‘Black Swan’ flick earning locals millions

Fri., March 11
March 11, 2011
Herman Carline
March 15, 2011
Fri., March 11
March 11, 2011
Herman Carline
March 15, 2011

Timmy Thompson does not have a lot of time for watching movies – he’s too busy generating the financial backing for them and posting profits.

Thompson, who is a native of Houma, has a working background in the oil production business and investments outside petroleum. He got started with the film industry when his eldest son, Tyler, talked him into putting money into a low budget film called “Burning Palms” – a dramatic dark comedy where no taboo is off limits.


“[Tyler] got a script, I guess it was about 2008. My brother, Tommy, and I personally put up the money and backed him in this venture. In the process, “Burning Palms” turned out to be a good movie. However, the way the movie was structured, it wasn’t structured properly,” Thompson said.


The $5.8 million budgeted film met mixed reviews when it opened on Jan.14. It also turned a profit for its investors. “We learned from our mistakes. We did a small release and now it is going to DVD.”

“When we first got into [movie investments] we didn’t do a whole lot except write checks to finance our portion of the movie “Burning Palms.” In the process we had a couple of phone calls that we were over budget. That is when we realized that you’ve got to have a budget before you enter into something like this,” Thompson said.


With his brother, Tommy, Thompson flew to Los Angeles to look over production of their film first hand.


“When we were out there I realized the industry in Hollywood was in a total state of chaos. There was no money going in to make the hedge funds or any of the Wall Street guys’ money. I realized that because of the process on Wall Street and the meltdown of the financial markets there are a lot of movies trying to get made but there was no money flowing in,” Thompson said.

Quickly learning from an insufficient standard manner of operations, Thompson and his backers formulated a plan to get into the movie business, which goes beyond producing one film at a time and pouring tens of millions of dollars into a single project based on speculation alone.


“The plan was to go in and do eight to 10 movies [at a time]. Then we would have a better chance of putting the movies together, packaging them and doing foreign resales. Instead of writing checks for the whole budget we would leverage ourselves into the movie by filling a gap,” Thompson said.


There was a crash course period of learning about the structuring of movies and some of the political points that were missed in Thompson’s first project.

“Everything we did wrong with respect of structuring the deal we fixed and we did it right in the second go around with Cross Creek Pictures,” Thompson said.


The experience with “Burning Palms” offered it’s own appeal, as it showed Thompson how not to operate such a business, and how to develop a profitable investment firm in films.


Cross Creek Pictures, backed by Thompson’s holding company, The Investment Group, employs 15 people and has offices in Houma, Los Angeles and Memphis.

By building a business plan and hitting the road to raise investment dollars, Cross Creek Pictures developed a bankroll and network from where it could launch a successful endeavor.


“The movie industry is comparable to the oilfield. You get a good geologist, you get a good location, you get the right driller and the odds for your success are much greater than if you just go out and start putting holes in the ground,” Thompson said.


In building their company, Thompson hired 15-year veteran talent agent and film executive Brian Oliver to be president of Cross Creek Pictures. “So, we are learning from him. It has been a huge plus for us.”

When Oliver came on board with Cross Creek Pictures, he brought with him a slate of films he had gathered over the years. With a collection of 15 projects a platform was constructed to present a total package to potential investors and raise money needed to make the movies.


The first film Cross Creek Pictures, invested in on its own as an organized business was “Black Swan.” The company reached a 50/50 arrangement with FOX based on the payout program they designed. With a budget of more than $40 million, several big name studios had passed on the movie.


“We developed some criteria upon what we invest in,” Thompson said. “It has to be a bondable film. We won’t put up more than 35 percent of the gross budget in cash, and tax credits assist us in bridging that gap. [The film] has to have distribution, and there are a handful of other key components we put together.”

Thompson said that with their finance plan several actors, including Natalie Portman, who had to be willing to be paid by way of an advance – in her case approximately $300,000 when she would have typically received $5 million up front – with royalties, the remainder of contracts were on the back end.

While many big name actors are paid on scale, taking partial cash up front in hopes the film will do well is both an investment risk and an incentive to perform at top levels.

Thompson said that if a film fits their criteria they move forward to financing it. “We were in the process of pulling funds together when ‘Black Swan’ came along,” he said.

“Black Swan” was made with a final cost of approximately $16 million. Cross Creek Pictures put up $6 million of that amount. In turn, FOX put up $6 million and also financed the balance with tax credits.

“Our expectations on ‘Black Swan’ was $40 million at the box office,” Thompson said. As of Monday, Thompson estimated that the movie made more than $250 million worldwide.

“Black Swan” gained five Academy Award nominations, and Portman won a Golden Globe award for her performance in the psychological thriller.

Other films currently being backed by Cross Creek Pictures, and in various stages of production, include “Ides of March” with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. This suspense thriller, filmed in Ohio and Michigan, is based off a Broadway play in which the press secretary of a presidential candidate learns what should not have known about what really takes place on the campaign trail. “Ides of March” is expected to open in November.

Thompson said there is not a specific kind of film Cross Creek Pictures will or will not back as long as it fits in their investment structure criteria. “If it feels right we do it. If it doesn’t feel right we back off from it. We are pretty much open to just about anything,” he said.

“About 45 days ago we finished ‘Woman in Black’ which is with Daniel Ratcliff, the Harry Potter kid,” Thompson said. This film is expected to open right before Halloween, it was filmed in London and the book it is based off of is required reading for schools in Europe.

Investments in films back by Cross Creek Pictures are made up mostly in Louisiana and Texas.

“The landscape down here does not lend itself to every movie,” Thompson said about the possibility of films being shot in the Tri-parish region. “However, to the extent that it does we are trying to bring more movies into Louisiana. Tax credit programs help in the financing of films and most of the people we run into out in Los Angeles really like it here in southern Louisiana. It’s just finding the right movie that can use the landscape.”

Past movies filmed entirely or in part in Louisiana include “Streetcar Named Desire” in 1951, “Easy Rider” in 1969, “Sounder” in 1972, “JFK” in 1991, “Monster’s Ball” in 2001, “The Skeleton Key” in 2005, and many more.

“The production company was formed out here,” said benefits insurance professional and industrial business leader Tony Alford who has also invested in Cross Creek Pictures. “A lot of people have lost money in low budget or sub par movies here and there,” he said.

Alford said that entering this investment has carried the kind of controls and standards necessary to make the likelihood of success more probable. “It’s like anything else. If you have money to invest in real estate and want to go around and find the most depressed market, you can to invest in something with upside potential,” he said.

Alford said that Thompson approached business contacts and close friends in an effort to generate funds to get his movie investment business going. “So far it’s gone good. It’s been interesting,” he said.

Thompson said that the movie industry is a complex animal, made of many components.

“You have to bring a lot of people together. You have to get the right director, the right cast, right location. You have time constraints. You have budgets that are bonded. Then when that’s done and the movie is finished you go into the editing process. Then you have to go have to go out and get a distributor. It takes a lot of negotiating and every deal is different,” he said.

“There is no cookie cutter approach to it. It’s really been refreshing because it is not mundane.”

Cross Creek Pictures CEO Timmy Thompson takes care of the investment side of movie making from his office in Houma while production in Los Angeles and on site shooting around the globe spreads recognition for the Tri-parish region. MIKE NIXON