An up-and-coming producer/director has an option on one of my screenplays. He has two letters-of-intent from fairly well known character actors for supporting roles. He also has a commitment from a production facility to shoot the entire film using their facility on their dime. The budget is around $2 to $3 million. Without telling the screenplay's concept, I will say that it has elements that make it extremely viable in foreign markets (in addition to domestic).
What the producer/director doesn't have is financing. He has gap financing available, but I take it that's not all that difficult to find if one can secure the first fifty percent. I've encouraged this guy to get creative and try to pursue product placement opportunities and things like that. The story lends itself perfectly to that kind of thing. Frankly, he's not very creative in that sense. His main focus is trying to get an attachment/LOI from a name actor for the lead role. Of course, that's a lot harder than getting an LOI from a character actor -- especially without money on the table.
My other thought is to try to bring on a sales agent to try to pre-sell some foreign territories. Question: How feasible is it to bring on a sales agent (on a contingency/commission basis) with just a screenplay and attachments? I understand that if you have a produced film that's getting buzz at festivals, it's certainly easier -- especially for producer's reps. In fact, my understanding is that producer's reps normally won't come on board unless/until a project has name attachments with financing in place -- or preferably a completed film with lots of buzz (as mentioned above). But what's the story on sales agents? Anyone here with experience along these lines? I know it's all difficult, but is it any less difficult to pre-sell foreign versus domestic?
What the producer/director doesn't have is financing. He has gap financing available, but I take it that's not all that difficult to find if one can secure the first fifty percent. I've encouraged this guy to get creative and try to pursue product placement opportunities and things like that. The story lends itself perfectly to that kind of thing. Frankly, he's not very creative in that sense. His main focus is trying to get an attachment/LOI from a name actor for the lead role. Of course, that's a lot harder than getting an LOI from a character actor -- especially without money on the table.
My other thought is to try to bring on a sales agent to try to pre-sell some foreign territories. Question: How feasible is it to bring on a sales agent (on a contingency/commission basis) with just a screenplay and attachments? I understand that if you have a produced film that's getting buzz at festivals, it's certainly easier -- especially for producer's reps. In fact, my understanding is that producer's reps normally won't come on board unless/until a project has name attachments with financing in place -- or preferably a completed film with lots of buzz (as mentioned above). But what's the story on sales agents? Anyone here with experience along these lines? I know it's all difficult, but is it any less difficult to pre-sell foreign versus domestic?
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