Happy 2024 Legion M! We're just over a week into the new year and we thought this would be an excellent time to reflect back on just how amazing 2023 was. For those that keep up with every update we send out (or for anyone who may have missed the news the first time around), this will be a nice recap on the accomplishments and events we’ve achieved together over the last twelve months. Thank you so much for your continued support.

Onward and Upward!

JANUARY

You Can Call Me Bill offering sells out in less than 4 days — When we launched the offering for our William Shatner documentary, priority notifications went out solely to those on the reservation list. In less than 4 days—before any official press releases were made—we hit our max funding cap and the offering was closed to new investments.

FAQ: What has the Legion M ROI been for investors in previous rounds — New investors naturally want to understand what the ROI has been for existing investors. That said, equity crowdfunding is unlike most other investments, so we took a moment to offer insight on how it all works.

FEBRUARY

We announced that You Can Call Me Bill was going to SXSW! — The South By Southwest Film Festival is one of the top ranked film festivals in the world and we were absolutely ecstatic that our fan-owned doc was going to be making its world premiere there.

FAQ: How decisions are made at Legion M — We’ve put a lot of thought into how decisions should be made at a fan-owned company, and while this isn’t a democracy, our community is the CORE of everything we do. So with that in mind, we firmly believe that Legion M’s unique ability to make data-driven decisions by harnessing the “wisdom of the crowd” (which leverages the combined energy, experience, and passion of our community) is a competitive advantage that benefits us all.

MARCH

Direct descendent of Captain Robert Smalls joined all-star Defiant team — In addition to being one of the foremost experts on the man and his incredible legacy (see his TEDx talk on the subject here), Michael Boulware Moore, is also the great-great-grandson of Robert Smalls and we were thrilled to welcome him to the project’s creative team.

Exclusive Deadline Interview with William Shatner — the legendary icon (and subject of our upcoming documentary) shared his thoughts on You Can Call Me Bill, turning 92, and blasting into space aboard Blue Origins.

You Can Call Me Bill premieres at SXSW — On Thursday, March 16th, 2023 we celebrated the World Premiere of our William Shatner Documentary, You Can Call Me Bill at SXSW in Austin, TX. And it was EPIC!

APRIL

Business Update: Evaluating the trajectory of Legion M projects — Friday April 7th marked the six year anniversary of the release of Colossal, the first project Legion M ever got involved with. To show just how far we’ve come, we shared some details about the economics of that project and compared it to our most recent project, You Can Call Me Bill.

20th Anniversary Celebration of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King — Legion M was honored to partner with Fathom Events, Warner Bros., and Lost Odyssey to bring The extended edition of The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King back to theaters on April 13th and 19th to celebrate the film’s 20th Anniversary.

We announced that This Is Not Financial Advice was headed to Tribeca — What’s better than having one amazing film festival premiere? How about another one! We got the news that our upcoming doc, This is Not Financial Advice, would be making its world premiere at the prestigious festival in June.

The official Legion M movie rating scale was released — They say opinions are like elbows… everyone has them and nobody cares about yours. That's not true though—Legion M cares deeply about yours, particularly when it comes to evaluating movies. The lack of a commonly accepted scale can be a challenge, but we think we’ve got that covered!

Meet Team Defiant – If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the kickass video we created to introduce the Defiant team to potential financiers and take a moment to learn more about the incredible creators working to make this film a reality.

Business Update: What we're building — It’s been seven years since Legion M burst onto the entertainment scene with our first-of-its-kind business model and we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we're building together, why it matters now, and examine the great potential it has as we keep growing.

MAY

William Shatner doc headed to Cannes sales market — We partnered with Blue Finch, who took You Can Call Me Bill to Cannes, where film buyers/sellers from around the world congregate at one of the largest international markets of the year.

Ed Harris, Sonequa Martin-Green and Natalie Morales lead the cast for My Dead Friend Zoe — Deadline broke the exclusive and we were thrilled to welcome Ed Harris, Sonequa Martin-Green & Natalie Morales to the cast of our dark veteran dramedy.

What the WGA & SAG-AFTRA Strikes Mean for Legion M - Legion M is not a member of AMPTP and was not among the companies under strike. We support SAG and WGA members and respect their right to strike. Our collective hope is for a swift, fair agreement between all parties.

JUNE

Hollywood Charity Horse Show - For over 30 years, William Shatner has hosted the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, which directly benefits local children's and veteran's charities. This year's incredible event (which featured an equestrian exhibition, live music from Dwight Yoakam, and a silent auction) took place on June 3rd and Legion M was there.

This is Not Financial Advice premieres at Tribeca — June 10th marked the Tribeca premiere of the feature documentary, This is Not Financial Advice. Check out the highlights as well as an in depth review from investor Dean Hawkey.

Shareholder call with William Shatner — On June 12th, Legion M and doc investors were invited to a shareholder-only zoom call with William Shatner and Director Alexandre O. Philippe to discuss our distribution plans for You Can Call Me Bill.

Morgan Freeman, Gloria Reuben & Utkarsh Ambudkar join stellar MDFZ cast — Epic announcement as writer-director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes rounded out an already impressive cast for his debut feature, the dark veteran dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe.

JULY

Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls kicks off with a graphic novel — Defiant is a very ambitious project, so on our path to getting his story told, we’ve started off with a graphic novel that will act as the underlying IP (and first draft of the storyboards) for the eventual feature film.

