Back in 2001, four executives of Lionsgate films left the company to form ThinkFilm. In 2008, a ThinkFilm executive will help Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys form Oscilloscope Pictures, a film distribution company that will be an extension of Oscilloscope Laboratories, Yauch’s production company which was responsible for that really awesome concert film, Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That!
This is a pretty ambitious deal for Yauch, but having Fenkel involved should allow things to start in a fairly smooth manner. The plan is to buy up films at festivals in addition to producing their own stuff, but it’s important to note they will have to front their own cash. They’re looking at at least two, but as many as ten, films released theatrically in the first 365 days, with the first coming this summer. Since they will be self-financed, it’s probably a safe bet that most of their early films will be small-money purchases with higher-than-normal back-end incentives.
The most intriguing part of all this comes in the last sentence of the Hollywood Reporter story: “Fenkel said many campaigns will incorporate an indie music label-style, DIY approach in keeping with the Beastie Boys’ style of connecting with fans.” Sounds like they’ll be bringing the “street team” strategy to marketing their films, meaning they’ll have a bunch of random folks doing for their films what folks on the boards here have been doing for good films everywhere for years. The difference being that they’ll get free shit like t-shirts.