3 weeks ago
EXCLUSIVE: As we revealed connected nan eve of nan Cannes market, indie movie stalwart Stuart Ford and longtime business partner Miguel Palos of AGC Studios person re-upped their deals astatine nan institution and are lining up what they picture arsenic nan company’s “most prolific and profitable twelvemonth truthful far”. The CEO and COO person worked together crossed 2 companies for nan champion portion of 2 decades, weathering world financial crises, nan streaming wars, Covid, national strikes, and large-scale consolidation. Ford is nan largest shareholder successful AGC Studios but founding investors stay ImageNation (out of Abu Dhabi), Latin American finance money Media Net and Silicon Valley backstage equity investor Greg Clark.
AGC Television is presently shooting Embassy, nan geo-political action thriller bid starring Anna Kendrick, Sam Heughan and J.K. Simmons, and besides Beatles biopic series Hamburg Days. The patient precocious produced MGM+ enigma thriller series Vanished, starring Kaley Cuoco and Sam Claflin. In film, Lauren Miller Rogen’s Babies starring Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen is successful post, arsenic is Ellie Foumbi’s seductive thriller Fleur starring Halle Berry. The institution is successful pre-production connected J Blakeson’s Sweat with Ana de Armas.
We checked successful pinch Ford and Palos to talk their ongoing push into TV, movie income challenges, nan Middle East, AI, and nan concealed to a long-standing business partnership.
DEADLINE: You precocious re-upped astatine AGC, but it’s your company. How does a re-up activity successful that context?
STUART FORD: It’s a corporate committee decision. Like immoderate well-run business, nan elder management, whether they are a shareholder aliases not, whether they’re a laminitis aliases not, request to stay accountable to nan shareholders, truthful it’s conscionable a patient firm governance. I americium nan biggest shareholder, but successful position of my willingness and suitability to lead nan institution arsenic CEO, and likewise Miguel arsenic COO, we’re very happy to measure connected a regular ground pinch our partners whether we are nan champion guys for nan job, and whether we’re being remunerated proportionately to our capacity successful moving nan business. I deliberation we are astatine nan precipice of much alteration successful nan manufacture and we’re very excited to lead AGC into that.
DEADLINE: What has been concealed to agelong business business betwixt you both?
MIGUEL PALOS: It’s very complementary skill-sets but besides compatible personalities. We some laughter very easy astatine nan time to time absurdities of Hollywood. And we some person a akin benignant of rhythm. We’re some inveterate woody makers and very difficult workers. Whether it’s nan easy aliases analyzable situations, we thin to find ourselves navigating them pinch nan aforesaid velocity and decisiveness.
DEADLINE: You’ve said 2026 will beryllium nan company’s astir profitable truthful far. How so?
FORD: We’ve had much going connected successful nan past 18 months than astatine immoderate shape before, and we person much movies and shows delivering and that we get paid for than ever before. We’ve ever wanted to build a divers contented workplace and it’s been difficult work, and immoderate aspects of that person taken longer than possibly we would person liked, but we’re now an progressive subordinate successful film, TV, documentaries and factual. We person our first big-budget title format show successful pre-production pinch Netflix, which is going into accumulation successful a fewer months. Financing scripted TV successful a akin measurement to really independent movie has traditionally been done is comparatively caller and I deliberation we’ve recovered our hit there.
PALOS: At nan apical of nan year, we realized that successful 2026 we were going to person 20+ progressive movie and TV projects, progressive meaning successful production, successful station accumulation aliases successful release. That’s a sizeable output for a institution that’s ne'er gone supra 40 group arsenic a caput count successful 8 years.
DEADLINE: And that bullish equilibrium expanse projection is based connected your continued move into TV?
FORD: The crippled show is simply a commission, which is bully for rate flow, but we don’t person nan ownership. Scripted TV has presented immoderate existent upside for us, particularly successful nan world arena wherever nan streamer slowdown has near a batch of awesome projects and a batch of awesome talent looking for solutions. Traditional free TV and pay-TV broadcasters person a large appetite for premium shows, but are not presently financing those shows. So, arsenic a well-capitalized U.S. partner pinch appetite to return risk, that plays good pinch world partners some culturally and commercially. There’s a full reservoir of shows that we’re presently tapping into and connected which we’re taking genuine financial risk, but we’re making these shows happen. And erstwhile you do that, that tin unfastened up important margins successful success. We’ve enjoyed immoderate existent occurrence successful nan past 2 aliases 3 years, and that is decidedly a business exemplary that is charismatic to us, and if I’m being blunt, provides thing of a counterweight to nan somewhat much deed and miss quality of independent movie financing correct now.
DEADLINE: Who is steering your TV drive?
FORD: Lourdes Diaz has built that section complete a agelong play for america but for individual reasons decided to segue to a shaper woody pinch america astatine nan apical of nan year. In immoderate ways, she’s still nan de facto caput of TV because frankly she’s sewage her fingers connected everything we’re doing. But we are apt going to denote a general successor to her successful nan adjacent fewer months.
DEADLINE: You teased a Tinder Swindler adjacent documentary. Hasn’t location been talk of a Tinder Swindler scripted play bid aliases movie too?
FORD: [Laughs] There whitethorn beryllium a scripted TV bid rotation disconnected successful nan works. I can’t opportunity much than that aliases who it’s with.
DEADLINE: At nan Cannes market, you’re launching income connected Open AI-produced family animated movie Critterz. Are you concerned astir immoderate imaginable backlash there?
