Karpen
Schamus
PARK CITY, Utah -- Focus Features has nabbed a slate financing deal worth some $200 million from Dresdner Kleinwort.
Revolving credit facility, named Twins Financing, will cover 20-25 movies, potentially including all Focus titles.
Pics made under the Rogue Pictures banner are covered under a different slate financing deal, and Working Title films are excluded as well.
Execs said that the deal does not preclude them from seeking other forms of financing. Any project that will be financed exclusively by the two companies will see Dresdner Kleinwort and Focus split financing equally. If the movies have outside financiers, the ratios could vary, execs said.
Focus has a busy slate, with pics including Lajos Koltai's "Evening," David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" and Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" all due this year. All will be covered under the co-financing agreement.
Deal is for slate financing, not selection financing; Dresdner will have less input on the projects than it would under a selection deal.
Despite the influx of cash, company said it does not plan to increase the budget range for its pics, though it did allow for the possibility of adding more titles to its slate.
Focus CEO James Schamus and prexy Andrew Karpen noted that the deal would take "financial guesswork" out of project financing.
Bennett Pozil and P. John Burke of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld arranged and structured the transaction with Dresdner. Avy Eschenasy, exec VP of strategic planning, business affairs and acquisitions, handled the deal on the Focus side.
Move continues the larger trend of Wall Street money coming to Hollywood as well as a newer one in which even the specialty biz is drawing equity cash.
Focus trumpeted the deal as the biggest slate financing agreement for a specialty-film division.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com