2019-11-13 The Hollywood Reporter

Deal

of the

Week

Big

Deal

7 Days of DEALS

Who’s inking on the dotted line this week

The Report

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 24 NOVEMBER 13, 2019

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company founded in 2010 as “TCG.”) “It’s

a new name that we obviously tied to the

first,” says co-founding partner Mike

Kerns. “We call this fund TCG 2.0, while

The Chernin Group was 1.0 and, if things

work out, we’ll have a 3.0 and a 4.0.”

Those with knowledge of TCG say that

it explored about 1,000 companies before

making its first nine investments, and it

has a database of a few thousand more,

with a goal of taking majority and minor-

ity stakes in at least 20 firms, spending

$25 million to $50 million on each. It has already

doubled down on a few, with stakes in Headspace (a

digital meditation platform) and Action Network

(sports betting) residing in both the holding

company and the investment firm. Exit strategies

involve taking some portfolio companies public and

selling others to larger entities. “The TCG-Chernin

model has a lot of logic to it,” notes analyst Jimmy

Schaeffler of The Carmel Group.

One majority stake taken by TCG is in Food52, a

kitchen and food digital media firm started a decade

ago as a blog by a couple of New York Times food

editors. Says Kerns, “They produced high-quality

content, built an organic audience and converted

that audience into purchasing products without

spending money on Google and Facebook.” — PAUL BOND

Dangerous Alliance (HARPERTEEN, DEC. 3)

BY Jennieke Cohen AGENCY The Unter Agency

As the surrealist Dickinson gets aggressive promotion by Apple TV+,

this novel, which follows the marriage-resistant Lady Victoria

Aston in the early 1800s and heavily draws from literary icon Jane

Austen, could be a YA alternative for a streaming period piece.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn (FLATIRON BOOKS, MAY 12)

BY Melissa Bashardoust AGENCY WME

A princess has lived hidden away, cursed with a poisonous touch,

but emerges to confront a dungeon-dwelling demon that knows

what brought about the curse. The original IP would allow studios

other than Disney to get into the fairy-tale business.

Rights Available! Hot new books with Hollywood appeal BY MIA GALUPPO

FILM

Colin Farrell (CAA,

Ilene Feldman, Hansen

Jacobson) and Andy

Serkis (CAA, Principal,

Ziffren Brittenham)

are in talks to join Matt

Reeves’ The Batman as

the Penguin and Alfred

Pennyworth.

Adam McKay (WME,

Ziffren Brittenham) has

signed a first-look film deal

with Paramount.

Paramount has picked

up Damien Chazelle’s

Babylon, with Emma Stone

and Brad Pitt in talks

to star.

Vanessa Hudgens

(CAA, Untitled, Ziffren

Brittenham) and

Alexandra Shipp (WME,

LINK, Stone Genow)

have joined Andrew

Garfield in Lin-Manuel

Miranda’s tick, tick... BOOM!

The era of the old white
male action hero is not
over yet — at least not at
the American Film Market,
which wraps Nov. 13.
Lionsgate picked up domestic and
a selection of international rights on
Gerard Butler action flick The Plane;
MGM nabbed Miramax’s Jason Statham
thriller Cash Truck, which Guy Ritchie will
direct, for North America, Latin America
and Scandinavia; and The Solution
Entertainment Group closed presales on
a good chunk of the world for Ice Road, a
thriller starring Ta ke n alum Liam Neeson.
“The appetite from international buyers

At AFM, There’s the Best and Then ... Not Much Else

is fierce,” says Crystal

Bourbeau, head of acquisi-

tions and international

sales at Solstice Studios,

which sold out its upcom-

ing actioner Hypnotic,

from director Robert

Rodriguez and starring

Ben Affleck. Millennium

Media confirmed that it’s

planning a fourth entry in

the Has Fallen franchise, as

the latest, Angel Has Fallen,

which stars Butler as secret service agent,

closes in on a $135 million worldwide gross.

Elsewhere, Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi pic

Inferno, from AGC Studios and starring

Tay l o r K i t s c h; STX International’s Jodie

Foster drama Prisoner 760; and the

comedy Dog, starring and directed by

Channing Tatum, which FilmNation and

CAA are selling, stirred interest. “There is

still demand for theatrical product because

theatrical product drives all the other

sales,” says Millennium President Jeffrey

Greenstein. “Even Netflix wants the big-

ger, cast-driven things.” But, Greenstein

notes, with streamers and the studios

offering more work and more money to

talent, the indies will find it challenging to

secure big-name actors to their projects.

— SCOTT ROXBOROUGH

CHERNIN READIES ‘2.0’ MEDIA FUND:

$700M TO SHOWER ON ‘QUALITY’ BU YS

The 9-year-old Chernin Group disclosed

on Nov. 5 the existence of a $700 million

investment fund dubbed TCG, but the

entity had already been doing business

for about a year, spending $200 mil-

lion for equity stakes in at least nine

companies, including Exploding Kittens

(tabletop games), Zola (wedding regis-

tries) and Dadi (male health).

If those companies seem to be out of

co-founder Peter Chernin’s med ia wheel-

house — the former CEO of Fox Group, 68,

runs Chernin Entertainment, which has produced

Hidden Figures, The Greatest Showman and the

upcoming Ford v Ferrari — it’s no accident.

“[W]e found that our thesis in media was trans-

ferable to what was occurring across all consumer

industries — from commerce and health and

wellness to gaming, consumer finance, and more,”

Chernin and his top partners wrote in a Nov. 5 letter

to employees unveiling TCG.

Beyond its TV and film production arm, Chernin

Group has amassed a portfolio of investments in

about 70 media (or media-adjacent) companies,

including Pandora, the digital music firm. It

remains a holding company, while TCG was founded

strictly as an investment firm. (Confusing, sure —

most in the industry were already referring to the

Kerns

D’Arcy

Carden

Peter Chernin unveiled

the TCG fund Nov. 5.

Statham

Affleck