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TERTZAKIAN'S XYZ FILMS AMONG VARIETY'S '10 TO WATCH' LIST
http://asbarez.com/106909/tertzakian%E2%80%99s-xyz-films-among-variety%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9910-to-watch%E2%80%99-list/
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 | Posted by Contributor
The XYZ team
HOLLYWOOD-Daily Variety listed XYZ Films, a partnership that includes
Orange County native Aram Tertzakian, on its "10 Producers to Watch
2012" list.
"When XYZ Films set up shop in mid-2008, the economy was in free fall
and traditional sources of independent film financing were scarce. So
instead of fighting for crumbs in Hollywood, the producers looked
overseas, working with local filmmakers to make genre movies on their
home turf and rooting out undiscovered cinematic gems to rep for North
American sales," reported Variety's Todd Longwell in his profile of
the film company.
Along with Tertzakian, Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Todd Brown
round out the quartet that make up XYZ.
"It allows us to team up with local producers, access soft money we
wouldn't be able to otherwise," Bolotin told Variety.
The strategy paid off when XYZ hooked up with Jakarta-based
writer-director Gareth Evans to produce the ultra-violent Indonesian
action-thriller "The Raid: Redemption." Budgeted at $1 million,
the film has grossed more than $14 million worldwide.
Spicer, Bolotin and Tertzakian met as students in UCLA's MFA Producers
program in the mid-2000s.
"I had a party for the new class at my apartment and Nate asked me
for a good hairstylist and a good dry cleaner," Spicer, who graduated
a year before the others, in 2006 told Variety. "I knew right then
that I'd found a business partner."
The company's first big move was to cut a one-year exclusive deal
with Time Inc. to develop articles from its archives as feature
films. No projects came to fruition, but "that's how people got to
know us and we started conversations with executives and talent all
over the industry," Spicer told Variety.
But what really put the shingle into the game was its film news
website Twitchfilm.com, run by editor-in-chief Brown, which has 40
contributors around the world who effectively double as talent scouts
for the company's production and sales arms.
"The talents they're indentifying could be the next generation of
great filmmakers and the stories that pop up could be the next great
international film or a possible remake," Tertzakian told Variety.
The scenario has already played out with Evans, who first came to XYZ's
attention when he asked Brown to look at his 2009 film "Merantau." XYZ
is now working on a sequel to "The Raid," with North American rights
presold to Sony. It's also wrapped production on "Frankenstein's Army,"
directed by Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst, and "The Rambler,"
directed by Calvin Lee Reeder and starring Dermot Mulroney.
http://asbarez.com/106909/tertzakian%E2%80%99s-xyz-films-among-variety%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9910-to-watch%E2%80%99-list/
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 | Posted by Contributor
The XYZ team
HOLLYWOOD-Daily Variety listed XYZ Films, a partnership that includes
Orange County native Aram Tertzakian, on its "10 Producers to Watch
2012" list.
"When XYZ Films set up shop in mid-2008, the economy was in free fall
and traditional sources of independent film financing were scarce. So
instead of fighting for crumbs in Hollywood, the producers looked
overseas, working with local filmmakers to make genre movies on their
home turf and rooting out undiscovered cinematic gems to rep for North
American sales," reported Variety's Todd Longwell in his profile of
the film company.
Along with Tertzakian, Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Todd Brown
round out the quartet that make up XYZ.
"It allows us to team up with local producers, access soft money we
wouldn't be able to otherwise," Bolotin told Variety.
The strategy paid off when XYZ hooked up with Jakarta-based
writer-director Gareth Evans to produce the ultra-violent Indonesian
action-thriller "The Raid: Redemption." Budgeted at $1 million,
the film has grossed more than $14 million worldwide.
Spicer, Bolotin and Tertzakian met as students in UCLA's MFA Producers
program in the mid-2000s.
"I had a party for the new class at my apartment and Nate asked me
for a good hairstylist and a good dry cleaner," Spicer, who graduated
a year before the others, in 2006 told Variety. "I knew right then
that I'd found a business partner."
The company's first big move was to cut a one-year exclusive deal
with Time Inc. to develop articles from its archives as feature
films. No projects came to fruition, but "that's how people got to
know us and we started conversations with executives and talent all
over the industry," Spicer told Variety.
But what really put the shingle into the game was its film news
website Twitchfilm.com, run by editor-in-chief Brown, which has 40
contributors around the world who effectively double as talent scouts
for the company's production and sales arms.
"The talents they're indentifying could be the next generation of
great filmmakers and the stories that pop up could be the next great
international film or a possible remake," Tertzakian told Variety.
The scenario has already played out with Evans, who first came to XYZ's
attention when he asked Brown to look at his 2009 film "Merantau." XYZ
is now working on a sequel to "The Raid," with North American rights
presold to Sony. It's also wrapped production on "Frankenstein's Army,"
directed by Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst, and "The Rambler,"
directed by Calvin Lee Reeder and starring Dermot Mulroney.