Block
Artisan founder Bill Block and three partners have formed QED Intl., a Beverly Hills-based financing, sales and production company backed by an initial round of nearly $10 million in private equity.
QED, which will launch today at the Berlin Film Festival, is using the equity to secure a sizable war chest of debt financing that it will use to fund various projects and undertake its own productions, either alone or in partnership with studios, talent and key foreign distribs.
Block also will continue to produce for Key Creatives, the management/production company he opened in early 2004 with Ken Kamins after Artisan--which turned out such titles as horror hit "The Blair Witch Project"--was sold to Lionsgate.
Key's client roster includes Peter Jackson, Christopher McQuarrie, Shane Black, John Boorman and Paul W.S. Anderson.
Joining Block at QED are veteran international sales agent Kimberly Fox, who will serve as senior VP; former Key Creatives chief financial officer Paul Hanson, who'll be chief operating officer; and consumer marketing consultant Elliot Ferwerda, who will serve as prexy of production.
Block and his partners are sure to draw upon the relationships they have built over the years in growing QED. Fox, who previously headed up international sales for Kathy Morgan Intl., is in Berlin with Hanson to meet with potential territory partners and discuss QED's plans to build an aggressive international and domestic sales biz.
A chief aim of the company is to fill what it sees as the ever-growing need for a place where a variety of indie and studio producers can go to secure money and packaging aid.
"We will go after producers who are looking to advance their projects," Block told
Daily Variety.
"We are launching QED at this time because we see an opportunity in the landscape for a focused sales agency that fully services studio and independent producers that extends beyond just the deal to marketing, delivery and distribution to our territorial partners," Block said.
QED's relationships with key international distributors will enable it to assemble production financing from presales and equity capital for pics it produces or reps.
In addition to being a sales rep and financier, QED also will produce or co-produce its own slate of films. Projects already in the works include the following:
-- Writer-director John Heffernan's sci-fi actioner "Just a Pilgrim," based on Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti's graphic novel "Black Bull," with Gareb Shamus and Kevin Levin producing
-- Writer-director Andy Fickman's thriller "Cul De Sac," which Mark Forby and Leilani Forby are producing
-- Writer-director Isaac Webb's suspense drama "Second Wife" produced by Ethan Smith.
Block said the investors putting up the equity did not want their names disclosed.
Before launching Key Creatives, Block was prexy of Artisan Entertainment, overseeing new productions and acquisitions. He's exec produced or produced numerous films, including upcoming thriller "First Born," produced by Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group. Past producing credits include "Vanilla Sky."
Contact Pamela McClintock at
pamela.mcclintock@variety.com