Tyro prexy Ordesky looks to lead niche player to fertile grounds.
When Mark Ordesky took the reins of Fine Line Features almost a year ago, dissident voices predicted that his days were numbered.He'd been running acquisitions for both New Line and Fine Line since 1995, and was the main instigator of Fine Line's acquisition of "Shine" at Sundance in 1996.
But many wondered whether the boyish 34-year-old was experienced enough to run the entire division. By making him president, New Line toppers Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne were vastly increasing his responsibilities.
"People accused me of being a coward and a puppet," the exec recalls. "They were practically daring me to buy something."
Ordesky would be taking over at a time when the specialized film business was being polarized between heavy-hitters (e.g., Miramax) and niche outfits (e.g., Sony Pictures Classics). Fine Line needed to decide where it stood in order to survive.
Eleven months on, Ordesky believes he has put Fine Line on the road to profitability.
But the B.O. didn't always underscore his belief. Given the haphazard box office results of certain pics this year -- such as "Esmerelda Comes by Night" and "Passion in the Desert" -- Ordesky can't sit back and relax. He knows that there is plenty of work to be done before he achieves his goal.
He has reorganized the exec corps, inked a number of production deals and bought some high-profile films. Under Ordesky, Fine Line appears to be positioning itself somewhere between SPC and Fox Search-light. As the exec embarks upon his first production slate, which includes ambitious pics from the likes of Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Ice Cube and Nick Nolte, Ordesky's biggest challenges may well lie ahead.
The company, which has an annual production and acquisition budget of $50 million, aims to release eight to 12 titles a year. These will be a mixture of niche films and "blue sky" product like "Shine" that may gross upwards of $30 million.
Of those films, Ordesky expects to generate between six and eight himself, either as in-house productions or acquisitions. The remainder will stem from the various supplier deals that Fine Line has signed this year.
In terms of acquisitions, the nonperformance of "Esmerelda," directed by Mexico's Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, hasn't dissuaded Ordesky from foreign-lingo fare. Fine Line bought two such pics at the Toronto film fest this year: Bernardo Bertolucci's "Besieged," starring Thandie Newton and David Thewlis, and "Lovers of the Arctic Circle," from Spanish helmer Julio Medem.
"Lovers" is Spanish-language, while "Besieged" has only 56 lines of (mostly Italian) dialogue. While Ordesky would not comment, sources say Fine Line paid as much as $1 million for "Besieged" but only $200,000 for the Spanish pic.
"I have a yen for those films," Ordesky says. "They have clearly defined audiences. Our economics determine that even if we get the core audience, it's still a smart deal."
Ordesky is an executive who talks a lot about his "personal passion" for cinema. He reasons that Fine Line's role within the New Line/Time Warner empire is to be "profitable but not a profit center.
"Fine Line was founded because as New Line moved more into commercial and genre film production, the company felt that it shouldn't lose sight of specialized film," he explains.
And getting into bed early with a filmmaker like Modem definitely pays dividends for a specialized film company. Fine Line, for example, has released the last two pics of Canadian helmer Atom Egoyan, "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter," in the U.S.
"Hereafter" not only garnered two Oscar noms for the distrib, but is its highest-grossing pic this year, with $4.3 million. (Nonetheless, U.S. rights to Egoyan's upcoming pic, "Felicia's Journey," went to Artisan Entertainment.)
As with Egoyan, Ordesky clearly expects bigger and better things in the future from Medem. Fine Line also gained two relationships -- Kevin Spacey and Sean Penn -- from its $2 million purchase of domestic rights to Anthony Drazan's "Hurlyburly," which toplines Spacey and Penn.
It inked a production deal with Spacey's Trigger Street Prods., and is in talks with Penn about him directing the Fine Line script "Monsters Ball."
Ordesky is positioning "Hurlyburly" in a best actor Oscar campaign for Penn, and he is hopeful that Fine Line's "The Theory of Flight" will get a best actress nod for Helena Bonham Carter.
Change of philosophy
Under its previous chief, Ruth Vitale, Fine Line was heavily involved in pic financing.
Since the change of regimes, the market for acquisitions has only deteriorated, making the company even more dependent on its own productions.
Although he does not plan to make talent production deals as a matter of course, Ordesky has broken his own rule with first-look deals with Trigger Street and Ireland's Treasure Films, headed by director Paddy Breathnach ("I Went Down") and producer Robert Walpole.
