Ilya Stewart: Last News

Christopher Vourlias Independent international production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Ilya Stewart’s Hype Studios to participate in financing and co-producing a slate of at least five feature films, Variety can exclusively reveal. The news comes ahead of the world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s contemporary German drama “The Light” (pictured), which was co-produced by Gold Rush Pictures and will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 13.

The challenge and opportunity of transatlantic production was the subject of a session at the Zurich Summit this morning, with the panel comprising Bert Hamelinck, head of films and global MD at Belgian-U.S. film and TV group Caviar, CAA Media Finance’s Benjamin Kramer, Elysian Film Group CEO Danny Perkins and Hype Studios founder Ilya Stewart.

Former Lionsgate film chief Patrick Wachsberger, Carol producer Christine Vachon, Neon CEO Tom Quinn and SPC bosses Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will be among industry executives taking part in the Zurich Summit tomorrow [Saturday 24] in Switzerland.

Christopher Vourlias Producer Ilya Stewart has launched an independent studio based in Europe that will operate on a global scale, working with international talent and focusing on English-language feature films and television series, Variety can exclusively reveal. Hype Studios is the new venture from Stewart, the formerly Moscow-based producer who in recent years has been a fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, where his collaborations with Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, including “Petrov’s Flu” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” have premiered in competition. Among the co-productions with American and European partners currently on Hype Studios’ slate is Zach Wigon’s “Sanctuary,” starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, which premieres as a Special Presentation next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and was produced with Rumble Films and Mosaic Films, along with Charades. Also on the slate is Pietro Marcello’s French-language “Scarlet,” produced in partnership with CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert, which opened this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and will receive its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: As Roman Abramovich-backed Tchaikovsky’s Wife unspools this week at the Cannes Film Festival, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance has clarified its position regarding movies backed by sanctioned oligarchs.

Tchaikovsky’s Wife filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, a Russian dissident was grilled, by the global press at Cannes over the pic being bankrolled by oligarch financing in particular Roman Abramovich, as well as the notion of the world’s boycott against Russia.