Spyglass Entertainment

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Hadley Rosenbaum

SPYGLASS ENTERTAINMENT

by Hadley Rosenbaum

Courtesy of Spyglass

245 N Beverly Dr

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Tel: 1 310 443 5800

Fax: 1 310 443 5912

History/Overview

Spyglass Entertainment, LLC is an American Film and Television production company that was co-founded by Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber in 1998. European media giants, Kirch Group in Germany, and Mediaset in Italy, were the founders of Spyglass and agreed to invest for 5 years in the films that were produced in the studio. The deal was estimated to be worth $250 million (1). This deal was backed by The Walt Disney Company, and they aimed to produce around 3 to 5 movies a year through “a combination of studio money, global alliances with international distributors and media companies, and backed by a large financial institution”(2). Cerberus Capital Management currently owns the company.

Key Figures (3)

CO-Founders of Spyglass Entertainment

Gary Barber- Co-Chairman

Courtesy of Spyglass Entertainment

Gary Barber is the co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment along with his partner Roger Birnbaum. He has produced and executive produced a handful of films and he has run many entertainment businesses, including production, music, foreign distribution etc. He is a true mastermind of the entertainment business. Before Spyglass, Barber was the Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Creek, which is another American production studio. Even before Morgan Creek, Barber was the President of Vestron International Group, which focused on home video distribution. Barber received his college degrees fro the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Mr. Barber was named Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. in December 2010, but he continues to serve as Co-Chairman of the Board of Spyglass.

Roger Birnbaum- Co-Chairman

Roger Birnbaum is the co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment along with his partner Gary Barber. Birnbaum started his career as Vice President of Arista Records and A&M Records before starting his career in the film industry. Before he co-founded Spyglass Entertainment, Birnbaum co-founded Caravan Pictures, where he helped to produce

Courtesy of Spyglass Entertainment

many box office hits like “Rush Hour,” “Inspector Gadget,” “ “The Three Musketeers,” “Angels in the Outfield” and “While You Were Sleeping.” Even before working at Caravan, Birnbaum was the President of Worldwide Production and Executive Vice President of Twentieth Century Fox, where he helped produce a multitude of great films, like“Home Alone,” “Sleeping with the Enemy,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Die Hard 2” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” among others. Lastly, prior to that, Birnbaum was President of Production for United Artists, where he helped to develop and produce the Oscar winning film “Rain Man.”

Jose Gutierrez

Jose is the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Executive officer. He takes care of everything financially- related to Spyglass entertainment- banking and financial reporting, day-to-day activities, etc.

Success (3) (7)

Spyglass films have made a huge source of revenue in the box office, grossing over $5 billion worldwide to this day. Spyglass started its success with The Sixth Sense Spyglass was launched with the phenomenal box office success The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, which grossed over $661 million and achieved six Academy Award nominations. It also had another 32 wins and 37 nominations across the board (7). Other successes include Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, which grossed over $485 million in worldwide box office and is considered one of the blockbuster comedies of all time, and Memoirs of a Geisha, based on the best-selling novel, which earned Spyglass three Oscar wins out of six nominations, bringing the company a total, to date, of 34 nominations.

MGM

A lot of the movies Spyglass Entertainment helped produce were in collaboration with other production companies, and have slowly stopped producing movies in their studio. This is because in 2010, Spyglass purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., which lifted the

MGM Logo

company out of bankruptcy. Spyglass Entertainment and its investor Carl Ichan wrote off around $5 billion in debts in exchange for the studio. I was announced that Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum would become co-chairmen and chief executive officers of the studio (4).

Metro- Goldwyn-Meyer Studio owns one of the largest modern collections of feature films in the world, including 4,100 theatrically released feature film titles and approximately 10,800 television episodes. Films in the MGM Library have won over 200 Academy Awards, including 15 Best Picture Awards (5). This iconic company has so many operating units, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc., United Artists Films Inc., MGM Television Entertainment Inc., MGM Networks Inc., MGM Distribution Co., MGM International Television Distribution Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment LLC, MGM ON STAGE, MGM Music, MGM Consumer Products and MGM Interactive. In addition, MGM has ownership interests in domestic and international TV channels reaching over 130 countries (6).

