INSIDER #059
NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEGION
This Is Not Financial Advice Headed To Tribeca
This Is Not Financial Advice, which we are executive producing along with Optimist, will be having its world premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The premiere will take place at the artistically-vibrant Chelsea neighborhood SVA Theatre on Saturday, June 10 at 2:00pm ET. Two additional screenings will be shown on June 12 and June 15. For more details, visit the Tribeca Film site to get tickets.
Business Update — What We're Building
If you missed this update, it's important 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. Growth is the most critical key to our long-term success. Read the entire business update here.
Meet The Defiant Team
We are full speed ahead with our endeavor to tell the amazing true life story of Robert Smalls. Check out the kickass video we put together recently to introduce the Defiant team and the project to potential partners, financiers and talent.
When Fans Unite, We Move The Needle
Thank you so much to all of those who made it out to see a special 20th Anniversary screening of The Return Of The King last month. We were blown away to see the IndieWire report that we were #2 in the nation on Thursday 4/13, outgrossing movies like Air, Renfied, and The Pope's Exorcist despite the fact that those films were on 2x - 3x the number of screens. The overall results were beyond expectations, driving over $2M box office in North America. We're very grateful to have the opportunity to work with a specialty distributor like Fathom Events, a major studio like Warner Bros, and a wonderful partner like Lost Odyssey to help drive the success of these screenings.
You Can Call Me Bill — SXSW World Premiere Recap
Back in March, we celebrated the World Premiere of our William Shatner Documentary, You Can Call Me Bill, at SXSW in Austin, TX. And it was EPIC! If you weren’t able to share this momentous occasion with us in person (or even if you were), take a peak to view the highlights here.
Jay & Silent Bob Reboot Screening
Kevin Smith and his awesome audience represented Legion M at Smodcastle Cinemas in New Jersey for an epic screening of Jay & Silent Bob Reboot on 4/20. Fans were treated with Chronic Con Lanyards and Blu-ray copies of the movie as gifts for attending.
ISA's Table Read My Screenplay Hollywood
Legion M has partnered with International Screenwriters’ Association once again to bring you discounted entry fees to their latest screenplay competition, “Table Read My Screenplay Hollywood.” Get $10 off your entry fee when you use promo code: TRHLM10 (see full details on prizes and deadlines here).
AutoFocus: New T-Shirts Available!
Did you know that Legion M created its own apparel line for filmmakers and film buffs? Yep! We totally did! The Legion M community is full of creative individuals who have incredible talent and we felt that it was past time for a merch line that was designed for and inspired by them. Shop here.
DEVELOPMENT DIARIES
My Dead Friend Zoe
Absolutely amazing cast coming together for this important film we are producing with writer and director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. Press announcement coming imminently.
The Man In The White Van
Director Warren Skeels, producer Terri Lubaroff and sound mixer David Barber celebrate the completion of our sound mix on Legion M’s thriller feature film, The Man In The White Van. Starring Madison Wolfe, Brec Bassinger, Skai Jackson, Gavin Warren, with Ali Larter and Sean Astin, and supported by the amazing teams at Juniper Post (for sound), Light Iron (for digital intermediary [also known as DI] and color), and Post Hub (post supervision), this film is officially at the very end of post production.
We’re especially grateful to our music supervisors Barry Coffing and Andrew Lane for bringing in a terrific soundtrack, as well as our composer Scott Borland for a tense and exciting score. Cinematographer Gareth Paul Cox came out to LA to supervise color while the rest of the team mixed — it was a crazy week of back and forth and the early mornings and late nights resulted in a terrific film. We’re so proud of the entire team of talented creatives who helped bring the project to life and will have some exciting announcements about its world premiere in the coming months!
Tobor: Family Destroyer
Creators Eric Paperth and Tyler March worked their butts off over the last four months to craft one of the best comedy pitches we’ve ever heard! We pitched this to an amazing studio-based production company last week and they said “yes” on our very first pitch! We can’t announce who the partner is yet because there are still a lot of steps ahead — but we CAN say that we’re STOKED. We’ll be taking the pitch into the studio and if they buy it, we’ll take it out to buyers with the studio attached. There is a big caveat to all of this: the WGA strike. Although our writers are not affiliated with any union, we love and respect those who are. So, we’ll be waiting.
Tales Of The Moonlight Cutter
For those of you who love Wuxia and anime, you’ll be pleased to know that our writer on this project handed in his pitch deck last week! It’s absolutely terrific — a fun and fresh take on the genre, with an overarching story that has real legs. We’ll be sharing the deck with our animation studio this week to start the process of art development as we continue to package on the project and prepare for sales.
Destination Fantastic
We closed a deal with a production company that will be our lead on pitching this fan-tastic, Kickstarted travel series starring Stefan Pokorny. We can’t announce the company yet, but they have some amazing credits and have been instrumental in crafting the best pitch for the series for buyers. More to come on this in the next couple of months.
INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT
This week we're highlighting Legion M Investor John Grivas!
Hometown: Livonia, Michigan
Why do you love Legion M? I love the camaraderie and fellowship with like minded geeks, nerds and investors.
What's your all time favorite movie or TV show? The Highlander (series)
Favorite movie quote to live by? "There's no crying in baseball!"
What is it about movies that inspires you? To be able to lose myself in the adventure on the screen.
What is your profession/bio? Prior military, skilled trades millwright, registered nurse, operating room circulating nurse, early retirement! Quad-Elite Film Scout!
We want to put YOU in the spotlight. To submit to be featured in a future newsletter submit your info here.