New Films International’s Nesim Hason

Founded in 1996 by Nesim Hason, New Films International has spent the last two decades working to cement its position as a key supplier of quality commercial projects, across both film and TV, for the studios and major independents worldwide. More recently, the company has been making a stronger push into the television arena, investing in bigger-budget productions and aligning with top-flight talent. Hason, the CEO of New Films, tells World Screen about these efforts.

WS: How has New Films evolved since its inception?
HASON: When the company started, we were only involved in distribution. Now, we are an international producer and co-producer; we produce TV shows in Europe and the U.S. Also, we now have bigger-budget movies in the U.S. We are financing three projects [from film and TV producer] Mace Neufeld. The plan is to [invest] $50 million to $85 million for three movies. We already have writers and directors attached and are currently casting one of the movies. We are changing our focus to be mostly on production. Whatever we produce, we are also going to distribute.

We are focusing on working with the best producers, directors, scriptwriters and showrunners. When you put this talent together, that helps to attract the best casts. If we have all of that in place, then we’re ready to finance a project. If one of those parts is missing, we won’t do it; we will step back.

Also, as the market is shifting more toward digital and cable [platforms], we are signing new output deals. We have output deals with almost every digital and cable company in the world!

WS: Are output deals still core to your business in many markets?
HASON: It depends. For example, the output deal we have with Lionsgate for Latin America is still one of the good ones, and it will continue. We’re very happy with them as a partner; they are very cooperative. We were also very happy with the deal we had a few years ago with Warner Bros. Japan. But the deal has expired and we are not continuing it. It was a good deal five years ago, but not anymore. We have great output deals with digital and cable [platforms], our biggest being with Amazon, iN DEMAND, Vubiquity and DIRECTV.

WS: Are you finding more opportunities to work with international players in today’s increasingly globalized media landscape?
HASON: Yes, and we’re doing this on a very different level nowadays. For example, I have put together a partnership between four companies: Mediaset in Italy, Lagardère in France, MTG’s Nova TV in Bulgaria and Dori Media in Israel. Together, we are producing a TV show in Europe; it will be done in English, but in all there will be five different languages. The series is called Torque and it’s about illegal car racing.

WS: What are some of the other new production highlights you can share with us?
HASON: We have King Marko, about a man who was known by the Protestant Orthodox Church as Saint Marko around the time of the 11th century. He was a warrior, but the church made him a saint because he put together the first big army to fight the Ottoman Empire. It’s going to have war, a little fantasy and a little reality. Undercover is a Bulgarian TV show that we have been selling for the last four years. We have sold it into 184 countries! That is an action/crime series. It has received incredible ratings everywhere [it has aired] for the last five seasons. We are doing an American version now and are trying to attach a big-name showrunner. The American version has Mace Neufeld attached as a producer and Phillip Noyce as director.

WS: Tell us about your partnership with Mace Neufeld.
HASON: I have known him for a long time. I am financing his projects in development, the first of which is Pursuit. It is based on a famous book that we bought the rights to. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, two British writers, wrote the script already. Now we are talking to studios in order to attach big directors and are awaiting answers from them. It is about a war happening in the United States, imagining if Hitler sent someone to the U.S. to assassinate FDR. We have another movie together called The Samaritan. Michael Maples has finished the script. It is also based on a best-selling book. The story is about the Mafia in the United States fighting with the CIA. It is based on a true story that happened 15 years ago. The director is Jon Cassar, who also worked on 24. That has a budget of around $55 million.