$40 mil for Renaissance
Indie outfit enters major league
This gives Renaissance the largest equity base of any U.K. indie production outfit and positions the company as a major co-financier of international movies.
Hermes Investment Management, representing the British Telecom and Post Office pension funds, is providing the $40 million -- thought to be the biggest single investment ever made by financial institutions from the City of London in a British film venture. The city is notoriously wary of the movie business.
Evans, whose credits include "The Wings of the Dove," "The Madness of King George" and "Henry V," will use the money to produce, acquire, finance and sell some 30 films over the next five years.
Int'l faith
Hermes chief exec Alastair Ross-Goobey commented, "We believe that (Renaissance) will prove to be the first self-sustaining, British-financed international film company."
Renaissance has agreed to an output deal with Entertainment Film Distributors for all U.K. rights to its slate.
Evans expects Renaissance to produce two of its own inhouse projects a year, starting with "Luzhin," directed by Marleen Gorris.
The rest of the slate will consist of co-productions, acquisitions or pics that the company will simply represent as a sales agent.
Staking half
Renaissance will provide up to 50% of a film's budget. Having its own large equity pool will enable it to make rapid greenlighting decisions, without waiting for pre-sales, bank loans or North American distribution deals.
"Our ability to make our own decisions and make them quickly gives us a huge advantage over other U.K. film companies," Evans commented.
That's likely to make Renaissance an attractive partner for other financiers of British and American movies, notably, the specialized arms of the Hollywood majors.
That all the company's pics are guaranteed a U.K. theatrical release through the country's leading indie distrib will also be a big plus.
"We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with Stephen Evans and Renaissance, which dates back to the releases of 'Peter's Friends' and 'Much Ado About Nothing,' " Entertainment managing director Nigel Green said. "We have every confidence in the team's ability to supply a steady stream of high-quality films."
Key players
Evans will share the title of co-managing director with Angus Finney, a former film journalist and consultant who has been working with him for the past year to put together the Hermes deal.
Bill Stephens, formerly director of international sales at FilmFour Intl., will run the foreign sales operation, along with Charlie Bloye, former senior sales exec at Rank Film Distributors.
Anne Sheehan, financial controller at FilmFour, will join the company as finance director.
Caroline Wood will continue as Renaissance's head of development.
Familiar trappings
Under the deal, the new company has acquired many of the assets of the original Renaissance Films, including its name, its development slate and its office.
Only the small library of films has been left with the old company, and Evans intends to sell that off in a separate transaction.
Renaissance will have a heavyweight team of nonexec directors on its board, led by chairman Anthony Chambers, former head of banking at Robert Fleming.
Other nonexecs include Robert Padgett, Hermes' director of corporate finance; Roger Brooke, the recently retired chairman and founder of Candover Investments; and Michael Flint, former chairman of law firm Denton Hall.
