How ‘Nyad’ & ‘Dumb Money’ Producer Teddy Schwarzman Built Black Bear Into An Indie Studio To Be Reckoned With – The Deadline Interview
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: It’s no secret that the independent film game is not for the faint-hearted, with the last decade seeing a number of companies and financiers collapse under the weight of the industry’s constant state of flux.
But amidst the turmoil and unprecedented change, Teddy Schwarzman has been quietly building his Black Bear label into a full-fledged independent film studio.
The company, which Schwarzman founded as a financing and production outfit back in 2011, has now grown into a business that has tentacles in international sales; theatrical distribution in Canada (Elevation Pictures) and, more recently, the UK (Black Bear UK); a management business; a documentary financing joint venture with New Regency dubbed Double Agent; and a television strand, the latter of which recently deficit-financed AMC’s crime drama Monsieur Spade starring Clive Owen.
When Deadline sits down with Schwarzman in his Santa Monica office for a rare interview, Black Bear has kicked off this year’s fall festival season with three buzzy titles at Telluride and Toronto: Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money, starring Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan, America Ferrera and Pete Davidson; awards hopeful Nyad, starring Annette Bening as marathon swimmer Diana Nyad alongside Jodie Foster; and the Greg Kwedar-directed drama Sing Sing, which A24 acquired for U.S.
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