Hannover House sets sites on International Markets for $10-mm in Production Financing
Cannes, France, May 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Financing for the original feature productions of “Mother Goose”, “Shadow Vision” and “Primate” will come primarily from international pre-sales and co-production ventures, said Eric Parkinson, CEO of Hannover House, Inc. (OTC Markets: HHSE). The company expects to generate about $10-million dollars worth of presales and co-production financing support for the slate of pictures that will drive the Hannover House schedule during 2013. The highest profile title, “Mother Goose”, featuring Academy Award winner Shirley MacLaine in the title role, is a live-action fantasy feature that Hannover House compares to Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland” in terms of art direction and commercial appeal. “Shadow Vision” is a suspense thriller, and “Primate” is a creature-feature.
Negotiations are in play with key international buyers, said Parkinson, driven in large part by the high-profile concepts and cast attachments to these films. The cast for “Mother Goose” is expected to include at least one additional Academy Award winner, and will feature a several additional “A-level” stars in supporting and cameo roles. Hannover House is in negotiations for the hiring of a director for this film, and is expected to make an announcement during the Cannes Film Festival.
“Over the past few years, we have developed a solid distribution pipeline into the U.S. market, utilizing third-party acquisitions as our product sources,” said Parkinson. “There are definite benefits to a business model that relies on third-party acquisitions. However, we’ve discovered that most of the top tier titles never make it to the festivals and markets as they tend to have their U.S. rights locked-up prior to production. For Hannover House to have a reliable supply of event-level pictures, we will emulate an element of the production business model for companies such as Lionsgate and Summit. This means that, for a handful of significant titles, Hannover House will acquire the production rights at an early stage and assemble the financing through international presales, partnerships and co-productions. This move will provide the company with assurances of having major titles to drive the release schedule, as well as the benefits of generating significant international revenues to supplement our domestic business model.”
Hannover House is developing additional projects that the company feels would provide event-level tent-pole releases for 2013 and 2014.
“Our home video division has been performing very consistently for the past six months, and is on track for a great year,” Parkinson continued. “All that Hannover House needs to truly break-out as a major independent supplier is one, moderate-level theatrical success. If we could be so fortunate to have a transformative home-run, such as a ‘Twilight’ or even a “Saw’ series, then I think you’d see the company leap forward into the realm of $100-million-plus in annualized revenues.”
The highest profile theatrical title currently on the Hannover House roster for 2012 is the August release of “Toys in the Attic,” an acclaimed, stop-motion animated film, featuring the voices of Forest Whitaker, Joan Cusack, Cary Elwes and Vivian Schilling. Hannover House expects to release “Toys in the Attic” to most major American cities in August and September, before a high-profile home-video and video-on-demand release in January, 2013. Other announced theatrical releases this year include the Russian thriller, “The Weather Station” and the Mexican action-film, “Asalto Al Cine.” High-profile titles for home video release include “Humans Vs. Zombies”, “Patient Zero”, “Hostage” and “The Mothman Chronicles.”
