Phoenix Pictures-the Culver City, Calif.-based feature studio under the aegis of chairman and CEO Mike Medavoy and president and COO Arnie Messer-has entered into a strategic alliance with Hollywood-headquartered Orbit Entertainment Group, parent company to feature division Orbit Pictures and commercial production house Orbit Productions.
Per the deal, Orbit Pictures, Hollywood, will produce five theatrical movies for Phoenix over a three-year period. Phoenix also gets a first look at Orbit feature projects, and assumes an equity participation in Orbit Entertainment Group. Medavoy described that equity stake as being "minor." Majority ownership in the Orbit Entertainment Group is held by co-CEOs Dror Soref and Lee Nelson. Soref also heads Orbit Pictures while Nelson serves as executive producer in charge of Hollywood-based Orbit Productions.
The agreement between Phoenix and Orbit carries significant spot-related implications. Medavoy and Messer reasoned that the deal will help to expand Phoenix’s business and creative content activities. Phoenix, for example, gains a conduit to the talent pool working in commercials, including Orbit’s roster of spot directors. "It isn’t a matter so much of access [to commercial directors]," explained Messer. "I don’t think there’s anybody who wouldn’t return Mike’s phone call. Instead, it’s about this alliance enabling us to get experience with those people, to get a first-hand chance to watch them work and see how they might fit into a feature project.
Nelson said that the relationship with Phoenix benefits Orbit’s commercial operation on several fronts. For one, it opens up legitimate longform opportunities for Orbit’s spot directors. Secondly, it will help attract additional top-drawer directors to Orbit’s roster. Medavoy related, for instance, that when Phoenix runs across capable feature filmmakers looking to diversify into commercials, he’d refer them to Orbit.
"Phoenix simply gives us a much increased stature," related Nelson. "You constantly look for ways to differentiate yourself from other commercial companies. The Phoenix deal does just that for us." Nelson noted that Phoenix is a feature studio with the resources to "green light" film deals itself. And he cited Medavoy’s reputation as an executive who fosters and supports filmmaking talent. "That’s why Terrence Malick went with Phoenix," said Nelson, referring to the director of The Thin Red Line.
Launched in ’95, Phoenix has produced the Academy Award-nominated The Thin Red Line, The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Mirror Has Two Faces. The company’s other credits include Urban Legend and Dick. Phoenix will release a romantic comedy, Whatever It Takes, on March 24, and Urban Legends: The Final Cut in the fall. Phoenix is also producing Vertical Limit directed by Martin Campbell for Sony Pictures.
Currently, Phoenix has in production the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Duvall action film, The Sixth Day, being directed by Roger Spottiswoode, who is repped by Orbit for commercials. Other directors on Orbit Productions’ roster are Soref, Wim Wenders, Carroll Ballard, Don Barnard, Danny Weisberg and Agust Baldursson.
While Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies), Wenders (The End of Violence, Tokyo-Ga, Lumiere and Company) and the recently signed Ballard (Fly Away Home, The Black Stallion) are established feature filmmakers with their own longform business relationships, the Orbit-Phoenix affiliation might yield them additional movie projects. And Orbit’s directors who have primarily spot experience could also see feature opportunities emerge. The Orbit/Phoenix pact includes Soref directing an as yet-to-be identified project. Soref’s filmmography includes his directing a low budget, Orbit-financed theatrical motion picture, The Seventh Coin starring Peter O’Toole, which was released in’93.
Orbit Pictures’ VP Kevin Moreton will figure prominently in the upcoming feature slate. As a former exec at New Line Cinema, Moreton contributed to that company’s Teenage Mutant Ninja and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, and served as exec producer on Menace II Society.
Helping to lay the foundation for the alliance with Orbit was Phoenix’s head of production Rick Hess who has since left to become president of bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films (SHOOT, 10/29/99, p. 1). Medavoy credited Hess with turning Phoenix onto Orbit. Hess had been seeking a business opportunity that would enable Phoenix to meaningfully tap into the commercial market.
