Scythia, Stellar launch TV and film fund

Two Canadian companies have launched a development fund targeting film and television projects originating in the US, Canada and Europe.

Dan Bekerman

Scythia Films and Stellar Citizens are aiming to build a slate of between five and seven projects over the next 12 months using the joint development fund, financial details of which have not been disclosed.

Both companies are based in Toronto and were put together by producer Ethan Lazar, who launched Stellar’s financing arm and has been producing with Dan Bekerman at Scythia Films since 2014.

The first project to be developed through the joint venture is an adaptation of Mark Vonnegut’s book The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity, which was originally published in 1975.

“We have no complaint with the availability of public funds; we are ahead of many countries in that regard. But a combination of public and private funds is what’s needed to build a more robust market capable of supporting new talent and sustaining that support into a thriving career,” said Bekerman.

Scythia has produced more than 18 films in the past four years, including acclaimed horror movie The Witch, with production expenditures exceeding US$125M.

Stellar Citizens was founded in 2013 by Christopher Yurkovich and Alex Ordanis. Its recent credits include Netflix original movie Opening Night, which will be released this summer.

The pairing marks the latest in a spate of recent fund and initiative launches aimed at satisfying television’s demand for costly high-end scripted projects.

BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) and European film and TV outfit Anton launched a £150m (US$190m) investment fund in April, while Barclays Bank in the UK unveiled its £100m war chest in March.

Also in April, C21 revealed that London-based financier Stone Story Media was in talks with a number of European and global media companies about an initiative that would allow institutional investors to put up to US$1bn into content slates.

Then at MipTV in the same month, former Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer and the current heads of Scandi broadcaster MTG and UK distributor DRG teamed up to create Atrium TV, a “commissioning club” targeting US$5m-per-hour drama series.

Back in January, meanwhile, BBCWW, Danny Cohen’s Access Entertainment and UK prodco Lookout Point formed Benchmark Television, an initiative that aims to adopt a straight-to-series finance model for global scripted TV series.

Other smaller funds have been set up in Luxembourg and elsewhere.