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Exclusive: Former Universal Pictures Distribution and Marketing EVP John C. Hall has joined the team at American-European media fund Apx Group, as it continues to restructure and expand ahead of a planned listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.

Hall has been appointed special consultant to the Board of Directors and Head of the Marketing and Distribution Committee of the board of directors of Apx Group.

The Los Angeles-based executive will work directly with Apx Group’s London-based Global CEO, Shelley Hammond and the freshly announced Director of Distribution and Acquisition Anthony Buckner.

The group said the appointment is part of a strategic restructuring as it prepares for its expected listing on New York Stock Exchange.

“John is a brilliant addition to the Apx Group. He brings vast experience – especially with companies which are fast developing and existing on the outside realms of the norm and becoming game changers in their field,...

Exclusive: American-European media fund Apx Group has appointed film industry veteran Anthony Buckner as Director of Film and Television Distribution and Acquisition, to head up a new department created as it continues its international expansion drive.

This new department will operate from Apx Group’s head office in Twickenham Film Studios in London, with Buckner working alongside CEO Shelley Hammond, who also heads up its UK production subsidiary Herd International Productions.

Buckner was previously Head of Sales at Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Entertainment International and then Kaleidoscope Film Distribution and has also worked with companies such as Magnolia Pictures and Gfm Films. In 2021, he launched his own company Buckstop Films.

The first project to be handled by Buckner and his team is Wish Dragon 2, the sequel to Sony Pictures Animation and Tencent Picture’s Shanghai-set 2021 film Wish Dragon which debuted internationally on Netflix in 2021.

Apx Group...

American-European media fund Apx Group and André Singer’s Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary and non-scripted company Spring Films have launched a joint production initiative.

Under the accord, Apx and Spring will form a joint venture entity in London, owned equally by both, in which Apx and Spring will invest in new productions over the next five years.

The joint venture will look to develop and produce new and breakthrough content.

The parties said they also saw the agreement as an opportunity to curate a library of “unique content” with global distribution potential.

Spring Films is behind a string of award-winning, non-fiction works including Singer’s 2014 production Night Will Fall, about a lost documentary shot by Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein about German concentration camps, which won Peabody, Emmy and Rts awards.

Further highlights of its past slate include the Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning The Act of Killing (2012) as well as The Inferno...

Apx Group, a New York-, Los Angeles- and London-based film, media and entertainment fund owned by a group of private financiers from the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K., has struck a joint venture agreement with London documentary producer Spring Films (Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, Andre Singer‘s Night Will Fall, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds).

The partners said on Thursday that they would invest in new productions over the next five years. “The joint venture will look to develop and produce new and breakthrough content,” they said. “The parties also see this agreement as an opportunity to curate a valuable library of unique content that will have the potential for global distribution.”

Spring has made documentaries for the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, the BBC and Sky and earned two Oscar nominations.

Apx, led by global CEO Shelley Hammond, is planning a public...

Apx Group, a New York-, Los Angeles- and London-based film, media and entertainment fund owned by a group of private financiers from the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K., has acquired a 50 percent stake in London-based Twickenham Film Studios, where the likes of The Italian Job, Beatles feature A Hard Day’s Night, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Iron Lady and Elizabeth: The Golden Age were made.

A price tag was not disclosed.

The move follows recent news of businessman Sunny Vohra, chairman of Twickenham Film Studios, acquiring a 6.95 percent stake in Apx. The deal for the stake signals a 950 million pound ($1.14 billion at Thursday’s exchange rate) market capitalization for Apx, led by global CEO Shelley Hammond, which is planning a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year, the company said.

The Twickenham acquisition is the latest addition to Apx’s network of studios. In recent months,...

American-European Media Fund Apx Group has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in the UK’s Twickenham Film Studios.

The 120-year-old facility in South West London has hosted a slew of classic titles across its history including The Italian Job and A Hard Day’s Night, as well as big-budget productions such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Top Gun: Maverick more recently.

The acquisition is the latest major addition to Apx Group’s global network of studios ahead of its planned public listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.

Under the operation, Apx Group will rebrand its global network of studios with the Twickenham Studios name.

The parties have also agreed on an accelerated expansion plan to acquire additional studios and land suited for studio construction in Europe and the US, all under the branding of Twickenham Studios.

