The BSE/IFB have issued a call for Irish femme fatale thriller/horror scripts on behalf of Reiko Bradley, President of Becker Films International, the recently established foreign sales arm of the Becker Group.
Becker is one of Australia’s largest independent listed entertainment companies, with operations spanning an Australian cinema chain, TV production (in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia), a mainstream theatrical releasing operation and a specialist film releasing label (including Screm, Blair Witch Project, Ameile).
Bradley herself comes with many years of experience in the international marketplace, having worked in sales at MDP and in acquisitions at JVC, with her involvement ranging from such titles as Oscar laureate ‘Monster’, David Mamet’s ‘State and Main’, documentaries, right through to Van Damme action movies.
As a new division, Bradley is looking for content, and – after approaches by BSE/IFB - has already started reading Irish scripts and viewing Irish content. Bradley had just closed a deal to represent a project to be helmed by Irish director Mary McGuckian. While she admits the international marketplace for independent sales is much tougher than ever before (remembering fondly the days when generating sales of 150% of the budget was not too tough), she says she “is fine” working with first time directors, as distinct from first time producers.
Bradley will look at feature films and documentaries in any language budgeted below $15m (but she prefers more around the $5m mark). She is looking for films with “a voice and some sort of market, films with an angle that remains challenging, projects that have a point of view and identity.” But she “does not want to sell pictures by the pound” and therefore, in the initial years is looking to represent about five films annually.
As the group is Australia-based, Becker can assist with packaging Irish-Australia co-productions, sourcing Australian partners and accessing federal and state Australian funding, as well as putting content forward for Australian presales through either of Becker’s local theatrical releasing arms. But Bradley stressed that need not have an Australian angle to approach her for international sales representation. She is completely open to split-rights territory deals and can also come to something later in the piece if it’s the right sort of content (like OSAMA).
Projects are best submitted to her by firstly contacting her by email (reiko@beckers.com.au) and briefly outlining the film’s genre, a logline and details of the proposed financing and casting package. Should she be interested, scripts can then be sent by email upon request. While “naked scripts” are less of a priority, she still wants to see material reasonably early when the producer is starting to think seriously about financing and packaging.
“Its best to work with a sales agent from the beginning so we can work together to try to ensure we all make some money and people see the film,” she said. “Sales agents know the marketplace and the buyers and can tell you about the changes in the marketplace rather than you making the film in a vacuum.” Interestingly, Bradley has just concluded a $2 million deal for financing of three films with private investors in the northern Australian state of Queensland. However, there are only two scripts for what is envisaged as a trilogy and she is therefore on the hunt for a “femme fatale thriller/horror” script that can be shot in Australia – although the director could still be Irish should they be willing to spend several months based in Australia!
For Further Information Contact the Irish Film Board or Becker Group Website
