Fans invest in films: Rotterdam invites "producers" to shell out coin

Wednesday's opening night of the Rotterdam Film Festival was a giant pitching session, with fest topper Rutger Wolfson facing an audience of 1,200 potential "co-producers" keen to invest as little as $7 in one of three films.

The fest is trying to persuade visitors to invest in the films, grouped together as Cinema Reloaded. "We have you, a very loyal and dedicated audience," he told a packed house, "and Cinema Reloaded starts from the idea that, just like the festival, our audience is eager to support the development of special films."

People can buy "coins" worth e5 ($7) online, and track their chosen project as it develops. Each project needs $42,000 to get the green light. On day one of the fest, Alexis Dos Santos' "Another World: Rocky and Lulu," about lovers who meet online, had accumulated the most coin, with $3,223.

Dos Santos has name recognition among festgoers thanks to last year's out-of-competition darling, "Unmade Beds." Swiss visual artist Pipilotti Rist had accumulated $2,032 for "Liebling," while Malaysian helmer Ho Yuhang had $1,815 for his untitled project.

Donations have come from around 400 people, with single-coin investments most common. Larger investments are typically for 10 or 15 coins, with the top mark going to a 50-coin investor in "Rocky and Lulu." Initiative is being watched closely by other fest folk at Rotterdam, who like the way it extends the fest's role.

Regular visitors like the idea of connecting with a production and helmers like the link with the audience, although some raise questions about artistic independence. Whether it is the future of film finance is another matter. "I don't believe in that really, not yet," said Wallie Polle of Cineart, which handles Dos Santos' films locally. "For me it's more about awareness, for audiences to get more into cinema." - Ian Mundell

John Hillcoat Won’t Be Going to The Promised Land; Film Scrapped Due to Financing Woes

Well, this is a lousy way to start the year. Over the last few months we’ve been watching as The Road director John Hillcoat attempted to kickstart a film adaptation of Matt Bondurant’s novel The Wettest County in the World, which evidently was to be called The Promised Land on screen. Hillcoat had a script by Nick Cave and a solid cast attached, including Ryan Gosling and Shia LaBeouf.

Now, in a piece printed in the UK, Hillcoat says the film is dead as he expresses a dismal view of the film business in general.


Hillcoat published a diary kept while making The Road in UK paper The Telegraph. (via The Playlist) There, as an epilogue to the experience of getting his latest film into theaters, he writes:

My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart. The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member. The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films – the birth of brand films such as Barbie, Monopoly: The Movie – who knows what’s next, Coca-Cola: The Movie? I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry.

This stings, as headlines today will also carry news of Avatar crossing the one billion dollar line. Nothing against Avatar, but if Hillcoat’s view of the business is right (”the perfect storm has arrived in Hollywood: a global economic downturn combined with piracy and the increase of downloading on the internet…The reactionary first phase has kicked in – few films in development, many films put on hold or shut down.”) then we’ll see a lot fewer films like The Promised Land in the near future.

The bright side, if you can call it that, is that Hillcoat does have other projects in the works, including an adaptation of Nick Cave’s latest novel The Death of Bunny Munro. Let’s hope one of those is deemed vaguely commercial enough to get a green light. Or maybe — just maybe — some other outfit with a few bucks to spend will swoop in and make The Promised Land happen. - Russ Fischer