Screen Media Films

Deadline: Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Acquires Mark Damon’s Production & Sales Outfit Foresight Unlimited

EXCLUSIVE: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has acquired Mark Damon’s film sales and production company Foresight Unlimited and as part of the deal has brought the international film vet into the fold.

Foresight will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chicken Soup’s distribution wing Screen Media but will continue to operate under its current name. The company will still be run by Damon, who remains chairman, and president and COO Tamara Birkemoe, in close association with Screen Media President David Fannon. Kyle Bellinger, Foresight’s director of sales and development, is also moving across.

The new relationship will kick off on the ground at AFM this week, where the company will be shopping two upcoming projects: Best Sellers starring Michael Caine, set to go into production next month, and Wally’s Wonderland starring Nicolas Cage, set to start filming in January.

Screen Media has also bolstered its library through the deal, acquiring 13 Foresight titles including Peter Berg’s Oscar-nommed Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg, and rom-com And So It Goes, starring Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas.

“I am very excited to add the very knowledgeable and capable Foresight team to Screen Media,” said Fannon. “Mark and his team bring a new degree of independent film intelligence to the company, and on a personal level, I am very happy to be working with good people that I respect, admire and like very much.”

“Given that Screen Media has acquired almost 40 films that I have produced and distributed over the years, and given my nearly 40-year relationship with Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s Chairman, Bill Rouhana, this evolution seems a natural one for Foresight,” said Damon. “The respect and admiration that David Fannon mentions is mutual. We very much like the Screen Media team, and know that this relationship should enrich both of our companies. For us, it’s the right movement, at the right time. And we are very excited about it.”

In addition to the Foresight acquisition, in the past 12 months Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has launched Landmark Studio Group, a television development and production arm run by David Ozer, and has taken a majority interest in the ad-supported video-on-demand joint venture, Crackle Plus, run by President of VOD Networks Philippe Guelton.

Posted: 5th Nov 2019

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