The equity structure of this transaction was made together with Apx...

U.S.-Europe media fund Apx Group has acquired a 50% stake in London’s Twickenham Film Studios.

The move comes weeks after Twickenham Studios chair Sunny Vohra acquired a 6.95% stake in the Apx Group for more than $70 million, reflecting a market cap of $1.1 billion for Apx, which is planning a public listing on New York Stock Exchange later this year.

Apx and Twickenham did not disclose the financial value of the deal.

As part of the acquisition, Apx Group will rebrand its global network of studios with the Twickenham Studios name. The parties have also agreed on an accelerated expansion plan to acquire additional studios and land suited for studio construction in Europe and the U.S., all under the Twickenham Studios brand.

The equity structure of the transaction is made together with Apx Group’s and U.K. partner and production arm Herd International Productions and the partners Shelley Hammond,...

London-based businessman and Twickenham Studios chair Sunny Vohra has acquired a 6.95% in Apx Corporation Inc, the parent company of the American-European media fund, the Apx Group.

The investment makes Vohra one of the group’s biggest individual shareholders.

Under the operation, Vohra also joins the board of directors and the acquisition committee, overseen by the board.

Vohra’s investment of more than $70M for his 6.95%, implies a total market cap value for the fund of more than $1.1B.

The transaction is part of a strategic restructuring leading up to Apx Group’s expected listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.

New York’s Loeb & Loeb Llp, headed by Vice Chair Mitchell S. Nussbaum (and Co-Chair of Capital Markets and Corporate) has been retained by Apx Group to advise on this deal and others leading up to the public merger on the NYSE later this year.

Vohra, a...

London-based businessman Sunny Vohra, chairman of Twickenham Film Studios, has acquired a 6.95 percent stake in Apx Group, a New York-, Los Angeles- and London-based film, media and entertainment fund owned by a group of private financiers from the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K.

The deal for the stake signals a £950 million ($1.14 billion at Thursday’s exchange rate) market capitalization for Apx, led by CEO Shelley Hammond, which is planning a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year, the company said.

His investment of more than $70 million is in Class A shares, which come with voting rights, issued by Apx parent Apx Corp., meaning Vohra “becomes one of the main shareholders of Apx Group,” the firm highlighted. “In addition, Vohra joins the board of directors and (its) acquisition committee.” It added: “The terms and conditions of this transaction reflect a market cap of £950 Million for Apx Group,...

Apx Group, a New York-, Los Angeles- and London-based film, media and entertainment fund owned by a group of private financiers from the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K., has signed a preliminary agreement to invest in L.A.-based Next Wave Studios (Nws), a joint venture of Decentralized Pictures and Bingeable.

Upon the closing of the transaction, unveiled at the Berlin Film Festival, Apx would hold “50 percent of Nws’ shares” and have two seats on the company’s five-member board of directors, the companies said.

Nws said it plans to use the proceeds from the deal “to support film financing, technology development and strategic acquisitions in the technology that supports media distribution through Web3,” a vision for a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology.

Apx, led by CEO Shelley Hammond, has struck a series of acquisition agreements, “bringing together production facilities, production slates, visual effects companies and distribution platforms.

Shelley Hammond has been tapped as the new global Cep for American-European entertainment fund the Apx Group ahead of its upcoming planned merger and IPO.

Hammond was previously working in Apx’s U.K. division. In her new role she will ensure Apx’s network continues to expand in new territories as well as working on the company’s positioning and driving forward projects that are in development and in production. She will continue to support and develop the slate of film and episodic productions alongside her U.K. partners at Herd Productions, an Apx Global subsidiary.

Hammond will also head up Apx’s merger and acquisition committee which was set up in anticipation of a planned IPO through a merger in New York. In this role she will be tasked with coordinating major acquisitions to enable Apx to fit the pubic market.

“Apx has an incredibly talented team and...

Apx Group, the New York-based U.S./European media and entertainment fund, has inked a deal with Black Deer Entertainment to set up a joint venture and fund worth €400 million (398 million).

Black Deer Entertainment is the London/Dubai-based producton and financing company previously known as Amg.Media Group. It is headed by Poya Shohani and Christopher Hurley.

Shohani founded Amg.Media and was group CEO while Hurley is an entrepreneur and producer.

