Michel Shane & Anthony Romano have established themselves as one of
motion picture industry’s premier independent producers. In the last few years,
Shane and Romano who founded the production outfit Hand Picked Films, have
worked with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks, Will
Smith, Nick Nolte and Jennifer Garner, among others.
Hand Picked Films based out of Montreal & Los Angeles is very
active; within the next 18 months along with the films it will produce in
Canada & USA; the company will have productions in Australia, Brazil,
China, Croatia, Italy, India, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Handpicked has just developed and sold their first television series to
Lionsgate based on a book by T Jefferson Parker entitled “LA OUTLAWS.” Michel Shane
and his partner Anthony Romano have joined forces with Carl and Jesse Franklin
to develop and produce the series. Carl Franklin has also committed to direct
the feature adaptation to Jon Land’s latest book release STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE;
a thriller about a female Texas Ranger, the heroine is being compared to a
female Die Hard.
Handpicked has been very active in the last 12 months. They have
acquired and are developing a book with Telefilm Canada entitled “ANTHEM OF A
RELUCTANT PROPHET” by Joanne Proulx. Richard Bell an up and coming Canadian
writer will pen the script based on the book.
The team has worked
closely with Jon Land in developing an original thriller in the vain of
SEVEN. “CHALK”, the script has
been optioned by Troika Pictures with an eye to releasing through Sony;
presently the team has attached Jieho Lee to direct and are starting to make
offers to talent, with an eye to a late fall start.
Handpicked has sold a reality TV series to Tru-TV. “Bait” is an
original idea that came out of the company’s relationship with the Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department. The network has ordered an initial 20 episodes,
which will air at the end of August 09. The show is being co-produced with
Wolper Productions.
In September of 07 Hand Picked films joined with Ginepri Capital a wall
street hedge fund to consult on the production and financing of multiple slates
of films for the next five years.
In Cannes of 2006, Shane joined Indian Billionaire Dr. B.K. Modi, to help produce and bring to life the story of Buddha as told in Kyra Pahlen’s book, “The Warrior Prince” on which the film is based. Academy Award Winner David Ward has written the script. The team recently attached an Academy Nominated Director Ashutosh Gowariker to the film and the project is set to start in January 2010.
Currently, the team is producing the highly
anticipated music-driven bio pic “Vivaldi” starring Joseph Fiennes. Based on a
true story, the bio pic follows Vivaldi as a young, eccentric priest in
the 1700s assigned to serve as music master of a school for the abandoned,
illegitimate daughters of Venice's courtesans. He bonds with the girls, which
leads to his landing concerts of his music in Europe’s largest music halls as
well as concert before the pope. Boris Damast is directing from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Freedman. Hand
Picked Films with Mechanics is overseeing production, distribution and
financing for the film.
Also on the slate is a biopic on “Sweetwater” Clifton - the first black
basketball player to enter the NBA. Presently the director Martin Guigui is
casting and the film is slated for production for a September of 2009 start in
Winnipeg, Canada.
Handpicked is also producing “Silvercord & Cradelwood” – Silvercord
will go to camera sometime late fall of 09 in Georgia with distribution by
Summit and Cradelwood is shooting in Australian in May of 2010. Both films have
been structured to take advantage of tax incentives offered by both countries
In the fall of 2006 Michel Shane established an empowerment program in
Louisiana - a program stemming from the destruction caused by Hurricane
Katrina. Through this program, they moved three major films to Louisiana to put
people back on their feet through employment.
Hand Picked Films produced the blockbuster hit “I, Robot” starring Will
Smith, released by 20th Century Fox, which smashed box office
records when the film grossed over $50 million in its opening weekend. “I, Robot” is based on a script they
developed at Disney in 1995, entitled “Hardwired” by Jeff Vintar and inspired
by the story written by Isaac Asimov. The development of the sequel “I Robot
ll” staring Will Smith will be release in 2010.
Shane & Romano also executive produced Steven Spielberg’s award
winning “Catch Me If You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Amy Adams
and Christopher Walken, Michel Shane developed the propery while living in
Montreal. He worked aggressively developing the project since acquiring the
rights to the book in 1990. Collectively, “I, Robot” and “Catch Me If You Can”
have grossed nearly one billion dollars worldwide. Both films were based on
material fully developed by them.
Other producing credits for Shane & Romano include Paramount Classic’s
“North Fork,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival starring James
Woods, Nick Nolte, Claire Forlani, Peter Coyote and Daryl Hannah. Siskel and
Ebert called it “one of the most important American films made in the last
decade”, as well as “Stealing Time” starring Scott Foley and featuring Jennifer
Garner.
Hand Picked Films is also currently developing a feature film for the
youth to preteen market. “Band on the
Run,” is based on the “boy band” image and which is popular among the
teen youth. This preteen oriented
project is poised to break new ground in sponsorship and cross promotion that
will launch the career of a real band the producers are creating for this
project. Set to shoot in British Columbia
during the winter of 2011
Anthony
Romano began working on Wall Street at a very young age and helped take
a number of companies’ public including Fuji Photo and Sony’s Superscope before
setting his sights on character acting and,
over the last decade, producing.
A graduate of Canada’s McGill University, Michel Shane attended law
school for two years before deciding on a career in the entertainment business.
Shane is currently teaching film finance and production at UCLA and is also on UCLA'S Extension program Advisory Board. He frequently is a moderator and guest
lecturer on how to use incentives to help produce films. He has held seminars
for Wall Street Investment firms to give them a better understanding of film
financing. He has recently been invited to Brazil, Canada, China, Great
Britain, Italy, Singapore and numerous American States to discuss film finance
structuring. He is recognized as an expert in the field.
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