Right Here, Right Now (8)

Spyglass Entertainment now serves as more of a distribution company of the movies they already have, and they have scaled back a lot on their movie production because of the merge. There are still some movies in production, just not 20 year.

One movie in production right now is Hercules: The Thracian Wars, which is set to start filming this upcoming may, and the release date is set for July 25^th, 2014. The movie is based off of a comic book, and has Dwayne Johnson playing Hercules. It will basically be a comic book-action- spinoff.

Spyglass has a few movies right now currently in development. One is called The Undomestic Goddess, which is a comedy about an American attorney who loses her job and finds work as a housemaid in England. This is based off of a book, and has no set date to begin production.

Another movie in development for Spyglass is called The Game, which is going to be an action/comedy about a man who hires a professional seduction expert to help him become the world’s best pick-up artist. Brian Koppelman and David Levien are attached to the movie as the directors/writers, and this movie is based off of a novel.

One last movie Spyglass has signed on to co-produce is called The Brood, which is an adaption of a 1970’s horror television show, which is now being remade into a movie by Breck Eisner.

References

(1) http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/35507765.html?dids=35507765:35507765&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT

(2) http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/33285845.html?dids=33285845:33285845&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+21%2C+1998&author=CLAUDIA+ELLER&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Company+Town%3B+THE+BIZ%3B+Spyglass+Offers+Disney+Lower-Risk+Deals&pqatl=google

(3) http://www.spyglassentertainment.com

(4) http://www.globaltimes.cn/business/world/2010-12/603275.html

(5) http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/CopyMGM.pdf

(6) http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mgm-restructuring-plan-becomes-effective-112209709.html

(7) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/

(8) http://pro.imdb.com/company/co0031181/

Spyglass Entertainment

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Mack Bleach

by Mack Bleach

Logo

245 N. Beverly Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
310.443.5800 (Tel)
310.443.5912 (Fax)
http://www.spyglassentertainment.com/

ORIGINS [1][2]
Co-founded by veteran producers and executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998, Spyglass Entertainment Group, LLC, is a small, private American production company that was forged from the joint investments from The Walt Disney Company—a later distributor for them—and several European investors, including Scandinavia’s Svensk Films, Portugal’s Lusomundo, Germany’s Kirch Group, and Italy’s Mediaset. Its current lone European distributor is StudioCanal UK. The Cerberus Capital Group, a private equity firm, acts as its parent holding company.

Birnbaum and Barber

KEY PEOPLE [3]
Gary Barber – Co-founder, Co-chairman, Co-CEO
Roger Birnbaum – Co-founder, Co-chairman, Co-CEO
Jonathan Glickman – President
Jose Gutierrez – CFO, Executive VP
Peter Oillataguerre – Executive VP of Production
Rebekah Rudd – Executive VP of Post-Production

ROLE
As a younger, smaller production house, Spyglass is owned and maintained by other companies and has either co-financed, co-distributed, and most importantly, co-produced, its films alongside other production groups; never has it produced a film on its own. However, Spyglass is known to finance and produce television and films for international distribution purposes, partnering with Canal Plus for television distribution in France, Sweden and Poland, Sogecable S.A. for Spanish television, Pony Canyon Inc. for distribution in Japan, and Forum Film Ltd. for Israeli cinema [2].

CINEMA SUCCESS [4]
Since its inception in 1998, the company has released films with every one of the “Big Six” film studios, garnering over $5 billion in global sales. Spyglass has co-produced a variety of different types of films for over a decade, including, most notably, the $661-million-dollar worldwide launch of The Sixth Sense (1999), followed by Bruce Almighty (2003), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) Star Trek (2009), and Get Him to the Greek (2010). Prior to Spyglass and MGM’s merger in 2010, The Sixth Sense, Bruce Almighty, and Seabiscuit (2003), dominated domestic box offices, helping to bring US totals to nearly $2 billion in revenue before the end of the decade. Spyglass films have collected over 34 Oscar nominations and 3 wins.

