Amritraj, Hoberman set up shop
Mandeville moving to Hyde Park
Outfit will team the entrepreneurial Amritraj and his links with the foreign market with Hoberman, a former president of production for Walt Disney Pictures and an acknowledged Hollywood insider.
Amritraj and Hoberman will be co-chairmen of Hyde Park, which will produce and finance between four and five pics a year, each budgeted in the $40 million to $80 million range. The men were introduced by William Morris Agency president Arnold Rifkin.
Hoberman will fold his current producing entity, Disney-based Mandeville Films, into Hyde Park, and the new company will be based in Brentwood.
Company is raising its own financing for development and production purposes. On the domestic front, it will have studio distribution, a deal that is being finalized. On the foreign front, Hyde Park will likely link with a Pan-European distribution entity or media group.
Though the two principals declined to discuss details, Hyde Park is understood to be negotiating with a major U.S. bank a revolving credit of around $500 million to fund its overhead and pics.
Under Amritraj and Hoberman will be execs including Cristi Limm, vice president of development; Todd Lieberman, vice president of acquisitions; and Jo D'Angelo, vice president of finance.
At Mandeville, Hoberman has been developing up to 12 projects, including several English-language remakes of European pics. The exec said he was developing new scripts with writers Tom Schulman ("Dead Poets Society") and Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel ("EDtv"). All these properties, and others, will now be brought over to Hyde Park.
Mandeville is currently producing a 13-part crime series for New Regency and Fox Network, "The Badland," exec produced by director F. Gary Gray ("The Negotiator").
Hoberman also is in pre-production on the dramatic feature "Queen Bess" for Fox 2000, Channel 4, Regency and TF1, with Bill Condon directing. His other producing credits include "George of the Jungle," "The Negotiator" and "The Other Sister."
Amritraj, a former co-chairman of Franchise Pictures, has produced or exec produced more than 50 titles, including "Double Impact." He is exec producing the upcoming pics "Battlefield Earth," starring John Travolta, "The Third Miracle," starring Ed Harris and "Picking Up the Pieces," starring Woody Allen.
