Teino Evans, Staff ReporterTHE ACTION film Black Kissinger has already managed to capture the interest of Hollywood investors but the film's producer, Carlton Grant of Zed Jamaica Limited, is hopeful that the project's cost will be split evenly between local and international interests.
"So far so good, plans are coming in. The final investors meeting will be on the 12th of January (2006). We have investors from the U.S. who have committed US$1.2 million already, but we also want to have Jamaican investors involved," Grant said.
Grant says the Jamaican film industry needs local input if it is going to compete on a wider scale.
"If we want to rebuild the Jamaican film industry then we need the local investors so that Jamaicans can have a chance to invest and benefit in what we believe will be a good movie," he said.
REAPING THE BENEFITS
Grant says he is pushing to have local investors involved because for too long international investors have been reaping the benefits of Jamaican culture.
"When was the last good movie made in Jamaica? Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come? Cool Runnings, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, James Bond movies were all filmed here, but we didn't see any of the returns. Outside investors came and used our culture and took the returns back with them," Grant said.
He can only wait for the response, as invitations have been sent to potential local investors for the January 12 meeting, which will be held at JAMPRO's head office in New Kingston.
Black Kissinger is a joint US/Canadian/Jamaican production and will be filmed entirely in Jamaica, with production starting next May. Written by Canadian Ian Driscoll, the film
incorporates terrorism, money laundering and international finance into an action-packed story, in which black action cinema of the 1970s and present day Jamaica meet.
Some Jamaican independent filmmakers attended the American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles, California, early last month to market Black Kissinger. At the AFM executives of Zed Jamaica, Carlton Grant and Robert Menzies, along with Black Kissinger lead actor and 70s black movie action icon Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson, shopped the project to international film investors, buyers and distributors.
Executives and celebrities alike enthusiastically received them, Grant said. "People in Hollywood were as excited by the project as we were," Menzies said, adding that "the Jamaican setting was a big part of the excitement".
At the AFM, two sales agents' offices, TROMA Entertainment Inc. and Castle Hill Productions, promoted Black Kissinger. The production team received offers for US$2.5 million in bridge financing from various US financial institutions and private investors, an indication of their confidence in the project.
Additionally, a US investor who is scheduled to visit Jamaica shortly for discussions pledged US $1.5 million in equity funding for the project, based on the other half being raised by the team in Jamaica and elsewhere.
The team also signed a deal memo with Castle Hill Productions to sell the finished film in the US and Canada . The producers are engaged in talks with several foreign distribution companies, including Image Works and Lions Gate, to sell Black Kissinger in Europe and the rest of the world.
Final decisions will be made on all contracts, including distribution and actors, once project financing is complete.
Jamaican professionals will play an essential role in the production.
Natalie Thompson, who has logged 30 years of experience in the local and international film industry, will be line manager and producer and Rupert Bent III is music producer and will provide music direction for the film's soundtrack. Milton Samuda, a partner at the law firm Myers Fletcher & Gordon is also on the business team as the attorney representing the production companies, JaFILMS and Black Kissinger Productions.
Fred Williamson will be in Jamaica in early January to attend a local investors' meeting and review potential lead actresses.
