Melanie Goodfellow
Pathé French studio and film and television financier and producer Logical images announced three co-production and co-financing deals.
The transaction involving Logical Content Ventures, a new fund operated by Logical Pictures, will see Pathé open the financing of its films to private investors for the first time in its history.
The move comes on the heels of Pathé’s ambitious strategy to increase its participation in larger tentpole movements for theatrical distribution.
The reader has seen him get behind potential French blockbusters such as the upcoming The three Musketeers; The long-awaited sequel to Guillaume Canet Asterix & Obelix: Middle Kingdom and big-budget European co-productions from renowned authors such as Matteo Garrone Io Capitano and Kirill Serebrennikov’s first English feature, Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie.
As part of the agreement with Pathé, Logical Content Ventures will help finance all films produced and acquired by Pathé between 2022 and 2024.
The objective is to co-finance and co-produce more than 20 images, the first projects of which will be released in the spring of 2023.
The first films included in the agreement are those of Dany Boon life for real (Pathé – 26DB Productions), the environmental thriller by Just Philippot, Acid (Pathé – Bonne Pioche), with Canet and Laetitia Dosch, and the first feature film in English by Kirill Serebrennikov, Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie (Pathé – Chapter 2 – Wildside – Fremantle) with Ben Whishaw.
“Cinema keeps reinventing itself after the recent pandemic years. Finding new ways to finance films and ever-increasing cinematic ambitions is key to adapting to the changing market,” said Ardavan SafaiChairman of Pathé Films.
“Our partnership with Logical Pictures will allow us to secure a substantial investment capacity to produce more ambitious films,” he added.
The Logical Pictures group was launched in 2016 and has become a leading player in film and television. It produces, finances and distributes all types of content, in France and internationally.
The group launched its new Logical Content Ventures fund in 2022, targeting €100m in fundraising.
A first funding round of €10M has already been announced, which enabled Logical Content Ventures to finance six projects. These include the film produced by Alexandre Aja night of the huntedscheduled for release in 2023, and the thriller Person from Berlinproduced by Ridley Scott.
“After having financed more than 20 films in four years via Logical Pictures, in 2022 we created a dedicated fund, Logical Content Ventures, to enable third-party investors to finance film and television content”, explains Frédéric Fiore, President of Logical. Pictures.
We are happy and proud to be associated with Pathé, an emblematic studio and a true leader in our industry in France and abroad. Logical Content Ventures, currently fundraising, is a unique way for third-party investors to invest in Pathé-produced films,” he added.
Fiore said the fund offered retail investors a way to invest in a “resilient and acyclical” asset that had benefited from the vapor-propelled content boom.
“It’s also a great way to help build a library with long-term value like Pathé has managed to do over the past few decades,” Fiore explained.
The case was negotiated by Grace Adams (MöBIUS Avocats), Louis Ladreyt and Guillaume Lirondière for Logical Pictures. Pathé was represented by Anne-Laure Julienne-Camus, Arnaud Pavec, Vincent Leav and Thibault Demaison.