FORD: Critterz has a quality director, quality writers, quality artists, quality characteristic design, quality world design, and quality character voices. The AI creates nan animation and it does truthful quickly. This is simply a $30M movie that would person been a $100M movie without AI. There are monolithic savings of costs and time. But each of nan cardinal imaginative contributions are by humans. There is already important workplace and streamer liking successful this project. We judge that this is going to create thing of a template for really Hollywood animation tin clasp AI animation devices successful a measurement that creates immense worth for everybody without crossing nan boundaries of replacing humans. The Los Angeles Times precocious asked whether this movie heralded “AI’s Toy Story moment”. We judge it does.
DEADLINE: For a number of years you were known for bringing large fund — $80M-100M — projects to market. Generally arsenic income titles. You aren’t doing that overmuch now. Neither is nan market, but they’re still retired there. What has changed?
FORD: I would opportunity those projects, successful nan existent economical ambiance of nan independent movie marketplace, are nary longer viable. You will spot Lionsgate and possibly 1 aliases 2 others driblet those projects into nan market, but nan types of projects we utilized to waste successful that range, backed by backstage investment, nan numbers don’t stack up connected those, particularly since Chinese and Russian money has mostly gone away.
DEADLINE: How challenging is it successful Asia now successful position of sales?
FORD: Asia is very challenging and has been for 10 years for a assortment of reasons. Audiences person gravitated distant from American films, peculiarly American independent films. Asian buyers crossed nan full region utilized to beryllium a very reliable champion of nan overseas pre-sales business, but they are now highly elusive. China has mostly vanished from nan landscape.
DEADLINE: While not needfully a thief for pre-sales, nan Middle East has go a awesome root of intermezo and media manufacture finance. You cognize nan region beautiful good fixed your investors from nan region and projects you’ve worked on. There has been a batch of talk precocious astir Saudi Arabia retrenching from sports. Do you spot nan state retreating from nan intermezo and media business?
FORD: I do not. I’m progressive successful nan Gulf region and person adjacent relationships pinch galore of nan bigger players successful Saudi and UAE and I deliberation nan overriding strategy of these Gulf States is to build and building nan caller tiers successful their system and to generationally promote and create a imaginative class, and astatine nan aforesaid clip to hopefully pull nan champion of breed collaborators from astir nan world to travel and make movies there. I don’t deliberation that is going to alteration anytime soon. Whether their execution of that bigger strategical scheme involves nan aforesaid level of finance successful world remains to beryllium seen.
DEADLINE: Some person asked whether nan acquisition of Desert Warrior whitethorn dampen Saudi Arabia’s movie interests. What did you study from that experience?
FORD: Desert Warrior is an outlier. No different institution aliases state crossed nan region has taken that large a plaything and invested truthful heavy successful 1 production, effectively, arsenic a showcase for their capabilities. But nan Gulf States are excessively savvy now and excessively good advised and blase for anyone to deliberation of them arsenic dumb money. Desert Warrior had a very circumstantial strategical rationale for broadcaster MBC. Obviously, nan film’s capacity commercially is obscurity adjacent what they would person hoped astatine nan outset, but it did really execute a number of their goals. Those goals aren’t needfully nan aforesaid goals sought successful nan U.S. They built an full movie movie workplace infrastructure arsenic portion of that movie and they knowledgeable and trained hundreds, if not thousands, of section unit successful really to make a large film. They learned an atrocious batch and successful nan discourse of nan maturation strategy of that region, learning is each spot arsenic important arsenic generating container agency returns.
Clearly nan assemblage guidance wasn’t what was sought, but it would beryllium a correction to opportunity Desert Warrior was a full nonaccomplishment for MBC. When we boarded nan task 5 years agone nan movie made awesome sense. As has been reported, location were a bid of unforeseeable circumstances that unluckily tilted nan scales heavy against nan task being a financial success. None of those were to do pinch us, I should say. I deliberation MBC knew nan leap of religion they were taking.
DEADLINE: When do you deliberation we’ll spot Babies and Fleur?
FORD: Those are autumn show contenders. We besides person Beatles TV bid Hamburg Days successful production, which arsenic a proud Liverpudlian I’m very excited about. There’s a batch of liking successful that. And Ana de Armas’ movie Sweat is owed to sprout later this year.
DEADLINE: Fair to opportunity we won’t spot different play of Roland Emmerich’s big-budget swords and sandals play Those About To Die?
FORD: Probably not. We are hugely proud of nan show. It was a monolithic deed internationally, but it did not execute good capable connected Peacock to warrant nan very important accumulation costs for a 2nd season, which is simply a awesome shame.
DEADLINE: You’ve been outspoken successful nan past astir nan situation posed by nan streaming exemplary to nan indie movie business. Do you position streamers arsenic friend aliases foe?
FORD: Longevity is incredibly difficult to clasp connected to successful this business. It boils down to business philosophy. Our relationships pinch nan streamers is an important portion of that. Over 20 years now, we’ve managed to, for nan astir part, successfully steer a statement betwixt embracing consequence and many times backing projects and backing talent that we judge in. We person a estimation arsenic calculated consequence takers, and successful a very disciplined mode we’ve stuck to sound consequence mitigation practices. We’ve ever had a powerful successful location income capacity. Miguel tin return nan in installments for america being astute astatine utilizing indebtedness financing to offset risk, and we’ve ever been very fluid successful splitting equity consequence pinch good chosen superior partners. Now, that mightiness each sound for illustration conscionable communal consciousness and comparatively straightforward to achieve. But I deliberation nan truth that we’ve stayed astatine aliases adjacent nan apical of this topsy turvy business for almost 2 decades, to me, suggests that we’ve been unusually bully astatine maintaining that discipline. We’ve maintained that subject pinch genuine passion and imaginative appetite and managed to make nan streamers our partners and not fto them go our paymasters.
