Curiosity Kills

Idea

Introduction

We are an SEIS-compliant Special Purpose Vehicle set up to produce the psychological horror thriller feature-film ‘Curiosity Kills’.

We are seeking £50,000 to fund production of the film.

Our team were behind ‘Two Days in the Smoke’, a London- and Paris-set thriller due for release in 2014 starring Matt Di’Angelo ('Hustle'), Lili Bordán ('Battlestar Galactica'), Stephen Marcus ('Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels') and Alan Ford ('Snatch').

‘Curiosity Kills’ is one of a slate of features with broad commercial appeal in development at Jericho Lane, featuring top British and international acting talent, high production values but modest sub-£500,000 budgets, with the aim of achieving maximum return.

Intended impact

With a great amount of collective experience in the industry we are specialists in making very high quality, commercially viable films for less.

With the imminent demise of the big budget feature model coupled with rapid advances in digital filmmaking, there's never been a better opportunity for intelligent, high-quality films with modest budgets like ‘Curiosity Kills’ to make an impact on the market.

With our last feature ‘Two Days in the Smoke’ we delivered a slick crime thriller, featuring a known cast, set across two countries with a soundtrack including Grammy-nominated artists.

We feel that it punched well above its weight in terms of its modest budget, and believe that ‘Curiosity Kills’ will be even more ambitious.

With an ensemble cast of British and international actors that we feel are on a par or greater than ‘Two Days in the Smoke’, we believe we have a commercial winner in ‘Curiosity Kills’.

With our no-nonsense approach to filmmaking and an overwhelming commercial perspective, coupled with the experience of the rest of our team including co-producer and ex-film distributor executive Tom Kelly (former Sales and Marketing Director for 20th Century Fox UK), we can get ‘Curiosity Kills’ to market and generate sales income within 12 months of the close of this offer.

We would also take advantage of the UK Government’s Film Tax Credit, which rebates 20-25% of the film's production costs upon completion. Provided they are not required for post-production costs, we intend to return those funds to shareholders in the form of our first dividend.

Curiosity Kills Limited will also retain the IP in the film, only licensing the rights to distributors and sharing in any profits made by them.

Substantial accomplishments to date

We are now in pre-production. Casting is underway and filming is due to start Spring 2014 subject to full subscription to this offer.

We have a wealth of experience in development, production and sales within our team, all the key aspects to delivering a great, commercially viable film.

Our senior creative team are in place, including director-producer Ben Pickering, writer-producer Darren Ripley and Director of Photography Bruce Melhuish. A film producer in his own right, Bruce’s own feature ‘The Glass Man’ (which cost £100,000 to make and starred Neve Campbell ('Wild Things') and Andy Nyman ('Kick-Ass 2')) has secured worldwide distribution and a US theatrical release in 2014. Bruce’s experience in delivering high quality product on a modest budget will be invaluable.

We also have Tom Kelly, former Sales and Marketing Director at 20th Century Fox UK, as a co-producer. Through this and other roles Tom has been involved in the selling and marketing of many, many features in his career and he will play a pivotal role in maximising sales revenue.

Monetisation strategy

First income would be anticipated within 12 months of close of offer with the remainder paid to the company over the following 3-4 years. We would look for initial sales from UK sales agent Center Film Sales. There would also be profit sharing with distributors thereafter.

Initial sales income is made up of "minimum guarantee" payments by distributors to secure rights for a set number of years (usually 15-20) for specific territories and media platforms including:

• Cinema: box office receipts
• DVD/Blu-ray: royalties from DVD/Blu-ray rentals/sales
• TV: revenue from license fees paid by terrestrial, satellite and cable broadcasters
• Video-on-Demand: royalties from viewings on Netflix/downloads on iTunes
• Airlines: license fees paid for in-flight presentations.

The “minimum guarantee” payment is effectively an advance against future sales income. Distributors would then pay all distribution costs, from producing prints of the film to marketing and advertising. These expenses are commonly referred to as “P&A”.

Distributors would incur similar costs for a DVD/Blu-ray release of the film (including manufacturing and shipping costs). These costs, along with P&A and a pre-agreed distributors’ share of sales revenue, would need to be recouped before any further profits are split between distributors and the production company.

To maximise sales income and minimise risk, we would seek to license distribution rights on a territory-by-territory basis rather than seeking a blanket worldwide distribution deal.

Use of proceeds

Funds raised from the Seedrs community will be used to fund the production costs of ‘Curiosity Kills’.

Should the offer be oversubscribed, we would use surplus funds (up to an overall total capitalisation of £150,000) to also fully finance post-production without involving post-production partners. This would allow us to retain 100% of the producer profits of the film (after all distribution costs are deducted) as well as control 100% of the film’s IP going forward.

Some of the funds will be used to meet salaries for cast and crew, however these will be minimal (representing 20% of the Pact-Equity and Bectu minimums for cast and crew respectively).