Trio launch indie Vox
Shingle stocks up on indie features
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Formed late last month, the new entity will aim to produce three features per year, each for under $5 million, and has eight to 10 projects on its initial development slate. Former Miramax creative exec Hannah Minghella also has joined the company as VP of development.
The principals' next step will be to seek financing on Vox3's debut projects, first of which is likely to be "Happy Ending" from photographer, illustrator and music-video director Matt Mahurin, whose docu "I Like Killing Flies," competed at Sundance earlier this year.
"Currently, there's a bit of a vacuum for the kind of movies we plan to make since so many of the formerly smaller New York companies like Killer Films or Open City or GreeneStreet have gotten so much bigger," said Shainberg.
"We're not trying to limit ourselves but we're also not pretending we'll be doing bigger studio-type films," offered Fierberg. "The market has shifted so systematically that the $1.8 million movies I used to make three of in a year no longer happen. People are now trying to push you down to make digital movies for no money or up to make bigger films for $7 million or more."
Fierberg will be in Toronto as producer under his Studio Fierberg label of two new features, Sally Potter's love story "Yes," starring Joan Allen and Sam Neill; and Lodge Kerrigan's drama "Keane," with Damian Lewis. Both pics are shopping for U.S. distribution deals at the fest.
Owner with her husband of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, Lurie is an independent film and television producer who this year teamed with Fierberg on Paul Black's coming-of-age drama "America Brown," which screened recently at the Montreal fest. She also serves as exec producer on Michael Hoffman's "Game Six," with Michael Keaton.
While the Potter and Keane features came together before Vox3 coalesced, the principals say they are illustrative of the type of cutting-edge material they plan to produce, along with films like Shainberg's debut, the Sundance prize-winning S&M romance "Secretary," which was released by Lions Gate.
"When I was trying to get 'Secretary' made, Andy took a chance on me; now it's my turn to do the same for others," said Shainberg. "The kind of films we want to be doing are not always overtly commercial but they're interesting and daring and all very specific."
The partners plan to explore opportunities with artists from other media, and to provide a home for new directors such as Hawaiian Kimi Takesui, whose first short film Shainberg and Fierberg saw two years back at the Locarno fest. Vox3 also has optioned "Stained Glass," an original script by Neal Jimenez ("River's Edge"), first sent to Shainberg to direct.
"We have a certain commitment to nurturing up and coming people who've done good shorts," said Fierberg. "But in some ways, because we're getting older, it's more interesting to work with people who've been through the wringer," said Fierberg. "They're easier because they already know how difficult it can be."
"What I hope to bring to this is the ability to attract the kind of material I might or might not direct myself," Shainberg said. "The theory is that we're trying to find a creative way to make film below that level where the tail starts wagging the dog, where casting and subject matter and script are all ruled by commercial concerns about the amount of money it's costing."
Shainberg is in pre-production on a Diane Arbus biopic, which stars Samantha Morton in a 1958-set chronicle of three months in the life of the photographer during her transformation from housewife and photographer's assistant to her husband into an artist in her own right. Edward R. Pressman Jr. and Bonnie Timmerman will produce with Fierberg. "Secretary" scribe Erin Cressida Wilson scripted from Patricia Bosworth's biography.
The director also has projects in development with Jeff Levy-Hinte at Antidote Films and with Chris and Roberta Hanley at Muse. While those and other Fierberg projects have been set up outside the nascent Vox3 structure, the partners are hoping that within five years, all their work will come together under the banner, though not necessarily as lead producer.
"We want to create a home for interesting filmmakers to keep coming back to, instead of having to start from scratch each time with a new set of producers," said Shainberg.
