By Simon de Bruyn
Omnilab Media managing director Christopher Mapp plans to mentor upcoming directors and foster emerging talent in his new joint venture with George Miller’s Australian production group, Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
‘While we will start by working on George Miller-directed films, in the future we may work with external directors and others that have been mentored internally by the company. We will bring our own projects to the table as well,’ he told Inside Film.
Last Friday, the two groups announced they would form a joint digital media company with an initial focus on co-financing and co-producing digital feature films, visual effects and animation. The union aims to merge Omnilab’s management experience, resources and infrastructure, across its 14 businesses, with KMM’s creative film making expertise – honed over such film projects as Mad Max, Babe, Lorenzo’s Oil and Happy Feet.
Mapp said that while the company hoped to attract established Australian directors back from overseas to work on projects at home, the joint group would grow local talent by strengthening its partnerships with local educational institutions.
‘It’s a top priority for us to grow and retain local talent. We have been talking to some of the colleges about partnering with them and fostering this emerging talent and will up the ante even more with this new company,’ he said.
He was tight-lipped on projects currently under development by the new venture, but hinted one may be the fourth Mad Max film, Fury Road. ‘The Fury Road project is not green lit yet but it’s actually very well developed. George actually has a number of projects that are well developed that we would like to work on,’ he said.