Under its deal, Trigger can produce films for Fine Line or board projects already in development at the studio. Spacey, who made his debut with "Albino Alligator," will probably direct a pic too.
Trigger also has a provision that allows it to co-finance pics with Fine Line in exchange for foreign rights.
On each pic that Trigger generates, Ordesky will calculate the worth of domestic and New Line Intl. prexy Rolf Mittweg the value of foreign.
Spacey can choose to outbid both of them, allowing Fine Line to distribute the pic domestically as a negative pickup, while Spacey sells foreign himself.
Productions on the fast track at Fine Line are:
* "Monsters Ball." Penn is in talks to direct and possibly star in this prison drama, scripted by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. Immortal Films' Eric Cahan will produce.
* "The Locked Room." Alexander Payne has signed to helm this adaptation of the Paul Auster novel, which Lem Dobbs will script. Redeemable Features' Greg Johnson and Peter Newman are producing.
* "Pimp." Ice Cube will produce and star in this redemption-themed drama. The Firm will produce, together with Quincy Jones, Joel Simon and Mark Burg.
* "White Jazz." Nolte stars in this adaptation of the James Ellroy crime thriller. Robert Richardson directs, with Nolte's Kingsgate Films producing.
* "The Invisible Circus." Adam Brooks is writing and directing this drama for Industry Entertainment, based on the novel by Jennifer Egan. Cameron Diaz is in talks to star.
* "The Sleeping Dictionary." Writer/director Guy Jenkin will make his feature debut with this $10 million comedy romance. Britain's Hat Trick Films will produce.
* "Ripley's Game." A competing "Ripley" project to Miramax's Matt Damon-starrer, this one will be helmed by Britain's Tim Fywell and exec produced by Mike Newell. Rupert Everett may co-star.
On top of these projects, Ordesky is heavily involved, together with New Line Prods. prexy Michael De Luca, in New Line's expensive adaptation of "Lord of the Rings," a trilogy of pics to be helmed by Peter Jackson and produced by his Wingnut Films.
Fine Line has also shaken up it corporate offices, including:
* A three-year production and development deal with Keith Addis and Nick Wechsler's Industry Entertainment, shared with New Line. Industry will retain foreign rights for specialty pics set up at Fine Line.
* A five-year distribution agreement with Cary Woods' Independent Pictures. Independent plans to release six to eight pics a year domestically through Fine Line. Independent retains foreign and will pay for its own P&A.
* The creation of sales arm Fine Line Intl., jointly headed by Mittweg and Ordesky, and run by London-based exec Camela Galano. FLI will seek financing for Fine Line pics from foreign distribs.
* London-based production consultant Ileen Maisel upped to senior VP of European production. Maisel will head up Fine Line's London operations, reporting directly to Ordesky.
* Former Australia Film Commission exec Sue Murray appointed Fine Line's acquisitions and production rep in Australia.
Ordesky, like De Luca, started out at the bottom of the New Line ladder. (While De Luca joined as an unpaid intern, Ordesky was a freelance script reader.) Both execs' rapid rises are symptomatic of Shaye and Lynne's preference for promoting young hotshots to senior positions. And Ordesky, who has now been with New Line for 11 years, is applying the same policy to his own team.
"People told me to hire a bunch of seasoned (executives) when I came in," he says. "But I think that it's vitally important to promote from within."
His three key lieutenants are New-York based senior VP Rachel Horovitz, who oversees development; L.A.-based VP Paul Federbush, who oversees acquisitions; and London-based Maisel.
Under New Line marketing and distribution president Mitch Goldman, Fine Line has also reorganized its marketing department, with Brian Caldwell and Marian Koltai-Levine becoming co-senior VPs of marketing, and Steve Friedlander senior VP of distribution.
With "Pecker" already released (and in profit, according to Fine Line), the two Fine Line titles still to come out this year are "Flight" and "Hurlyburly." Since both pics are niche rather than breakout titles, 1998 looks set to go down as a year of consolidation and repositioning for the arthouse.
Not until the end of 1999, when the first Ordesky-greenlit pics come out, will the exec know whether he is taking Fine Line into a field of clover or down a blind alley.
"At least people realize now that we're in the game," he concludes. "They know that we're serious."
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| Title Annotation: | Michael Ordesky leads Fine Line Features Div. |
|---|---|
| Author: | CARVER, BENEDICT |
| Publication: | Variety |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Dec 7, 1998 |
| Words: | 1541 |
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