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Robert Schwartzman is a part of certainly one of Hollywood’s nice filmmaking dynasties, however when he ventured into directing himself, he found that the world of distribution for up-and-coming filmmakers was damaged.
The multihyphenate, who’s Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, has acted in films like “The Princess Diaries” — the place he performed Anne Hathaway’s love curiosity Michael Moscovitz in what grew to become her breakout film — and has fronted the rock band Rooney since 1999. In recent times, nevertheless, Schwartzman has turn out to be extra ensconced within the household enterprise, directing indie options comparable to “The Unicorn,” “Dreamland” and “The Argument.”
“I felt a frustration that sure movies have been being missed out there, like if you don’t get into a movie competition, and the film doesn’t make the lower generally,” Schwartzman tells Selection. “It’s fairly emotionally devastating for a filmmaker to really feel that rejection.”
He continues: “You wish to put [the film] within the fingers of someone that simply cares, and is prepared to place in some effort and time to assist that film attain an viewers.”
Schwartzman co-founded distribution banner Utopia with enterprise companion Cole Harper in 2018 to supply a extra artist-focused strategy for filmmakers, and supply “one other dwelling” for buying independently produced and financed films.
The corporate has to date made numerous massive swings on the movie competition circuit following its breakout success in 2020 with darkish comedy “Shiva Child.” Out of January’s Sundance Movie Pageant, it gained the U.S. distribution rights to Lena Dunham’s buzzy sophomore film “Sharp Stick” — “It’s not each filmmaker that has that model out there,” says Schwartzman of Dunham — and on the Cannes Movie Pageant in Could, it picked up Iranian crime thriller “Holy Spider,” for which lead actor Zahra Amir Ebrahimi gained the competition’s greatest actress prize.
“I’m actually excited to see us going to greater movie festivals and being in these conversations,” says Schwartzman.
The corporate has, in a comparatively quick time period, carved out a transparent identification for itself within the U.S. distribution panorama, the place its offbeat tastes and eager eye for non-English language cinema have put Utopia within the orbit of A24 and Neon. Schwartzman credit colleagues comparable to head of acquisitions Danielle DiGiacomo, previously of the Orchard, and head of gross sales Marie Zeniter, an ex-Magnolia government, for serving to domesticate the model and touchdown a number of the splashier offers.
But, because it grows and takes on extra talent-driven, higher-budget fare, the distributor is confronting the identical tensions between artwork and commerce as any firm trying to obtain scale. It’s additionally navigating a specialty field workplace that’s nonetheless crawling again after the worst of the pandemic. “We actually like placing films in film theaters — that’s an enormous factor for us,” says Schwartzman. However he additionally acknowledges the necessity to discover a streaming companion for Utopia releases sooner or later, akin to what firms like Neon have achieved with Hulu.
“The wrestle is that we’re getting a whole lot of submissions from actually, actually fascinating new filmmakers — new voices that we’re all going to be listening to about someday. However now the arduous query is, ‘What can we actually tackle? What can we actually commit the time to?’ The fact is we’re not capable of tackle a sure amount of films, since you begin to actually sacrifice the standard of the discharge, so we’re having to say ‘no’ extra, which is admittedly arduous.”
Being an impartial distributor within the theatrical market is like “swimming upstream,” says Schwartzman. “It’s important to actually combat in your place and in your slot.”
“However we’ve been hitting extra display screen counts as an organization, and we’re taking some greater dangers in placing extra assets behind sure titles that we’re buying at key festivals,” he provides. “That’s how we’re going to be aggressive.”
Elsewhere, Utopia is constructing out its manufacturing facet, and getting concerned earlier in movie tasks and even TV collection. There isn’t a selected variety of titles to focus on per yr, however delving into originals “felt like a pure development for the corporate,” says Schwartzman.
Because of his background in filmmaking and packaging, “tasks began naturally coming our method that have been on the lookout for packaging help early on,” he says.
Utopia is at present working with “Strolling Lifeless” star Norman Reedus on a TV adaptation of “Sorority Home Bloodbath.” There’s additionally a documentary concerning the Blues Brothers within the works, alongside a doc on British Invasion band the Zombies. Tasks on the originals facet don’t essentially have to be Utopia releases.
“It’s about figuring out tasks that we predict we will help develop quicker, and be a form of incubator and accelerator for creatives,” notes Schwartzman.
Crucially, the chief needs to maintain taking dangers and rising Utopia into the artist-friendly distributor he feels the trade desperately wants.
“My uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was identified for taking massive dangers in his life as a filmmaker,” explains Schwartzman. “He self-financed ‘Apocalypse Now’ and mainly went broke making an attempt to make his masterpiece — and it labored. I simply suppose it’s actually fascinating if you throw your self into one thing that you simply consider in. That’s the type of world I wish to be part of.”
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