YCCMB: Rolling Red Carpet Tour announced — While most movies have their fancy red carpet premieres in LA or NY…we want to bring the red carpet to you! If you’d like your town to be one of the stops on our rolling red carpet tour for You Can Call Me Bill, be sure to let us know.

SDCC: We partied on the Berkeley Steamship with team Defiant — on July 22nd, we capped off an epic day of panels and events at SDCC with a party under the stars on the Berkeley steamship in downtown San Diego to celebrate the launch of our Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls graphic novel.

Space for Humanity and Legion M announced partnership to develop a music video for "So Fragile, So Blue" — the emotionally powerful song chronicles William Shatner’s transformative journey to space, and has only ever been performed once—at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with the National Symphony Orchestra. It received an astounding 4.5-minute standing ovation, leaving an indelible mark on all who witnessed it.

AUGUST

Filming of My Dead Friend Zoe has wrapped — We were extremely fortunate to complete filming just before the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike commenced and couldn’t have been more pleased with the absolutely incredible performances from our cast.

My Dead Friend Zoe lands Emmy-winning editor — As we moved officially into post-production, we were thrilled to announce the addition of Emmy-Winning editor, Ali Greer to the production team for My Dead Friend Zoe.

SEPTEMBER

Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose hit theaters — Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose arrived in theaters on Friday September 1st and Gef’s Army was ready!

M-Pulse: Should Legion M be doing more theatrical events — On the heels of our successful partnership on the LoTR anniversary screenings, we asked our community to give us their feedback on the prospect of Legion M programming other theatrical events, including the possibility of a monthly “Movie Club”.

Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose now on digital — If you weren’t able to catch the film during its limited theatrical run (or you just want to watch it again), the film hit digital and VOD platforms on September 19th.

More festival opportunities for William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill — We had not just one, but SIX incredible festival opportunities for viewing this reflective deep-dive documentary.

Business Update: Leveling Up to a Tipping Point — Legion M has leveled up from investing in other people's movies to producing our own -- with folks like Morgan Freeman and William Shatner, no less! We took a moment to explore just how far we’ve come.

OCTOBER

Exciting progress on My Dead Friend Zoe — MDFZ has consistently managed to attract the highest levels of talent both in front of the camera and behind and we were excited to announce that we have also scored big with our masterful DP Matt Sakatani Roe, our amazing casting director Jamie Castro, our awesome production designer Whit Vogel.

The Man in the White Van premieres at NBFF — On October 14th, we celebrated the long-awaited premiere of The Man in the White Van (which debuted to an incredible 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) at the prestigious Newport Beach Film Festival.

Shoutout from YCCMB director Alexandre O. Philippe — William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill had a special presentation screening at NBFF on October 18th, which included a pre-show Q&A with Bill and Jason Alexander (Actor, Writer and Producer). The film also made several other festival stops, including SITGES, where director Alexandre O. Philippe took a quick moment to send a message to the Legion M community.

We took a first look at the Shatner Doc trailers — We gave the community an exclusive look at two new trailer concepts for William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill and asked for feedback to find out which one you all liked better.

Terri Lubaroff's next adventure announced — Terri’s impact is inextricably woven into the DNA of Legion M and though change is always hard, we expect she will continue to leave her mark on the company as she transitions from “management” to “trusted advisor”.

Exclusive Mandy Red Miller figure from McFarlane Toys — Included as part of their special, Movie Maniac collection, only 3,000 of the officially licensed Mandy Red Miller 6" posed figures will ever be released.

NOVEMBER

My Dead Friend Zoe reaches “picture lock” — This critical stage in post-production means that the sequence of shots is now set and won't likely change. Picture lock is a major step that allows us to move confidently into the next stages, which includes Music, Sound Design, Color Correcting, etc. Investors—be sure to double check your email inbox for the full update.

Business Update: Reflecting on 'The Method to the Madness' — When we first embarked on this journey we had more than just a vision, we had a stepping stone approach to achieving our goals. Reflecting back, it's motivating to see the distance we've traveled and just how accurate that map turned out to be. But the most exciting thing is the chapter that is unfolding before us as we move into phase 4!

Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls hits an exciting milestone — We are 100% done with the initial written content and layout for the 4 comics which comprise the Defiant graphic novel! Now that this is going through the editorial process, we are moving full speed ahead into art production and storyboarding.

This is Not Financial Advice release details announced — The month ended with a bang as the official TINFA trailer dropped, along with the awesome news that the thought provoking doc will be released on January 11th on FUSE Tv and across various digital platforms, following its west coast premiere at Vidiots Theater on the January 10th.

DECEMBER

Team Defiant @ LA Comic Con — Our incredible creative team kept the momentum growing as they spread the word about Robert Smalls and Defiant at L.A. Comic Con with an exclusive spotlight panel and autograph session.

Shatner Doc: Zoom Call and Release Plan Vote — A meeting was held on Dec 13th and we had some great feedback and interaction from direct investors of You Can Call Me Bill. The voting results for the film’s release plan will be announced soon.

Defiant writer Rob Edwards exclusive PBS interview — On a visit back to his hometown Detroit, writer Rob Edwards chatted with One Detroit’s Chris Jordan about all things Defiant.

Poster art feedback wanted for You Can Call Me Bill — It’s brainstorming time! We’re looking to develop the poster and "key art" for our upcoming documentary. If you haven't already chimed in, be sure to join the discussion on Facebook.

PS… you can always catch up on all the latest Legion M news and happenings in the Shareholder Updates section of our website.