Cannes Market Dailies

• View
• Edit

Hot on the heels of the hugely successful Cannes market launch of Spinning Gold, the epic tale of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, writer, director and producer Timothy Scott Bogart has today announced, Hero Partners, a ground-breaking partnership with producing partner, Jessica Martins of Hero Entertainment and Spinning Gold producer and financier, Chris Torto, a media and tech entrepreneur who has founded and sold three companies worth over $4 billion in the past 25 years.

Dedicated to streamlining independent film financing, the new venture will fully finance four to five films per year, providing content creators with a one-stop shop to finance and produce a slate of music-driven projects across Film, Television, Broadway and the emerging new media landscape. Torto has assembled an initial production fund for Hero Partners' inaugural feature film commitment of 100 million dollars, highlighted by a slate of Original Pop Musicals about the greatest love stories of all time, set to the greatest music of our time.  First up will be the Bogart scripted Marian, a period film set to modern pop music that tells the true story behind the tale of Robin Hood. Production begins in Italy in November with Bogart at the helm and Martins and Torto Producing.

Also set for the initial slate is the impossibly true story of the launch of MTV, which will be told first as a feature, then followed as a Broadway musical, with Bogart writing, and original MTV VJs, Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter, as Executive Producers.  Martins and Torto will Produce.

"Content has always been king, and content creators have always been the coin of the realm," said Bogart. "Empowering those creators to not only see their passion projects funded, but to protect their rights to those projects along the way is the cornerstone of the Hero Partners ethos. Chris' financial backing was the reason we were able to complete Spinning Gold before selling it, maintain the soundtrack and Broadway Musical rights, and tell this deeply personal story exactly how it should be told.  We can't wait to emulate this process with our upcoming slate."

Continued Bogart, "Our initial projects like Marian and MTV, are perfect examples of why a company like Hero Partners will be so transformative for the creatives who join us.  While we've been developing both for a number of years, our challenge has always been securing the financing for the films, while retaining these critical rights like Soundtrack, Broadway and Touring, that are extraordinary extensions to the story brands nearly always impossible to hold onto.  At Hero, "The Play Is Indeed The Thing!", the stories have the potential to be told in so many different ways across so many different media platforms and being in the position to fully fund them all ourselves, empowers us to empower the businesses we will build around each of our titles.  It's not a revolutionary act, wanting to retain creative rights, but it is almost always an unattainable one.  Until now.  I've spent 30 years searching for the right partners to build a business like this, and with Jessica and Chris, the search for those partners has resulted in a dream team of expertise, passion, and true lovers of music."

"The path of independent financing has evolved over the years into a complex labyrinth of tax credit and pre-sale lending, coupled with equity financing that has become increasingly harder to secure," added Martins.  "When we first shared our vision for how we wanted to finance Spinning Gold, Chris, whose own success over the years has been defined by combatting expected industry norms, immediately embraced our artist-centric vision for a new kind of studio in the tradition of the early United Artists and the great independents like Goldcrest Films.  And then he went further, asking if this model could be the foundation for not just this film, but an entire business committed to challenging the ways things had always been."

"When I looked at the complexities producers are forced to navigate between the world of debt financing, subsidies, and the multiple layers of equity and pre-sales needed to get anything done, Jessica, Tim and I knew there must be a better way," said Torto. "At Hero Partners, while we'll challenge our financial models to insure we're making smart bets, we understand there's no such thing as safe bets. But as Neil Bogart says in Spinning Gold, 'you have to bet big to win big,' and we are committed to supporting our filmmakers to have that chance. But the films are only the beginning of the stories we'll tell.  At the cornerstone of our business model, is the understanding that media consumption has changed forever.  Different audiences consume stories differently.  At Hero we are going to build a library for the long-run of not just films, but of brands and experiences. With Tim and Jessica's knowledge, and the financial backing we have now committed, we will back who we believe in, we will empower them to fully realize what we set out to do, and we will look to learn from those who came before, while charting a new course in this brave, new world."