The joint venture will administrate the €400 million over a five-year period. The fund will be put towards an independent VFX department to service film and episodic productions made within the Apx network.

Apx’s London subsidiary Herd International Productions will oversee the Jv, which will be managed by Herd’s Adi Cohen and Shelley Hammond in addition to Shohani and Hurley.

“We are very excited at our new collaboration with Apx Group and their great worldwide team,” said Shohani. “We have already identified major animation,...

New York and London-based American-European entertainment fund Apx Group has appointed Andy Capper as chief operating officer and head of North American operations.

He will oversee strategic and financial coordination of Apx’s North America activity as well as business activities across the European divisions. He will also oversee North American-originating financing activity, integrating Blockchain technology and new opportunities, especially those related to Apxcoin, which Apx launched in July.

Capper will also work closely with London production company Herd, which was formed earlier this year by Shelley Hammond, Ben Dillon, Hollie Richmond and Iggy Ellis, who merged Burning Wheel Productions and The Engine Room.

Herd is currently developing its slate of film and TV content, with the first production due to start shooting this winter.

Capper was previously at Vice Media, where he was chief editor and senior director, helping shape the Vice Media business philosophy. He helped start Vice’s U.

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Film and TV investment fund Apx Group, alongside its newly formed U.K. division Herd International Productions, has unveiled a major deal with Portugal’s Moviebox Group to create a joint-venture subsidiary it claims will have an overall budget of 1 billion euros (1.018 billion) to invest in productions over seven years.

Held in equal partnership between Apx and Moviebox, the division will focus on content from Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula, with all projects to be completed as co-productions with the ability to also utilize the network of facilities held under the Apx Group banner across Europe, United States and the U.K. The structure of the financing will be streamlined through the newly-formed company and, due to the close business ties between the U.K. and Portugal, will be managed day-to-day by Herd International Productions, set up by founders of Burning Wheel Productions and The Engine Room,...

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Film and TV investment fund Apx Capital Group has teamed with the production companies behind the Danny Boyle-produced music biopic Creation Stories to form a new U.K. and European arm.

As part of the deal, Herd Productions, which was set up by the founders of Burning Wheel Productions and The Engine Room, will merge into a subsidiary of Apx in the U.K. and become an internal division of the company. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Herd will be managed by Shelley Hammond (Creation Stories), Hollie Richmond (Creation Stories), Ben Dillon (Angel has Fallen, X-Men: First Class) and Iggy Ellis (Notes on a Scandal). According to the company, a starting budget of 100 million euros (105 million) has been allocated for film and TV projects to be completed as co-productions between Apx’s network in Europe and the U.K.

Exclusive: Rlje Films has acquired U.S. rights to Creation Stories, the rock biopic of Creation Records creator and founder Alan McGee that is directed by Nick Moran and stars Trainspotting alum Ewen Bremner. That’s one of several connections to the that 1996 film; Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh co-wrote the Creation Stories script with Dean Cavanagh, and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle is among the executive producers.

The deal comes ahead of the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Kirsty Mitchell, Suki Waterhouse, Thomas Turgoose, Leo Flanagan and Jason Isaacs also star in the Metro International Entertainment pic, which charts the true story of the rise and fall of McGee, credited as responsible for supplying the “Brit Pop” soundtrack to the 1990s, a decade of cultural renaissance known as Cool Britannia. It follows McGee through a drug-fueled haze of music and mayhem, with his dream bringing the world the...

In addition to UK-Ireland deal with Sky.

Metro International Entertainment has secured additional deals on Nick Moran’s rock ‘n’ roll biopic Creation Stories.

The film has sold to Australia-New Zealand (Kismet Movies), Japan (Pony Canyon), Canada (Level Films), Cis (Planeta), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Middle East (Front Row), Eastern Europe (HBO), Spain (Twelve Oaks) and airlines (Aardwolf Films), while a US deal is in the works and expected post-efm.

In a previously announced deal, UK broadcaster Sky will release the film as an Original title on its Sky Cinema channel on March 20, following the film’s world premiere as the...

Here’s fun first footage of Alan McGee biopic Creation Stories, starring Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting) as legendary music executive McGee.

