is a Slovenian named Vinci Vogue. Fishman and Lichtman will executive produce.
The pic is significant because it represents the typical venture the two generally pursue: Projects that fall in the $ 5 million-plus range that use local support talent and generally cheaper labor. It is financed through a combination of private investment and foreign-government backed capital, claims Fishman. In short, the American indie's ticket these days, Lichtman notes. "Most of the time we're not producing the pictures ourselves," said Fishman. "We spend more time setting up deals, such as distribution arrangements for studios and indies in Croatia and Slovenia through our partner Yadran."
Licthman added: "We get paid in dollars when we set up these co-production arrangements. We do some rather esoteric financing attimes, considering the monetary difficulties in some of these areas.
We did one of the first debt swap deals in Croatia on a project called 'Transylvania 6-5000,' which was a New World Pictures project."
Another project Incovent has been somewhat involved in is Spielberg's upcoming "Schindler's List."
Basically, Lichtman served as sort of a location and talent scout for the Spielberg crew, hunting in such areas as Lithuania and Latvia.
"We do a lot of ferreting out of locales for productions," Fishman said.
One example is a project Fishman said is funded by USA Network, Yadran Films and Yorkshire TV in London called "Death Train," starring Pierce Brosnan. The English project is being shopped to U.S. distributors now, Fishman said.
Another project the two have considered pedalling is a 26 1/2-hour series on Robin Hood, produced in the Baltics and sold to a U.S. syndicator.
"They have great castles over there and no TV antennas sticking up in the shots," Lichtman added.
"There are many things to consider, other than cheap labor and incredible locales. Take for example the government support," Lichtman noted. "In the very beginning of the war, when the Serbians attacked Croatia, they didn't have any armored vehicles or uniforms. They ended up borrowing some of the costumes, armored vehicles and the props from Yadran Films before they launched their attack. "So I think you could say, we have quite good working relationships in that part of the world."
