Pressman Film, the indie producer founded by the late Edward Pressman and behind classics from Wall Street to American Psycho, has broken new ground in film financing with the first slate listed on popular investment platform Republic.
The offering launched Sept. 5 with a goal of $1.5 million to develop a minimum of six new projects. It’s raised over $1.7 million and could see additional coin by the time it closes on Friday.
This is not crowdfunding but equity investment from — so far — 295 investors with Pressman offering rather generous returns if a project does make it into production as the indie seeks to create a brand and attract a pool of followers and potential financiers going forward. Investors can also reap premiums at other milestones including a portion of Pressman Film’s producing fee and a portion of their share of the net profits.
“We’re the first slate they [Republic] offered in this way, where people get to invest in a slate of pictures, and they get to participate in that at the level of $200 dollars to a million dollars. It includes investors that wouldn’t otherwise be able to invest with us. Usually, we collaborate with private investors or accredited investors, and so this is a way to get our fans and our audience to participate with us in the process,” Paizes tells Deadline. “It’s been a really fantastic experience.”
Some of the projects will be based on the company’s existing catalog of intellectual property, others on yet-to-be-identified new IP. Nothing is finalized but three library titles Pressman is considering for remakes or local language adaptations include The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) by Jack Cardiff, starring Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull and based on French novel La Motocyclette; psychological horror Sisters (1972), directed by Brian De Palma and starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning; and Old Boyfriends (1979) an American drama directed by Joan Tewkesbury, written by brothers Paul and Leonard Schrader, and starring Talia Shire, Keith Carradine, John Belushi and Buck Henry.
Paizes said the team will identify the projects fairly quickly after the close to start development in early 2025 but keep a couple of slots available for “interesting new IP. Maybe a book we find, maybe a screenplay that comes our way. We absolutely want to do that, because we’re all about supporting new voices and filmmakers.”
CEO Sam Pressman called the raise ” a unique opportunity for filmgoers to not only share in the financial upside of the development of a slate of films, but it’s also a rare opportunity to get behind-the-scenes access into the filmmaking process, from development to release.” He and Paizes noted that Ed Pressman was widely considered a pioneer in the industry for the maverick methods he brought to financing film production across his five-decade career.
With the entertainment marketplace in the midst of unprecedented change, it’s clearly time for innovation, Sam Pressman said, and no one would argue that. “Alongside our partners at Republic.com, we are inviting the audience, the fans of cinema, to own a piece of our culture and support the future of filmmaking, be they small independent movies or blockbuster franchises.”
LA-based Pressman plans to hold quarterly group Zoom calls with all its investors to update them and take questions.
Pressman has produced more than 100 motion pictures and helped launch the careers of some of the most prominent figures in the movie industry including Christian Bale, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brian DePalma and Oliver Stone.
The company’s upcoming projects include a remake of American Psycho with Lionsgate, directed by Luca Guadagnino.
Last week, it debuted an innovative AI hybrid documentary About A Hero as opening night of IDFA in Amsterdam. Director Piotr Winiewicz and his team sought develop an AI tool that could mimic the work of renowned German director Werner Herzog, and the script was adapted from text generated by the tool. The film centers around Herzog’s investigation of the mysterious death of a factory worker in a small town.
Last summer, Pressman Film announced it was expanding into TV development and production. It’s involved in projects with domestic and international TV producers and writers including Ernest Dickerson (Bosch, The Wire, Juice) and Eric Overmyer (Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, The Wire.), showrunner Omri Shenhar (Tehran, Magpie, Fauda) and Yona Rozenkier (The Commune, The Dive), as well as Joseph Quesada (Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Jessica Jones).
Republic is an NYC-based global financial firm operating, among other businesses, a network of retail-focused investment platforms known for providing access to new asset classes to investors of all types.
Founded in 2016 it’s backed by Morgan Stanley, Valor Equity Partners, Galaxy Interactive, Hashed, AngelList and other institutions, Republic has a global portfolio of over 2,000 companies and a community of nearly three million members in over 150 countries. More than $3 billion has been deployed through its investment platforms, funds, and firms within the Successful entertainment raises like Skybound (Walking Dead, Invincible), Bucket List Studios, and Lil Pump have raised tens of millions of dollars on Republic. In those cases, the cash went into the parent companies, not a slate.
“They absolutely have a community of investors,” Paizes said. “But we have to engage our community as well. You engage your own community. You do outreach on social media. You do a lot of digital marketing to get the word out. They help get the word out.”