Theatrical poster

The Sixth Sense (1999)
Produced for Disney’s Hollywood Pictures affiliate, the M. Night Shyamalan-directed thriller pic starring Bruce Willis earned six Oscar nominations and grossed over $500 million worldwide, ranking it as the ninth highest grossing film in history at the time. Its commercial success confirmed investors’ faith in Barber and Birnbaum and was the company’s first breakthrough [2].

Theatrical poster

Bruce Almighty (2003)
Its most important film of the 2003-2004 releases, the Jim Carrey comedy pulled in nearly $500 million worldwide and its particular international draw heavily bolstered Spyglass’ financial standing through the international rights it acquired with co-financing partners overseas [2].

Theatrical poster

Seabiscuit (2003)
Coming after a split with Disney and a proud new partnership with co-financier DreamWorks, the film adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s novel about the famous racehorse, starring Tobey Maguire, proved to be a commercial and critical success that earned seven Oscar nominations. Spyglass put up half the budget with Universal Pictures, agreeing to rights for all international markets while Universal handled domestic markets [2].

Theatrical poster

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, the Rob Marshall-directed, Steven Spielberg-produced and Spyglass-produced drama starring Ken Watanabe and Michelle Yeoh garnered three Oscars out of its six nominations, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design in 2006 [5].

By the end of the decade, with analogous companies like Bel-Air, Mutual Film, Alcon, Mandalay, and New Regency facing financial ruin and scaling back activity, Spyglass’ success in the movie business was considered a fluke in the system. Because Spyglass Entertainment Television division’s debut endeavor, Miracles, failed in 2004, followed by the television failures of The Ranch and Out of the Shadows, Spyglass devoted itself to a strictly film content producer, and throughout the 2007-2008 year was especially prolific, producing fifteen films, from The Lookout (2007) to Four Christmases (2008). Today, Spyglass’ competition consists of Beacon Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and IFC. [2][6]

MERGER [7][8]
Around Christmas 2010, the ailing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) was ready to declare bankruptcy when Spyglass, one of the studio’s creditors, wrote off nearly $5 billion in debts, accumulated interest and fees in a trade for ownership of MGM, although both Spyglass and MGM would be considered separate entities. Barber and Birnbaum became co-charman and co-CEOs of the studio, despite Spyglass’ stake being reduced from 5% to 1% in a move by business magnate Carl Icahn, who, as a 14% owner, agreed after the plan was re-packaged to exclude titles from the Spyglass archives.

Get Him to the Greek (2010) Trailer [9]
One of Spyglass’ first co-produced films following the merger, and a highly successful comedy.

ACTIVITY [10]
Since the merger, Spyglass has scaled back its operation, and only produces several films a year [2], if that, which includes Dinner for Schmucks (2010), The Tourist (2010), No Strings Attached (2011), and, most recently, The Vow (2012).

Spyglass is currently attached to the action-adventure film adaptation of Radical Comics’ Hercules: The Thracian Wars (2014), which starts pre-production in May, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ian McShane.
Barber, Birnbaum, and Glickman (as Spyglass Entertainment) are signed on as producers for Ironbow: The Legend of William Tell, a version of the Swiss folk hero’s legendary creation of the Swiss Confederation, written by Jay Wolpert and directed by Justin Chadwick.
The trio are also producers, along with Robert De Niro, on The Undomestic Goddess, a film in development based on Sophie Kinsella’s novel of the same name.
Spyglass’ producers have teamed up with writer/director Brian Koppelman and several other producers in the development of The Game, a film adapation of Neil Strauss’ memoir as a pickup artist, starring Josh Gad.
In another adaptation, Spyglass has signed on as co-producer of the 1979 remake of the sci-fi/horror film, The Brood, written by Cory Goodman and directed by Breck Eisner.
Spyglass is behind Spanky Johnson: Monster Hunter (2014), a comedy about a boy who is forced to assume his father’s monster hunting business, starring Dan Fogler, who also appeared in Spyglass’ 2007 comedy success, Balls of Fury.