Executive-produced by Danny Boyle, the Brit comedy is based on McGee’s autobiography, The Creation Records Story: Riots, Raves And Running A Label, about the highs and lows of running label Creation Records, famous for putting out hits by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Oasis.

Also starring are Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation), Leo Flanagan (Hanna), Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), Jason Flemyng (Pennyworth), comedian Ed Byrne, Paul Kaye (It’s All Gone Pete Tong), Perry Benson (You Rang M’Lord?), Thomas Turgoose (This is England), Steven Berkoff (Octopussy), Rufus Jones (W1A) and Mel Raido (Legend).

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star and Telstar: The Story of Joe Meek director Nick Moran is directing. Trainspotting novelist Irvine Welsh, who is close friends with McGee, has written...

“American Psycho” writer Bret Easton Ellis and “Trainspotting” writer Irvine Welsh are in final talks with Burning Wheel Productions to co-create a drama series based on American tabloid culture.

Working-titled “American Tabloid,” the series “will journey through the decades following events from a weekly publication and enter into a world where political correctness, morals and ethics are left firmly at the door,” according to Burning Wheel. It will follow a “rambunctious cavalcade of pranksters, con men, and rapscallions — in other words, journalists — being brought together from across the globe to change not only the landscape but the power of the press forever from scandalous rumour to political puppetry.”

“To do this production justice we always knew we would require writers who don’t hold back and go way further than most would dare,” Burning Wheel’s Shelley Hammond said in a statement. “We are just beyond delighted that we are...

Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis are set to team up on a satirical drama series about America’s tabloid press culture, according to UK producer Burning Wheel Productions.

Working title American Tabloid, the show will chronicles a weekly publication across decades, a place where political correctness, morals and ethics are left firmly at the door. Producers said the deal for the pair to co-create the project was being firmed up and development would begin shortly.

Burning Wheel previously teamed with Welsh on feature Creation Stories, which was executive produced by Danny Boyle and tells the life of British music industry Svengali Alan McGee.

“To do this production justice we always knew we would require writers who don’t hold back and go way further than most would dare,” said producer Shelley Hammond. “We are just beyond delighted that we are ready to agree a deal to make this happen...

“Trainspotting” writer Irvine Welsh and “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis are in final talks with the U.K.’s Burning Wheel Productions to co-create a dramatized series based on the national tabloid press culture in the U.S.

With the working title “American Tabloid,” the series will unspool over decades and follow events from a weekly publication where political correctness, morals and ethics are unheard of.

The deal is expected to get confirmed in the coming weeks, with a development schedule to follow.

“To do this production justice we always knew we would require writers who don’t hold back and go way further than most would dare,” said Shelley Hammond of Burning Wheel. “We are just beyond delighted that we are ready to agree a deal to make this happen with the incredible talent of Bret and Irvine. This would be the first time the two have collaborated...

Alan McGee biopic Creation Stories has added cast including Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), comedian Ed Byrne, Paul Kaye (It’s All Gone Pete Tong), Perry Benson (You Rang M’Lord?), Thomas Turgoose (This is England), Steven Berkoff (Octopussy), Rufus Jones (W1A) and Mel Raido (Legend).

Already set to star in the music film executive-produced by Danny Boyle are Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting) as McGee (the first image from production is above) and Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation). Newcomer Leo Flanagan (Hanna), in his feature debut, has been confirmed to play young McGee.

Creation Stories, which has been long in the works, is based on UK music industry exec Alan McGee’s autobiography, The Creation Records Story: Riots, Raves And Running A Label, about the highs and lows of running label Creation Records, famous for putting out hits by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Oasis.

Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire...

Danny Boyle is to exec produce an Irvine Welsh-penned feature about seminal British record label Creation with Rupert Everett, Suki Waterhouse and Jason Flemyng joining the cast.

Creation Stories, which has been long in the works, is based on Alan McGee’s autobiography, The Creation Records Story: Riots, Raves and Running a Label, about the highs and lows of running the label famous for putting out records by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Oasis.

The Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director will exec produce the project, which is being directed by Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star and Telstar: The Story of Joe Meek and The Kid director Nick Moran. Burning Wheel Productions, which is run by Shelley Hammond, Hollie Richmond and former Happy Mondays manager Nathan McGough, is producing, Metro International are leading all worldwide sales for the feature, which starts shooting in London in late May.