By Rachael Turk
Omnilab Media has announced that it is co-financing W, the biopic about President George W. Bush directed by Academy Award winner Oliver Stone (World Trade Center, Platoon, Wall Street) and starring Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) and James Cromwell (The Queen, L.A. Confidential).
The deal consolidates Omnilab’s move into the financing, production, visual effects and post-production of international film and television properties.
“Our strategy is to find stories that we believe have an audience place and grow our business in an international context,” Omnilab’s executive director Matthew Street, who negotiated the deal on the company’s behalf alongside managing director Christopher Mapp and executive producer David Whealy, told Inside Film.
“We’ve always been internationally focussed, whether we make the content domestically or internationally with foreign partners.
“One of the things that attracts us to a films is a great character. George W. Bush is exactly that. And Oliver Stone will deliver independently in a way that will likely to be a controversial and creative take.”
The news comes about as Omnilab readies itself for the Australian release of The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham (The Transporter, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and directed by Roger Donaldson (The World’s Fastest Indian), which opened at number 1 in the UK, and, in the US is currently nudging a five times multiple of its opening weekend (just under US$6m).
Other funding deals recently concluded by Omnilab Media are The Messenger (Mark Gordon, Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster). Omnilab also recently started a digital film venture with Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
Omnilab Media is Australia