BERLIN -- In a move designed to boost its worldwide motion picture capability, Sony Pictures Entertainment is setting up its first foreign-based production unit, at Germany's famed Babelsberg film studio.
Idea behind the move is to seize upon local film production opportunities in a number of key territories around the world. Germany is the top foreign territory for both U.S. movies and TV shows.
SPE is the first of the Hollywood majors to set up a full-fledged production unit in Germany, though both Warners and Disney have of late financed local pics there on an ad hoc basis.
SPE itself has already taken some steps in the direction of local production in Germany, having announced last December that it would invest in four to five German-lingo pics a year with budgets in the $2 million to $4 million range.
Andrea Willson, previously head of fiction production for commercial web RTL2, was tapped managing director of that entity, German Columbia TriStar Film Production GmbH. It opened its offices in Munich at the beginning of the year.
Willson, a native German, reports directly to Gareth Wigan, co-vice chairman at Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group in Los Angeles. It is unclear what role she will play in SPE's activities at Babelsberg.
And Columbia TriStar Intl. Television, a unit of SPE, has been actively involved in creating local TV shows in Germany for several years and just last week tapped Ludwig zu Salm president of TV production, Europe.
Sources told Daily Variety that the deal in Germany is a reflection of SPE's aim to be not just an exporter of Hollywood films but a producer that nurtures local talent and utilizes cost-effective facilities in key markets abroad. It is thought that SPE will produce both big-budget English-lingo films as well as local Teutonic fare at Babelsberg.
What sort of money SPE is earmarking for the initiative in Germany is still unclear.
Several weeks ago, however, SPE set up a global investment fund -- with the help of Germany's Commerzbank -- to raise some $200 million in that territory specifically for film and TV projects. It is thought that some of this money will go toward the production unit at Babelsberg.
Details of the SPE investment in Babelsberg and the executive who will be in charge of the unit will be unveiled at a press conference in Berlin today. The announcement comes during the Berlin Film Festival, when a good part of the Euro industry is gathered here.
While both Willson and zu Salm will likely be involved in the production unit at Babelsberg, the yet-to-be-named new exec on the project will likely report to Jurgen Schau, SPE's top German rep on the film side.
Meanwhile, top execs from SPE, including Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group president Kenneth Lemberger and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors Intl. president Duncan Clark, have flown to Berlin for the announcement. They could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Officials of the Brandenberg region -- including the region's premier, Manfred Stolpe -- and from Babelsberg, including managing director Friedrich-Carl Wachs, will be at the press conference.
None of the German execs would comment on the size of SPE's investment in Babelsberg, which has been struggling to rebuild after decades of decay. There has, however, been speculation that SPE would actually take an equity stake in Babelsberg, but that could not be confirmed Wednesday.
It is likely that films which come out of the SPE/Babelsberg relationship will be able to utilize subsidies from the Brandenberg region, sources in L.A. suggest.
Leaks about SPE's plans for Babelsberg followed reports in the German press that SPE was planning to move its international headquarters to Berlin from Hollywood, but that rumor has now been denied by Brandenberg officials.
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