Several producers who have had the common experience of finding it hard to negotiate deals with increasingly risk-averse Australian distributors have taken the bold step of launching their own distribution company.
The partners in Infinite Releasing are Hedone Productions’ Kate Croser and Sandy Cameron, and Jonathan Page, the executive producer of The Babadook, 100 Bloody Acres and Mary and Max.
Their first release will be Hedone’s The Infinite Man, a time-travel comedy-romance from first-time writer-director Hugh Sullivan, starring Josh McConville, Hannah Marshall and Alex Dimitriades.
Croser tells IF they have been approached by five or six other producers who are interested in routing their films via Infinite Releasing. She says Page will use his contacts to negotiate home entertainment, free-TV and pay-TV deals for The Infinite Man.
The arrangement with Infinite Releasing means the production qualifies for the 40% producer offset, a vital element of the financing. The project was developed through the South Australian Film Corp's FilmLab initiative to aid films budgeted below $1 million. Page is the EP.
Croser self-distributed her first feature, the Australian-Iranian collaboration My Tehran for Sale, written and directed by Granaz Moussavi, which was shot entirely on location in Tehran in 2008.
The Infinite Man film follows scientist Dean (McConville) as he attempts to change the past and fix his relationship with girlfriend Lana (Marshall). Dimitriades plays Lana’s ex-boyfriend, disgraced 1980s Olympian Terry.
The Adelaide-based Croser says the film has just locked and she has begun discussions with exhibitors. She anticipates a mid-2014 launch on 6-10 screens. LA-based Shoreline Entertainment is handling international sales.
Croser and writer-director Dario Russo are making a second series of Danger 5, an action-adventure comedy which follows a team of five spies on a mission to kill Hitler, for SBS.