Georgia Firm Bay Point Expands Financing For Local Productions With Kevin Bacon Starrer ‘One Way’; Calls State ‘Hollywood East’

Jill Goldsmith
·2 min read
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Atlanta investment firm Bay Point Advisors is launching a film financing division for productions in state with its first project as senior lender to Andrew Baird’s crime thriller One Way with Kevin Bacon, Travis Fimmel and Colson Baker. One Way is shooting in the southwest Georgia city of Thomasville.

The new division, Bay Point Media, could finance three projects a year going forward with budgets ranging from “a couple of million” to $20 million, said Rob Moran, the actor/producer who oversees the newly launched division with Chandler Rierson. Moran (Me, Myself & Irene, Dumb & Dumber) is a an LA transplant with decades of Hollywood relationships including a career-long collaboration Peter and Bobby Farrelly. He said Bay Point’s broad goal is “to attract intellectual property creators to Georgia – writers, directors, TV show runners, studios and others.”

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Moran told Deadline the firm currently has three to four projects in development.

Rierson cited Georgia’s state-of-the-art studios, skilled workforce, diverse landscapes and up to 30% tax incentives as a reason the state “will continue to be valued not just as ‘Hollywood East’ but as its own singular production hub. We are pleased to have our capital serve as a catalyst in the development of media infrastructure, content creation and distribution.”

Bay Point Advisors launched in 2012 and began financing Georgia studio production in the state in 2017 as the industry began to boom, including investments in Bento Box Entertainment, Cinelease Studios – Three Ring and Pinewood. Bay Point also financed individual films including The Tiger Rising with Dennis Quaid and Queen Latifah, shot in Georgia, and The Comeback Trail with Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman.

The creation of Bay Point Media offers a “dedicated focus on providing senior, bridge and mezzanine loans for film, television and other content” while continuing construction loans for the state’s entertainment sector, said Bay Point Advisors president Charles Andros.

Bay Point Media is headquartered on the lot at Trilith Studios (formerly Pinewood Studios Atlanta) the second-largest studio complex in North America. Trilith is adding sound stages and has developed a large planned community adjacent to the studio — a kind of master development with homes, stores and open spaces, to service the booming local film and creative industries. Trilith Studios CEO Frank Patterson sits on Bay Point Media’s advisory board.

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