Altitude Strikes Joint Venture With Former YouTube EMEA Boss, Extends Saban Films Deal as It Marks 10-Year Anniversary (EXCLUSIVE)
Altitude Media Group chairman Will Clarke describes a “light bulb moment” in 2019, when he realized his British film company urgently needed to diversify its revenue streams from the theatrical model in order to survive. The shift in M.O. may have been prompted by then-ravenous streamers, but it was a timely wake-up call given the disruption that followed less than 18 months later with the pandemic. Three years later, “Lady Macbeth” and “Rocks” distributor Altitude is marking 10 years in business with a vertically integrated operation that has its eyes firmly on the pipeline.
“I knew we wouldn’t survive if we just stuck to the traditional model,” Clarke tells Variety of his well-timed brainwave before COVID-19. “It’s about forcing yourself out of your comfort zone, and learning new things — some of which has led me down different paths that probably ended up as dead ends, but learning from each.”
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The 51-year-old British executive — whose passion for cinema is evident in the movie podcasts and horror recommendations he offers up alongside his commercial vision for the company — set up Altitude in 2012 after selling his production-distribution outfit Optimum Releasing to Studiocanal in 2006. He started the new company with partner Andy Mayson, who is co-CEO, and brought on former Pathé executive Mike Runagall to run the sales arm, Altitude Film Sales.
While the company focused initially on sales, it leapt into distribution early with the appointment of Hamish Moseley (who left earlier this year to join Netflix). With a strong reputation for arthouse fare with the occasional genre and action powerhouse, Altitude is now recognized as one of the U.K.’s top independent distributors, having released everything from Russian drama “Loveless” and British hit “Rocks” through to pandemic actioner “Unhinged” and the forthcoming Venice Golden Lion-winning documentary from Laura Poitras, “All The Beauty and the Bloodshed,” for which it’s also handling international sales.
Elsewhere, the production arm has ramped up with films such as “Butcher’s Crossing” and Alex Gibney’s forthcoming “Two Wolves,” starring Viggo Mortensen and Caleb Landry Jones, while the sales operation continues to thrive. AFM projects include Nobel Peace Prize thriller “The Prize,” starring Jason Clarke and Haley Bennett, and Red Bull-backed documentary “The Flight of Bryan,” about a historic human-powered flight.
Variety can reveal that Altitude Film Sales has also expanded a global distribution deal with Saban Films beyond the U.K. and Ireland, with plans to partner on a slate of 10 to 12 films annually. The initial lineup includes Jason Momoa western “The Last Manhunt,” about the legend of Willie Boy; “Battle for Saipan,” directed by Brandon Slagle; and the action-comedy heist “High Heat,” directed by Zach Golden and starring Olga Kurylenko and Don Johnson.
“We’ve been very purposeful in building out the development,” says Clarke. The whole slate, which spans feature films, documentaries, TV series and third-party films, amounts to around 60-65 projects.
While Clarke singlehandedly backed Altitude initially, he proudly declares that the extensive slate is “all paid for from our own balance sheet.” The tipping point, he explains, was the large minority stake sold in 2020 for an undisclosed sum to investment firm 30West, which famously bought a majority stake in “Parasite” distributor Neon in 2018.
How much of an impact has Dan Friedkin’s 30West made on Altitude? “It’s an injection of cash, which has helped us, but it’s more strategic than that,” says Clarke, particularly when the executive’s “ambitions outweigh [his] ability sometimes.”
One clue is in the name: What was once Altitude Film Entertainment is now Altitude Media Group (incorporated as such in January). It’s a small thing, Clarke shrugs, but it’s telling of a deep organizational shift, and a more concerted expansion into television and documentary.
Variety can reveal that Altitude is setting up a joint venture with Pangaea, a new production company created by former YouTube EMEA Originals boss Luke Hyams and producer Sunita Mirchandani Hyams, to explore YA and youth-oriented projects for both film and TV, and work with emerging digital creators both on- and off-screen.
Hyams, a respected executive well known to the TV community, commissioned documentaries including “Terms and Conditions: A U.K. Drill Story,” “Together We Rise: The Uncompromised story of GRM Daily” from Warner Music Entertainment and “Race Around Britain” featuring comic influencer Munya Chawawa. Meanwhile, Mirchandani’s credits include “Big Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Great British Menu.” Clarke hopes to team up with Pangaea on projects in the orbit of youth-skewing British films “Blue Story” and “The Inbetweeners.”
Elsewhere, a 2019 JV struck with “Peter Rabbit” producer Jason Lust’s Los Angeles-based Soluble Fish for high-end family films and TV is also close to yielding its first project, promises Clarke. “Although I know the development process inside out, it’s just taking much longer to land some of those bigger pieces of IP,” he allows.
Yet Altitude is willing to wait for those big swings, particular with the resources of a 30West behind it. Like most film and TV companies worth their salt in today’s marketplace, owning IP and building a pipeline of content is everything, particularly in the dynamic and more flexible world of television. That doesn’t mean, though, that Altitude is walking away from theatrical, warns Clarke. Ironically, the company had one of its best years during the pandemic. While it pursued more “innovative” VOD releases, the company was also one of the few U.K. distributors to put key movies in cinemas. Russell Crowe-led “Unhinged,” released in July 2020, pulled in $2.5 million at the U.K. box office.
“We are in no way moving away from [theatrical],” Clarke underlines. “If anything, we’re embracing it, and you’ll see us making some big strides, because I think the market will come back, and there have been some green shoots over the last few months.” Altitude’s forthcoming U.K. and Ireland releases include Georgia Oakley’s critically acclaimed “Blue Jean” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”
But it’s tough to ignore the plays that haven’t worked, says Clarke.
“There’s a responsibility now to do things at a different level,” he says. “You can’t just throw movies into the marketplace and expect audiences to embrace them. We have to give them something they won’t see at home, where they’ll have a communal experience.”
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