Cinetic launches Vertical Leap to bring athletes into film production
Pro athletes are getting a chair inside an independent film company.
Cinetic Media has launched Vertical Leap, an investment vehicle and producing pathway for current and former professional athletes, as reported by Deadline on 26 September 2026. Cinetic is a New York sales and financing company that sells independent films to distributors and helps put their budgets together. The idea here is simple. Athletes put in money and learn how films get made.
Membership costs $25,000 a year. For that fee, members get a working seat inside Cinetic's slate, with access to rough cuts, which are early edits before a film is finished, plus creative input and guidance on how the industry works.
Each participant is pitched a minimum of 10 documentary projects, according to the same report. The projects are vetted from established directors and producers with profitable track records. For now the investment chances are in documentaries. Members have already asked about backing non-documentary films too.
Ten prominent athletes have signed up so far, Cinetic founder and chief executive John Sloss told the trade. The plan is to expand to up to 50 current and former players. The strongest demand has come from NFL and NBA players. The programme also aims to recruit from tennis, hockey, cricket and darts.
One detail reaches college sport. Three Michigan Wolverines American football players are pooling part of their NIL money to share one membership. NIL stands for name, image and likeness, the payments college athletes in the United States can now earn from sponsorships and endorsements.
Two members of the Cinetic team have moved across to staff Vertical Leap, with more hires planned. Sloss will discuss the venture publicly for the first time on stage at the Zurich Summit. Sloss is listed as a speaker at the event, according to Deadline. The Summit runs alongside the Zurich Film Festival, which runs from 24 September to 4 October 2026, according to the British Cinematographer.
What makes this stand out is the training pitch. The stated goal is not only screen credits, but a production career after sport. For fans, this means the athlete names in the credits may have watched the cuts and sat in the meetings.
