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THE BEST-FINANCED INDEPENDENT FILM COMPANY IN NEW YORK
Well done piece by Eddie Borges in the New York Observer about Blueprint, the new New York-based collaboration between Initial Entertainment’s Graham King and former Miramax exec Rick Schwartz, famous for his supporting role in Project Greenlight.
Writes Borges, “And so, earlier this year, Blueprint opened its sparsely furnished offices in a second-story loft overlooking Mercer Street in Soho, marking the arrival of a new big fish in the small pond of Manhattan’s film world. For, despite the apparent frugality of its offices, as a subsidiary of Mr. King’s Santa Monica-based film sales company, Initial Entertainment Group, which just secured a $220 million credit facility from J.P. Morgan Chase, Blueprint just became the best-financed independent film company in New York.
“Instead of using up their credit on fancy furnishings, the partners are spending their money on talent. They’ve signed development deals with Mr. DiCaprio, Mr. Scorsese, Johnny Depp and Nicole Kidman — all of whom were nominated for Golden Globe awards earlier this month. They are already developing the novel Shantaram for Mr. Depp. It’s about a heroin addict who escapes prison to become a doctor in Bombay and then a gun-runner in Afghanistan.”
The piece goes on to detail Schwartz’s rise at Miramax and his partnering with King in a breezy but relatively substantive piece on making a career in the film business.
