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Recently minted film and TV firm Media Musketeers has signed a slate finance deal with Paris-based investment outfit Entourage Ventures. It has also brought on Patrick Swiderski as its finance chief.
Former Apple executives Sebastien Janin and Andy Docherty teamed with former Warner Bros. exec Chris Law to launch Media Musketeers earlier this year. Its first projects include ForLan Films-produced “God Fearing Man,” based on an original Stanley Kubrick screenplay.
The slate financing deal is of the kind more readily seen in the movie business. It will be used to fund a slate of up to eight premium series a year.
The partnership news comes as Swiderski joins Media Musketeers as managing partner for finance. “We are delighted to be partnering with Entourage,” he said. “Their investment capability, expertise and connections will enable us to build properties around innovative production, distribution and financing, bringing our ambitious plans to fruition.”
Media Musketeers will work up and executive produce big-budget TV and then find broadcast and platform partners. Its founders told Variety that part of the plan is to rethink the traditional windowing strategy and look at the potential of launching some projects on transactional digital platforms ahead of launching through the traditional channels.
Entourage Ventures invests in media and entertainment firms. It has previously inked a slate finance deal with Gaumont and is financing over 40 pictures from the French studio.
“Media Musketeers combine an innovative approach to IP, a built-to-scale business model and a tech expertise fit for the new market conditions,” said Julien Delajoux and Matthias Nicodeme, co-founders of Entourage Ventures. “Their dynamic plans very much fit with our own strategic approach and we are looking forward seeing the rich slate of high-end projects our partnership will create.”
The Media Musketeers team is based in France, the U.K., and the Netherlands. It said the value of its slate over the first five years will hit €1 billion ($1.2 billion).
Its “God Fearing Man” project is based on a book by Herbert Emerson Wilson and Kubrick’s original screenplay. It tells the true story of a Canadian church minister-turned-safe cracker who became one of the most successful bank robbers in U.S. history. The four-hour TV drama was developed by ForLan with Philip Hobbs, co-producer on Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”
[“source=variety”]