Hero has also just committed the funding for the Broadway Musical adaptation of Spinning Gold, planned for the 2023/2024 season. Bogart will direct from him Book, and produce alongside Martins and Torto. Leading cast members from the movie Spinning Gold are in talks to return to star in the Broadway Musical.

Marian 

Bogart is writing and directing Marian, a period film set to modern music that tells the true story behind the tale of Robin Hood. Production on the highly anticipated title is set to commence in November 2022.

While history knows the legend, only Robin and Marian know the truth behind one of the greatest adventures ever told. The film features original music by pop Songwriter Evan Bogart, the mind behind some of the most indelible hits of the past 15+ years, including Beyonce's GRAMMY Award-Winning "Halo" and Rihanna's Worldwide #1 "SOS", in addition to crafting iconic records for Madonna, Britney Spears, Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Jason Derulo, Demi Lovato, Brandy, Leona Lewis countless others.

Marian follows the 20-year-old niece of King Richard, who just so happens to not only be great with a bow and arrow, but she may also just be the rebel the entire country has been searching for to lead the way to the revolution of a new world.

MTV

In 1981, a small group of young people had a crazy idea to launch a 24-hour cable network dedicated to music videos.  Five fresh faces introduced themselves at 12:01am; Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood and Martha Quinn.  A 20-something Breakfast Club about as different from one another as they could possibly be. And though none of them could have known it that night – these five faces were about to change our world.

With Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter Executive Producing, along with the support of Martha Quinn and Nina Blackwood, the true story behind this impossible revolution will finally be told. 

Said Bogart, "Mark and Alan have held onto their story for as long as I'd held onto the story of my dad in Spinning Gold.  And for all the same reasons.  There's a vision they have for how their story should be told – and an understanding that a film or a stage musical or an interactive experience – are all just part of the story – at Hero, we're able to tell it all. 

Bogart is scripting the film to be produced by Martins and Torto with Goodman and Hunter serving as Executive Producers.

***

ABOUT CHRIS TORTO

Chris is a serial entrepreneur in the technology and media sectors. Chris has founded and sold three companies worth over $4 billion in the past 25 years. Currently he is leading Torto Productions, an investor and partner of Hero Partners. Chris was the founder and CEO of Ascenty Data Centers, the largest data center company in Latin America. Chris sold Ascenty to Digital Realty in 2018 for $2.1 billion. Prior to Ascenty, he was the founder and CEO of Vivax, the second largest cable television company in Brazil. Chris took Vivax public and then subsequently sold the company for $1.2 billion. Prior to Vivax, Chris was the CEO of Voyager Inc., an Internet company that went public in 1999 on the NASDAQ stock exchange and subsequently acquired by a U.S. telecom group in 2000 for $550 million.

ABOUT HERO ENTERTAINMENT

As the founder of Hero Artists and Hero Entertainment Group, Jessica Martins has been an executive for 15 years in both the Canadian and US entertainment industry. She has executive produced films including Eone's FORSAKEN (starring Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore), Netflix Original KISS & CRY, and Roadside Attractions / Lionsgate, THE LAST FULL MEASURE (starring 8 Academy Award actors including Christopher Plummer, Samuel L Jackson and Ed Harris). Ms. Martins is the lead producers on the musical biopic SPINNING GOLD written & directed by Timothy Scott Bogart and is currently producing a slate of films including TRADER and ROOM (both currently in post-production), a feature film about the 50th year anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution, and NORTH STAR, a new feature written and being directed by Oscar award-nominee Jim Sheridan.  Ms. Martins is currently an EP on SPACEWALK VR, funded by the CMF, OMDC and NASA and sits on the advisory boards of TILTIFY, and Triumph Culture Capital Partners.  Ms. Martins is a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Women in Film and Television (both Toronto and New York Chapter), the EIC,  and the Women's Executive Network (WXN).