London Film Financier Head Gear Plans U.S. Arm With $120 Million Pledge
Head Gear, the London-based company that helps pay for independent films, plans to open a U.S. operation, and it has promised to invest $120 million in production there in its first year. Founder Phil Hunt announced the plan to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the American Film Market, the AFM, a trade event where independent films are sold to distributors and buyers.
Hunt told the same outlet he has wanted a U.S. business for about 25 years. Head Gear's chief operating officer, Samantha Allwinton, will run the new division as director of operations.
The company was launched in 2002 by Hunt and Compton Ross. Hunt said Head Gear currently supports about 30 films a year. Its own website says it has financed more than 600 titles, and that it grew from backing two films a year to more than forty.
A financier, in this business, is the party that puts up money so a film can be made. Head Gear says it can cashflow government film incentives, meaning it can advance money against tax rebates that countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom pay back on production spending. It also says it works with distributors to cashflow pre-sale contracts, deals in which a buyer agrees to pay for the right to show a film before it is finished. Where a bank loan falls short, the company says it provides what it calls gap funding to complete the money plan.
The company's films have been shot in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Estonia, Serbia, Hungary, Belgium and Spain, according to its website. Titles it lists among its credits include How to Have Sex, Talk to Me, The Forgiven, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Black Mass and Belle. Hunt's company said Talk to Me grossed more than $90 million worldwide, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Head Gear's international sales arm is Bankside Films, and it is taking a slate to the AFM. The lead title is Almost You, directed by Matt Lipsey and starring Juno Temple, Joey King and James McAvoy. The film is shooting in Scotland. Bankside is selling it worldwide, and it is co-representing the United Kingdom and North America with UTA Independent Film Group, the sales arm of the talent agency UTA. Co-representing means two sales teams share the job of finding buyers in those territories.
For anyone who has ever wondered who pays for a film before it reaches a cinema or streaming service, the answer is often a company like this one. Financiers, sales agents and buyers make the early choices, usually long before a title is announced to the public. Head Gear's move puts a London company directly into the American market, where it has not previously run its own office, according to the company's plans as reported.
