Germans mine indie gems
Weber picked up 'Shortbus,' 'Candy,' 'Food' at Cannes
MUNICH -- Teutonic distrib Senator Film was one of the many casualties when the Neuer Markt bubble burst. After two years of insolvency, the company is now trying to scramble back on its feet with its new topper, Los Angeles-based indie producer Marco Weber, leading the way.
Last fall, Weber, together with his business partner attorney Helge Sasse, had bought 50% of Senator's shares from Deutsche Bank, which together with a consortium of other banks continues to hold a quarter of the company's shares. The rest of the shares are in free float.
Entering the Teuton distribution market is certainly not a risk-free undertaking. With dwindling admissions and consumer confidence at a subterranean low, Germany is a difficult territory, but Weber won't be discouraged: "Whether or not now is the right time to go into film distribution in Germany, we'll find out in the next couple of years. All I can say is that right now, the time is right for me."
After a spending spree in Cannes, where Weber picked up John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus," David Slade's "Hard Candy," Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation" and Richard Shepard's "Spring Break in Bosnia," he intends to position Senator as a director-led outfit. The plan is to release high-profile U.S. and international indie productions, but also smaller, edgier genre titles such as "Hard Candy."
For the latter, Weber has created the sub-label Autobahn, through which he intends to release three to four titles a year. Borderline arthouse pics such as "Bricks" or "Shortbus" usually have a tough time finding a Teuton distrib, and Weber happily admits he's operating in a buyer's market.
"The sales companies are delighted to find a German distributor for smaller indie films," Weber says. "The usual reaction they get from German distributors is, 'We don't know how to release this film.' But I believe that by building up a label and by creating a sense of continuity, it's possible to make these films succeed, making them even more valuable for the home entertainment market."
The Autobahn label is an experiment, Weber admits, but he wants to give it two years and see whether he can make it work. "We'll keep costs at a minimum. You can get these films at a good price, and we'll going out with a very small number of prints and spend next to nothing on advertising. These are the kind of films journalists and critics like, so we can rely entirely on publicity and grassroots marketing via the Internet."
Heading Senator's distribution arm is ex-Kinowelt distrib exec Peter Heinzemann. He was recently joined by production topper Christoph Mueller, who previously worked at Goldkind Film, where he produced "Sophie Scholl."
"We want to return to actively producing and developing German-language films inhouse," Weber says. "Not just comedies, which you have to do if you want to be successful in the German market, but also films that could appeal to an international audience."
One of the projects that has the potential to travel is an Anne Frank pic that Senator is developing with Dutch helmer Ben Verbong.
Weber himself will continue to spend most of his time in Los Angeles with his wife and four children. "Three weeks out of four I'm in L.A. That's not a problem because I get up at 5 a.m. and deal with the daily business in Germany via video conferencing."
Weber has also incorporated his old L.A.-based company Streamline Atlantic into Senator; his long-term collaborator Vanessa Coifman is now acting as Senator's U.S. production topper. "We have a development slate of 6-8 projects in the $8-15 million range, which we intend to co-finance with another party," Weber says. "They're all indie films with mainstream potential. But we also have two projects around the $3 million range, which we want to finance ourselves and release via Autobahn."
One of the issues that still needs to be resolved is Senator's difficult relationship with Teuton production outfit X-Filme, of which Senator is a majority shareholder and which has a distribution deal with Germany's Warner Bros. Senator had bought into X-Filme during the height of the Neuer Markt, but whereas Senator tumbled into insolvency, X-Filme evolved and became one of the most prolific Teuton production houses.
"My business partner Helge and I sat down with them and told them that we'd like to find a friendly and peaceful agreement. I believe that by the end of the summer, we'll have found a reasonable common denominator," says Weber, emphasizing the two companies are in no way blocking or hindering one another. "Our business model has nothing to do with X-Filme. X-Filme is an independent and successful company, and I hope we'll find a solution that will please everybody."
